I'M HIT!

it felt like getting hit with a bullet, not really though. more like when you’re watching a movie, and you see bullets flying all over, and then someone yells, I’M HIT! it was kind of like that … just a moment of , o shit… one of them got me.

it was my fault, and it really wasnt serious. i was late to a meeting in the city, going from one client on 69th to another client on 54th. i was on 54th between 6th and 7th (coming from 7th). traffic was backed up, and i was riding the side of the cars trying to get to the red light. 

the cars were all moving less then 5mph, and i was doing over 10mph passing them on the left. that right there was my mistake, being in a rush while passing cars illegally. well a car decided to pull out to the left to drop his wife off by the curb, he nipped me as i was passing by.

i was hit. my first car / bike contact ever. i couldnt believe it. i was shocked (but not in shock). it didnt knock me over, i kept moving forward, that was even more shocking to me. 

i pulled over and got off my bike to inspect. zero real damage. a white mark on my real tank (the black part under my rear white plastic area), and a paint gloss scuff on the white plastic portion. zero denting, the white scuff came off quickly, and the gloss is missing from a tiny portion of that white plastic area… cant even notice it.

i walked over to the guy who hit me, ummm.. you hit me? he was really cool and a bit nervous that he hit a bike. he asked if i was ok, discussed what happened, looked at the damage to his car. now this was the surprising part, he had some decent damage to the spot where he hit me on his nissan rogue. a little crumple fist size in diameter. like crumpled paper. how odd. 

he said not to worry about it and he would take care of it on his own. he asked if my bike and i were ok one more time, and i was on my way. i was late to the meeting, client was slightly pissed and they barely acknowledged my awesome excuse.

a few notes.

1. its dangerous to pass cars like i did, but the reality is manhattan is a jungle and there are no real rules. i try to only pass cars that are stopped, i should be way more adherent to that guideline of mine. more importantly, when passing (illegally), i should be way slower about it. 99% of the time i am very slow about it, but that time i was not. manhattan is full of pedestrians that cross wherever they want, and they pop out from behind cars so quickly that you need to be crazy aware of them. i usually go slow enough so that i can look in between cars as before pass them to make sure of no pedestrians or other random manhattan style obstacles.

2. i got hit. nothing happened. i was being reckless and i got lucky. i need to really learn from this. risks are just not worth it. i really hope i learn from this.

3. this actually happened a few weeks ago, im still trying to have my posts catch up with the present.