MNsnowmoon

Biking into work in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Wednesday 12/14/2005 was really interesting. It had snowed about 8 heavy inches. Underneath was a thin layer of water on top of a thin layer of ice. I had my Bykaboose trailer full of gifts and food for the family we sponsored for the holiday, we were wrapping and the social worker was picking up that day. No getting around dragging it to work. The first two blocks were not plowed at all, and I had to push the bike through the snow. The ruts from car tires were too narrow and slippery to navigate and I couldn’t get enough traction in the snow to pull the load in the boose, my wheels just spun (cars give you wide berth when you do this!). Fortunately I had left early and there were few cars out on the road. I took the main street into work and saw no cars. My commute takes me by the St. Paul Cathedral, perched on the top of the bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River, and then I drop down the hills to Down Town St. Paul. When I came out from around the St. Paul Cathedral, the cross winds hit me full force and blew me over. I was already laughing before I hit the ground. As a 50+, plus sized gal in geek clothes I had long ago parked my pride in permanent storage, so it wasn’t phased, and the sub zero gear padded my landing in the wet snow. But I was beginning to berate myself for being an old lady trying to ride a bike in this stuff as I got everything upright & running again, swerving every which way and just managing to keep my balance while I negotiated the tire ruts in the heavy snow. My spirits picked back up again when, as I was waiting at a stop light, I noticed that the cars and trucks were doing as badly as I was, and they had four wheels on the ground!!

You don't have to be crazy, but it helps!

glacierre

Last year, after playing a match I pick the bike and ride home (not more than 500m away!), keeping my backpack only over one shoulder, then at less than 5 kph the strap moves and I use right hand to fix its position, then my right foot slips off the pedal because I passed over a little bump...

All my weight suddenly on one side of the bike, I hade time to brake to a full stop, time to swerve desperately to regain balance, time to do it! but just too much, and time for a crash againts the ground at 0 kph in front of a bunch of at least 10 other cyclist (fortunately nobody from the match).

My right side of ass, waist and arm had a funny color for a couple of weeks.

gmule

I was flying down a mup and came upon some pedestrian traffic. I decided to pass the pedestrians on the grass instead of slowing down. After I passed them I went to get back on the mup. I hopped my front wheel over the the edge of the path and then my rear wheel slipped along the edge dumping me out onto the middle of the path in front of all the people I had just passed. Everything that was attached to my bike was scattered everywhere like a yard sale.

hoodoo40

Many a years ago when I was in grad school, we had a hard soils test and went to a bar to recover. We each drank a pitcher of beer, then went to soils lab (the lab assistant couldn't believe we were so drunk, heck, I think we broke the standard Proctor machine). So two hours later, I'm heading home on my bike. Then BAM , I'm on the ground (asphalt). I jump up, looking around for what I hit, a stone, what**********

Nothing, I just fell over all my bike. Fortunately, I only ripped my wool tights and bloodied my knee.

The good news, I passed the test.

-- John

p.s. I did protect that area that must be protected (that time anyways)

KnhoJ

Many, many (many) years ago, when I was about a foot shorter than I am today, I had a bmx style bike. I would ride it up and down the long gravel driveway between the neighbor's houses to our house, which was set back from the road. Or in the woods, where I would ride it into nettle patches, blackberry patches, trees, etc. But the driveway crash has a better story. One day, as I'm seeing how fast I can go down the driveway alongside the neighbor's back yard, the neighbor girl stepped out the back door really quick to pick something up off of the porch, thinking no one was around... With absolutely nothing on.

It took over an hour to pick all the gravel out of my arm. The scar lasted over twenty years.

gmule

These stories are great

ATRodger

Okay...who is this?

https://www.break.com/pictures/dude-i...-it452562.html

robtown

In my early twenties I rode for miles with platform pedals and no helmet. One light was activated by a pressure plate. I jumped off the saddle forcefully to trigger the light. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough clearance to land flat-footed. I have since sired two children so the damage was not permanent.

robtown

You must have left much earlier than I. I rode through to Herndon about 9am and there wasn't that much ice by then. I also had my Nokian equipped MTB.

Rick Smith

A bit of an exaggeration, but close:

Mobiker50

Pulling to a stop in front of a local deli/grocery store at the end of my ride, and expecting a call from my girlfriend to pick up a couple of sandwiches for lunch. I slow as I come to the curb, unclip my left foot (since I ALWAYS put my left foot down, old motorcycle habit). As I come to a near trackstand, my cell phone rings. No problem, I'm stopped, left foot unclipped, reaching for the cell phone with my left hand when I realize...I'm leaning to the RIGHT!!! Artie Johnson moment extraordinaire! Needless to say, there were a bunch of people watching...

ollo_ollo

One hot Summer day, commuting home from work, I was riding uphill & coasting to stop at a red light.
I forgot to unclip & did a slow motion fall sideways to land in the gutter at the feet of a couple homeless guys sitting on the curb with their cardboard sign. One guy says "I hate it when that happens". The light changed to green, so I got up & out of there as fast as I could. Don

Lucky07

So many... The worse was probably when I slowed to a crawl in the park a half block from my house ... I was finishing up a long, hard ride & was soaked with sweat. Took my helmet off as I pedaled at 5mph through the part... Hit a rock, fell over. I looked up and there were at least 30 people standing over me... Most said "You ok?" ... One older man looked at me & said "shoulda had your helmet on kid..."

Pinyon

The most embarrassing for me was a couple of years ago, during my first organized metric centry in over a decade. I had not ridden that far in a group for a long while, and drank too much. Coming into the 50k rest stop, I really had to use the rest-room. I had to go so bad, that I rode my bike in a straight-line through the gravel parking lot towards the line of portable units. I was about 10-15 feet behind this group of guys listening to this one really loud guy sharing a funny story, when the story-teller suddenly took 3-4 big steps backward while waving his arms and yelling/laughing right in front of me. I swerved really hard to miss hitting him, but did not get my right foot out of the clipless pedal fast enough to prevent the bike from sliding out from under me. There were about 40 riders looking down at me, and 2-3 of them said something like "That's okay, I remember when I could not get out of my clipless pedals fast enough".

So, I pick up my bike, my right knee and elbow dripping blood, and everyone laughs as I pick up the bike and start running for the potty, while smiling, and saying that I'm okay over my shoulder. There was a nice big hole in my shorts from upper thigh, and well onto the butt-cheek too. I'm surprised that nobody was blinded by the glare pinging off my ultra-white bottom, that rode behind me later.

bfromcolo

JINX...it has to be bad juju to talk about crashing.

Anyway the last time my face met the ground was in Moab on some slick rock. I was approaching about a 5" lip that I needed to climb and decided it would be a good idea to compress my shock just before the lip and yank up at the last second to raise my front wheel above the lip. I miss timed this ill conceived move and went right over the handle bars when the bike stopped moving and I didn't. Two of my sons were on this trip with me and they just thought it was about the funniest thing ever, although every time they tell the story the lip gets shorter.

Thankfully I have not crashed commuting...

sasquatch2

I wiped out on a perfectly smooth and clear road 2 blocks from home- cranking hard for the final push and the clipless pedal gave way. the inertia of my leg flying up on the pull-stroke yanked the wheels out from under me and I plowed into the pavement in a heap of twisted bike and rider. it just sucked cuz I hit really hard, only redeeming factor was there was nobody in sight to laugh at me. only thing bruised was my body and bike, ego was fine!

toddvc

OK, I am laughing and I am glad I am not alone, I can't decide whether I like the white-butt story or the sympathy from the homeless guy story better.

On a more serious, yet still funny, note, my Internet acquaintance Jason sent out a nice valentine to his wife, who nursed him after a terrible-sounding wreck resulting in a very bad leg break. It sounds really bad, and it must have been, but Jason still manages to have a funny take.

SDBluefish

Riding home from the store with a bunch of groceries in a rear pannier. Got to the place where I leave the bike lane and cut over to my street. Doing my usual rolling dismount coming up to the curb, but totally forgot the very long loaf of French bread in the pannier. Leg hit the bread, and the bike and I hit the pavement. Someone driving past in a minivan pulled over, but when they saw I was getting up and cussing a blue streak they decided I was probably OK enough and drove away fast.

Now if I'd had a loaf of nice, soft, American bread none of this would have happened! I blame the French.

darkfinger

A couple of weeks ago:

I just re-built my winter beater basher from spare parts. (I have a bike grave yard in the basement that my room mate loves.)
Everything is working fine for a week or so until Monday. My ride to my girlfriends house is pretty fun, especially in the winter. I`m Ripping down the St.James bridge through some fresh-ish snow when I realize that my front tyre has picked up a bit of a wobble. `No worries` I think to myself as I turn off the bridge and onto Academy. The wobble gets progressively worse as I ride, and then it hits me. I didn`t double check the stem and bars when I first put them on. I just snugged them up and went on with the build. Uh oh.
At this point I`m coming up to a set of lights, so I decide to pull off the main road and take a look.
Apparently when your bars are loose the smart thing to do is stop and find a wrench. I am not a smart person sometimes. I`m still moving at a pretty good clip when I take the 90 degree right hand turn. I lean, my bars turn, my wheel starts to turn...then stops. I ride full steam ahead into a snowbank on the wrong side of the road and pull a superman over the bars and into the snow. As I get up and shake the snow off myself I realize that there are about six people coming towards me with looks of concern in their eyes.
Apparently it looked like a pretty bad crash but given that this is Winnipeg Manitoba I landed in super deep snow and with the exception of looking like an idiot, was just fine.
The lesson: Always check to make sure you tightened everything before going riding.

vincentpaul

N0! No more wishes for a quick recovery! I've got one SWEET physical therapist.

matthew_deaner

Once I was riding in the right lane of a four lane highway, and I heard an ambulance coming up behind me. I was travelling at about 20mph. I don't know what I was thinking... I tried to get off of the road to let the ambulance pass without even slowing down. The idea was to exit the road onto a driveway and then get on the sidewalk for a couple hundred feet until the ambulance went by. But I didn't see that the driveway had a 1-inch high lip, and my front tire caught on that lip and I went down hard, right on the concrete. I bloodied my elbow, knee, and left hand, and even dented the top tube on my bike. The ambulance went right on by. Of course, there were lots of cars and a few peds around to witness my stupidity.

toddvc

You would think Europeans would know how to make a pannier- and leg-friendly loaf of bread ...

toddvc

OK, as you wish: May you recover slowly, requiring much personal attention.

bmclaughlin807

Europeans are smarter about riding with a load.

I've never crashed while carrying a load of groceries... but I think my most embarrassing was on my way to work one morning after I had just tuned up my bike... it's misting, so the roads are all wet, and I cross a parking lot where there's a chain across one part to keep people from driving through... the chain is only 6" off the ground in the center, so I usually don't even dismount, slow down, one foot on the ground and lift the front wheel over is plenty.

Well... things didn't work out like that this day. Approaching at around 15 mph I hit the brakes and.... nothing. I forgot to reset the quick releases on the brakes when I put the wheels back on. Yes... BOTH brakes.

I couldn't turn fast enough to miss the chain, so I hit the chain at 15mph... OUCH.

Had a bruise that covered about 50% of my upper leg. I took the bus in to work that day.

arcticbiker

Two quick ones come to mind:

Last winter while riding on a newly constructied bike trail in the dark and in a snowstorm I investigated the quality of the trail construction. Unwittingly, as I progressed down the new trail on about 6 inches of fresh snow, I rode down a hill with a sharp turn at the bottom. My handlebar mounted light didn't shine around the corner until it was too late and I rode of the edge of the unfinished trail (no markers) into about 8 - 10 inches of water covered with ice and snow. The bike crashed through the thin ice keeping me upright but unable to get off the bike without submerging both feet. I tried to ride my way through but had no clue as to how deep the pit was. I decided to dismount and suffer a cold ride home with soaked shoes, pants, etc. Not what you want to do in an Alaskan winter.

Another commute to work in the dark on another new bike trail. This ride was in the late fall and I'd been riding this newly completed trail for a few days now without issues. My commute starts around 5:00 am so it's still really dark. I'm blasting down the bike trail lane which transitions to the new bike trail. The trailhead is at the bottom of a hill and progresses up a long hill. I usually try to keep my speed up at this point so I'm riding at around 20 mph when suddenly the trail goes completely black even with my HID light. I slam my brakes on and then Bamm! I run right into a pile of topsoil that had been placed on the trail for landscaping purposes. Luckily my front wheel ran up into the pile which was relatively soft. I escaped without damage to my bike or my person.