At 32 and riding all my life, I bounced off a car for the first time today.
My commute is less than 10 minutes, due to the mix of rain/darkness/general miserableness I did the first couple of minutes on the cycle path and then onto the road to avoid a cold five minutes at a level crossing.
I’m using road legal lights plus helmet with an oldish (i.e. not a million lumens but still bright) AyUp light, and a long sleeved hi vis (the proper highways one)
I had a car stop and look directly at me and then pull out. Didn’t have time to brake, all I could do was stick my leg out, bounced off the wing with a satisfyingly loud bang, and then somehow stayed on whilst I wobbled into the next lane and then slewed round into my lane facing the wrong way. Luckily I was slap bang in the middle of the lane as otherwise I’d have had even less chance to react.
Stayed on and not a bruise to show for it, but sobering that the expected and relatively predictable sprawl over the the bonnet actually turned into a swerve into the next lane without knowing what might have been trying to pass me…
She tried to apologise whilst holding back the tears so I told her I was OK and buggered off, but perhaps I should have ‘exchanged details’ seeing as I potentially left a foot sized reminder in her front wing?!