Oversteer

I got a nice window this afternoon for a ride.  Temperatures were quite warm compared to what we have had recently.  The winds weren't very much at all, I actually heard a weather guy talking about an omega block.

There's probably a Wikipedia article.

The season of flowering trees is nearing an end but I had to find a place to fit this one in.  I hadn't noticed this one any year previously, I will be keeping an eye on it to see what the fruit looks like.

I got back from Norah's house in time to get a timely start and headed out to a destination that I had in mind because of this article in yesterday's daily newspaper about a high value sports car having to be removed from Lake Vadnais.

I go to Lake Vadnais a lot so this seemed like something I should check out.

It was mighty nice out there today.

The newspaper article said Rice Street which meant I had to ride to that part of the lake first.  No sign of any car having gone into the lake.

Eventually after a near circumnavigation I discovered that the journalist didn't do a good job with the facts.  The incident occurred not on Rice Street on the west side of the lake but on Vadnais Boulevard on the south side.

I didn't get any photo as good as the one in the newspaper of the car in the lake.  But I did get a photo which gives a much better explanation of how the car got into the lake than the newspaper did.

Vadnais Boulevard turns off Rice Street at the top of the hill above the south end of the lake.  It then goes right about 45 degrees and into a sweeping downhill 90 or more degree left.  Probably it seemed to the driver like a nice spot to let the pony run.

Not a very good spot of driving I should say.

He oversteered out of that sweeping downhill left, found himself going too fast and headed in the general direction of the lake.  It looks to me like he locked up the brakes with the wheels turned still towards the left and just skidded out of control straight off the road into the lake.  If he had stayed off the brakes and tried to steer that thing I suspect a car with the handling capabilities of a Porsche would have straightened itself up and the 100mph ride could have continued.

Today's bicycle blog post is mostly about a car.