When I was in college I went over the handlebars twice in one week for no apparent reason. Then I realized that in both crashes I was wearing the same pair of shorts I had recently bought. Turns out when I stood up out of the seat to pedal hard my shorts were just the right length to get caught on my shifter lever. This yanked my handlebars 90 degrees to the side and sent me flying.

I don't wear those shorts anymore.

I'm missing something. Your shorts caught on your shift lever, and then [...] and then your handlebars turned 90º. Please fill in the blank.

the two hazards I have to watch out for here in the midwest are painted lines on the roadway and manhole covers. Both are rather innocent on their own, but when combined with even a couple of drops of water they become slip and slides. The last time I fell, I was stopped at an intersection waiting to turn left with several cars behind me. The green arrow came on indicating it was my turn to take my left, but as soon as I stood up in the pedals the front wheel shot out from under me and I did a somersault with my feet still clipped in. There was a wide white line on the road indicating the presence of a crosswalk that I didn't see. I felt bad because there must have been 40 cars sitting around waiting for me to clean my crap up and get out of the intersection, but not one driver offered to help or even rolled down a window to check and see if I was okay.

That is an odd one. Best I can figure is barend shifters + cargo shorts + really short top tube ???

Schwinn Varsitys and Continentals had the shifter right at the stem..... might explain it.

I fell off my bike a few months ago. No idea why; wasn't paying attention. Before that, I hadn't fallen in a few years.

Thinking about this recently I made a list of all the reasons one might fall; collisions, mechanical failure, whatever. I have fallen quite a few times over the last 40 years, and when I listed them, they were all my fault, albeit to varying degrees. I've hit road debris of all kinds, sometimes with bad results. I've hit animals, and I've been hit by animals. I've run into a pedestrian. And I've run into a car. I've collided with other bicyclists... at least three times, and in every case I could have prevented it had I been more vigilant.

For all the digital ink we spill about cars, I have never been hit by a car.

A thin layer of sand on the road is my most common cause of falling.

"Funny how falling feels like flying for a little while."

I'm a unicyclist, so I fall all the time. I have fallen off a bicycle five times in the past four months, all due to bad roads in China, where I'd been touring. Injuries include road rash and spanned wrists. Damage amounted to $350, plus a bent frame that has yet to be aligned.

On my ride home I have short 1/4 mile cutover on a MUP, which ends with 90 degree left turn onto a wooden foot bridge, which is notorious for being extremely slippery when wet.

Riding home one night about a year ago in a drizzling rain I was a little too relaxed and began that left turn at the same speed as I would on a dry day. At the very instant I thought "uh oh, too fast, slippery bridge", the bike just flew out and I landed squarely on my left hip bone. Nothing broke, but it was a stunning pain.

I laid there for about 20 seconds and moaned before I decided I better get up. I wasn't sure I could even ride my bike, but I did, four more miles home. I had a huge bruise on my hip which took weeks to slowly fade away.

I've never forgotten to slow down for that bridge in the rain again. Experience is a harsh teacher.

I'm kinda curious - was this recently, or was this during some time when there might have been ice?

I don't "regularly" fall down except for mountain biking, but that's a whole different beast (and the falls are much slower and at lower speeds).

If you lose traction on that front tire, you'll go down without a chance to react. 2 years ago I went down in the rain - one second I was up, then there was a flash of "wha..." and I was on the ground. But up my elbow a bit. It's funny - I had just gotten a new rain jacket and was wearing it, but somehow my elbow hit the ground and was bloody, but the rain jacket didn't have a scratch. At the time I was relieved the rain jacket didn't get messed up (it cost $230). After 2 years my elbow still has a scar, though, so now I would have rather had the jacket take the hit...

My uncle fell down on his bike, somewhat randomly, in a situation where he really shouldn't have fallen down - low speeds, summer, familiar corner, etc. Poor guy broke his hip (he's in his 50's), had to have hip replacement surgery...erg. I don't think falling down "regularly" is normal outside of mountain biking (where at least the fall is usually onto something softer).

This happenned on Tuesday. No chance of ice. There had been a spectacular thunderstorm the night before (which was wonderful fun to ride home in, the streets were like rivers ), but the road had dried by morning. I also went back to see if there might have been any residual sand...street cleaning was done in the spring, but there's always the odd patch that gets missed.

But no, just a random slideout, something I have literally never done before. And I ride in winter, albeit carefully. The only thing I can think of is that I hadn't filled my tires in a while, and they were indeed much lower pressure than I like to keep them, so maybe it had something to do with too much flex in the tire as I cornered.

Whatever, just a weird event. Happily, I was actually wearing my rain coat, which also gets brought out for cool mornings. Like you, I landed on my elbow and the coat was undamaged. My elbow really only scraped the very top layer of skin, so it's mostly healed already.

I fell once while making a turn in the rain and managed to scrape up my knee - blood and all - but my track pants that i was wearing managed to have no marks at all on it afterwards. Go figure.

Fell all the time as a kid, I thought if you werent falling off you werent trying hard enough. Broke my wrist once, mostly just scrapes, cuts and bruises.

Had been commuting in Adelaide for 4 years, never a fall, though I did break my helmet on the back window of a car that stopped suddenly in front of me. In Tasmania I went up a driveway a little fast, and the ridge caught my front tyre and down I went, on my left elbow. It hurt, but was in many ways a relief, I hadnt fallen for so long I was worried about falling.

About 3 months later, I stood up to accelerate, already doing about 40 kph, and the chain slipped. Broke a collarbone, the back corner off my helmet, and prolapsed a disc in my back. It hurt. All better now.

In China I was a bit drunk one night and fell on a slippery sidewalk in the rain on my left elbow. About 100 m down the street I was looking my bike over for damage when I ran into a guard rail, and got my right elbow. No more drink driving for me

About 3 months ago I came around the corner of the path into the teachers apartment block, a corner I take every day, but trucks had left a thin layer of clay on the road, and down I went, right elbow. Good thing elbows are made for falling on.

I hear you. Rode 450 km on Chinese country roads last week, and I hear you. Some of the surfaces I rode over could hardly be called roads. A couple of close calls, but didnt go down.

I am not scared of falling, it happens, and is sure to happen again soon. If the damage gets better, I sort of enjoy the pain. Silly I know, but when gravel rash hurts, I wince, or even cry out, but there is still a smile, because I know I got it having fun.

z

I've fallen. Worst was slipping on black ice braking on a short steep downhill. I fractured my hip. I invested in studded tires after that. Most recent and most comical was practicing wheelies on my girlfriend's bike. I wasn't hurt but I put a nice scratch on her fork.

I got clipless pedals shoes today for the 1st time. Changed the pedals, put the cleats on and then leaned the bike up against a wall to try them out. No idea why, but I pushed off the wall too hard and fell over. It was on carpet.

Then go in the garage (about a 30 car garage so enough room to ride a bit), like an idiot I slipped on oil and wipe.

These were both basically tipping over falls.

Then was riding home going downhill and went onto the grass to avoid a puddle, when trying to come back onto the sidewalk, it was about 3 or 4 inches higher and didn't realize since was pitch black out and wiped hard.

Not a good day.

I clipped a parked car last year and went down broke the hell outta my hand but that was it i was going pretty slow too less than 10mph, i guess i just wasnt paying attention. and i fell about a month ago, completely forgot to take my foot off the pedal at a stop (i run plain platform pedals on commute) so i have no excuses for that fudge up all it did was hurt my ego.

Many many falls as a young'un on my BMX. Normally while playing around over jumps and the like, nearly always with an audience necessitating in the "I'm fine, it's all good" act.

My two worst falls were both while doing my paper round as a kid (does that really count as commuting?). The first was on my BMX coming down a big hill at dusk, me and a friend were heading down the pavement with him in front, my breaks at the time was my right foot jammed sideways into the top of the rear triangle pressing on the tire... We saw a car pulling out of the carpark in front of the corner shops, he had time to get around the front of it, I misjudged it and ended up ramming my foot desperately down on the tire in attempt to skid to a stop. I skidded sideways and hit the passenger side wing, hard, hard enough to leave a good sized dent in it. Needless to say I went down hard and when the driver got out to see if I was ok I tried the "I'm fine, it's all good" act, tried to stand and collapsed straight back down as the thigh wouldn't hold me. Luckily nothing was broken, just deeply bruised and I was able to lean on my bike to walk home and the driver was more concerned about me than her car, so it was good on that front too.

The second was in the rain, I'd just flown down a big hill (different to the first), it was a quieter road so I was on the road this time, when I got to the bottom I realised I was going way too fast to do my normal low sweep around the corner, especially as the road was soaked. Sadly I realised this as I was already traveling sideways along the tarmac on my elbow. I got up and checked my arm, there was a bit of road rash but nothing major, got back on my bike and carried on my round, but when I got to my first house on that road, mere metres from the fall, I noticed blood on the newspaper I was about to post through the door, my entire right forearm and hand were red with blood. I got to a friends house whose Mother was a nurse and she gave it a quick clean and a bandage. After completing my paper round my Nan took me to the hospital to get it cleaned properly. It turned out the reason the 'bit of road rash' had bled so profusely was because it was in fact two holes just below my elbow about 2cm deep that were packed with gravel flush to the skin. That wasn't a pleasant experience getting them cleaned out with saline solution.

I still have two impressive scars there now after about 12 years.

No falls since I got back into riding as an adult though, though I've only been riding regularly for the last month or so.

Well now I'm kinda curious trying to go through all the things I can think of - road bike? hybrid? slick tires? knobby tires?

Or road salt. I navigated several miles of glare ice one time--then fell on the first patch of ice-free pavement because there was rock salt scattered on it.

I had rapidfire shifters on mountain bike handlebars. When I stood up to pedal and as my leg went down, my shorts got caught on the lever below the handlebar. This yanked my handlebar sideways.

I fell down just a few days ago biking home from work.

I was turning onto a pretty busy section of Boston Post Rd just after the light turned green so I was pedaling like mad to get across the four lanes while leaning left to turn. My left pedal caught pavement and sent me flying to the right. I got up quickly and tried to ride away but the chain had slipped off too. I quickly put it back on and got the hell out of there.

Now I need some new handlebar tape, and skin would be nice too

Also I need self confidence, maybe a little bit of lovin'... and I'd like a pony; ponies don't flop over when making sharp turns while accelerating through busy intersections. usually.

had my first fall today. bent the derailleur and scraped me up pretty well. unfortunately i had just removed my gloves 10m earlier as it was getting warm. i'll recover

Jamis Aurora... it's a really nice bike that gets ridden by a really nice guy.

Thinking that Neil might have hit a little oily patch...