Originally Posted by
banerjek
Looks like you've done a decent job of identifying the problems -- following to closely, not paying attention, and going too fast for conditions. If you ride like this very often, you'll get in lots of crashes and eventually seriously hurt yourself and/or someone else. But no need to beat yourself up about this since it worked out OK. I'll bet everyone here did plenty of dumb things when they were 15. Just learn from the experience and do better in the future.
Always treat peds like suicidal stray chickens because they will just randomly run in front of you. Assume drivers will turn or brake without warning because sometimes they do. And pay attention, because thousands of pounds of steel vs. 150 lbs of flesh and bone never works out well. If you ride like everyone is trying to kill you, you'll do just fine.
Thank you banerjek for being so understanding.
And one of those stupid things was writing this thread the way I did. That was my only cycling crash (other than a tire sidewall blowing out on a kids bike and throwing me off a few years ago) , so I don't exactly have a lot of experience with crashes. The crash was mostly my fault, as I was going too fast and not paying enough attention.
Everybody, I'm sorry if I unconsciously trolled. I often start telling a story, and end up adding unnecessary details as I go. I am in fact 15, and if you don't believe me or think I'm too young, I don't really care, as I love cycling and I'm not gonna wait until I'm older to do something I love to do.