Wow! Just brought back some memories with this one. I believe I had a Motobecane or some relatively similar French bike at the time. By the time of this accident I had already blown away my cream Blummels fenders in a freak accident that was not very bad at all. But I had a good friend that rode with me all over the place. I really lived on my bike as a teen and when I got enough money together I bought this French dream bike. Well back then (the 60s) we wore no helmets, spandex or anything that could be considered cycling gear. My friend had a Schwinn Collegian in nice purple or as they call it Violet color. My bike was a root beer brown. We used these bikes for all kinds of errands and one such run was to pick up milk from a store about a half mile away. My friend had to buy the milk and I just tagged along as we were inseparable at the time on our bikes. He made the purchase in a one gallon glass jug with the plastic handle at the top to make it easy to carry. On the ride back he had the jug in his right hand while he steered with his left. We were going pretty quick and made a sharp right hand turn with me on the inside and he outside. About three quarters way through the turn I lost my line and my pedal went into his front wheel. I do clearly remember him bailing out as his bike and mine became airborne. I had no such luck. The glass jug flew ahead of me and smashed. The mass of tubing and wheels that came down on the pavement began churning like a NASCAR accident. I was somewhere in between all the tubing that was now settling down to just a sliding pile of metal and flesh. The road rash was taking its toll. Now coming up was a nice milk wet pavement stroon with chards of glass. I came to a stop somewhere in that bicycle milk shake. My friend came over mad as hell but had to help me as I could not free myself from the tangled wrecks. I still bare the scars of that day as a reminder of what holding you line means. Good news is that besides a lot of bruises and road rash I came away in decent shape. Needless to say we spent the next few hours trying to get our bikes back on the road which we did without any fancy bike tools and some brute force. We also had to figure out how to get some money together to replace the milk. Once we did, I did not accompany him on the ride to get the new bottle. We are still good friends but don't see each other as much as I would like. Guess I can truly say that you CAN cry over spilled milk!
Ray Homiski
Elizabeth, NJ