My 13 years old grandson informed me that he was on the way to school, riding his mountain bike fast in a clearly marked cycleway on the side of the main road in front of the school. There were roadworks at the time, and a very long queue of stopped traffic. A careless ?person? threw open a nearside car door into the cycleway too late for my grandson to brake. He is small for his age, but the bike is a heavy, robust thing. He said that he hit the door, folding it forward, and breaking it off. He rode over part of it. I asked him if he stopped to complain, but he replied that he just carried on as he was late for school. Surprise for someone! I expect that it was another pupil, also late, ducking out to run the last hundred yards.
Are car door hinges so weak? Once upon a time the A pillar used to corrode badly, but nowadays? Is there some safety feature?
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I can't imagine a cyclist either child or adult having enough impetus to break off a car door. Even if hit by another car, the retraint may go, but the door nearly always stays on it's hinges and just folds into the body.
Are you sure he didn't mean something like a door mirror??
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This sounds suspiciously like someone is telling porkies. The likelyhood of the impact with the car door would have sent your grandson flying over the handlebars at the very least. As for just "knocking" the door off it's hinges and then riding over it - no way. How close was the car to the cycleway? How close was your grandson to the edge of the pavement?
Also, if someone had "taken" my door off it's hinges (regardless of who's fault it was), I would have gone straight up to the school to have a word with the head master/mistress demanding that the child responsible for the damage should be found so that his/her name could be forwarded to my insurance company.
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DD - given that if I park on a slope, given the weight of door intrusion bars, etc,etc, I sometimes struggle to hold my door open, I agree that someone may be embellishing their experience
--- BUT --Also, if someone had "taken" my door off it's hinges (regardless of who's fault it was), I would have gone straight up to the school to have a word with the head master/mistress demanding that the child responsible for the damage should be found so that his/her name could be forwarded to my insurance company.
you might find this was not a productive line to pursue. Section 214 of the highway code indicates that "you MUST ensure that you do not hit anyone when you open your door' and whilst I can't track down the relevant legislation, for some reason or other the phrase sticks in my mind that is it is illegal (a criminal offence) to allow a car door 'to be opened so that it causes injury or danger to another road user' - so if it happened to you, unless you had witnesses to say the door had been open for a while before the cyclist rode in to it, your insurance company might not be that keen to hear about it !
Bora - what Bora ?
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Did the hinge pins drop out at the same time, perchance?!!
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L'escargot by name, but not by nature.
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Take it from me, hitting a door as it swings open ends up with just one result. Cyclist jam all over the place and bits of broken bike flinging off in all directions.
My bike has been built up from the best components I can buy for cross-country and downhill riding. The wheels alone are £300 and they take my 13stone without a wobble or a buckle. My friend has the same wheelset and had a driver open a door on him on his morning commute early in 2002. Suffice to say the driver's insurance forked out for new carbon forks, new wheels and no small amount of personal injury. And that was a P plate clio, not renowned for their structural strength.
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Have you ever tried to remove a car door, the hinges are held on with bolts that are impact tightened, I wore out 2 impact drivers removing the doors from my old VW beetle. Could this have been a 2CV their doors are sort of wippery?
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The weight of a door with glass, window regulator, sound deadening and interior trim etc... weighs quite a lot. If the door had been suspended from a wire and it had been hit by a cyclist, the sheer chnage of momentum of hitting a stationary object of such mass would have resulted in a large and sudden deceleration of the cycle, and the cyclist would have carried on through the air.
With the door secured with hinges, I would say your grandson is spinning you a yarn and needs a clip round the ear!
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