383

Its finals time for us collegiate cyclists and that means late nights and minimal sleep. Coming down the hilly road that takes me into campus, there is one stop sign at a T-intersection. Usually the cars there are kept waiting by the steady stream of students crossing the street. I see an SUV waiting to turn, but half asleep and totally out of my wits, I decide to blow through it. I'm assuming the people will keep him stopped. The SUV, after having waited for the people to cross, starts his turn. I see him and for some reason, don't pull the brakes as hard as I should. It just doesn't register. I turn sharply to avoid impact - and my pedal clips the floor and I'm down. Scrapes and bruises but nothing serious. I'm thankful. My front wheel has a bent rim and spokes, though, and is no good anymore.

I figure that with a higher degree of alertness I would have: a) not gone through the stop sign in the first place, and b) at least known to pull up on my right foot so it isn't down while sharply turning.

Lesson learned.

canthidefromme

When I was in college I had the opposite problem. For some reason I pull the brakes too hard and endo'd. Apparently it looked pretty serious because the lady at the intersection was concerned enough to pull over and ask if I was ok (but probably had a good laugh)

RacerOne

Finals? In March? What's going on in college these days?

SalsaPodio

Where are you going to "college" where there are finals in March?

ptle

I think he may be me talking about all the midterms before spring break.

383

I'm at UCLA and we're on the quarter system here. So for schools on the semester system, yeah it's midterms around this time, but for us, we finish with finals and start a new quarter after spring break, lasting until the start of summer break. Each quarter is 11 weeks.

383

Ouch. Same here, the guy stopped and asked if I was okay out the window.

hairnet

I thought you were going to describe falling asleep on the bike. It happened to someone I know and he ruined some teeth

mrvile

I pulled an all nighter last night (at art school, every day is finals day for us), had to sit through six hours of studio class today, then had about an hour break before I had to go to work until 10PM tonight. I had my bike, shoes, and helmet at the studio from the day before, so I figured I'd go for a short ride before work to wake me up a bit. No problems, but I definitely felt a lack of sharpness. I think I've been awake for 36 hours by now, feeling really burnt out, and bikeforums is barely doing enough to keep me from dozing off.

In other news, I had a very similar crash to canthidefromme's a couple weeks ago. Endo'd at an intersection at the end of a big descent, some dude turned on red and didn't see me coming. Everyone in the immediate vicinity stopped and asked if I was okay, including drivers and pedestrians alike, which was kind of reassuring (and embarrassing). I still can't believe I came out of that with just road rash and bruises. But more importantly, the bike was fine.

ls0725

i can't imagine falling asleep while biking haha.. i mean it's totally different than being in a car where you are static, comfortable, etc. all the formula to fall asleep are there but in a bike you are hyped, pedalling motion, mentally alert - it's hard for me to fall asleep.

was the person you know swerving all over the place before he fell? or did he just like drop dead?

nazzo

Oh, I had the same thing happen to me at night once.
Unfortunately for me it was as serious as it looked.
I lost 6 teeth and broke or fractured my jaw in 5 places...

Paul Y.

Man you must really be tired. I hope you were'nt pedaling at the time.

383

I was actually in full descent mode in the drops and really didn't want to get out of them, it was so fun haha. Not pedaling though.

Oscuro

I've fallen asleep while walking...but never riding.

But I do ride while way too sleep deprived. 4 hours sleep on average, and waking up at 2:30 AM to get to work is brutal...
The mind just doesn't make the right connections, or make them as quickly.

I've been rewarded with 2.5 shattered teeth for my grogginess.