Riding along today in the curb lane and the center lane is pretty slow/congested. When I had to change into the center lane due to construction blocking the curb lane, I made sure to let the impatient looking car get ahead and then negotiate my entry with the driver behind him. No sense battling the crazies for space. Anyway later I'm back in the curb lane (generally impractical for anyone to drive in with occasional parked cars and other obstacles) and I see impatient guy trying to pull out of the line into the same space I'm going for.

I go to hit the brakes and the bell at the same time, and somehow instead I manage to push both thumb shifters, shifting me into the granny gear and a small cog (not a great combination). Fortunately dude was not continuing with his cutting me off plan.

What are some of your duh moments - I'm sure there are some good stories here, probably involving falling over

OMG, thanks for the memory! First time out clipless. Took a cruise on the nearby rails to trail, and wife pulled a quick stop in front of me. I came to a full stop and got one foot out, ony to topple like a tree to the other side. Stayed firmly clipped in there!

To add insult to injury was the 4 or so riders coming from the other direction. I'm sure they had a good laugh!

-Roger

Very first week of commuting, with crappy panniers (and a just as crappy cyclist at the helm). Jostled the panniers too much as I was pushing off from the intersection, one of the rack hooks on the panniers comes off.

That pannier catches a spoke, pulling nearly the entire pannier bag into the (very small) space between my rack and my rear wheel. This causes my speed to rapidly decrease, until I find myself in the middle of an intersection with a bike that suddenly won't roll.

I am sure that all the front-row motorists got a good chuckle at the stream of profanity that came out of my mouth, while I very quickly shouldered the bike and ran across the rest of the intersection.

Yep. I got Ortliebs shortly thereafter.

Free 'cross practice, surveyor.

I'm still getting used to riding with toeclips (I'm working towards a set of clipless pedals). Nothing like trying to flip them over off of a stop light and completely missing the toeclip, pulling you off balance and nearly spending some quality time against the top tube. At the front of a line of cars, no less.

STI shifters/brifters. "oh thats how you upshift." i was stuck in a low gear for days!

Came to an intersection at a lower corner of the Capitol one night, and saw what looked like a 10-foot chunk of firehose (?) sitting in the lane behind a car already stopped at the light. Decided to stop and throw it to the side, so I unclipped my left foot as usual, and fell straight over to the right. By now I was well-lit by a car cautiously approaching from behind, so I got up, gave him a "DUH!" smile, flung the hose onto the sidewalk, and got back on.

There are cops posted at that intersection 24/7, too, so I wonder if they saw my little stunt.

Never done a stupid thing while riding. Nope. Never. You can't prove it.....

Weavers, I did the same thing my first time on a 'new' bike! No clue.

On one of my routes to work, I travel the wrong way up a one way street for about 350 yards to avoid a half mile detour. When I get to the end, there obviously is not a light facing in my direction, so I have to guage the cross lights and the opposing light to go straight. As if thats not dumb enough...

One morning one of the few commuters I see in my travels is coming from the right. He is approching the light. In my mind, he's going right and we will be traveling together. In his mind, he's going straight. I found my spot in the auto traffic and went to cross and almost t-boned the bike.

How could I possibly have ignored the fact that a bicycle is traffic? Duh!

The funny end to the story is; after my appologies and embaresment, as I was riding away he yells to me; "I like your light." Refering to my DiNotte 400L rear light. I guess I was forgiven.

I had a friend of mine that was using spandex for the first time. Waiting in the left turn lane with the cars at a light. When he got the green he tried to hurry so not to tie up traffic. It was a big intersection 4 lanes. His new pants got caught by the front of his seat as he stood on the peddals. His pants ripped all the way off and he fell in the middle of the intersection. Nothing but a totally ripped up pair of new pants with only his jock strap on. With cars going around him a guy from the gas station came running over with a towel for him to put around him. The funniest story I have every heard.

Jock Strap FTW

yes thread is over
sounds like such a jackass moment to me (like the show)

My moment this morning

I was riding my Dahon folding bike to work, and the weather was starting to get properly cold. But it was later in the morning, so any frost was fully melted (you now know where this is going).

I came up on a regular part of my commute, which runs alongside an elevated rail line. As I entered the shadow of the line, I thought to myself, "this would be a good spot for black--"

WHOOMP. Suddenly the street reared up and slammed me on my right side. It was so quick I didn't have a chance even to feel myself as not being vertical! I was grateful that day for the lack of a top bar. My hip and knee were sore, and after grabbing the bike and sitting on the sidewalk for a minute I was OK. A nice older man asked if I was OK and I gave the sheepish "nevermind me" thumbs-up.

If you think there's ice, probably there is!

Green light at grid locked 4 way intersection. I slowly pedal through when the traffic
starts to move by one car length. I stop,the car I'm in front of slowly tips me over
onto the trunk of the car I am behind. I couldn't get my feet out of the
Toe traps quick enough. Now I learned why they are called TRAPS.
I never wore the friggen things again.