Embarrassing riding accidents
 

I had one the other day, the story is here.

Fess up: Let's hear about the crashes you wish nobody had seen (or the crashes you were glad nobody saw). Details, let's have details!

Linky is not working.

I layed my bike down this morning. In the snow I did not see the edge of the path. Caught my wheel and went sliding for a few feet. I guess that is not that bad.

I had one last summer where for some reason I decided to unclip at the top of the pedal stroke and tipped over. Another last winter when I was riding too fast in an ice rut and my wheel exited the rut. I went flying.

I had just finished working out at a military base and had picked up a used 81 mm mortar white phosphorous shell as a souvenir (don't worry, the army engineers approved).

Anyway, I was riding home in a snowstorm through a fairly busy neighbourhood and went down in a wheel rut with a line of cars behind me (who were well back and driving really slow). As I got up and was dusting myself off, I realized my bag felt way lighter. I look down and sitting right in front of the car behind me was the mortar shell. I tried as hard as I could to look normal while shuffling over and picking up this spent military ordinance, while in full view of this guy's headlights.

Needless to say, when I moved off to the side of the road to collect myself, he went way around me.

Back in highschool I regularly rode without lights. It was a small town and I would see and hear any car coming my way long before they were close, so I would move to the other side of the road or pull well off the road so they could pass. But sometimes I still carried a flashlight with me if I thought it'd be too dark to see. So one night I'm biking along a dirt road, on the wrong side of the road, with a flashlight held in my right hand pointed in front of me, when I feel something kick up from the road and hit my leg. Probably a rock, but I never saw for certain, although I tried. I swung the flashlight back behind me, craned my neck and body around to look back at the road, and rode my bike right into the ditch on the left side of the road. Next thing I knew I was laying in the ditch with my legs pointed up towards the road, my head pointed towards the bottom of the (thankfully mostly dry) ditch, and my bike laying on top of me. Me, my bike, and the flashlight were all fine, and no one was around to see, so my dignity remained intact. Until now.

I think this is the link the OP meant to post.

Another mishap that definitely does not qualify as one that happened when no one was looking. Coming down a slight hill at my college, I picked up a little speed, as I always do. There was a bit of a traffic bottleneck (pedestrians and the occasional bike, not a car area) on the way to my dorm. I was generally nimble enough to weave around the peds without losing much speed, and today was no different, except that there was cyclist coming the opposite way doing the same thing. I moved to left to get out of his path, and, at the same time, he moved to the right (his right, my left). Oops, we both saw that we were still on a collision course, and we both moved back to our original course and, I believe, came close enough to each other that, while our bikes didn't actually touch (at first anyway), our handlebars each connected with the rider of the other bike and knocked us both off, leaving us both dazed and sitting on the ground. Kind of like jousting.

Linky is fixied! Thanks for the heads-up.

Findlay triathlon, 1991.

Won't get into the details of how the crash happened, but in my skidding along the pavement, my suit ripped clean off. So I'm laying there in the middle of the scorching hot pavement, bleeding, semi-conscious, with a busted up helmet, one shoe, and sunglasses. Nothing else. Thankfully, someone had the decency to go back and get my tattered suit to cover up my junk until the ambulance arrived.

Just some observations without any specific admissions:

1. It's best when hopping up on to a curb or ice shelf to do so at right angles

2. Chain suck can really suck

3. When railroad tracks run through streets, sometimes the space between the track and the pavement is just wide enough to grab a wheel pretty good.

4. The above railroad tracks can be really slippery when wet

5. A little bit of water on a sharp turn at the bottom of a steep hill can turn a street into big slip-'n slide

Last Thursday I was feeling fresh and pretty froggy, so I jumped on the 10 mile commute pretty hard. I work on an Air Force base, so many of the roads are posted for 35MPH speed limits... so I was able to pass a pickup truck on one of the 4 lane sections of the street. As I passed this guys in full spin mode, I glanced over at the driver as if to say "Yeah... I'm bad to the bone. I can pass you on a fully loaded touring bike. My iron legs don't need a high-zoot carbon frame to smoke the road!"

A couple of blocks later, I caught a red light at a very busy intersection... and the truck pulled up right next to me. I touched my front brake and came to a stop. But for some reason (I don't know why) I turned my handlebars very slightly, and one of my fender stays wedged into the toe of my SPD riding shoe. There I was sitting at a complete stop with my foot locked into my fender stay... can't pedal... can't turn the bars... can't get unclipped!

So I slowly toppled away from the truck and over onto my side... in plain view of about eight cars stopped at the light! It's really really hard to look cool after you do something graceful like that. So I just smiled, shrugged, got up and remounted before the light turned green. I rode long enough that all of the witnesses were out of sight before I stopped to check out the bike.

All in all... nothing damaged except my ego! :rolleyes:

That is a good one! :D

So yesterday, the DC area was covered in a sheet of ice. Not the textured, pelletized ice that can give some traction. No, I'm talking about the downpour of rain that freezes glass smooth on contact kind of ice. Only one idiot was dumb enough to ride on that stuff. I am that idiot. Went down about 3 or 4 times on the way to work. Best part wasn't the falls - it was trying to get up. It would take me a couple of minutes to stop sliding and get me and the bike to a standing position. One time I almost slid into a creek before I finally found something to grab onto.

Yeah, next year I'm buying the Nokians.

Last summer I was rolling up to where I used to lock up my bike to catch the bus. It's kind of a curb-high concrete platform with a bike rack, and I came up to it just like any other curb only for some reason I couldn't get my right foot out of the clip. I was astride the curb at a dead stop and simply keeled over to the right. It must've looked like Artie Johnson on Laugh-In (the little guy in the yellow raincoat and nor'easter hat who pedals his little tricycle furiously up to some impediment and just flops over flat, trike and all). I almost wish someone had seen it--it must've looked hilarious.

That would have to be the time I tripped dismounting from my bike - at a BF social ride in Lancaster. I twisted my knee very badly in a bike accident where I wasn't moving.

I am very proud of the fact that I can bunnyhop very well due to my BMX background back in the 80's. There's a spot on my commute that has a higher than normal curb. It's at a bit of a funny angle and the hop happens as I transition from the road to the MUP. The angle is a little funny, I have to turn almost as soon as I hop the curb. Didn't notice the sand on my landing area one day, hopped up and hit the sand, wheel instantly turns sideways and I slam into the ground. Road rash, bruised ego and applause from motorists.

I live at the top of a hill. One morning, it had just started to rain. I go flying down the hill, which has an S turn in the middle of it. I get through the first part just fine, and totally lose traction on the second and skid like I'm sliding into home base. I'm glad it was a little wet as I slid a little more easily than I would have on dry pavement. A painful reminder that yes, it's slippery when it's wet out there (especially when it has just started raining).

A couple years ago, I was riding home at night in fog that was so thick that I lost track of the road when crossing an intersection and rode straight into a ditch filled with water....

Was riding down a quiet residential street eons ago... and watching myself pedal... watching the movement of my legs and how they interacted with the pedals and cranks... Quite amusing actually.

Well I would look around, make sure nothing was in my path, and then glance back at my rapidly spinning legs, then look up again. Only one time I did not look up soon enough... and I must have drifted a bit.

I ran smack into the back of a camper shell that was parked on the side of the road, but up on stands. There was nothing underneath it... it was just a shell at truck height as if the owner had lifted the shell and pulled the truck out and had driven off.

I wasn't going terribly fast, but the impact was enough to flatten me right up against the back of the shell in a cartoon like way... SMACK!

The bike was fine, it just rolled under the shell... but my face and chest took the full brunt of the impact. Man, I felt stupid!

I shook it off and rode on... avoided that street forever.

It was well over 110 degrees in the desert. I was riding along a side street that paralleled the main street. Suddenly I slipped on some algae and wiped out. :eek:

My "mountain biking accident" last fall. On thanksgiving morning my son and I rode up to an abandoned holly orchard on a local bike path to cut some holly for the winter holiday. When riding out I was talking to him and not looking forward. I was probably going 2-3 mph. As I was riding out of the orchard, and about to enter the paved path, I hit a rut and flipped over the handlebars. If I'd been riding faster I would have rolled over the rut. Slower and I would simply have stopped. Just fast enough to tumble over and fracture my elbow on the pavement. :eek: I'm still doing physical therapy to regain motion. My orthopedic surgeon is a cyclist got me back on the bike as soon as possible as part of my therapy.

I was biking home from work on a saturday afternoon a couple summers ago, excited to go mountain biking with a friend. As I was biking (leisurely on an empty sidewalk) I got a call on my cell from the friend I was going to go biking with. I decided to answer it, and discussed where we were going to meet and such. As I have only my left hand on the bars I hear "Hey Clifton!" as I ride past an alley opening on my left. I turn to look over my left shoulder, turning the wheel a bit doing so and see my soon to be roommates leaning against the side of the building behind me. I automatically squeeze my break to stop and talk to them (my front break), and do the slowest endo possible. It was slow enough that I commented on it to my friend on the phone while it happened (something like "oh sh*t, I'm taking a fall"), and managed to keep the phone while I toppled. All four guys in the alley watched it happen, as well as a group of people inside the tattoo parlor who's giant window I endo'd in front of. The came out to laugh as well, though it was all pretty good natured, and I knew most of the people there (roommate was an artist at this parlor). Everyone commented on just how slow it all happend. Once I got up a little kid came flying out of the alley on his bike and ran over one of my wheels and fell down, too. Everyone was okay except my wheel, which was ridable but still a little off. It was a pretty hilarious crash all in all, just because it was so ridiculous and easily avoidable.

That is one big ouch, best wishes for a quick recovery.

I was coming up to stop light, i was on a shoulder. There was a sign close to the curb so i thought instead of unclipping and putting down a foot, i'll just hold the sign and wait for the light. Well, for reasons still unkown i missed the sign by a fraction of an inch and toppled over to the bemusment of several motorists. Luckily i didn't hit the sign on the way down but it's the kind of fall that bruises the ego far more than the body.

There was that one time when I plugged my right ear with my right index finger so I didn't have to hear a jackhammer as I approached a red light. Then I used my left to hit the brake... causing me to endo and fly to the left. I landed flat on my back right in the middle of the right lane of Central Expressway. My panniers landed somewhere ahead of me and the bike landed off to the right. What's the first thing I do? Raise my hands in a V-for-victory gesture and start laughing. About 3 seconds later, I remember where I am and get up really quickly and continue to work.

Thankfully, it was after rush hour.

Sits back and waits for "First time riding with clipless pedals".

I fell over sideways at the crosswalk before heading out on the road during my first commute with clipless pedals. My light and bag fell off my rack. I missed the light gathering my wits and my stuff. I'm sure it was hilarious. Luckily, my feet came out of the pedals as i hit the ground, so I didn't have to wrestle the bike off.

In 94 I bought Ritchie Logic front brakes. Found out with them I could do stoppies. Practiced them all over town. Would cruise the downtown strip doing mondo stoppies at every light. Stopped one day at local BMX area. Thinking I could impress the kids I tried a stoppie. Of course it went to far and in relative slow motion me and the bike went ass over tea kettle. Embarrassing. At that time I was trying to learn how to jump a bike. Stuff like this should be learned before the age of 30. Young kids watching some older dude crash and crash and crash until finally he crashes so bad it takes him (me) 3 weeks to lift arms more than shoulder height.

2006.....my first cat 5 road race. My buddy and I are slowing rolling up to the start line with about 25 other guys. He stops and whips his bike sideways right in front of me. I hit his bike and fall flat on my face in front of everyone else. I also got dropped about 1/2 way through the race.