My story of humiliation, for your amusement
 

I decided to take a quick bike ride today to get the blood moving. My 2.5 year old had his tonsils out last week and last night was long and exhausting. Yesterday was my first day with clipless, a set of Time ATAC Aliums with my Shimano sandals.

I was at a light on a 5-lane road, in the left turn lane (next to the median island on Google Maps here), and when I stopped I unclipped and put my right foot down...and promptly fell over to the left with that foot still clipped to the pedal. The seat took the
entire impact and I barely even touched the pavement. On a recumbent you're closer to the ground so this sort of fall isn't too dangerous. Except for the cars behind me, I suppose, but they were also stopped for the light.

I got back on in time for the green and quickly discovered the seat had been shoved back by the impact and I could barely reach the pedals. I pulled into a mall parking lot, fixed the seat, and decided to call it a day.

I got back onto the road to cross the 5-lane road into the office park. Just as I start pedaling the front chainring catches my light nylon windbreaker pants and pull them into the teeth. I didn't dare stop pedaling since Iwas afraid of falling in the middle of the intersection with my foot pinned to the gear, so I just pedaled harder and ripped a 3" square out of the pants. I pull over in a parking lot, grab a leg band from my bag, tied up the scraps of cloth, and hustled back to the office before any further calamities befell me.

Oy. What a ride. Note to self: 3 hours of sleep makes for hazardous cycling. And now I know why cyclists wear tights.

Hard lesson learned!

Thanks for sharing - we've all been there!

Good story, thanks for sharing.

Be glad you weren't riding fixed and wearing tough jeans or canvas duck pants. :p.....

All my work trousers have a frayed right cuff due to forgetting to tuck them in before riding. Usually I've ripped them before I've left the car park.

I had no idea that doctors still removed tonsils.

Now get yerself a pair of tights!

Glad your accident wasn't worse!!

And commuters wear geek straps. :D

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3223/...388c0a08_b.jpg

They remove 'em when they're causing endless throat infections. Me, my wife, and both our boys are all tonsil-free.

The thing is, I saw it happen since the pedals are in my line of sight. I was just too mentally fried from exhaustion to do anything but keep pedaling - I probably could have pedaled backwards and freed the cloth before it got really sucked in.