Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - So I learned my first lesson today!

So after 4 straight years of going to school by driving, I finally decided to change things up a bit and bike 4 miles to school! I was scared and excited all at the same time!

So after my last class, around 7pm, I started heading to the bus stop. Well, what I learned from tonight is this: Don't be a lazyass and ignore rolling up your right pant leg. Before today, I've always kinda brushed off this valuable piece of wisdom, thinking "it'll never catch onto the chainring, and even if it does, i'll be okay because I have a brake." Well my dumbass is riding with no hands on some rough pavement on campus and lo and behold , my right jean leg gets caught in the chain ring. For 0.3 seconds, I thought in my head "hmm, this situation won't end well". Then my leg was pulled back by the chainring, my bike tilted (while riding no hands) and I can't remember everything after that except trying to stretch out my arms to brace for impact. Hit the pavement, bounced, and came to a stop (or that's what I think happened.) Left a quarter size scab on my right eyebrow, 2 inch dripping scab on my knee and a sprained wrist. Not to mention loads of embarrasment and a damaged sense of pride (just kidding, I'm not that much of a baby). I had sunglasses hanging from my pocket and those snapped during the fall. And when I got up and and started riding again, with shooting pains jetting out from my right knee, at a snail pace along the street, I was showered by city irragated water from a maladjusted sprinkler, and the nasty water got on the fresh scab near my eyebrow. Then i tried to dismount my bike and nearly fell over and some kid in a van laughed at me as it drove by.


But that's what I get for secretly laughing at longboarders/skaters on campus when they rush down a hill and wipeout in front of a crowd of people huh?

So my friends, lets share all of your pant-leg-caught-in-chainring stories or any other things-you-should've-known-but-didn't-pay-attention-to-and-you-paid-for-it-and-felt-like-an-idiot stories. You know you got some.:thumb:

i ripped half the leg off my pant on the way to a family dinner :/

Did you do this on a fixie?

Dude, http://www.sheldonbrown.com/fixed.html#fing

Notably: Likewise, when riding, if you are wearing floppy pants, or have an un-tied shoelace, you may get your clothing caught in the drive train. On a freewheel bike, this it is a minor inconvenience. You have to coast, then pedal backward to release your clothing. The worst that will happen is that your clothing will get soiled.

With a fixed gear, you have no such option. If you catch a shoelace, it will get torn off or your shoe. If you catch a trouser leg, you can really get hurt.

Ripped a pair on my way to work at 3am, had to turn around and change. :mad:

i ripped laces off of a pair of vans before. that moment where you fell your shoes tightening up on you is a scary one.

shorts are good.

I havnt had a problem yet.

Yea, it was a fixed gear. I'm gonna be much more aware of floppy pant legs and loose shoelaces (I have a bad habit of letting them fly around regularly when walking around) For some people, the best way to learn is by experience :( Good thing I wasn't riding alongside traffic or anything though.

you guys must wear some crazy baggy pants.

http://thumbnail.search.aolcdn.com/aais/EMI/media/mchammer/0094631039058.jpg

Bummer man. I broke an ankle like that once: skidded to a stop using my own tibula as a brake, pretty much.

when i got my first bike (coaster brakes) when i was 6 i was riding and my shoelace got caught and i fell pretty hard.


Ripped a pair on my way to work at 3am, had to turn around and change. :mad:

i just started a new job and on my second day i forgot to roll my pant leg down and my manager said something like, "before i came here, i thought that was just a trendy thing that bicyclists did for some reason." i told him it only takes one pair of destroyed pants to learn the hard way that there is a legitimate reason to do it.

impressive mate.

thats nothing... I was at work one time trying to stomp down a load of cardboard into the compactor as i stepped back off onto the returning "press" piece the heel of my pants got caught up in it and started pulling my pants into the hydraulic press, i was far away from the emergency stop button and no one was around my only choice was to quicky pull my foot bac inside my pant leg and followed that with having to pull my whole leg out of my pants and then take my pants completely off as i watched them slowly get sucked into the machine... my boss had the best expression any human has ever had when i went into his office to tell him i had to go home. luckily the thing moves slow enough that i was able to escape it and get my wallet and phone out of my pockets before anything was destoyed.
I cant imagine how painful it would have been if i had not been able to get my foot out in time...

Shorts and vans slip-ons ftw! (seriously)

Shorts and vans slip-ons ftw! (seriously)

Slip ons rule!

My pants get sucked into my chain all the time, and I've shredded many old right pant-legs that way (yes, I know I should really do something about that...) Yet, I've never actually had this pose any kind of threat to me. The cloth gets caught in the chain, goes around the chainring, and comes out the bottom. Nothing at all like these stories of people's legs getting sucked into the chainring until they fall off the bike. I can only imagine that the main reason people crash from this is not that they were actually pulled off, but that they freaked out when they saw their pant was caught and this freaking out (including any possible misguided attempts at pulling the pant out of the chain) results in the loss of control.

2 inch dripping scab
gross

Well, circumstances like that, modesty can go hang. :eek: Yeah, it would have been very painful.

s to the issue with pant snag in a fixed chain? Straps at the ankle help out, or if I don't have straps with me for some rreasojn, I just use the expedient of rolling up my pantleg. Shoelaces? Well, I use cycling shoes and carry street shoes in my bag since I ride clipless.
thats nothing... I was at work one time trying to stomp down a load of cardboard into the compactor as i stepped back off onto the returning "press" piece the heel of my pants got caught up in it and started pulling my pants into the hydraulic press, i was far away from the emergency stop button and no one was around my only choice was to quicky pull my foot bac inside my pant leg and followed that with having to pull my whole leg out of my pants and then take my pants completely off as i watched them slowly get sucked into the machine... my boss had the best expression any human has ever had when i went into his office to tell him i had to go home. luckily the thing moves slow enough that i was able to escape it and get my wallet and phone out of my pockets before anything was destoyed.
I cant imagine how painful it would have been if i had not been able to get my foot out in time...

My pants get sucked into my chain all the time, and I've shredded many old right pant-legs that way (yes, I know I should really do something about that...) Yet, I've never actually had this pose any kind of threat to me. The cloth gets caught in the chain, goes around the chainring, and comes out the bottom. Nothing at all like these stories of people's legs getting sucked into the chainring until they fall off the bike. I can only imagine that the main reason people crash from this is not that they were actually pulled off, but that they freaked out when they saw their pant was caught and this freaking out (including any possible misguided attempts at pulling the pant out of the chain) results in the loss of control.

I used to think like that, it always just got caught and ripped off or just snagged. Until one day i was riding my fixed gear at a pretty good clip when BAM, something yanked my pant leg down and slammed me into the side of a building. I was pinned, I couldn't pull my leg out because it was crammed into my chainring, and I couldn't fall over to the ground because I was wedged by gravity into the side of a building. I was stuck! I thought frantically for a minute wrestling to get free, when I remembered I had my pocket knife, and I cut myself free.

I wear skinny pants and tuck my laces now.

I was showered by city irragated water from a maladjusted sprinkler, and the nasty water got on the fresh scab near my eyebrow. Then i tried to dismount my bike and nearly fell over and some kid in a van laughed at me as it drove by.

http://www.bakedecoratecelebrate.com/images/techniques/icingcakewithspatula/icingcakewithspatula_step3.jpg

Sorry for the injuries though, be careful!

Even though I wear fairly tight jeans, I still roll up my right leg. Paranoia I guess.

Sucks coz it's pretty damn cold outside right now.

in this case, skinny jeans ftw

Even though I wear fairly tight jeans, I still roll up my right leg. Paranoia I guess.

Sucks coz it's pretty damn cold outside right now.

that's what a base layer of thin long johns are for. roll up skinny jeans, leaving the skin-tight long johns exposed.

my pants are usually tight enough to not get caught or i use a binder clip

http://thumbnail.search.aolcdn.com/aais/emi/media/mchammer/0094631039058.jpg

uh oh, here comes the hammer!

Tore a pair of pants from ankle to crotch, and fell at about 2 mph. Luckily in driveway.