President

I finally have the President back in good working order and had the front wheel trued after falling over the handlebars end of last summer while riding with the beach bag in my hands. CC had said, "Aren't you worried that the bag will get caught in the wheel?"  No, I said, I'm an expert.  haha, scrapes, lost a toe nail, a smidgen of my ego in the gutter...

Speaking about falling off the bike... I got hit by a car today.  No, really!  Actually a small SUV.  Nothing serious - no damage to the bike or me and maybe a scrape to front fender of the car (I didn't look).  The drivers in Italy can be very good about bikes, or they can be idiots.  You can decide what I think about this driver.  I partially asked for it, but it doesn't change my opinion about the driver.  And you can form your opinion about me... I may fall in the second category too depending on your ideas of safety and aggression...

So, I was approaching a round-about and could see another car approaching in the distance. A car from behind me passes me and cuts very close to me to position himself to enter the round about directly in front of me, but he has to stop to allow the other car to pass since the other car had precedence entering the round-about first.  I would have had to brake very hard to come up behind him to give you an idea of his bad driving.  I didn't feel apologetic after the foul maneuver he had just made and continued my speed to pass him back and enter the round-about behind the first car and in front of him.  I was clearly in front of him and if you observe the rules of the road he was obliged to give me precedence in the round-about.  If he were to take the first exit to the right, he would have to wait for me to continue the curve.  That didn't happen and he drove into me while he accelerated to make the turn, probably thinking I would turn too. That's a 50/50 call and not worth killing someone for a bet. We both skidded to a stop. When I felt the contact with the car I threw my weight into his fender not to be thrown off the bike. I let go of the brakes when I knew I was OK and stopped in front of him. 30 seconds of verbal exchange.  him, "What were you thinking?"  me, "What were YOU thinking?" and other explanations... no fight materialized and I was no worse for wear except skidding the bike a bit and a high heart rate. The exchanged dissolved pretty quickly and we both went on our separate ways... 

Be careful and kind to bikes on the road!

I know the lessons, but so should he.  If he hadn't been aggressive to pass me into the round-about, nothing would have happened.  I think he was trying to beat the other car and not paying attention to me.  I am a good rider and hug the side of the road.  I sort of pride myself on how little shoulder I need to ride a straight line...  I'm not an aggressive person except maybe in sports and marksmanship.  I should have just let it roll and let him have the round-about.

How about a little Kenny Rogers?  :)

You've got to know when to hold 'em
Know when to fold 'em
Know when…