ultra-g

So I had my first bike accident yesterday, I was pretty embarassed as it was completely my fault.

I ran a red light going down Broadway in Downtown Manhattan, was probably going about 16mph and a woman started running across the street so I swerved to my right to avoid her. To my right though, crossing from the other side of the street were 3 guys crossing. I hit my brakes because I couldn't swerve out of their way, it was too crowded, my bike starts skidding and I run right into the guy in front.

I got knocked down and as I'm falling I'm just thinking "**** the bike is going to get scratched!" so I held onto the handlebars and my feet stayed in the clips and when I hit the ground on my side I held the bike up so it didn't touch the ground.

Anyway, a bike messenger helped me up and asked me if I was OK, I asked the guy if he was OK and he didn't say anything and his friends didn't say anything either (they might have been tourists and didn't speak English) and I said sorry for running into him. I checked my bike and it was fine and kept riding.

No one got hurt but I felt pretty stupid for the rest of the day. There was a whole crowd who stopped to see what was going on. Embarassing!

operator

Brilliant!

kurremkarm

My first accident i very much remember throwing the bike away from me and worrying about myself. Screw the bike, i can get another one.

Glad you're both OK.

Fugazi Dave

Bad couple of weeks for forum riders...

timmhaan

riding down manhattan streets always reminds me of a driver's ed video. WATCH OUT for that little old lady...whew that was close OH NO!! here comes a guy with a shopping cart...HOLY CRAP!! a kid is running out into the street to chase her ball...

Jose Cuervo

I've got a pretty embarrasing crash story. The first night that I flipped my hub and decided to go fixed, I figured that i'd ride just a couple of blocks and meet up with some friends at a bar. So on the way home, i'm turning onto my street as my foot slips off one of the pedals. I looked down for a split second and next thing I know i'm flying head first over my drops into a parked car and then continued to skid across the ground with my face. My dumb ass thought I could get away with riding just for the night without cages. I guess I learned the hard way. As far as my bike, it only got one little scratch. I was sober by the way.

South Fulcrum

When I first started riding clipless (I don’t anymore) I was coming up to an intersection and I didn’t think I would need to stop. However, I couldn’t figure out what this one car was doing (always blame it on a car) so I figured that stopping was the best move. Needless to say, I didn’t get out of my pedals in time and just fell over. Pedestrians were laughing at me, etc. To them it just looked like I rode up to the intersection, stopped, and fell over. Which was true enough. The worst/funniest thing was opposite the intersection from me was an ambulance. The paramedic got on his loud speaker and said, “Uh sir, are you ok?” That really made the pedestrians laugh. **Sigh** Just another story in the “Jay’s a Real Dumba*s” book.

zonatandem

Only 'feeling' dumb/stupid runnin' red lights?

goatmeal

I agree about ditching the bike whilst crashing. You can always get another bike, but if you hurt yourself bad enough, you might not be able to ride the nice shiny bike you saved. Just my thoughts.

Phil

operator

...... lol. Actually laughed out loud for this one

Fugazi Dave

I "run" red lights all the time on foot. If there's a quarter mile without traffic in either direction, I cross. Same goes for a bike. If it's tight, I'm not going to risk it. But in some circumstances, it's not a totally stupid thing to do.

timmhaan

you have to remember this is manhattan. if it's clear you go. a red light is more of a guide than a strict rule.

sohi

good to hear you are fine! but next time more respect to pedestrians they are
our last hope !

infestedguy1

one of the first crashes i got into was both embarassing and maddening at the same time. i was riding on peachtree st. at the main train station here in atlanta, really busy area... anyway, these stupid kids (teenagers acutally) were running out in the road in front of cars, thinking it was a grand ol time. so i'm going by, when all of a sudden out of the blue this kid jumps out from in front of a parked car and shoves me. i'm going at a fairly quick pace, so when he hits me i start to go over the bars. unfortunately, my feet never came out of the clips, so me and the bike go completely over, i land on my face, feet still clipped in, and the bike is on top of me on a really busy street. my glasses were broken since i landed on my face, and there was so much laughter from everyone it sounded like a comedy club. the only person that asked if i was allright was a taxi driver who said he almost ran over one of the kids. i couldn't get up in time to go after the kid, cause he ran off, but man was i pissed. not a good day.