Road Cycling - Rear wheel almost slipped out

Yesterday I was coming down a challenging descent. the weather was overcast, the road was damp, not wet... i think i hit a slick oil spot?? because all of a sudden my rear wheel slipped out from under me. I was able to maintain control but the rest of the ride home I was totally tripped out- felt like I was losing control the whole time. Today i went out for a short ride, and almost killed myself when I tensed up so much on a descent and accidently unclipped and hit the rear wheel with the back of my shoe.

Any comment/help is welcome.

Bicycling 101 teaches people to be sure their wheels are securely
aligned and tightened. I had a similar problem last year with a progressively
very wobbly wheel.

Finally, took out the wheel, used the cone wrench set I have, and job done.

Be sure to your your equipment and tools ready.

Any comment/help is welcome

Try jogging. Is safer.

First, make sure the equiment is sound. That's 50% of the confidence. Then, take it easy on the descents for awhile and concentrate on relaxing...start with your hands and arms and work up through the shoulders and down through the body. Deep breaths and relaxed arms under controllable and comfortable conditions. Keep doing this until the confidence elevates again. Patience is the key...you'll get there.

55/Rad

Check your tire pressure, if it dry out, I like to have about 120 psi....depending on the tires. But on days when it maybe a little damp, I like to have my rear tire at the lower end of the recommended pressure...about 90 to 100 psi. I like to keep the front at 100. Be sure to SLOW DOWN when it wet. Brake early and control your speed.

If this is a loss of traction, rather than a mechanical wobble, then the answer is experience. You learn to guage the amount of traction you have in te conditions, and how much you can use for steering/braking. Losing tractions can be a useful learining experience if you survive.

make sure your keeping weight on the rear of the bike. when i decend i get in the drops and sit far back on the saddle.

Well, that one might be one of those odd circumstances. When I commuted in Michigan, I fell a couple times on "black ice". In both cases, the bike was out from under me before I could react.

I have had this happen once on ordinary circumstances. I was riding in a parking lot and I took a turn at slow speed and my rear wheel just slipped right out and I crashed on my hip. I checked the pavement and it was a little wet from a recent rain and I think there must have been a little slick spot I hit. It happens. My hip hurt like blazes but I got on the bike and rode about 10 miles to home and I was feeling better. I got off the bike and discovered that I could not walk! It was just a severe bruise but that hip wouldn't support any weight and I was on crutches for 2 weeks. However, I could ride fine.

Like you, I was pretty wary for a month or so about a repeat but that was about 18 months ago. It was just a fluke.

Riding roadbikes, a group of us were approaching a wooden bridge which was wet from recent rains. My riding partners decided to dismount as we would have to make a sharp left to get to the bridge and would require us to apply a fair amount of torque to get up the incline. I however, against their better judgement attempted to power up. My rear wheel lost traction and my bike begain to swap ends. Luckily, MTB training kicked in, my right foot automatically unclipped allowing me to dab and I skidded out the rear tyre but didn't go down. I think my riding partners were impressed. In another incident, during a wet ride, we were rounding a bend at pretty high speed on a roadway near a river. The goose droppings were quite prevalent and I hit a pile of it in the turn. My rear end started to slide but I managed to countersteer and apply enough torque to keep myself righted without losing too much speed.

Your contact patch especially with thinner road tyres is pretty small. When you lose traction, all bets are off. And when you're laterally loading, this traction loss will often result in a tyre swingout. It happens to the best riders. Remember the USPS crash during the TTT stage of the 2002 TdF?

Thank you all for your comments. Indeed the morning folks are a lot more supportive. I posted the thread last night and before I went to bed, someone recommended that I should change to jogging ;-)

I check this morning and my wheel has a slight wobble, nothing too grossly bad but I'll retrue it. It's the confidence thing. I've never liked descents very much, and this latest episode kinda spooked me. When I regain my confidence a little more, I'd like to ride with some much more experience riders and learn "the curve"... literally- I crack myself up!

Quit being such a whiney crybaby. You did not even hit the asphalt. Get back on your bike and ride. Or go get some training wheels maybe then you will feel more secure.

Quit being such a whiney crybaby. You did not even hit the asphalt. Get back on your bike and ride. Or go get some training wheels maybe then you will feel more secure.


Quit being such a jerk.

Try jogging. Is safer.

Jogging is for weenies. If you want something else, try running. :)