Bicycle Safety
Some time ago, Jeff and Sandi gave us two bicycles: a Schwinn and a Cannondale. Since then, I have used the Schwinn as my primary mode of transportation. I ride it to and from school and work every day, seven miles round trip. It rides great, the brakes work well, and it’s just the right size.
One thing, though, that’s bothered me off and on since I got it has been the pedals. They’re plain plastic, but they have these ends that curve around on the inside close to the cranks. Every once in a while, I will get my shoelace caught on one of these. Sometimes this will happen at an especially inconvenient time – when I am trying to cross a busy street, for instance. I have repeatedly told myself I need to do something about the pedals. I certainly have had plenty of opportunities to replace them. I have other bikes sitting idle, and I could have cannibalized their pedals. But, I was personally offended that any bicycle pedals would be designed with so obvious a flaw, and I decided to right the wrong.
So, last weekend I took my rotary tool and cut off the dangerous portions of the pedals, and now I can ride comfortably, free from the very real fear that my foot will become physically tethered to my bike at the precise moment I’m crossing some traintracks or jumping a gorge.
Filed under: Transportation on May 5th, 2009
Yeah,
I know exactly what your talking about. As a child I had been riding along the side of the road in Lake St. George when my front wheel went into the groove between the curb and the grass. I couldn’t get the wheel out and there was some sort of obstacle coming up in my path so the decision was made to rapidly dismount.
As I attempted to leap from the bicycle I realized my shoelace had become wrapped around the pedal shaft and escape was quite impossible. Of course this realization came mid-jump.
I remember cartwheeling in a semi-circle with the bike attached to my foot and twisted outstretched leg, at one point the bike was actually on my back as my face was sliding on the pavement.
A year or so ago, for some stupid reason that makes little sense to me today, I didn’t cross 441 at the light I usually do, and instead decided to pedal up a few hundred yards, and cross at a place where there is no traffic light. I waited until the road was clear of cars in both directions–because I didn’t want to be loitering in the median–and when I got my chance, I went. But right when I started pedaling, I looked down and saw my lace was caught in this pedal, and I couldn’t go any more, because each revolution I made made the lace tighter on my foot. For reasons you understand, I couldn’t abandon ship, so I had to kick my way back to the curb.
Still, I just cannot comprehend why anyone would have engineered a pedal with such an obvious flaw. What were they thinking? That little hook served no purpose but to catch shoelaces.