jhota

well, "wreck" may be too strong a word.

Saturday afternoon, casual ride. out with my usual ride partner, on a road we both know well.

there's a big knot in the road where roots have pushed up a bulge about 7" tall and 2.5' around. normally, we just move to the center of the lane and go around. today (for some unknown reason), we moved to the center of the lane - and my riding partner grabbed his brakes. my front overlapped his rear, and before i could brake he moved back over. boom! i'm on the asphalt, and he's turning around to ask "are you o.k.?"

sure, idiot.

i crawl out of the road, and after collecting my feeble wits, get up to check my bike and my injuries. nothing bad on the bike, just some lightly torn/scuffed bar tape (fell on the left side, yay!). check myself, and i got a little road rash on my elbow (about 2x the size of a quarter), my shorts are a little beat up (glad i was wearing my ratty mtb baggies ), and i managed to get some road rash on my upper ankle. damfino. but the piece de resistance, somehow i managed to rack myself in the boys with the saddle horn. owie. helmet didn't even touch pavement, btw.

i wanted to finish our normal route, but my partner decided to turn back. "man, your elbow looks bad." so we did. on the plus side, still averaged 15.9 mph with a top speed of 22 mph.

so, two questions:

1. assuming i feel o.k., any reason not to do my normal Sunday AM ride tomorrow? (32 mi group ride)
2. have any of the other guys managed to do what i did to their ahem man parts?

daytonian

1. Definitely ride tomorrow
2. Never racked my crank on my seat (yet) in adulthood. Many times as a kid.

popnfresh

you were well enough to ride back? lucky you

lets say my boy bits + seat + mtb + crash = i was most definately NOT well enough to ride back

SDRider

Wow, that's poor riding etiquette. You don't just do stuff like that if someone is close behind you. No hand signals? Nothing? If he was going to do something out of the ordinary or if he was unsure of the route he should have given you the slow down signal and you should have backed off.

hi565

yes I ahve, you should also see the clip of the tour de france in 03 when lance's pedal somehow unclipped and he went really hard into his stem in the region. eek.

jhota

to quote one of my favorite movies, "Pain don't hurt." don't get me wrong, i'm sitting kind of gingerly now, but i was willing (wanted) to finish the ride.

hell, i snapped a seatpost on my mtb years ago (with my tailbone) and kept riding for another hour or so (until one of the guys i was with endo'd and broke his collarbone).


yeah, he's pretty clueless, unfortuneately. i *****ed him out pretty good for being dumb, though. including explaining what he should have done.

NealH

Sounds like you were the dumb one. Why were you riding so close to his wheel especially when you knew there was rough terrain ahead? You ride a bicycle defensively just like you ride a car defensively. And, when there are known obstructions ahead it's a good idea to slow down, just like driving a car.

lws

fwiw, overlapping wheels doesn't always have to be a catastrophe. Once in a while you can pull it out. The key is not to panic, maintain a firm grip on the bars, lean *in* to the other guy, and then slowly back away. It's pretty tricky, to be sure.

Starclimber

Old pseudo-mtb, quill stem, abrupt root-generated stop, left nut compressed until it squirted out watermelon-seed like..I mean...like, giant watermelon...sigh. Mucho oucho. Got up, eventually, and rode very fast and angrily for some time. Lotsa beer later helped get the laughs going again.

jhota

i wasn't particularly close until he grabbed his brakes unexpectedly.

didn't make the ride this morning - boys feel o.k., but my leg has stiffened up a bit too much for 48 degrees. oh well, i'll still do the Pumpkin ride this afternoon.