Zaphod Beeblebrox 

In my town the accepted method to dispose of unwanted leaves in your yard is to rake them into a pile along the sides of the street. Frequently these piles are close to 3 feet high and stick out into the road at least that much. Street sweepers come by every few weeks and suck em all up.


So I was riding into work this morning and I was fiddling with something on my handlebars not really paying attention when I noticed I was about a foot away from plowing into one of these massive piles of leaf. So 15 mph I blasted straight through praying that some jerk didn't hide a cinder block at the bottom of the pile.

Leaves everywhere all over the sidewalk, the road, me, stuck in my spokes, and my gear cluster....so much so that my chain started skipping thankfully I stayed wheels side down with no trouble and continued on. And cleared out my rear cogs at the next traffic light


I love autumn riding.

rhm

Yeah, a cement block would be bad. But who would do that?

On my commuter bike, with its 16" wheels, I don't go through those piles of leaves if I can avoid it. On the tandem, the defenseless stoker out front looks like this while I .

gearbasher

I was once riding on a wet autumn day, when I came upon a large mass of wet leaves. Being a wise cyclist, I swung out of my lane and avoided the hazard. Upon returning to my lane, I crossed the double white lines (freshly painted about a week before) which were wet and slick. I ended up on the ground with a fractured pelvis. So much for smart riding. I should've taken my chances with the leaves.

I too, love autumn riding.

soderbiker

riding here in Sweden in the Autumn is , well Dangerous ! .
the leaves are wet and as sippery as ICE . so i stay off the road for the first couple off weeks in the Autumn .

CV-6 

A Yehuda Moon moment for sure. Makes your avatar all the more appropriate.

sciencemonster

Wet, rotting leaves are the slipperyist thing on earth. My cousin broke her wrist dismounting on some.

I avoid them at all cost - the flattened, caked-on ones...

norskagent

~3 miles of my commute is along a paved greenway trail, now mostly covered in leaves. My tactic for riding through them when wet is the same as for crossing the wet boardwalks also on the greenway: slow down beforehand, then ride as steady and as straight as possible while assuming I will go down at any moment, and being prepared for that. Some turny sections of boardwalk I stop and walk the bike through, then remount.

RobbieTunes

You may want to leave the street sweeping to the pros. We want you whole and healthy.

phillyrider

Working a little late - I rode home last night in the dark (unplanned without lights). The pings of acorns under my tubulars was in indicator that it's time to change up wheels. I was shooting them left and right...They were acorns I think...

RobbieTunes

kitten knuckles.

CrankyFranky

Same here in New England. The leaves get slimy quickly, and you can slip by just looking at them!

jtgotsjets

man, that' exactly what i was hoping this thread was about

Bam42685

This is m first year commuting through winter (or at all for that matter), so thanks for the heads up. I will avoid leaves.

vincev

Watch for sewer grates under the leaves>Many years ago my daughter went over leaves and her front tire went between the sewer grates and she flipped over the bars hitting her face on the street.Thousands of dollars worth of dental work and a picture of a 10 yr old with a swollen,cut and black and blue face makes me careful on leaves.

Rick Smith

Aw - awesome image. Permission to use for an upcoming strip?

23skidoo

+1 on autumn riding. My daily commute route takes me on city streets for half a mile and then through a large apartment complex to hook up with the bike trail heading downtown to my job. Just before I get to the trail there is a really large speed bump and I always thread my way between one end of the speed bump and the curb and though it's a narrow passage I'm going uphill at a pretty slow pace. Last year about this time I was making it through the chute and there was an accumulation of leaves at least 6" deep and as I rolled into the pile my front wheel rode up onto a black walnut with the thick, green skin still attached and I immediately pitched over onto my side with no chance to get out of my toe clips. My shoulder, elbow and hip joints were sore well into the new year from what had to be a crash at no more than 2 mph.!!

cudak888 

Say yes, Craven!

-Kurt

gearbasher

Not to hi-jack this thread, nor to send it on a tangent, but you mention being sore after a 2mph crash. Well, in order to avoid a car turning left in front of me, I went into a track stand and unfortunately my front wheel happened to be right on a wet manhole cover (rainy day). I ended up chipping the greater trochanter off my femur. Eight weeks on crutches due to a fall at 0 mph. Yes, I'm the same guy with the fractured pelvis in the early post. So boys and girls, not only should you avoid those pesky leaves, but stay away from wet lane markers and manhole covers.

Zaphod Beeblebrox 

absolutely!

rumrunn6

a friend of mine did that on his stingray when we were kids and the pile was so dense that it stopped him cold and he did an end over end and dropped him on his head, etc. fortunately the leaves broke his fall. I'll never forget that sight and I never rode through a pile of leaves again

Rick Smith

Cool! Look for it on October 28th -

banjo_mole 

Speak of the devil...

Look what came up on Yehuda Moon today:

https://www.yehudamoon.com/index.php?date=2009-10-28

-banjo

noglider 

There could be dog schitt in that pile, too, which would also be slippery.

Yesterday, I rode my Fuji Cambridge, because my Super Course is currently disassembled. The Fuji is the only other ready-to-go bike I have with fenders. I plan to sell the Fuji, but the owner gave me permission to ride it. It is an extremely upright bike. My hands are right in front of my knees. The result is that my weight is all on the rear wheel, which makes the steering very light. I'm not sure if this gives me more or less traction, since there's barely any weight on the front wheel. Luckily, it's quite easy to steer this bike rather than leaning it, keeping it upright through turns.

rhm

My morning commute takes me down one mile of Route 206, which has a fair amount of traffic. Not my favorite part of my ride. So this morning, in the rain, in the dark, my headlight was illuminating all the debris about ten or twenty feet before I reached it. Most of that debris was leaves, of course, so I was just going over it all. But just as I was hugging the curb while letting some cars go by, I saw something I couldn't identify under all the leaves, and I didn't have time or room to maneuver around it. I hit it squarely with my front wheel, with such a jarring shock I thought I was going to go down. But then it was all over, I was still riding the bike, the cars had gone by, everything was fine, except my hands, my arms, my neck, and my back hurt.

I was momentarily very angry, so angry I wanted to go back and kick the **** out of whatever I'd hit, or at least identify it. I figure it was at least six inches high, and probably had been designed as part of a car. It sounded hollow, like hard plastic. But I was running late, so I kept going.

I'll probably hit it again tomorrow.

rhm

^ No, you're off the hook on this one, I was some 9 miles south of there.