Commuting - Another reason to use racks

The sun is setting on a fair Humboldt night, this past August 20th. Road is good, quiet, scenic. Just dropped off my panniers full of ecofriendly house cleaner and wood polish.

I come to a small, but very steep hill. Bombing hills hasn't been too much of an issue in the past, but I am also no master descender. So, I bomb it.

Speed fills my body as I turn into territory I've not seen before. Suddenly a golf course appears. A golf course? Yes. A sharp right turn spews from the maw of this green beast, and I foolishly grab the front brakes just a tad too tightly.


Suddenly I am no longer cycling, but emulating the birds. Unfortunately I never learned to fly.

My thoughts as I flip through the air are, "My new Surly!" and "This is going to friggin' hurt."

Impact. I vividly feel the skin on my fingertips tear away, a feeling not felt since I made like a bird off my skateboard. Maybe my time in jujitsu helped. I roll and slide and see my bike is upright, careening into a fence. Again I fear for the bike's safety.

Get up, walk to the bike. Right leg shakes a bit.

Aftermath? Taking that bum out to dinner paid off, because neither bike nor I was seriously injured.

Bike: Rear Tubus Cargo rack took the brunt of the force. Some dings in the rearmost tube, but structurally the racks are likely not compromised. Rear Mavic rim is slightly tacoed. Caps on end of dropouts are torn away, a bit of corktape is missing, and some scraping to the left dropout end. Minor bruises to front left Tubus Duo rack (cosmetic). Front wheel needs truing, rear tire torn. No nicks in the frame, drivetrain fine. SKS rear fender has 15cm crack, which hopefully won't propogate; it has been ducttaped.

Me: Ankle swelled up, gash on left shoulder, last three fingertips on right hand got a good cleaning. Neck a little sore, back has a minor gash.

Jersey: Small hole in left shoulder area, the worst wound. Scrapes elsewhere. Might replace when hole increases in size.

Helmet: Probably saved my left. Back caved in, my "Real cyclist commute" "My other bike is a bike" stickers are scraped a bit, but salvageable. "Bicyclist against dumb drivers" sticker is toast.

Rear rack probably saved my chainstays!

Good lord man. Glad to hear you are still operational. Glad also to hear your bike is not totally destroyed. Might you know approximatly how fast you were traveling when you performed a 10 point endo?

Good lord man. Glad to hear you are still operational. Glad also to hear your bike is not totally destroyed. Might you know approximatly how fast you were traveling when you performed a 10 point endo?

I have never used a cyclometer, so my judgements are bound to be wildly inaccurate. However I can try to describe the feeling.

This summer I commuted to work in some pretty hilly terrain. I could get going at the speed of the traffic on the sharp turns, where they would brake but didn't need to. Traffic flow was probably 30-40 miles an hour, likely 35. An alternative way to commute, which I took only once, had very long 7% grades (8 miles or so of grade). I nearly speed shimmied on that...so...

The hill prior to my most recent flight was very small, but just from the way the bike handled and the wind velocity, my guess is that I was approaching what I did on my commute, so probably low to mid 30's. The sheerness of the hill, more a dip, sort of enhanced the sensation of speed though, because one minute I was travelling at a moderate slight uphill grade and the next I'm bombing it. I got a feeling akin to a roller coaster, that sink in the stomach.

I rolled pretty well, and even after my bike itself flipped and then landed on two wheels it still had enough velocity to head straight into the fence without any wobble.

Things could have been so much worse. For some reason I'm always terrified of breaking my nose or jaw when I fly face forward, but have never had any head injuries.

Only downside is I can't ride until the LBS rebuilds the rear wheel (with a slightly stronger rim, hooray for touring) on Thursday.

I'm not trying to delight in your misfortune by any means, but that story was one hell of a good read! I'm glad you're reasonably OK. You might want to check the tension in your two sets of brakes. Something like that can happen if you're braking too hard on the front and not enough on the rear. I've actually done it myself, but not quite that dramatically.

Ever notice when you crash your first impulse is to check the bike for damage? You could be dragging a leg with blood running down your face and you'll be inspecting the bike to see if it's rideable.

My last crash, I had tell myself to forget about the bike for a few minutes and lay there and assess MY condition first. Then, once I decided that I wasn't in any immediate danger, I checked the bike.

Satyr, glad your OK. In the future, leave the flying to professionals.

Half the problem, I'm sure, was in the tension. After trying myself to reduce my cantilever squeal, I took it to the LBS and they tensioned from the front up a fair bit.

Yeah on my last crash i went over the handlebars. My very first thought as I was still scraping all of my skin off on the cement was MY BIKE! and then I saw it fly over me, bounce several times, land on its "feet" and roll down the street for about 5 feet before it flopped over.

Poor bike,

jeremyb