Musings From a Benched Rider (I'm Mad as Heck and I Don't Want to Take it Anymore)

Back in 1976 things were bad.  Granted, I was only thirteen and although we were celebrating the bicentennial of the United States, we were facing inflation, a depression, oil crisis, a president had just stepped down to avoid being impeached, and there was disco!

C'mon, Let's Do the Bump and Hustle - Disco Construction (1976)

Now, it wasn't all bad but you have to admit, its a good thing that the polyester leisure suit died a suitable "natural" death.  Another thing that happened was that my father got stationed to Ansbach, Germany.

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Yet something else happened that year that was a standout in cinematic history.  The movie Network was directed by Sidney Lumet and starred Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Peter Finch (as Harold Beale), Robert Duvall, Ned Beatty, Kathy Cronkite (daughter of Walter), Conchata Ferrell (you may know her as Bertha on "Two and a Half Men") and a score of others.  However, it gave us the battle cry "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!"  But to get the full effect, you need to see this scene;


To understand where this scene fits you have to watch the entire movie (its good, really) but it seems like we're in a position now where we need another Howard Beale to step forward these days, at least I know I do.

You see, I'm extremely frustrated right now.  Normally I ride between 3,000 and 5,000 miles a year on my bike, much of it commuting.  But a lot of my riding is done either raising money for cancer charities, particularly Sunrise Day Camp (http://www.sunrisedaycamp.org/).  However, that effort has been curtailed as of July 11, 2010. 

For those of you who have followed my blog (and I beg you to pass it on to others, I need a readership!) you know that I was in the middle of a great Century ride with the Huntington Bicycle Club's Gold Coast Ride.  I was minutes away from finishing a fifty mile ride in three hours and that would put me on a pace to finish the hundred miles in six hours.  However, about a mile and a half from the rest stop as I was riding past a line of parked cars a woman opened her car door right in front of me (yes, I was "doored") resulting in a lot of injuries, most notably this one (WARNING - ITS A BIT GRAPHIC - IF YOU WANT TO SKIP IT, SCROLL DOWN NOW);

Ouch!

That was taken three days after the accident when I had to change the bandage.  Now its been three weeks and the stitches are out (although there were some complications which I won't go into here) and its healind well, although I will have a killer scar and a I guess a good story.

My frustration is borne from the handling I have been receiving from Chubb Insurance company.  Its been three weeks now and they still haven't told me if I can get my bike fixed.  Its been sitting at Adams Cyclery (http://www.adamscyclery.com/) and Chuck and Darren have been great.  They looked at it top to bottom and front to back and they told me what needed to be replaced.  Yes, there were things that were scratched up but we agreed that those were just cosmetic and I would only seek to replace the components that were really damaged, like the shifters;


and my shoes;

I loved these shoes - now they're trashed!

All in all, between the damage to the bike ($1400) and to my clothing ($400) there is at least $1800 worth of damage.  And yet despite the fact that I gave them all the information they asked for (police report, name and telephone number of a witness, itemized estimate from Adams), the insurance company is still having a difficulty establishing the distribution of blame.  In other words, they are still trying to determine how much of the accident was my fault and how much was their clients.  Now if there are any of you out there that are reading this and work for an insurance company or know someone who does, can you help me out here?  Is this standard operating procedure?  Is there something I should be doing?  Should I move on to getting a lawyer?  Honestly, I just want to get back on my bicycle and ride but its awfully hard to do that when its hanging from a hook at Adams Cyclery.

I've only been riding once since the accident and that was with the kids on my mountain bike - I like it and all but its a bit too heavy to do a 50 mile charity ride up hill.  So as the days go by I'm getting more and more in the frame of mind of Howard Beale - I'm getting mad as hell and I don't want to take it any more.  I've been benched way too long.  My body and mind are ready to ride but Black Betty is still in the shop.  So my faithful readers, e-mail me and let me know what you think I ought to do.  If you have insurance company connections, pass this on to them and ask them to contact me, I sure would like to have an idea of how to get back on the road.

Stay well and I HOPE to see you on the road soon!