miss kenton

A few days ago, I saw a man riding at 34th and Spruce Streets in Philadelphia. This is at the heart of the university and the hospital where the traffic is always heavy with bikes, cars, buses, and ambulances. The man was making his way along at a pretty good clip with one arm wrapped around a large box, about the size of microwave!

Dumbest thing I ever did, was to look down at my derailleur as I was approaching a post. I hit the post, flipped over the handlebars and fractured my arm.

qcpmsame 

Miss K',
The important question is whether the derailleur was alright or not? Arms heal you know. And, was the bicycle badly damaged?

Bill

Biker395 

Biker395 

Did that when I was about 8 years old, giving myself a spanking new elbow where my forearm used to be. I still remember the look on my Mom's face and my big brother saying "I had nothing to do with it!"

Kip

About 40 years ago a friend of mine was riding a bike without bar-end plugs. While riding down a hill he stuck his finger in the bar-end hole and got it stuck. In his effort to get it out, he turned the front wheel sideways and crashed. Nothing was broken though he was pretty well skinned up and still has scars. Fortunately, he did not hit his head as this was in the pre-helmet days.

miss kenton

Bill,
The derailleur was fine; the shifters were bent and the saddle was so badly torn up it had to be replaced. Though I wasn't concerned about pretty young nurses watching my fall, my pride suffered irreparable damage as I had to seek help from the handsome young residents in the ER.

Daspydyr 

Tried a jump because others were doing it. Spent 9 days in ICU and had great posture for 3 months.

Biker395 

^ I love the deadpan comments here. A near catastrophic injury, and all that is said about it is a handful of words and an crack about perfect posture!

Gotta love the sense of humor to include a pix of your dog with the cone of shame too. Great job!

MojojoM

The most stupid thing I've ever done on a bike - happened last week. The fact is - it could have happened before, but I've been lucky. I was sprinting up a hill that I have ridden hundeds of times. It's a long straight-a-way with a dead end side street intersecting from the right. I ALWAYS look to make sure there is no car on on the dead end that might enter my path. I also ALWAYS look up the hill to make sure no one is coming down that might turn left either into or in front of me.

This time and as usual i'm looking down at the ground. Remember - I've done this many, many times. There is a seam where the two streets meet. I ALWAYS keep it just to my right and I know my position will carry me past where the two streets meet - safely. I ALWAYS see the curb and gutter on my right about twenty - four inches to my right - as I speed past. This time I felt it was taking me a little too long to see the curb on the far side pass by. I looked up and I was - literally - less than six inches from the curb. There was no time to pull the front end up, but plenty of time to fly through the air and land on my right shoulder and the right side of my face. Apparently I had time enough to put my arms out to help brace the fall.

Type II AC separation.
Right Bicep tendon tear.
Type II left hand sprain.
Right facial abrasion and a black eye.

Luckily the hip replacements from 21 years ago passed the test. No damage. I had always wondered what would happen.

I won't be looking down while riding again - or at least NOT until I forget just how bad it can hurt.
I'm healing more quickly that I though possible for someone 56.
I'm looking forward to getting back on the saddle.

So I guess I was stupid for quite a while and it finially caught up with me

qcpmsame 

MojojoM,
As I asked Miss K', what was the damage to the bike? You have to have your priorities straight when You are a Bicyclist, you know.

Seriously, it is good to know the hip replacement made it through unscathed, that would be enough to drive me up the wall. Welcome to 50+, too.

Miss K',
Please leave the young, handsome interns alone, Mr K. may be reading BF at work for all you know and then you will be startiing threads about....... oh never mind.

Bill

MojojoM

A spoke wrench is all I need to get my Rosetta back on the road. I'm going to ride a few miles Wednesday - albeit in a more upright postion than usual - to see how she does. The doctor should have never told me to do what I am comfortable with .

I have enjoyed persusing and making the occasional post.

Daspydyr 

The seriousness was driven home by the nurses who kept coming in to tickle my feet or tug the hairs on my arm. When I would respond they would comment that they couldn't believe I could feel what they did. The neck was a Christopher Reeve/Deadman's break. I was very fortunate/blessed!

CraigB

What did the dog do?

Biker395 

Unfortunately, I am familiar with the other possible outcomes. I have a nephew who wasn't so lucky. He had a C2/C3 burst fracture last Thanksgiving riding a dirt bike. Only 17 years old, and he's now a complete quad on a ventilator. I sure hope he can get off that tube ... that would be huge.

Biker395 

Yikes! I know people who take these crazy crashes, and all they get out of it is some scrapes and bruises. I think I need to start drinking more milk, because every time I crash, somewhere, somehow, a bone is going to be broken. Your injuries are arguably worse, as separated shoulders tendon tears and the like heal more slowly (though Type II isn't terrible).

Funny thing when you ride the same path, day after day. You get so used to the ride, you start putting your mind on "automatic" and that is not a good thing. Some years ago, I rode my bike straight off the path and onto the beach, at 20 MPH ... result ... broken collarbone and a lot of embarrassment. No excuse. My light was working, I knew where the path was, and I was looking for it. I just missed it somehow. I think that blue light you get from HID/LED lights makes it really difficult to discern colors, and I didn't account for that.

Anyway, rest up ... glad you weren't hurt worse!

Blanchje

A few years ago I was training for an elk hunt by climbing up and down a local ski hill. At the time the ski area was hosting an evening concert series and had the area roped off. No big deal, I ducked under the rope and started hiking. On about my third lap up the hill I heard something and turned around to see a mountain biker duck under the rope and ride straight up the path I was on. His legs were going like egg beaters as he went by and I thought "dang, that's impressive". A short time later as I continued my climb I saw him poised at the top of the hill and then he started down. He was peddling like mad down the fall line as I stepped out of the way and by the time he got to me he was flying: legs pumping, arms absorbing the bumps, and as he whizzed past I thought to myself "I wonder what his plan is to miss the rope at the bottom?" Apparently that was not a question he bothered to ask himself. When he was about 10 feet from the rope he suddenly yelled "F$&%!!!!!!!" and he hit the rope right below his handlebars. His exit from the bike was most impressive. The bike went one direction and his body helicoptered through the air for at least 35 feet before impacting the ground. My first thought was "OMG, he's dead!" and I started down the hill. Before I got down he picked himself and his pretzle twisted bike up and limped off toward the parking lot. It was the most incredible crash I've ever witnessed and that includes 50 years of downhill skiing. I still feel bad that I didn't yell to warn him as he raced past but in my mind since he had just gone under the rope on the way up I assumed he had to know it was there.

Allegheny Jet

I have told this before. The short version is that when I was 12 yrs old I tied a Army surplus cargo parachute to the high rise seat of my Schwin Sting Ray and not me. When I bombed down a local hill and deployed the "drag chute" at about 30 mph the bike stopped in an instant and I continued to fly along.

NOS88

OK, I've got a new one after my commute home tonight. On the bike trail to avoid detours due to construction, I see a family of four, each with his or her own bike. The kids look to be in grade school. Both parent had two dogs each tied to rope (yes, rope) and attached to their handlebars. The rope must have been well over ten fee in length. The dogs were dragging the parents back and forth from one side of the trail to another. The woman, on the lead bike, lost control of her bike, and went down. After she got untangled from the bike, her two dogs started pulling her bike up the trail. Her husband yell, "No", which stopped his two dogs dead in their tracks, and down he went. The kids, didn't pay attention to any of this, and just kept on heading on down the trail. I was far enough back that I could see the whole thing unfold. As I got close, I shouted, "Do you need some help?" The man screams back at me, "Mind your own damn business." All the while his dogs were in a race to catch his wife's dogs. So, there's two empty bike being pulled down the trail with dogs looking as happy as can be. Just plain unreal. I thought for a minute I was in the Twlight Zone.

Artkansas 

On one commute, there was another fellow who rode at the same time I did along one portion of the commute.

When he saw me, he'd rev up his legs and pass me. Then pull over and slow down to much slower than I was going before he passed me. I'd have to pass him to get to work on time. Once I had passed him, he felt compelled to pass me again and slow down.

I finally found an alternate route for that section of the commute.

krobinson103

The stupidest thing I did on two wheels. Riding a bike into a pile of metal certainly qualified. Even the dog that I was trying to avoid was amused. But I think the topper has to be when I shot out the green light on a 125cc scooter just as a car was turning onto the road ahead of me. Car stopped blocking all the lanes ahead and leaving me with a scooter sized gap between the curve edge and the bumper. Given that I the choice of an endo, a lowside, and or death I drove on through the gap at 35mph. The amazing thing is that I survived and the bike didn't touch either obstacle with mm to spare. I'm not overly religious but I did spend the next few hours thanking the powers up there for intervention because there was no way in hell that skill alone would have saved me that day.

BlazingPedals

Just a couple of weeks ago. I was driving at night, turning right at an un-lit highway intersection. Almost hit someone on a bike who was un-lit, un-reflectored, wrong-way. Why do those things always seem to go together? My headlights never lit him up and I had no clue he was out there until I saw him in my side window - halfway around the turn and inches from my door.

miss kenton

This falls under the category, "When Family Outings Go Wrong." I have been laughing about this ever since I read it! At least the kids had the sense not to tie a dog to their bikes! Unbelievable!

Biker395 

^ Yikes. There are some seriously good stories up there.

Yea, sounds like he's got it handled pretty well. lol

And a drag chute? That's genius!

Ever wonder how it was we all managed to survive childhood? I had my guardian angel working overtime.

Rick@OCRR

The most stupido thing I've done in the last year was to try to climb at the same speed as Stefan Dragoshinov up the (brutal) Knoxville Grade on the Knoxville Double last Sept.

What was I thinking (hint: I wasn't)?

Rick / OCRR

Biker395 

He lulls people into thinking they can keep up with him. I mean ... at first appearances, how hard could it be? He's on a 25 pound bike and phsaws any statements made about him being a fast climber.

You know, he did the Adobo Tour de Francis on one gear, right? He had to because his shifters weren't working right.

And he still finished before I did!