# CAAD9 4, Killed In Action



## AceyMan (May 6, 2010)

My only bike is my 2010 CAAD9 4 (54cm, BBQ). My daily ride is the work commute, 14 miles each way. As I live in West LA, some of it runs along the Pacific coast, and the weather is generally ideal.

Last week I was riding home past dark, but I had just installed a new hi output LED system, so I knew I could see and be seen.

As I was rolling northbound on a 5 lane surface street adjacent to the right gore, I came up to a facility that has a private gate and lots of in and outs at all hours (it's a military base). The asphalt is smooth and there's zero grade so I was doing about 22mph or so.

As I approached the exit/entry gates there were the usual handful of cars coming and going. When I was about 300 feet away, one car stopped, saw his clear space and turned left out onto the road. All good. I kept rolling north as the next car queued up at the stop line.

By now I'm inside 100 feet, and traveling 32 feet per second. This car which was stopped at the line, <b>now starts rolling forward </b>. 

I'm thinking, "Ok.... keep going, dear God...."

But "good driver" that she is, she still is creeping out, and still checking left and right. 

Oh no. Now she sees me. I'm still rolling fast and she's directly in front of me.

So, naturally, she stops. You know, in a panic situation, stopping where you are is always the best thing, right?

I scream something. I cannot remember if it was vuglar or not, but it was loud. 

My hands were on the hoods, and I got on the brakes as hard as I could, the rear locked up a little and I used the front as hard as I could.

I hit her right behind the driver's door ("B" pillar) still rolling pretty good, maybe 10 or 12 mph. The side of my face went into her side glass, and my legs wacked the bars and top tube pretty hard. I stayed clipped in, so after the rebound I fell over on my right side.

I unclipped, go up, and screamed my head off. She got out and was really apologetic. I should have lit in to her more, but I cooled off pretty fast, and had 911 on the line in seconds. I waved off the paramedic but definitely wanted a police report.

City police showed up pretty quickly but even before then the DoD base police were there offering help.

The bike looked pretty straight, the bars weren't twistd on the steerer, the front wheel was true, only thing I could see was I'd slung the chain.

After I got a report number and decided I wasn't cut bad or really hurt (skinned right knee), I rode on home.

Called my LBS the next day, they said don't ride it , bring it in ASAP, so I took it in Saturday as soon as I could.

As the shop manager approached the bike, from about 10 feet away, he said "oh, there's a dent in the top tube...". Yup, sure enough, there was a crease in the center of the top tube. Next thing he check for, and found, was a wrinkle under the down tube about 3 inches behind the head tube.

So she's toast.

They'll be getting a quote on a 2011 CAAD10 frameset for me and seeing how long to deliver. The driver will be getting a call Monday with the estimate.

It sucks to be without a ride, but at least it looks like it will be rainy most of this week so I probably would have been parking it anyway.

The thing is, I have a CAAD10 team frameset on order but the ETA is around Feb 2011. If I get the replacement CAAD10 now, I'll end up with two CAAD10s, so I'm not sure how to handle that. The main thing is to get a bike under me as soon as possible and put my first car crash behind me.


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## zamboni (Sep 11, 2003)

Sorry to hear that glad you were OK, my wife had an accident on 4Th of July but no bones broken just a few black & bruises except the Six13 bike was done. Had an order for team edition since then and still waiting for the bike to arrive.You are in luck if your size is between 54 to 58 those were the most common one and you could get it sooner.


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## ridenfish39 (Jun 20, 2008)

Must be that time of year...my girlfriend was hit 3 weeks ago. Had a guy turn left into his driveway while she was going down a hill. Multiple fractures in her foot, broken ribs, really bad cut that needed a lot of stitches and a lot of bumps and bruises. Her Caad 9 with Campy Record was totaled, big dent in the top tube, cracked fork, broken chainring (I'll have to post a pic of it to believe it) and trashed shifter and front wheel. She won't be out of her "boot" (couldn't cast because of the cut and swelling) until mid December. 
She is a tough girl and will be back on her bike as soon as the doctor tells her she can. When I got to the hospital she was more upset that her bike was wrecked and she couldn't do an upcoming race than she was about her injuries.


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## skyliner1004 (May 9, 2010)

Why is it going to take 4 months to get a simple CAAD10 frame? they must have thousands of them in their PA warehouse where all the bikes get shipped out from.


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## zamboni (Sep 11, 2003)

ridenfish39 said:


> Must be that time of year...my girlfriend was hit 3 weeks ago. Had a guy turn left into his driveway while she was going down a hill. Multiple fractures in her foot, broken ribs, really bad cut that needed a lot of stitches and a lot of bumps and bruises. Her Caad 9 with Campy Record was totaled, big dent in the top tube, cracked fork, broken chainring (I'll have to post a pic of it to believe it) and trashed shifter and front wheel. She won't be out of her "boot" (couldn't cast because of the cut and swelling) until mid December.
> She is a tough girl and will be back on her bike as soon as the doctor tells her she can. When I got to the hospital she was more upset that her bike was wrecked and she couldn't do an upcoming race than she was about her injuries.


Wish her recover soon and get back on the bike I knew is tough to be off the bike, it took my wife more than two months to get over the accident and get out and ride.
She hit the left front fender of the car coming accross the road, she flew over and landed on the road, she was lucky to be alive had she been a second early, the vehicle could have run her over. The bike was totaled and she missed her six13 with Campy Record, placed an order since August for a team bike and still waiting for deliver.


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## AceyMan (May 6, 2010)

skyliner1004 said:


> Why is it going to take 4 months to get a simple CAAD10 frame?


The Feb 2011 time was for our team frameset, which is a custom paint scheme. I hope I can get a standard 2011 frameset in less than a few weeks, esp. since my LBS is the biggest Cannondale dealer in the US.


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## roscoe (Mar 9, 2010)

at least you're OK

you gotta be careful out there, the moment when you depend on drivers to behave sensibly is the moment you're putting your safety in their hands.

what does the police report say in terms of liability? it sounds to me like you ran your bike into a stationary vehicle, sounds like a bit more caution on your end (or a bit less caution on the driver's end) could have avoided the situation 

I see drivers do that all the time in my neighborhood, they pull out and then when they're not sure if it was clear, they just stop in the center of the lane blocking traffic (instead of pulling into the lane fully and getting up to speed like they should). I haven't hit any of them yet though.


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## roscoe (Mar 9, 2010)

double post, weird, that almost never happens....


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## skyliner1004 (May 9, 2010)

AceyMan said:


> The Feb 2011 time was for our team frameset, which is a custom paint scheme. I hope I can get a standard 2011 frameset in less than a few weeks, esp. since my LBS is the biggest Cannondale dealer in the US.


 oh I see, 
What bike shop is that?


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## RUV (Aug 13, 2009)

I'm glad to hear you're okay, Aceyman. I guess this means we get to hear your CAAD9 v CAAD10 comparison earlier, right?


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## AceyMan (May 6, 2010)

skyliner1004 said:


> oh I see,
> What bike shop is that?


Helen's Cycles in Los Angeles, they have a big store in Santa Monica and a few others sprinkled around the city. Est. 1936.


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## AceyMan (May 6, 2010)

roscoe said:


> at least you're OK
> 
> you gotta be careful out there, the moment when you depend on drivers to behave sensibly is the moment you're putting your safety in their hands.


Amen.



> it sounds to me like you ran your bike into a stationary vehicle, sounds like a bit more caution on your end (or a bit less caution on the driver's end) could have avoided the situation


When a door opens 20 feet in front of you, it's *stationary*, right? I mean, any one should be able to avoid that, eh? 

Are you seeing what you actually wrote?

Of course, infinite caution would avoid every accident. But I'm not coming to a full stop every time a car comes to a driveway exit or side road crossing, when I have the right of way. I roll fast, too, so it's lots of work to fully stop, and spool back up again.

In this case, she did initially full STOP which fooled me. If she'd have rolled through the first time, I would have stopped or had time to go around. She deeked me, by stopping fully, then when I was too close, pulling out with too little space left or time to stop.


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## BadBoyNY (Jun 25, 2010)

I'm glad your OK , but you assume too much about the driver seeing you because of your hi-output LED. 

There is lots of research in the UK that shows that drivers literally do not see single light sources coming towards them because of pre-conditioning towards a double light source.

I would have been braking as soon as I doubted the drivers intentions. Please be careful out there.

.


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## BunnV (Sep 7, 2005)

BadBoyNY said:


> I'm glad your OK , but you assume too much about the driver seeing you because of your hi-output LED.
> 
> There is lots of research in the UK that shows that drivers literally do not see single light sources coming towards them because of pre-conditioning towards a double light source.
> 
> ...


Totally agree, although I won't pass judgment on the OP. I'm glad he's ok. I've ridden that road 100s of times and I know how treacherous it is. 

Whenever I come across a situation like the OP did (which is every time I ride)_ I assume the driver is going to pull right out in front of me_...EVERY TIME. That way, I'm never fooled or surprised when they do. 

I used to sell motorcycles and I would always tell my customers to "ride like they were invisible". The most common motorcycle accident in my experience is when a car turns left right into the oncoming path of a motorcycle. Almost 100% of the time when I asked my customer what happened, they would respond with "I KNOW they saw me!" 

Wrong answer.....


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## BadBoyNY (Jun 25, 2010)

BunnV said:


> Totally agree, although I won't pass judgment on the OP. I'm glad he's ok. I've ridden that road 100s of times and I know how treacherous it is.
> 
> Whenever I come across a situation like the OP did (which is every time I ride)_ I assume the driver is going to pull right out in front of me_...EVERY TIME. That way, I'm never fooled or surprised when they do.
> 
> ...


I honestly wasn't being judgemental - just don't want him to be over-confident in the future about how other road users see him, I also ride motorcycles - for nearly 30 years - and I always assume that other traffic hasn't seen me - and motorcycles present a bigger visible target than a bicycle.


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## AceyMan (May 6, 2010)

Bike update...
If you're a CAAD owner you may never read the carbon threads, so I figured I'd repost here.

The actual delivery eta for a CAAD10 frameset was 6 weeks. <i>And,</i> they only come in a red or white option. No black or bbq. Too bad, I was hoping for the blackout CAAD10 1 paint job.

So, after "doing the math" and trying to figure out the best way to get back on the road, I ordered a 2011 Supersix 4 (Rival group, jet matte black, 53/39 double), eta a week from today.

I'll keep my dead CAAD9 in storage until my team CAAD10 frameset is delivered (Feb 2011), then build it up with the CAAD9 remains.

I decided not having a bike sucks so bad it was worth it to go ahead and invest in a 2nd bike more or less. And it was the simplest thing, since any other variation ended up with me having to sell off a frameset at low miles or something like that.

** Another local LBS I called had some great deals on 2010 framesets from some really top Euro makers, but I couldn't figure out how to make that work for me, so I just stayed true to my brand and got the SuperSix. I think I'll be happy.


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## skyliner1004 (May 9, 2010)

AceyMan said:


> Bike update...
> If you're a CAAD owner you may never read the carbon threads, so I figured I'd repost here.
> 
> The actual delivery eta for a CAAD10 frameset was 6 weeks. <i>And,</i> they only come in a red or white option. No black or bbq. Too bad, I was hoping for the blackout CAAD10 1 paint job.
> ...


haha i wish i can just BUY bikes like that. your lbs must love you, they just made a wad of cash off you. But anyway! nice bike! take some closeups for us when u get it pls.


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## AceyMan (May 6, 2010)

@skyliner
We'll, I don't know if they made any *wads of cash*. I get the team discount which saves 10%, that helps. Plus I'll be getting the money for the CAAD9 replacement all which will go toward the SS4. Even with that, it's a push to spend the money on the SS4 now, but I want my bike back and so I bit the bullet and put in the order. It'll be PBJ lunches for a while, that's for sure.


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## skyliner1004 (May 9, 2010)

AceyMan said:


> @skyliner
> We'll, I don't know if they made any *wads of cash*. I get the team discount which saves 10%, that helps. Plus I'll be getting the money for the CAAD9 replacement all which will go toward the SS4. Even with that, it's a push to spend the money on the SS4 now, but I want my bike back and so I bit the bullet and put in the order. It'll be PBJ lunches for a while, that's for sure.


they only gave you 10% off the MSRP? did you pay tax on top of that?

in NYC i get about 25% off specialized bikes + no tax, about 15% off cannondales with no tax also. On my Look (less margins = less discount) i got 15% off with no tax also.

i thought living in NYC was expensive... is everyone else paying msrp for their cannondales?


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## AceyMan (May 6, 2010)

@skyliner
Actually, their sticker is usually 5-8% below MSRP, and our club gets10% off that. And I haven't tried showing up with cash yet... <grin>, that's always good for another discount.

I don't usually worry about price so much, I worry about support and a good long term experience. I figure if I beat 75$ out of a shop owner when I really need a favor it will cost me that back, plus more.


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## Clueless Morgan (Mar 27, 2010)

skyliner1004 said:


> they only gave you 10% off the MSRP? did you pay tax on top of that?
> 
> in NYC i get about 25% off specialized bikes + no tax, about 15% off cannondales with no tax also. On my Look (less margins = less discount) i got 15% off with no tax also.
> 
> i thought living in NYC was expensive... is everyone else paying msrp for their cannondales?


I paid msrp at my local shop for our CAAD9's (they're also a Giant dealer). The other local shop, (bigger and renowned for the owner being featured in an AMEX commercial) is Trek/Specialized dealer and they charge above msrp. That made list price on Cannondale look like a deal.


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## Erion929 (Jun 10, 2010)

So how did the Estimate / LBS report / Police Report / Insurance issue pan out? Did the driver freak out or submit? No problems?  

**


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## AceyMan (May 6, 2010)

@Erion-
I should probably stay mum at this point until it's all squared away, but thanks for asking.

I did pick up a copy of the police report yesterday and while brief, it reads in my favor, as it should.


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