My wife and I recently bought gazelle electric bikes after experiencing them in Holland on a recent holiday. We love them and ride them nearly every day around our neighbourhood. We find that we rarely use the car for shopping as we shop most days in small amounts as required rather than a week at a time. You get a completely different perspective when riding as you are very upright and relaxed and get a good view of everything (maybe a bit like changing to a 4 WD from a sedan?). No need to wear cycle specific clothing other than a helmet and you don't get sweaty.
I usually don't commute on Friday's as I want to keep myself fresh for the Saturday shop ride (on my carbon road bike) but today I decided to use the Gazelle. It only took about 10 minutes longer for the 20km trip.
Now I was expecting a less stressful, relaxing ride because I knew that nearly everyone would be passing me and nobody would be drafting me. So how did it go?
Incident one: Crossing South St Leeming a motorcycle backfired when passing me and I thought I had been shot.
Incident two; Crossing Leach Hwy at Bull Creek Drive lights - an elderly man did not see that the lights were red despite cars being stationary in all other lanes. When he saw me crossing his lane he stamped on the brakes and skidded to a stop in front of me (my life flashed before my eyes).
Incidents 3 -5: On Kwinana PSP between Canning and Narrows - passed by three separate groups riding two abreast, one group overtook me at the same time as a cyclist passed in the opposite direction - ie 4 bikes across the path.
Incident six: A lone cyclist hammering south overtook a chap kitted out in plenty of sefety gear at the same time as I was passing going North. He nearly took all three of us out and got severly abused by us both.
Incident seven: Four cyclists in single file attempted to pass me when another two were coming in the opposite direction. The first two got through and clipped my arm that was indicating not to pass.
Incident eight: Abused by two cyclists riding two abreast when I pointed out how dangerous and illegal their behaviour was - I was told to ride on the freeway if I didn't like it.
This is all on a Friday which is one of the quiter days!
Looking forward to the ride home.
TGIF?
- stealthbike
- Posts: 142
- Joined: Tue Nov 10, 2009 7:34 pm
TGIF?
Postby stealthbike » Fri Feb 15, 2013 2:28 pm
2010 Specialized Roubaix Elite - Black
"However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results" - Winston Churchill
"However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results" - Winston Churchill
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