i've had that happen to me twice, luckily both times were when i was just starting pedaling and I was able to jump off the bike real quick and carry it off the street

one reason why vertical drop outs are nice :-p

on both of my bikes which i've built the crank arms ended up getting loose.. kinda made me worry about some bikes i've flipped

i was kidding too.... i don't get offended too easily...so don't stress...



it's funny to hear other people's stories, it makes me feel like less of an idiot...

We all make mistakes once in awhile, no matter how long we've been cycling. I've forgotten to close the brake QR on occasion (fortunately they still worked well enough).

Get well soon!

Ah! So you tricked me into telling the story about almost smashing my nads into the stem by riding incompetently!

You cad!

I did not tighten the quick release on my front wheel on my Commencal once. I was bombing down a hill got air on some rocks and something felt funny the rest of the way down and noisy...I actually found a good reason to leave the "lawyer lips" alone. At least on my mountain bike

oh yea, definitely thank god for that....

When I started reading your story, I thought it was going to end with your finger stuck between the chain and the chain ring. With that in mind, I am glad it had a happy ending.

let's hope for the happy ending soon...knee is still swollen pretty good...hobbling around still... :S

Let me share my story.

Some time ago, as I was starting to discover the pleasure of bikes, I read a recommendation somewhere to grease stem-to-handlebar contact, in order to avoid corrosion in the future (or maybe I misinterpreted sound recommendation to grease steerer-to-stem contact). So, next time I fussed with my handlebars, I did just that.
You can start laughing now.

So, here am I, riding some new road, going down moderately steep and long incline, and discovering that pavement has large cracks perpendicular to the road, edge to edge, repeatedly, every 30ft or so.

Of course, by the time I learned about this particular marvel of local road-builders, I am going downhill full speed, and of course there are plenty of cars zooming past me (I am going about 25-30 m/h, they are going about 35-45, you get the picture).

After about a dozen of train-like cha-chungs, each one opening my eyes a little bit wider, on a next one, my bars suddenly rotated downwards, and since I was riding on the hoods, my hands almost slipped off to the front - and my eyes certainly were like 2 ping-pong balls. Applying brakes to stop the bike was kinda tricky because the harder you brake, the harder it is to hold on those downward facing hoods. I felt a bit like clown, the one that is riding a unicycle upside down, pedaling with his arms - my arse kinda high in the air, and my hands down low, holding on to the hoods with the death grip.

After stopping and shaking for some time (because of cars behind me, if I had fallen, this would be a very sad story), I pulled the handlebars back into proper position, attempted to use short allen key from emergency tool box to tighten stem (to no avail), and continued my ride very gingerly.

Lesson number 1: DO NOT grease both ends of the stem! You can insert your dirty jokes here.

Lesson number 2: as I was finishing that ride, I learned that riding on tops or in the drops applies much less torque to stem binder compared to riding on hoods; it became a second nature to me now that whenever I am riding on rough roads, I never ride on hoods, always tops or drops.

Very lucky olek!

Heal fast, mapleleafs!

Well said, Tom.

Heal fast and heal well, mapleleafs!

Hopefully you were following RICE principles last 3 days - rest, ice, compression, elevation. Well, at least some of them.

With weekend in front of us, try to get as much sleep as you can - that speeds up healing as well.
You may want to take some ibuprofen as well - not only it reduces pain, but controls that inflammation process to some extent, and that can be quite beneficial.

And stay OFF that knee!

This makes me think of the first mountain bike I bought. I decided to ride it home from the shop I bought it at (a real shop, not a department store). On the first pedal stroke the handlebars turned but the front wheel didn't - the shop had forgotten to tighten the stem. I came to no harm, but it was an eye-opener.

ABC Quick Check

I have a story, but it has to do with a new rider on a brand new high end bike. This person bought one of the first (if not the first) 2012 Specialized Tarmac SL4's in the country. If you know new bikes, you know it's pretty pricey, with Dura Ace, etc.. Well, the very next day, probably the 1st ride, he noticed something stuck to the fork. Probably a stray glob of grease picked up a piece of grass from a rest stop, who knows. Well, he reached down to brush it off, and got his hand sucked in between the front fork and the very high tension bladed spokes. The clearance is minimal. His hand broke two or more spokes before he was catapulted over the bars. He was mostly okay, aside from skin damage on his hand and wounded pride I'm sure. And I feel nervous about reaching for my shifter on a bumpy road!? I cannot imagine that kind of pain.,,,,BD