[big_slacker]

Weather is nice today, I got a quick 1.5 hour break from work so I jump on the roadie for a little jaunt on lake sammamish blvd in bellevue. I never stopped MTB this year but this was my first road ride of the season.

If you're not familiar the road loops the lake and is very popular with roadies and runners. There is a nice shoulder most of the way around, EXCEPT northbound from close to my house up to almost redmond.

Wouldn't you know it, a car clipped me with his mirror.

He kept going but not speeding. I recovered, didn't even get knocked off the bike. I tried to catch up but he was doing 35 or so. Another motorist chased him down and I got to talk to him. He said he didn't realize he hit me, he heard a noise and thought he just ran over a manhole cover. I do believe him, if he was lying he has a hell of a poker face.

I let him know he needs to give 3 feet when passing a bike, wasn't angry or dickish about it. It was a no harm, no foul situation.

The moral is, ride MTB instead of road. Or you'll get hit by a car. :nono:

 

[woodway]

Glad you are OK!

I always ride that loop southbound on W. Lake Sammamish as there is a shoulder pretty much the whole way now and then northbound on E. Lake Sammamish where you can ride the paved portion of the trail coming out of Issy and then switch over to the road where the northbound shoulder starts.

 

[Tarekith]

Ditto, whenever I need to head that way on the road bike I always go south too, even then it's still sketchy when the weather is nice and people aren't paying attention. Lots of flickering tree shadows.

I've been in worse accidents road riding that mtn biking by far, which is funny as I'm WAY more aggressive on the mtn bike. Got clipped by Green Lake two years ago and ended up ramming into a car parked on the side of the road. I was ok and other drivers tried to catch up to the girl driving, but I never saw her again.

These days I mainly stick to the Burke and Sammamish Trails (when I can ride, grrr). A couple times a year I'll ride around the Lake or over to the I-90 bridge, which I always found a fun ride. Sketchy around Sammamish road though, always glad to get that part over with.

 

[Nubster]

The moral is, ride MTB instead of road. Or you'll get hit by a car. :nono:

Nah, you'll just freeze to death or crash into a tree or fall over a cliff or....pretty sure there's risks with either discipline. Choose your poison, hope for the best.

 

[big_slacker]

I actually started the ride going south but got called back less than half an hour in hence the return route north. In a perfect world that side of the road would have a nice shoulder too but oh well.

In the future I'll stick to looping it the safer way. I do also like the I90 bridge route.

 

[yo EDDY]

Nah, you'll just freeze to death or crash into a tree or fall over a cliff or....pretty sure there's risks with either discipline. Choose your poison, hope for the best.

The big difference though in my mind is who is in control. Mtn biking it's all me, if I hit a tree, rock, whatever crash and hurt myself, I am at fault. On the road, a distracted driver could wipe you out through no fault of my own. I think about this quite a bit.

Last year I started running blinking lights front and rear, all day, no matter what the weather. It may not be roadie "cool" but it's a small thing to do which makes my wife feel better, and makes me feel better that I'll get home when I'm out for a 8 hour day in the saddle by myself.

 

[Mr. Lynch]

Cars are the main reason why I don't road ride. I'll ride the interurban trail or Cedar river trail, but I pretty much refuse to ride on the road anymore. I have 4 coworkers who bike commute and 3 of them have been hit by cars in the past 2 years.

 

[verslowrdr]

Glad you're OK!!!

FWIW I've hit the ground pretty hard both on the road and on dirt, and I'll take dirt ANY day.

 

[The Sagebrush Slug]

Cars are the main reason why I don't road ride.

I bought into the Fly6 kickstarter:
https://www.kickstarter.com/project...cessory-hd-camera-and-tail-light-co?ref=email

So at least if I get kilt on a bike the cops will have a chance to find the driver who did me in.

 

[Ladmo]

Used to commute to work a couple days/week. Seemed like every 2 months or so, someone would speed up, then slam on the brakes right in front of me to make a right turn into a driveway or street. One afternoon, I almost ended up under an articulated bus. Felt the wind. The driver didn't even slow down. That was probably 4 years ago. The only time I've ridden on the road since then was from Cascade Ridge parking lot to Duthie or Tokul West parking to the trails. Even with that, last summer heading back to the car from Tokul West, I had a guy speed up then turn right cutting me off at that turn across the street from the Fall City Bistro. I'm done with road riding except for what is required for mountain biking. I figure between the drunk drivers, texting drivers, aggressive drivers, and just plain poor drivers, it isn't worth it.

 

[Tarekith]

That's exactly why I sold my motorcycle years ago!

 

[traffic002]

Wow, so glad you didn't get hurt. I have a growing fear of being hit or clipped by a vehicle that is texting or distracted.

Having said that, I road ride regularly once the weather improves. But I also pick and my battles. I always ride counter clockwise around Lake Sammamish just for the reason of no facilities to ride NB on WLSP. And I'm sure I'll ride the paved trail from McDonalds to the roundabout. That used to be the scariest part of my ride.