Follies

During a ride in Florida while cruising along at 30k or so, a piece of aluminum that lay along the shoulder I was cycling on was somehow flipped into the spokes of my rear wheel as a semi blew by. I may have clipped the edge of the metal as I rode past it, I don't recall. Suddenly I was fishtailing all over the place as My back wheel locked up and I slid to a stop. It took awhile to figure out what happened. Even when confronted with the carnage. As luck would have it, the 6" piece of metal was flipped in between the spokes on either side of the valve stem which caught the aluminum, carried it up with the rotation and smacked it into the fender stays. This caused the wheel to lock up and thats when the bike started fishtailing all over the place. Somehow, the bike didn't fall over or drift into the passing traffic. It just slid to a stop and I managed to get my feet down in time. Amazingly, tube, valve, tire, spokes, wheel and fender were all fine. No doubt the fender stays saved the day. Two or three minutes after the event we were cruising along at 30k again. Tube and tire were both continentals and they both lasted beyond the duration of the holiday.