Thursday, May 22, 2008

Don't trust the bungee

During my years of cycling the roads, the items I see laying by he side of the road most often are, by far, beverage containers (bottles both glass and plastic, and cans). But, running a close second, is bungee cords.

Just within the past week, I decided to start picking up bungee cords as I come across them while riding. I wish I had starting doing this years ago, as I am curious as to how many hundreds I might have picked up by now.
This rogue's gallery of 14 bungees is what I picked up on my three most recent rides; 9 of them were from today alone. This is not counting the ones I did not pick up, i.e. those with broken straps, or missing hooks, or hooks bent beyond usefulness. Not to mention the ones that I failed to see at all.

I often wonder, with all of these bungee cords flying off of people's vehicles, what happened to the cargo that they were supposed to be securing? I like to imagine what that stuff might have been, and imagine what it must have been like flying out of somebody's trunk or out of their pickup bed. Lawn mowers, lumber, La-Z-Boys, and yes, probably even bicycles. Did all of this stuff end up laying next to the road for a brief time, as well?

5 comments:

  1. That one in the middle looks familiar...I think it's mine!

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  2. The most common thing I find is work gloves, almost always in pairs. I have a half-dozen pairs, all road finds. One pair in my car, one pair in my wifes car, one pair in my desk drawer at work, a few pairs in the garage. I even started a Flickr group for bicycle road finds. Ocassionally I find tools, the odd metric socket, infrequent allen wrench, screwdriver...

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  3. Your bungee post is listed as #14 on yesterday/today's http://bikingcircle.com/

    I just caught the last minute or so of (Scott's?) interview this morning on Fox 8's 'That's life' segment.

    You guys are hitting the big time!

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  4. The best place to find gloves is along Brecksville road by the trucking companies!!!

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