LondonSkaters Speed Team - Speed Skating & Rollerblading Club in London

dan_b · Joined: 15 Jun 2004 Posts: 2428

"Summer is ICIBIN in; lhude sing cuccu"

Natasha · Joined: 09 Jul 2004 Posts: 2973 Location: Basingstoke

How did we get so far off topic? LS-Mike's going to be very very cross in the morning Rolling Eyes

Rick · Joined: 25 Feb 2004 Posts: 5914

Well back on topic then.

To my mind, the main danger to soft flesh and bone with opening doors when skating is less the wide open door as you can hit that and stop yourself if you can't avoid it and you often have time to avoid one of those. It's really the partly open front car door as they are usually raked back at the top to give the driver a better view when looking round. Obviously these drivers don't need that facility as they don't look round but that's another story. The rake back often comes to a point and the larger better sealing frames are tough. If you hit one of those dead on they you will take the door at around chest height and it won't spring anywhere as the angle it is to the car will make it seem completely solid. It's probably off to hospital for you if you were travelling with any sort of speed. If you have a lot of momentum that isn't cushioned when brought to a halt you could be looking at broken ribs a punctured lung or death if it gets you in the heart or neck.

The 5 foot thing is a good tip for bikes as they are less able to steer round the obstacle. A skater's side to side motion means you can get away with a smaller gap of say 3 feet minimum at the body. Having said that I was clipping a few car tires with my skates tonight when I was getting low and pushing wide so I was probably a little under that.

Another tip is to pull out early to go round a line of parked vehicles as you have to give any people in the car an opportunity of seeing you. They might genuinely look but if your outline is obscured by a couple of cars parked behind them when they are looking round then you really are partially at fault for any collision even if you may not be legally responsible because you denied them an opportunity to see you. Skate safe, skate smart.

A good guideline here was the little cycling quiz that Mike posted some time ago about claiming your space on the road. Loads of people got quite a few wrong. Some will argue that one or two of the situations were arguable but it did make everyone think about the whys and wherefores of positioning in the road.

Natasha · Joined: 09 Jul 2004 Posts: 2973 Location: Basingstoke

Gav · Posted: Fri Jan 13, 2006 10:07 am Subject:

please tell me all of you weren't up at midnight to 1am last night writing clear and lucid posts on the forum?? Tell me the time is wrong on the server or something...

Rick · Joined: 25 Feb 2004 Posts: 5914

That's quite early for my bed time at the moment. Last week I applied for a job at 4:35am Trying to get myself back to "normal" so I can be fresh for interviews but it's taking some time.