Commuting - Had my silly fall no. 2

So day before yesterday I am on my way to home, riding on the shoulder (the only few meters of shoulder on my 32 mile RT commute !!!!) A bee tries to get into my ears :notamused: Kindaa freaks me out, I try to shoo it away. Doing that, I didn't realize that I got a bit too close to the curb. I had the choice to swerve away from curb (was worried about going into traffic) or gracefully kiss the beloved sidewalk. And before I could make a decision baam I went on the sidewalk !!! Luckily nothing hurt, just scratched my palm a little bit, and hurt my self respect. Got up, looked around, pretended that nothing happened and walked away :p

My first fall was when I skid in ice a few meters out of my driveway ! Second (not really a fall) was me hitting my own car in my drive way as I got out. Third one, I got knocked out by a bee !! Kindaa silly, but still lucky, no major incident !!

Guy in Chicago got killed by a red winged blackbird a month or so ago. Bird swooped, man crashes, last words are my head hurts. Bereaving family recommends helmet usage. True story.

Looks like you got caught in a caught in a classic "edge trap." In single track vehicles (that's bikes and motorcycles), to turn left at speed you need to turn and move the front tire to the right and initiate a lean. If the curb is there to prevent the front tire from going right, you can't turn left and away from the curb and are thereby trapped. Even smaller edges can trap you, so stay away from them.

So far all my spills have been from failing to unclip from the pedals, resulting in public slow motion falls that must be rather entertaining to watch.

hehe - I've had way more silly falls. :D

Best one was at night - when I was first messing around with clipless.

Came up to a stoplight behind a car and was at rest - one foot on road, other clipped in and for some reason I lost balance and fell over and uttered the big F-bomb.

Now the guys in the car never knew I was behind them as they were talking ... and when I let the F-Bomb fly - they immediately looked around to see me laying there and they howled with laughter. :notamused::notamused:

I have yet to be taken out by a bee, though anything is possible. I have succumbed to ice in my driveway though. Especially when I absentmindedly brake to turn on my blinkie...

Like I always say - when you ride around balanced on two wheels all the time, occasionally you're gonna fall over. Whether said two-wheeled vehicle is motorized or not.

I often hear people - usually those riding a motorized vehicle (especially a big loud one with the initials H-D on the tank) - say things like "I've been riding for 30 years and I've never even laid a bike down in a parking lot. Uh-huh. BS pal. You ride for 30 years, you're going to have gone down at least a couple of times.

I like to consider myself an expert on two wheels - motorized or not (20 - 30 years experience on both, several seasons and disciplines of racing on both) - and yeah, occasionally I go down. Usually on the non-motorized bike at near-zero speed. Very rarely on the pavement but it still happens. MTB doesn't count - if I don't at least go down lightly every time I ride off-road then I'm not trying hard enough.

I've had the bee in the ear experience, it was over quick. In the ear (near the top) sting & gone, happened faster than you can read it. No fall but I looked like one half of Alfred E. Neuman

Silly fall: It was the first day on clipless but had nothing really to do with that, would have happened with my old clips; here it is. I'm riding along & a woman pulls along side & starts talking to me & pointing to a cell phone on her seat, I slow down & she keeps talking & I'm staring at her trying to hear her. I slow some more & she's still pointing at the phone. Finally before I realize it I've slowed to a stop & the bike topples over to the right. I get up & ask what she wants & she says she saw the phone by the side of the road saw me & thought I'd dropped it. Wasn't my phone.

I had a silly one the other day. I was about 2 feet from stopping on a hill at my destination, out of the saddle climbing maybe one more pedal push until I clip out. My drivetrain locks up (chain jump) because I am out of the saddle and climbing my balance is too far off and over I go.

The other day was my first day in clips. As I approached a light that I thought I had timed, I slowed and rolled waiting for the light to turn. When it didn't turn I just stopped rolling. I couldn't get my feet out of the clips, so I just fell right over.:o

About 1 month ago, I needed to go about 1/4mi away from the office, so I quickly hopped on my bike. A little too quickly, it turns out. I never had my balance and toppled over immediately. But before I had time to react, my clavicle hit a pole and I broke it (the clavicle, not the pole). It was an impressive bruise, but I didn't even have a good crash story to go along with it. I am finally back on the trainer (I hate trainers). Next week, back on the bike.

Riding up a small hill at about 80% effort - going pretty good. Hear "pop - hisssss", think "ooh, flat". Grab the front brake *hard* to stay off the rim. Disc brakes usually won't endo me, but... Oops, it's the front tire that's rapidly going flat and the floppy thing grips the pavement immediately. Flippy time. But I'm only going like 2 mph, so it's this really slow endo where i try to stay off my head and hold the bike upright at the same time. Only scratched a little corner of my seat.

Found a lovely shady grassy spot to change the tube and chuckle to myself. These two ladies were walking down the sidewalk in sight of the whole thing. I hope they saw it, because it had to be pretty funny looking, especially not knowing why it happened.

On a motorcycle -

Left the shop where I was buying rain gear for a tour. Leave the parking lot and ride on the side street, which ends in a stop sign at the intersection to an Interstate HWY. At the stop sign, I put my foot down and it's all slippy. I look down - under both tires and all around me a pool of oil (not from my bike, just the Exxon Valdez came by or something). I have no traction to push the bike anywhere, so I know I'm going to have to gently nudge myself forward onto some dry ground using the accelerator. I also know that the tires are going to spin and probably throw the bike underneath me.

Another slow-motion, premeditated blooper clip for the ages. The muffler only burned me a little bit as the bike whipped around beneath my legs. :)

I often hear people - usually those riding a motorized vehicle (especially a big loud one with the initials H-D on the tank) - say things like "I've been riding for 30 years and I've never even laid a bike down in a parking lot. Uh-huh. BS pal. You ride for 30 years, you're going to have gone down at least a couple of times.

They might have been lucky, but they totally just jinxed themselves.
My father in law has been motorcycling for 30-odd years (probably more like 40 now). About 8 years ago he got himself a brand new 1300 Suzuki Intruder. About a month later he proceeded to either start it or try to get off it while in 1st and dented a newspaper box pretty good. First time he ever dumped a bike.

Much like learning to ride clipless - everybody dumps a motorcycle eventually, even if it takes 30 years ;)