Yesterday I am on my bicycle, I am waiting at a red light. The light turns green and a bicyclist-roadie who had timed his approach better, swoops past me on my right. That's ok. He gives me plenty of room and it's a good-sized bicycle lane.
The bicyclist is just a few lengths in front of me and I am sizing up his potential for speed when I see him put out his left hand, palm outwards. I arch an eyebrow. As I watch, he inserts his hand (with the delicacy of a veterinarian turning a calf that is still in the cow) into the wheel well of the car travelling immediately to his right and takes a (presumably) firm hold of the car and stops pedaling and starts coasting at what I calculate to be ~30 mph.
The car continues up the road apparently unaware that it is being felt up by a bicyclist. I discover that my jaw has dropped and I snap it shut. I also find my eyelids up around my hairline and move them back into place. I have no chance of catching them but I pedal hard and keep the newlyweds in sight long enough to see the bicyclist get to the top of a hill, run a red light, dodge through a construction zone, and disappear from my view.
1. No, he wasn't wearing a helmet.
2. It's like having a technicolor giraffe park in your garage and put it's head through your window so that it can eat your breakfast.
3. No, I am pretty sure the car had no idea that the speedy bicyclist on his left had his hand up the car's wheel well.
How do you interpret the left-arm extension, palm-out? A signal for you that he was about to do something?
ReplyDeleteIt's just an awesome vignette, and it leaves me wondering (a) if you'll see him again at the same time/place and (b) if you have a helmet cam at home.
He put his hand out that way in preparation for sticking it into that mild-mannered sedan, there was a delicate little hesitation as I guess he steadied himself and made sure not to touch the wheel and then he grabbed the wheel well at the top and wheeee!
DeleteI do have a gopro! The contraption captain won one at work. One of my new years resolutions is to start filming the varied randomness I spot.
As for seeing him again, maybe I am lucky and he's moved to the area and I will be treated to more bike tricks on my commute home..
He's a Darwin award candidate! That kind of stuff is fine for the movies, but sooner or later in real life anybody that does that is going to die.
ReplyDelete