A had a friend ask a favor last week... her husband wants to try out cycling, but she wanted to borrow one of my bikes for him to test out before they go drop the bucks on a new ride for him. So I said "OK"... and decided that I'd let him use my mountain bike for a couple of weeks.

So last Sunday afternoon I loaded it into the van and took it over to their house. The bike is a 1995 Trek 950... I rebuilt everything on it myself and it's a sweet ride. I figured he'd enjoy toodling around his neighborhood on it, and the big tires would eliminate worries about pinch flats or potholes. What could possibly go wrong?

I explained the shifters and such... and he climbed aboard for a quick spin. I expressed my dismay that he was riding it in flip flops... and told him to be careful not to hurt his bare feet on the toe clips. He pedaled down the driveway and back... and zoomed toward where his wife and I stood. He approached us and grabbed a heaping fist full of front brakes.

As he flew over the handlebars, I realized that I prolly shoulda warned him that the brakes actually WORK. He ended up with road rash on both knees and elbows... he also cut his toes when his naked feet got tangled up in the toe clips. He got blood on my shiny new MKS toe clips...

So my friend called me this morning and told me that her hubby was ready to return my bicycle... now dubbed "The Widowmaker"... apparently he is still sore from the crash and doesn't want to ride any more.

Oh well... he's a big sissy anyways.

So the lesson is: When you loan a bike to a rookie rider, you need to tech them how the bike shifts and goes forward. But don't forget to teach them how to stop too.

oh wow If this was one of my buddies I would be laughing too hard to even help them up.

"Smooth Move, Ex-Lax"

If you had loaned him an old road bike instead, he could have grabbed a fist full of brakes, but the outcome might have been quite different as he hurtled back to where you were standing.

Hilarious.. I have friends just like that.

Most novice riders are used to an improperly adjusted bike where the brake lever must travel 1" before the pads touch the rim. My rim is true to within +/-0.003" under normal use. Therefore, the gap between the pad and the rim is only 0.02" to 0.03". A light tap on the level is sufficient to bleed-off speed.

On my mule I have short reach brake levers and canti brakes that are adjusted properly and have fresh shoes. The front brake is so strong that if applying even when walking the bike, unless the rear brake is applied as well, the rear wheel gets off the ground (even at 1 mph). I use this as a show and tell to people whom either let ride my bikes or sell bikes to. What I tell them is: always use only the rear brake if you want to slow down and if you want to use the front brake, like to come to a complete stop, you always have to use the rear brake as well... I think that the little demo I give makes them understand.

...a menace to anything around them.

-Kurt

it's not like you gave this guy a bike with road brake levers and downtube shifters. the only thing easier would be a single speed and coaster brake.

Your story makes it sound like the guy's an idiot, but you know, I suspect it was your friend who wanted him riding the bike, and he wasn't that interested. So this happened, much to everyone's surprise, and in terms of marital collateral, he's earned pretty well; and he doesn't have to worry about this subject coming up for a while. So... big sissy yes; complete fool, not so much.

“It's just like riding a bike, you never _______”

....learned in the first place

What a sissy boy.

Everyone let's practice:
Can I borrow your bike to learn on?
NO.
But it's just for a little while.
NO.
I promise to return it as I found it.
NO.
But I'm your friend.
NO.

and your situation is why.

Now THAT'S bike snobbish...EVERYONE was a novice rider once.

And we were all menaces to those around us too!

I just picked up a Trek 400 for a friend who has been wanting to ride. Got it mostly set up ("You need to buy new tires because these are ready to explode and you need to buy handlebar tape so your hands don't just slide off") and left it with her. First day she takes it out (without new tires or bar tape) and goes cruising down our town's biggest hill... on the sidewalk... forgetting that there are stairs for pedestrians.

She got some pretty gnarly road rash and knocked her seat and stem/bars off of alignment, but luckily both escaped without permanent injury. Bless her heart, she still wants to ride and we decided that perhaps a group ride would be in order so she can get used to riding a bike again and learn the rules of the road.

You never forget how to ride a bike... but if haven't ridden in 10 years, you don't exactly get better at it either...


(ETA: I did have a scary moment when I borrowed my girlfriend's old mountain bike for the first time. Either V-Brakes are more powerful than I had originally thought or I'm just used to riding on 25 year old brake pads, but the first time I hit the front brake on that I performed an absolutely perfect stoppie. If any BMX kids had been around, they would have applauded, but it took me a few moments to get my heart out of my stomach.)

This happened to me when I loaned my uncle my roller blades on a camping trip about 20 years ago. He took them down a steep, paved hill and wiped out horrendously at the bottom of the hill. Somehow, my age caused me to be more concerned with my scuffed roller blades than my uncle who nearly left his wife and two kids without a father figure...

-Collin-

Brilliantly narrated. I LMFAO.

That reminds me of the idiot I had to deal with several years ago....

60-ish man wants to buy a new bike; buys a Next Avalon (comfort bike, 7-speed, V-brakes), walks it out the door.

Ten minutes later, he's back with a complaint:

"I tested this bike in the parking lot, and when I grabbed the brakes, it almost threw me over the bars! Can you fix them?"

When I explained that V-brakes are stronger than the sidepulls he's used to, and that he doesn't need to "grab" the brakes, one or two fingers will do fine, he says indignantly, "I've had three bikes in my life, and I've NEVER had this problem before!"

Bottom line, he left with the bike, as it was. I DID, however, toy with the levers' barrel adjusters, just for show.

Three bikes in 60 years, and you're an expert...oooo-KKAAAAAAAYYYYY.....................

"That's because you've owned three pieces of $h!t."

-Kurt

I think part of the misconception comes from a drivers perspective. They're used to brakes being easy to modulate, and that comes from the sheet weight of the vehicle. I know in my car when it was brand new 15 years ago, it could stop in less than 130 feet from 60 - hella fast - And it still feels almost as fast (haven't tried). But you almost never brake that way. That's with slamming the pedal to the floor. But you don't do that, you apply pressure to the pedals slowly and get good progressive resistance as you do so.
With bikes, because the weight isn't there, the inexperienced rider is looking for the progressive resistance, and when they pull it's usually much harder and much faster than they're used to. So, for a similar application of brakes on a car, you put probably 1/8 of the same lever travel. And since there's much less weight, and much less speed the brakes are effective much faster, not really giving them a chance to find that progressiveness.
Or maybe they're all just idiots riding on BSO's, Iuhno.
-Gene-

Less toe clips and more BMX style pedals is what I say!! Getting onto a bike in flip flops is the best!

Using the rear brake will do nothing to keep the rear wheel of the bike on the ground. Rear wheel traction is completely dependent on how hard the front brake is applied. Apply the front brake hard enough and the rear brake will simply lock as there will be no weight left on the rear tire. Learning how to modulate a front brake is not that hard and eventually you'll get used to using it all the time as it provides so much more stopping power than the rear brake. Rear brakes are good when traction is low and you don't want to risk a front wheel washout though.

When I went back to a flat bar on the Uni, I decided it was time to upgrade to a set of V brakes. Holy crap. From the "you might stop...if you're lucky" power of the cantilevers to the "oh, you're thinking about stopping? *flip*" of the V brakes, it took some time before I wasn't popping the back wheel off the ground inadvertently from time to time.

The last two summers, I rode my Ron Cooper the 6 miles to work in flip-flops daily. There's nothing quite like the feel of a Binda on the top of your bare foot, and chrome scraping down your big toenail! Plus I got awesome tan lines.

no good deed goes unpunished. I try not to get involved and often suggest people rent a bike on their own.