I’m not one for supernatural beliefs, but I’ve noticed a certain pattern that I can’t quite shake off: Whenever I get a new bike, I tend to be involved in a bicycle crash.
2014 I ordered a Canyon RoadLite 7.0. The day before the bike arrived at my doorstep, I had a serious accident involving a broken seat screw. I was riding my Koga Miyata touring bike at a rather high speed of around 35km/h at the Rhine when the seat suddenly gave way and I landed on my left foot and abruptly stopped while the bike continued to go on for about 30–50 meters straight without me. I was taken to the hospital and was released after the doctors diagnosed a severe concussion on my left ankle, since it took the full force of the sudden breaking maneuver. I couldn’t ride the new Canyon road bike for over a week because of the injury.
In 2015 I needed a road bike for my commute and for the winters. Since I had the opportunity of getting the bike on a lease for my old job, I decided to to with a Cannondale CAADX cyclocross bike. Unfortunately, on day 2 after the delivery, I took a serious hit when the crank suddenly broke into two parts while I was riding home late at night. It turned out, the crank wasn’t properly mounted on and due to me being a more heavy rider, the crank’s threading gave up — right when I was speeding along the Rhine again, this time at about 40km/h. I spent the night in the hospital and this time I had a major concussion in my left shoulder, since landed on it and it took the force of the impact, the speed and the breaking in just a couple of milliseconds. This injury prevented me from riding the Cannondale for about two weeks, though mostly because it was kept at the store since a Cannondale representative wanted to inspect it and the guy took his time.
Last week I decided to order a Canyon Ultimate CF SL frame set in order to have the parts of my 2014 Canyon RoadLite 7.0 put on it. Since the 2014 model came with a full Ultegra group set, just upgrading the frame makes it almost feature-complete with a brand new Canyon Ultimate CF SL Ultegra. That seemed like a no-brainer and a pretty good deal, since I never took a proper bike-fitting when ordering the 2014 aluminum bike and the frame size was just a bit too tall, even for me. The new Ultegra generation is a bit more light-weight but that’s it in terms of actual differences of the group set.
Of course, it was time for another accident on the bicycle.
On Sunday, I rode my old vintage steel road bike to one of my favorite cafés. I read a bit on my phone, sipped a coffee and I suddenly had the urge to get me some ice cream. I paid for my coffee, took my bike and rode down the street in a rather relaxed tempo and headed for the ice cream shop. Right when I was about to take a right turn, I mishandled my bike, didn’t have any chance to hit the breaks and instead immersed the front wheel into the tram rails. I think the front wheel somehow locked and the velocity catapulted me across the handlebar and I landed head-first on the pavement. When I regained consciousness, I was already in the ambulance. Because I suffered a severe trauma to my head, I was forced to stay in the hospital for two days, due to being under supervision. I looked like shit as well.
Again, I’m in the situation where I have a cool new bike in my room and I just can’t ride it, since I wasn’t feeling well enough for about a week.
I’m still far from believing into anything superficial, but I’d really prefer these coincidences to stop. For fuck’s sake.