Long day.

Warning; Incredibly long post with no pics!

I had a nice day out planned; lovely flat 110 km to fully recover from last weekend. However, it was not to be. About one kilometer from the flat, I came up behind a car, which then stopped in the middle of the road. Thinking this odd, I moved up around it (on the inside). Suddenly, a nice strong engine rev told me I was going down. I went down. Now, normally, this would be totally my fault, having moved around. However, there were no indicators flashing, before or afterwards (yes, I checked, instincts and all that), and the fact that I was almost clear of the car means I was well visible, had he checked.

The conversation afterwards was somewhat interesting;
Driver; You were going too fast.
Me; No, I wasn't. (10 km/hr)
I didn't see your indicators.
Driver; ...
*motions to wife to check side of car*
Me; is it ok? (somewhat incredulously)
Driver; It is ok. *stares at me*
*Gets back into car and drives off*

It was really weird. I mean, he just kept looking at me. I dunno if he was expecting an apology or what, but he certainly wasn't getting it. I was a hell of a lot more concerned about any damage to me and the bike. Very odd experience.

As it turns out, most things were ok. I have a few scrapes, a bit of road rash, but nothing huge. The bike was a little worse off; wheel a few mm out of true, rear derailleur took a bit of a knock, getting me worried about needing a new one. An hour's work learning how to true a wheel and that problem was solved, and some time reindexing the RD had that sorted. It's possibly a little out of alignment, but it shifts fine for the moment. I'll get a tool to adjust it properly at some point.

So, what have we learned;
Don't assume a motorist won't turn, despite lack of indicators.
Don't pass up the inside when they're stopped, they're liable to do anything. Also, it leaves you somewhat exposed and also leaves a lot of the blame, or at least potential for it, on you.

The first one is something that I've never encountered before. To me, if you don't have the indicators on, you're not turning, and that's what I would assume applies across the board. So, after seeing the situation of a motorist stopped in the middle of the road, with no oncoming traffic, no signals, I did what seemed most natural and moved up on the side with the most space. Unfortunately, this was the side he was turning. Could easily have been the other side, just got unlucky today.

On the second, I probably should have stopped behind him. That said, one doesn't have to think too hard for reasons that somebody would arbitrarily stop in the middle of the road. I don't know enough about the ROTR in Ireland, never mind Germany, to know if I would have been held at fault in this situation. Yes, I moved around from the back, but it's not like I was invisible. He had no indicators on and almost certainly didn't bother to check for anybody coming from behind.

The main thing that P***ed me off about the whole thing was the accusation that it was my fault for going too fast. Which is utter crap. GPS data shows that I was, at most, doing about 12 km/hr on that street, a lot less when I was behind him. I was well alongside the car before he started to turn; there was nothing I could have done at any speed.

Anyway, excitement aside, it turned out to be a not too bad day all in all. I did around 40 km on the fixie, heading into Munich to find where my German course is on for the next two months and taking a nice scenic route back out along the river and through the English Gardens. Also, I now know how to true wheels, which is one of the few things that I didn't know how to do. I think the only thing that I haven't done/been shown how to do is replacing a headset, but there's a specific tool for that, so that shouldn't be too much of an issue. Maintaining one's own bike is a lot of fun!

Finally, adding up my total distances so far this year, I've recorded just over 1600 km so far. Which isn't exactly impressive, but should ramp up pretty fast over the next few months. I should have about 6000 done by the end of the year, all going well. I'm already over the euro/km limit for my bikes, so the next goal is adding in all the other crap that comes with them and reducing the costs then :) Next year will see my price/km travelled come down nicely.

So yeah, that's about it. Hopefully the commute to Munich will go well for the week. And that I'll be able to handle the 34 odd km four days a week, on top of normal work and a long weekend spin!