So I'm leaving work and set out to repair my flat rear tire. I pull out the giant screw that's made a home for itself (decided to do it after work so that I could enjoy my lunch
) and I proceed to plug the tire back up -
A few minutes later I'm rolling and I make a left onto the Bowery on my way to the Manhattan Bridge. I hit a red light at Delancy, look in my rear view and what do I see? Yup, popo. It wasn't a regular popo mind you, it was a motorcycle popo, on one of the big old Harleys, and he's waving at me to pull over.
I roll my eyes figuring I'm about to get a ticket for having a dark smoke visor (which was down) right around 7pm as the light was fading. As it turns out, he was just checking if I was legit (3rd time this season) and he was surprised that I had all my paperwork in order and after a whole lot of nothing he wished me a good evening.
I gear back up, wait out another red light and go on my merry way. I'm still in 1st gear going about 35mph as I near the intersection of Bowery and Hester Street. Those familiar with the city will know that this intersection is very busy, very crowded, and always congested 24hrs a day. Anyhow, I have the green light and proceed through the intersection when all of a sudden... a bike messenger (of the pedaling type), comes screaming into the intersection - from the wrong direction - sees me and taget fixates on me... meanwhile, the clutch is already pulled in, I already rolled off the throttle and am now on the brakes HARD but it was too late and he was too close... he plows into me from my front left side... goes flying over his own handlebars and my bike and into a bunch of pedestrians waiting to cross the street (they were already standing in the street).
I pull over to see if he was ok and as soon as I'm off the bike guess what... yup, more popo. They saw the whole thing and checked on me first. I was fine but the bike messenger and 2 pedestrians got scraped up. After checking my paperwork - again - they whipped out their ticket book and I'm thinking to myself - " what could they possibly give me a ticket for? I had the right of way AND the green light!" Turns out, they give the messenger 4 tickets! 1 for running a red light, 1 for going the wrong way down a one way street, 1 for not having a brake on his bike (t'was fixed gear), and finally, one for not having blinking safety lights or reflectors, and a horn or bell.
My scoot was fine other than a scratched bar end mirror. I get home and check my tires pressure. After I repaired the tire I pumped it up to 40psi, and 6.5 miles and about 20 minutes of drama later the pressure's down to 32 psi. looks like I'll have to get a new rear tire before this weekend
instead of milking it for a few hundred more miles like I did with my last tire. Truth be told, I was goning to have to replace it soon anyway thanks to Jake
. All in all this will be my 3rd rear tire for the season, and I'll surely be needing to replace both tires well before the ride to the Indy GP in September.
Are there any sugar mommies out there that want to take a cute little filipino boy? I'm well mannered, clean, like movies and romantic walks on the beach, have impeccable taste in art, music, and literature, and I have lots of tattoos too... just don't expect to have me around on Sundays....
