Tsl says:
I'm going to take a slightly different tack and say, you're inexperienced because you haven't crashed enough. I crashed about once a year for my first few years. I learned from each experiences and haven't repeated those mistakes.
All cyclists take spills. It doesn't matter if it's a road bike, hybrid, a utility, fixie, cruiser, or motorcycle. The more you ride, the more opportunities you have to spill. Of course, your skills increase, your ablility to pick lines gets better, and your cycling manuverability increases. However, it's not exactly like driving an automobile!
I've found that with my experience with driving a car. I just get better and better and there seems to be no upper limit to my improvement. Sometimes, I scare myself when I know that the only reason that I've avoided some accident was due to prior experience. Cycling only has a few parallels like that! Mostly, when cycling, two wheels can just put you at a disadvantage, for which experience, just can't compensate. For example, you're descending down a wet city street and it looks like the street is all but abandoned. You almost feel alone, then suddenly a car door opens up, just in front of you. You quickly swerve to the left and lose it! That's happened to me twice! Making left turns after it has rained at slightly higher speeds, than what you're supposed to go. I've done that least five times before. Three times with roadie friends. We all fell together in sync! There's just been times when I've fallen, guy! I can't explain it! We just fall!
Additionally, when I belonged to a touring club, a had a few falls then too. Riding after it rains, was a major problem there too! Most of my falls were wet pavement related. That's all I can tell ya, guy! Also, most spills were taken when I was much younger and traveled much faster, too!
Hey! The bottomline and the point is, that when we fall, we learn to get back up, regroup, and start it all over again! We remain steadfast, keep a stiff upper lip, suck it up, and get ready for the next trek. That's it!
But that's not what happened during your crash, by what you wrote.
You made a dumb mistake. Instead of steering to the left to stay on
pavement, your steered to the right into the gravel. That's dumb. Then you
compounded the error with a second dumb mistake, trying to to steer over the
two-inch edge of asphalt. That's what tripped the bike--the two-inch edge of
the roadway.
The bike was not at fault. It was the fault of two rider errors. If you
learned from the experience, you won't do the same thing again. If there's
anything to fear, it's not the bike "washing out from under you", but that you
failed to learn and will repeat the errors.
Stay on the pavement. Don't ride so close to the edge. If you fail in that,
slow and stop, then lift the bike from the gravel to the pavement. Or learn to
bunny hop it.
I've made my fair share of dumb mistakes. One nearly got me killed when I
tried to power out of a corner and hit the pedal on the pavement. This sent me
off the other side skidding on my arm and leg into oncoming traffic. Dumb
mistake.
But I'll tell you this, I never once blamed the bike, and I don't even dream
of pedaling when I'm leaned way over into corners now. And that night, I
finished the ride and tended to the bleeding when I got home.
And a few weeks later, I confess, I did the same thing you did, riding too
close to the edge, then off into the gravel. I slowed and stopped, instead of
crashing my way back to the pavement. Once was good enough for me. I haven't done that one again either.
Those scenarios once learned, get bagged and you most likely won't repeat them! However, the scenarios keep changing on the road. Often times they're similar, but sometimes there's a wrench in a scenario or two and you just can't compensate in time for it! Hey, but you should know this by now!
I'm beginning to suspect that maybe you're the inexperienced one here....
- Slim