![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
A narrow escape
Jul. 27th, 2007 08:22 amI was awfully lucky this morning on my ride in.
I use two wire panniers suspended on the back of my bicycle on either side of the back wheel to carry my purse and gym bag (the gym bag holds whatever book I'm reading, my lunch, and work clothes I'm changing into when I get into the office). I put the purse in one of the panniers, and I put the gym bag over the tops of both panniers (since it's too big to fit inside the other) and fasten the whole thing down with two criss-crossed bungee cords.
The panniers fold, like this. To keep them open, you place a hook on the lengthwise side of the bottom panel through the wire mesh on the side panel:
This morning, I was on a traffic island at a very busy intersection, Hiawatha and 26th Street, when a woman who was turning at the intersection rolled down her window and yelled to me, "You dropped your purse."
I looked around in alarm. There, three feet behind me, was my purse on the pavement. What the hell??? It couldn't have bounced out of the pannier because the gym bag was bungee corded on top of it. I looked at the pannier and felt a rush of horror. The bottom of it had collapsed, dumping the purse onto the pavement. Perhaps the hook had been jolted off the place where it was secured when I went over the curb.
If that woman hadn't said something, I would have never realized that I had lost my purse. All my credit cards, my keys, my iPod . . . I shudder to think what a horror I so narrowly missed. I don't doubt that someone else could have grabbed it within thirty seconds. Hundreds of cars pass by there, as well as many pedestrians and bicyclists. I called down a fervent prayer of thanksgiving, as well was blessings upon the woman who had yelled out to me.
From now on, I'll make sure the bungee cord clips not only the side but the bottom of the pannier. I will probably also get a third bungee cord to support the bottom of the pannier, just so this doesn't happen again.
I use two wire panniers suspended on the back of my bicycle on either side of the back wheel to carry my purse and gym bag (the gym bag holds whatever book I'm reading, my lunch, and work clothes I'm changing into when I get into the office). I put the purse in one of the panniers, and I put the gym bag over the tops of both panniers (since it's too big to fit inside the other) and fasten the whole thing down with two criss-crossed bungee cords.
The panniers fold, like this. To keep them open, you place a hook on the lengthwise side of the bottom panel through the wire mesh on the side panel:
 |
This morning, I was on a traffic island at a very busy intersection, Hiawatha and 26th Street, when a woman who was turning at the intersection rolled down her window and yelled to me, "You dropped your purse."
I looked around in alarm. There, three feet behind me, was my purse on the pavement. What the hell??? It couldn't have bounced out of the pannier because the gym bag was bungee corded on top of it. I looked at the pannier and felt a rush of horror. The bottom of it had collapsed, dumping the purse onto the pavement. Perhaps the hook had been jolted off the place where it was secured when I went over the curb.
If that woman hadn't said something, I would have never realized that I had lost my purse. All my credit cards, my keys, my iPod . . . I shudder to think what a horror I so narrowly missed. I don't doubt that someone else could have grabbed it within thirty seconds. Hundreds of cars pass by there, as well as many pedestrians and bicyclists. I called down a fervent prayer of thanksgiving, as well was blessings upon the woman who had yelled out to me.
From now on, I'll make sure the bungee cord clips not only the side but the bottom of the pannier. I will probably also get a third bungee cord to support the bottom of the pannier, just so this doesn't happen again.