Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - Bad Track Stands

You know the ones that you don't see coming. When you don't think you'll need to stop, but things get ****ed up. You skid into it. You're off balance from the start. You realize you might be standing there for a bit longer than you would like/can. You need to get out of the stand but you're too far in the cross walk to roll forward to get your balance and un-clip. So you have to un-clip really fast and get your balance. You look and feel just as graceful as you did when you lost your virginity.

Anyone know what I mean?

yep ... i'm the king of gracelessly throwing both feet out, hoping that one will manage to dislodge and keep me from falling down. though it only takes a second, it always seems like an eternity when you're just hanging there wondering if you're about to die or just look very silly. the hard part is watching the giggleing/cringing faces of the bystanders. wait ... was this supposed to be about trackstands?

ha! i know that feeling. happened to me this morning. my problem is that i keep my left foot cinched REALLY tight in the clip, and the other one fairly cinched, so if my shoe gets hung up and i can't get my right foot out, over i fall. it hasn't happened to me in a good while, and hopefully it won't, cause i hate to do the "get up as fast as possible and act like somthing is wrong with your bike that caused you to fall over like an idiot" routine. i hope i didn't just jinx myself by saying that.

Just to round out the "all atlanta" portion of the thread.

The fear of embarassment steming from this situation is what keeps me from going clipless.

tim

We're gonna get a bad rep down here if folks in other cities don't start posting soon. ATL: Birthplace of MLKjr and people who can't track stand.

chumps

I nearly just had this happen to me. I was sitting in the turn lane and some bastard kept creeping up on me from behind. I was getting nervous, kind of wobbly and luckily there was a break in traffic and I just blew the light. These things happen. Most of my 0 mph falls happen right outside the door to my place after a long ride.

I nearly took out a small child last time I had a zero mph crash. The family couldn't speak a word of english so I couldn't tell if they were pissed or not. Fun time.

This morning I'm standing at a light and, just as the traffic starts to move, I caught my front wheel on the tip of my left shoe. You know how that happens with track bikes. I ended up pitching to the left to keep my balance and almost rolled under the wheel of the tractor trailer that was pulling by on that side. Whew, that was exciting. I didn't fall and obviously was able to turn away from it in time.

I cannot comment as I have no frame of reference...

hey. jonesers. if it doesn't feel right you don't have to do it. unclip. foot down. that's what i do. I actually did it this morning and generally i don't have to put a foot down during my commute from from Oakland to Berkeley.

i fell out of a trackstand yesterday and landed on a guy. i felt really bad as he hit the ground and i landed on him.

i kept asking him if he was ok and apologizing over and over and he looked pissed and stormed off.

i'm sorry mister. i'm just an idiot. i hope i didn't bust any of your gadgets or anything. :(

worst part: this happened on the corner of 10th and broardway in manhattan at 6:30, so there were like 8 bagillion people there. good thing i have no pride.

hey. jonesers. if it doesn't feel right you don't have to do it. unclip. foot down. that's what i do. I actually did it this morning and generally i don't have to put a foot down during my commute from from Oakland to Berkeley.

so unpredictable situations that make you look silly rarely occur in oakland/berkeley? I think the point of the thread was that sometimes sh1t happens where no one was at fault (or maybe ... shhhhh ... we were at fault) and we should try to laugh about it. its too much pressure to be the one who is on all the time.