Good Samaritan in Croydon

Specialized Needs
Specialized Needs Posts: 802
edited June 2010 in Commuting chat
I don't know if he reads this forum, and I don't know his name, but I do know that he's off to BikeRadar Live this summer, so there's an outside chance ...

I would like to thank the chap who helped to rescue my wife at 6ish this evening. She had come a cropper on the tram lines in Croydon and was walking back home nursing a bike with twisted handlebars which you helped to sort out. (She has only been using drops for 10 days but thankfully she hasn't been put off.)

Thank you also for the significant detour you made from your route to Mottingham to check that she and the bike were OK.

She (and I) will have an awful lot of 'paying it forward' to do :)

Comments

  • davis
    davis Posts: 2,506
    I really like the "pay it forward" idea. Spread good karma, 'cos most people are actually alright.
    Got to ask though: what was up with the bike? Bars/stem not done up tightly enough?
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  • cjcp
    cjcp Posts: 13,345
    Very cool.
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  • rjsterry
    rjsterry Posts: 29,412
    Those tram lines always make me nervous when i head into Croydon.
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  • Specialized Needs
    Specialized Needs Posts: 802
    davis wrote:
    Got to ask though: what was up with the bike? Bars/stem not done up tightly enough?
    I'm not sure - I need to check it over. It is a threadless headset. It might not have been tight enough (although it has done over 100 miles commuting so I would have expected it to have shown up on those cratered roads) or my bet is just that the impact when she hit the tarmac and landed on top of the bars probably dislodged them. I'm surprised at how relatively unscathed she is, given what happened. Just several bruises and a couple of scrapes on her legs.

    She is not on the bike again until Monday (because of work commitments), so I've a bit of time to check it and also to check the trueness of her front wheel (it seems to have a very slight kink in one spot).

    She is now devising alternative tramless routes (at least for when it is damp) to avoid the Lebanon Road area. She couldn't cross at 90 degrees because of a pothole, apparently. I know she hates that stretch anyhow, so it will be worse for her now.

    I should have mentioned, the good deed was on Addiscombe Road.
  • Clever Pun
    Clever Pun Posts: 6,778
    rjsterry wrote:
    Those tram lines always make me nervous when i head into Croydon.

    indeed, I got caught in them a while back drifting to the right to avoid an old guy walking out in the road..

    I always lift the front wheel now
    Purveyor of sonic doom

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  • kelsen
    kelsen Posts: 2,003
    Clever Pun wrote:
    rjsterry wrote:
    Those tram lines always make me nervous when i head into Croydon.

    indeed, I got caught in them a while back drifting to the right to avoid an old guy walking out in the road..

    I always lift the front wheel now

    Fell into them once as well...

    ..ended up doing a Tour of Croydon before I managed to extract myself out! :lol:

    In all seriousness, those tramlines can be a nightmare, especially in the wet.
  • Bassjunkieuk
    Bassjunkieuk Posts: 4,232
    One of the more amusing tramline incidents I witnessed was one of the local drunks riding a clearly previously abanadoned bike up towards the station when he got the wheel fully stuck in the track.

    He didn't fall off spectaculary but did end up yelling and swearing at the bike :-)

    My technique is to not cross them at acute angles, especially on the roadie!! Had to explain the importance of planning ahead when out for a ride with my mum and the eldest a while back when heading towards one of the stops and that it was OK to hold a position between the 2 tracks.
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  • Jamey
    Jamey Posts: 2,152
    Agreed, Croydon's tramlines + cyclists = no fun.
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  • Bassjunkieuk
    Bassjunkieuk Posts: 4,232
    Jamey wrote:
    Agreed, Croydon's tramlines + cyclists = no fun.

    Have you tried coming from NLA Tower > Addiscombe Road?? My parents live just off Addiscombe Road so if I'm headed back from a ride I usually come back in that way......
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  • Clever Pun
    Clever Pun Posts: 6,778
    Bassjunkieuk wrote:
    Jamey wrote:
    Agreed, Croydon's tramlines + cyclists = no fun.

    Have you tried coming from NLA Tower > Addiscombe Road?? My parents live just off Addiscombe Road so if I'm headed back from a ride I usually come back in that way......

    that's very close to me... I prefer to drop down to the lower addiscombe road and ride around.. (it's slightly longer too)
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  • Jamey
    Jamey Posts: 2,152
    No, I've not done Addiscombe properly on a bike, thankfully.

    Joined onto it from Chepstow road on Saturday but instantly turned off as I was going to my mate's new place and he lives off one of the turnings that mercifully didn't require me to do anything but traverse the tramlines.
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  • Mickey Eye
    Mickey Eye Posts: 590
    Can't avoid tram lines in Oslo. I try not to cross them at an angle more acute than 45 degrees. Even if I have to do a little swerve to attack it right. The ability to lift the front wheel is handy too.

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