Road Cycling - My most embarassing moment!

Okay, it's one of those fun things we do at the end of the year, like "worst movies" or "worst videos".

What were your spazzy bike moments this year? If you didn't have one this year, then by all means, any recent embarassing moments will do.

I was fortunate this year- one fall at a stop light, which is always embarassing. Last year, one day I went out wearing two different gloves. I have two pairs and they look kind of similar. One is an old pair I wear for bad weather or off-road. I didn't notice until I was out on the road. DOH!

Taking off hard from a stop light, accidentally unclipped and fell forward. Smashed "the boys" on the top tube. Happened in front of all the cars that were stopped for the red light. :(

Rob

Guess embarassing moments. Only one comes to mind, this year.....Caught once or twice being passed by unknown cyclists and caught me singing something silly, like the "Man from LaMancha" I often ride alone. A sunny,warm days just puts you in the mood for music.
Recall when crossing Nevada on a group tour, the tune could not get out of my mind, "Don't fence me in". Don't think anyone heard it. But then again?... .A Question.. On group rides does the whole group break into song? Did happen to couple other cyclists traveling together in the outback of Nevada.? Nobody out there but the Coyotes? Group sings while biking...Why not. Just as long as strangers don't catch you off key singing something redicilious....
Sometimes feel slightly embarassed when you think you found a private spot for a leak and up shows someone who reminds you of your granny. .That has happened in the past.
On local rides, I know my favorite shrubs to water, where that will not happen; but in emergencies you do not always have the time to scope out somewhere private.

Nothing is wrong with singing The Man from LaMancha, it's a perfect riding tune:) My worst was when I tried to clip into my pedal after the light turned green, and I ended up clipping out of the other one. So I had to just tilt the bike left and right as I pushed myself through the left turn at the intersection, which wasn't exactly fast enough for the cars behind me so they started to honk.

I was teaching a MTB class to "advanced" cyclists. I was demonstraiting how to climb a technical ascent, while preaching "with the right level of balence you can climb anything". After previously completeing this ascent over 50 times, and never not completing it, I fell twice (in a row) on it while teaching the class. I redeemed myself on the third tryby hopping the last ten feet trials style and riding out of it.

It was an unseasonably warm fall afternoon my sophomore year of high school. I decided to ride my bike down to the lake (Lake Erie) and take one last dip along the cliffs.

Not wanting to go home right after school to get my trunks, I stopped at my Aunts home and swiped one of her tenants cut off shorts to go for the swim (she was running a border home).

While out in the middle of the lake a storm began to brew. By the time I got to the cliffs for my climb out it was a full downpour. Stretching and straining to make it up I somehow manage to rip the entire seam along the crotch of the trousers. Unfazed and just happy I made it up the cliff, I tucked the two remnant ends of my now skirt under my seat and peddled for the main road.

While getting towards to main street I heard what appeared to be a marching band, and sure enough...here comes the home coming parade. Not too bad I thought, the rain was letting up and I could just wait out the short parade on the curb and scoot home before I froze.

As I sat there on the seat (tucked and arranged just right) waiting for the parade to pass, I remember thinking how embarrassing it would be if I fell off my perch in front of many of my classmates. Just about that time my weight shifted, the front wheel turned, and I was past the point of no return......FLOP, CLANK........ There I was, on my back entangled in my bike, with my “skirt” flipped to my chest with the marching band just feet away.

It seemed as though it took 20 minutes to get up (actually .2 seconds) but not before the then 15 year old package was presented to the student body to see (did I mention it was really cold?).

Needless to say, I earned a not-so-nice nickname (and I’m not telling!) which I spent three years trying to dispell.

Somehow I went the entire year without making a fool out of myself. Believe me, that is a monumental feat! :D

I stopped.. BUt forgot to unclip.. Fell down.. Bike still attached to my shoes...

No injuries to the bike and me.. :D

Guess embarassing moments. Only one comes to mind, this year.....Caught once or twice being passed by unknown cyclists and caught me singing something silly, like the "Man from LaMancha" I often ride alone. A sunny,warm days just puts you in the mood for music.
Recall when crossing Nevada on a group tour, the tune could not get out of my mind, "Don't fence me in". Don't think anyone heard it. But then again?... .A Question.. On group rides does the whole group break into song? Did happen to couple other cyclists traveling together in the outback of Nevada.? Nobody out there but the Coyotes? Group sings while biking...Why not. Just as long as strangers don't catch you off key singing something redicilious....
Sometimes feel slightly embarassed when you think you found a private spot for a leak and up shows someone who reminds you of your granny. .That has happened in the past.
On local rides, I know my favorite shrubs to water, where that will not happen; but in emergencies you do not always have the time to scope out somewhere private.

When you sing "The Man from La Mancha", do you ride with your frame pump sticking out front from under your arm?

I knew i could ride through some soft dirt but did'nt have the speed and with 23's,well i stopped faster then expected and it suprised me so much i did'nt start to unclip until i was half way down.Just stopped,fell right oven in soft dirt.It was very funny and i looked around so fast to see who saw me,not many.

When you sing "The Man from La Mancha", do you ride with your frame pump sticking out front from under your arm?
so far the reactions to such a performance have only been verbal.. I grew up admiring music such as Cyndi Lauper, Men at Work...What the hell gets into us...Why would one revert to an era to which we are not connected?

This actually happened in 1985, but it was pretty embarassing and funny. I have a friend who is a rathery muscular black cyclist. If you guys remember Nelson Vails the Olympian from the 1984 Olympics then you have the picture. He was always doing track stands and showing off on his bike. This was also in the days when wearing helments wasn't cool, even though it was safe. Anyway, we stop at this busy intersection here in Tucson and he is doing his track stand, when all of a sudden he loses his balance and falls against this big Caddy with an older woman driving it. When he fell his toe staps were locked tight and he was stuck on his bike with his face pressed against the window of the Caddy, with his hands on the window on either side of his face. The woman started to panic and began honking her horn at him. Then she slid across the seat and quickly locked the door. In the meantime, I am trying to pull him back up to an upright position. We still laugh about that one. I can only imagine what was going through the woman's mind.

Last summer, after riding toe clip bikes for a couple of weeks, I was on my Bianchi & rode uphill to stop at a red light. As I stopped I pulled my foot back to remove it from the toe clip then realized to late I was clipless & should have twisted out. I went right over sideways in front of 2 pedestrians in the crosswalk & a guy sitting on the curb with his cardboard sign. Guy says "I hate it when that happens". Most embarassing part is assuring everyone you are unhurt, then having to stand there until the light finally changes & you can mercifully ride away. :roflmao: Don

about 4 years ago, i switched from shimano to look pedals.

you know one clipless pedal, you know them all, right?

anyway, i pulled up to a light with two schoolbusses of grade school age kids a lane over from me and sure enough, went right over in front of a huge audience that i'm certain found amusement in my actions.

my affair with look didn't last long and my new long-term sweetheart is speedplay.

Last year, just after putting on a new pair of toe clip and strap pedals and experimenting with getting the right adjustment on the straps, I was riding along a well traveled bike path.

As I came around a corner, up ahead, I saw this absolutely stunning set of bike shorts and lovely legs hanging out beneath them, bent over the rear wheel of a new Trek 1000C.

I was mesmerized by the sight, and decided, that I would, in my most macho form, glide up, gracefully dismount, and offer my services, knight-in-shining-armor-to-the-rescue like.

The best laid plans, etc., I glided up and couldn't get my feet out of the straps, and toppled over right in front of this stunningly beautiful woman. She looked at me with concern and said "Oh, sir, are you hurt?"

I thought, "Nothing but my pride." Luckily, I was able to solve her problem, but I had not felt so absolutely stupid in decades!

Well, the first of two was last January when I was taking a friend of mine out for his first ride. We were on the easiest, flattest trail around. We were going extremely slow to boot. Well, I looked back to see where he was and all of a sudden I felt myself going over the handlebars. I never even had time to unclip. This was the hardest and fastest I have ever went over. I did manage to get my right arm out to take some of the impact though, which turned out to be a bad thing. I got a grade two AC seperation and a fractured colar bone.

Well, two months later I was back on the bike. I managed to race the season, still in pain though. I still had my share of wrecks, but they were all your normal, everyday type wrecks. Nothing wrong with wrecking in technical sections. Then in late September or early October, can't remember which the worst happened. A buddy of mine just finished riding the Black Bear course in Charleston, WV. If you haven't heard of it go to www.wvblackbear.com and check it out. I did the entire course without a single crash. Well on the way back to our cars we spot a pair of legs. These legs are connected to a perfect body! So what do we do, we decide to hang a right into the parking lot. There is a picnic shelter full of beautiful girls. For the record we will assume that all of these girls are at least 18 that way we don't seem like to big of perverts. Well, we didn't want to just ride in and turn around, that would be to obvious. We decided to play on the curbs for a minute, to show off our expert-like cycling abilities. :) Well, As I was coming off of this one huge curb...it had to be at least 10 inches, honest, I decided to kinda swing the back of my bike around. What happened next truly sucked. For some reason my fork fully compressed and the next thing I knew I was on the ground in a pretzel formation entangled in my bike. Did I mention that I put my right arm out to soften the blow? Anywho, what's the first thing you do in a situation like this? You jump up, act like you meant to do it and look around. Luckily for me everyone of the girls was staring right at me. They ended up asking me if I could do it again since they didn't have their cameras ready. :eek:

Well, I played it off, said that I was fine and all that stuff. Here it is January and I am almost finished with the physical therapy on my shoulder. Honestly, that wreck didn't hurt at all. ;)

nothing, I repeat nothing is as embarrasing as my
Lance Armstrong story. Luckily it happened more than
2 years ago so I can't retell it here :D

Marty

lotek, is that the time Lance beat you riding backwards on a rusty tricycle that was missing a wheel?


Not nearly as funny as forgetting to unclip with my daughter in bike trailer!

"Faster Daddy"

no, that was the other time. . .

Marty

This is one of those, "I meant to do that" moments.

I hit the front brakes too hard one day on a city street as I was pulling up to a curb, which happened to be right in front of a group of bike messengers. My rear wheel lifted up off the ground about 7 inches or so. As this was happening, I knew I didn't want to fall into the lane, so I leaned towards the sidewalk slightly. My rear wheel pivoted neatly up onto the high curb and landed gently and safely. But now I had my rear wheel on a high curb and my front wheel in the street. In a split-second, again not wanting to fall into the street, I jerked my front wheel up and, VOILA! my front wheel landed perfectly on the curb, in line with my rear wheel.

Now, I was somehow balanced perfectly on the sidewalk. Siezing the moment, I pedalled off gracefully, as if I had planned it all that way. I figure the bike messengers must have bought it, because nobody laughed!

:p

Lotek, I think I know the story!

I keep thinking, speaking of embarrassment, of poor Rene Haselbacher- you might remember him crashing in the tour this year. It was during one of the early road stages. He tore his shorts and wobbled to the finish line all scraped and bleeding with his naked butt hanging out. And that photo was all over the papers! Gerolsteiner didn't have much luck in their first Tour. Haselbacher bailed in the mountains and I think maybe two of them made it to Paris.

In August, I bought my new roadbike and had my first experience with clipless pedals. After a few rides, I had the obligatory spill at the stoplight trying to get clipped in when the light turned green. Fell on the left side, so no real damage other than ripping up the bar tape a little.

About a week later, my wife and I decided to take an afternoon ride. We were climbing a moderate hill and I was about 100 feet ahead of her. Being a gentleman, I decided to turn around and ride back to her to keep her company on the climb. Unfortunately, the radius of my turn was just slightly larger than the width of the road....my front wheel went off the asphalt and into the gravel. I was amazed at how fast a wheel in gravel can go sideways. The only thing I could think of was "Sh*t! Not again!" I scraped up my left knee pretty badly and my ego was bruised with all the laughter coming out of my wife. She asked if we should turn around and go home...I just squirted off the wound with my water bottle and stated that we were going to finish our ride. It sure hurt to scrub out all the gravel when we got home, but we got our ride in!

My most embarrassing moment! Has to be when I was riding along a bike path at the beach. I see this young lady walking in the opposite direction of me. She is wearing a very very small bikini. Well I just have check out her rear a$$ets. Wow she is wearing a thong! Then it happens bang I hit a trash can and go down.The young lady comes running over to me. Saying are you all right are you all right.

I felt like digging a hole and crawling inside. What to hell, I did get her name but no number :(

Recall once we passed by a female triathlete type on the coast...She was training with her race group..Flat tire. Seemed to not want to fix it herself. She was pretty attractive..I am married, my co-rider was not. We fixed her flat.
Can't believe fellow riders, so into training; they would not stop to help her. It was like she was abandoned. We fixed her flat.
Told her if she rode with touring types, she would have had help.
Embarassing part. We did not get her name, either. Seems on her race bike, she did not even have a pump or a wedge under her saddle..

Well, I did do a clipless flop, but just about everybody does that so nothin' special there. I'd have to say my most embarassing moment was when I decided to ride a wheelie on my new MTB. Now, I used to have this nailed when I was younger -- 25 years ago. I used to be able to ride a wheel for blocks and turn corners -- 25 years ago. What happened this time was that I got the front wheel up, rode it for a few yards, and then went over backwards and couldn't run it out... SPLAT! I don't know if anyone saw me dump the bike, but it was a little hard to disguise the carnage from the wife (bad road rash on the hands and both knees -- really mangled the right knee). She, of course, felt the need to point out that I was 38 and not 18 and asked whether I enjoyed the ride as she was cleaning gravel out of my knee.

Oh, the bike was fine except for an abrasion on the saddle... :beer:

My most embarrassing moment! Has to be when I was riding along a bike path at the beach. I see this young lady walking in the opposite direction of me. She is wearing a very very small bikini. Well I just have check out her rear a$$ets. Wow she is wearing a thong! Then it happens bang I hit a trash can and go down.The young lady comes running over to me. Saying are you all right are you all right.
:(

Sounds like the intro to Three's Company.

Out in the country side.
Spotted a big clump of daffodils and thought;
'My wife would really like those'.
Stopped, forgot I was clipped in. Fell into big clump of
daffodils with bike on top of me, crushing all the flowers
and my pride.

www.belfastandbeyond.com

I love bugs bunny. That quackie, cwazy wabbit....I used to have the entire
collection of little figurines. Well, I got older...no longer have the set.
I wish I did....antiques from the 70's....
bye-bye
Juicy

This actually happened in 1985, but it was pretty embarassing and funny. I have a friend who is a rathery muscular black cyclist. If you guys remember Nelson Vails the Olympian from the 1984 Olympics then you have the picture. He was always doing track stands and showing off on his bike. This was also in the days when wearing helments wasn't cool, even though it was safe. Anyway, we stop at this busy intersection here in Tucson and he is doing his track stand, when all of a sudden he loses his balance and falls against this big Caddy with an older woman driving it. When he fell his toe staps were locked tight and he was stuck on his bike with his face pressed against the window of the Caddy, with his hands on the window on either side of his face. The woman started to panic and began honking her horn at him. Then she slid across the seat and quickly locked the door. In the meantime, I am trying to pull him back up to an upright position. We still laugh about that one. I can only imagine what was going through the woman's mind.

I gotta know. What's a "track stand"?

A track stand is where you maintain an upright position, with your feet still on both pedals while stopped.

Track riders do it a lot.

Most embarassing???
I did not ride one stinking mile last year.
However I'm now training for BRR.

Sounds like the intro to Three's Company.
It sure does sound like the intro to Three's Company. ;) But neither Joyce Dewitt (aka Janet) or Suzanne Somers were wearing a thong :D I think John Ritter would have passed out.