MissKristen 

I UTFSE, so I apologize if this has been done before (and if it has, please just delete the post), but just curious if anyone's run into inanimate, non-car objects while riding? I ride my bikes on trails with some stupid twists and turns and I just know that hitting a tree or random bench is in my near future. I also totally bit a mailbox when I was a kid while riding no-handed to a friend's house. Split the thing in two, got splinters in my face, and when my parents got home I heard them commenting on a "crazy drunk driver" who plowed into the neighbor's mailbox. When they saw my face, they realized I was their crazy drunk driver. They paid for the box to be replaced. Woops.

vw addict

I can't imagine running into anything stationary.

MissKristen 

Hey, call it Darwinism if you want, but it happens.

GirlAnachronism

My only two accidents have involved hitting a Hassidic Jew on the Williamsburg bridge and a small white dog on the Upper West Side. Not stationary objects, but for non-cars they sure gave me some long-lasting injuries.

Steev

I hit a stationary object, but it was a car! I was trying to avoid a little old lady dragging a shopping cart across the road just past a blind corner and rear ended a parked car.

ryan2001

I know this thread is about running in to Non car objects but this is worth telling.....when i was about 12 or 13 around the fouth of july we were shooting off fireworks and such.....you know the little rockets that would deploy a parachute....well well i tied one of the spent parachutes to the seat post on my bike and was riding it up and down the street....really fast. I remember turning around to see it over my shoulder and then Wham O!!! Planted myself on the hood and winsheld of my neighbors car that was parked on the street. the handle bar of my bike scratched the hell out of the hood and the force of my head/body hitting the winshield cracked it too!! Everyone saw even my neighbor....him and my old man had been drinking since like 10 am and they just laughed. It was too good to last...the next day my dad informed me that i would be paying for a winshield and learning about a wonderful thing called rubbing compound. I ended up cutting my neighbors grass for a month and we called it even.

NYJayhawk

I was about 7, it was the mid-70's, and I used to time myself (by the VERY accurate method of counting "one one-thousand, two one-thousand) to see how fast I could ride around the block. I wasn't allowed to ride in the street, so I used the sidewalk as my course; four 90 degree turns and 4 straightaways.

Anyway, it was midsummer, and thanks to some intense spring training sessions (including "classics" like "Bob's Driveway" which featured both cobbles and a piece of plywood on a box that we used as a jump, and a little wheelie work) I felt like I was really coming into form.

I knew that the key to breaking the world's record for the course was the always-dangerous Turn 2. Where Turns 1, 3, and 4 all featured smooth pavement and no obstructions which allowed me to exit the turns wide (onto homeowners' lawns), Turn 2 featured a fire hydrant just off the outside exit of the turn, along with some sketchy cement creases. If I could somehow take Turn 2 at full speed, maintain traction, and avoid the hydrant, I could beat my previous record, and possibly establish a standard that would hold up forever.

The good news is that I hit the hydrant head on, so that the fat tires on my Schwinn Stingray absorbed some of the impact as I flew over the handlebars into the street. It also saved the sweet gold sparkle paintjob on my frame, and only the chrome handlebars seemed to get red fire hydrant paint permanently imbedded in them. I also scuffed the vinyl on both my bananna seat and the pad on my sissy bar, but the overall performance of the bike was unchanged, and I later succeeded in setting a new record on the ride by applying only minimal coaster braking prior to the turn.

ghettocruiser

The curb, after the chain broke on my BMX back in the day.

Clipped a steel post (that seemed pretty obvious afterward) on my old MTB.

Nothing on the road bike... so far.

erk

Woah hahahah! did the whole community come out to blame you? just kiddn, they're nice enough...
I've hit pocket dogs, rear-ended a parked car when i was 10 yo or so, and three weeks ago on a recovery ride i clipped one of those orange plastic traffic barrels with my bars. Luckily there wasn't sand in it, so it fell over instead of me. embarrassing though!

botto 

you must not have much of an imagination.

RazorWind

I once crashed into a log in order to avoid getting annhilated by a fast-moving SUV. Does that count?

ghettocruiser

Was the log in the road, or was the SUV in the woods?

RazorWind

The log was next to the road, and the SUV was on the road, trying to invade my personal space.

exRunner

Yesterday my riding partner ran into a stop sign. For some reason she decided to ride between the posts on one of those very big highway signs and did not duck enough. She got beaned by the bottom of the sign and fell off the bike.

I never get a good explination of what she was thinking. She is a very experienced rider.

scotch

when i was a kid...a large, three-deep column of parked shopping carts as i was riding no hands down the sidewalk of a shopping center, while admiring myself in the reflective glass of the store windows. not just humilating, but terrifically painful.

seb1041

I hit the asphalt when I first tried clipless.

malpag3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5N9uZupdGhQ

pro's do it!

I've run into plenty of stationary objects.

JaRow

Back when I was about 9 I decided to test what would happen if I hit the front brake really hard. I drew a line in the road with chalk and tried to stop right before it. I grabbed a handful of front break, went over the bars pretty gracefully from what I remember and landed on my back.

Good times.

DannoXYZ 

When I was 10, I was riding one-handed back from football practice holding my ball in one hand at my chest. I tried to negotiate a right-turn on the sidewalk and couldn't do it because I didn't realise that a bike turned by countersteering and my one hand on the bars couldn't do the correct motion. I wobbled in a lazy arc and hit a tree on the outside of the turn. Luckily the ball cushioned by blow and I just ended up with a bloody lip. I was pretty embarrassed and told people I got elbowed in the face during practice.

Machka 

You might try riding your bicycle on a relatively straight road with little traffic ... the shoulder of a highway, for example, or a residential area.

Even there you can encounter large road debris (pieces of wood, etc.), which you'll need to dodge. If you go to a shopping centre parking lot after it is closed, or something like that, and ride up and down practicing to ride in a straight line and practicing dodging things, that helps too.

Sawtooth

My brother was leading our 5 person paceline on an MUP at about 21 mph (way out of town). He was looking back chatting and just barely missed a 1.5 foot square 3 foot high post in the middle of the MUP (to keep drunks from driving on it). I was # 2 and barely missed it. Riders 3, 4 and 5 accordian wrecked into it in a split second. Bikes and riders were flying everywhere. 2 Frames were destroyed completely. All 3 guys walked away but the post split down the middle and broke off.

MissKristen 

Thanks for the suggestion. I also ride on the actual road and wide rail-trails with my road bike... its just the trails on my mountain bike that get me sometimes. I'm still getting my 'road legs' under me though, so I'm EXTREMELY AWARE (and anxious about) things that are in my way when I'm on my road bike. Yikes.

Machka 

Another thing ... how big is your bicycle? For years I rode bicycles that were way too big for me, and I struggled with control on them. Then I got a bicycle that was my size, and what a difference!

MissKristen 

Holy crap!!! I mean I giggled when I read it, but it's not funny and I bet it was a disaster. Glad everyone's okay!!! Sheesh.

Machka- I have a Fuji Newest that was fit to my body, so as far as I know, all is well in the size department. I'm rather positive that I was never intended to ride a road bike and am more suited to, say, a small tricycle... but I'm working against nature.

Machka 

So you don't feel like you're reaching for the handlebars or anything like that? What is the handlebar height in relation to your saddle height?

Can you post a photo of you on the bicycle?