So, I mapped out a route to ride yesterday morning. Just an easy 50K, (31 miles), and after a few miles I came up upon another cyclist at a red light. "Howdy. Nice day for a ride." "Where ya goin?" "Where are you going?" You know how those conversations go. Turns out he was on his way to a benefit poker ride. In my neighboring city, a poor fellow who just finished his third tour of duty in Afghanistan was waiting at a signal in his car when he was shot by a gang member. What's more sad is that it turned out to be a case if mistaken identity. This ride was to raise funds for his family. It's a worthy cause and I didn't really have anything planned for the day, so why not?

We continue off. I lead for awhile, he leads for awhile. We make a turn and head into a slight head wind. Then I realize that this guy is a lot better than I am. I put the hammer down in an effort to keep up with him. We're trucking at about 18-20 mph. Doing okay, but I'm concentrating and keeping my head down looking at the pavement about ten feet in front of me.

Suddenly, in my peripheral vision, I see a shadow. "Oh shoot!". "Dang!" "Watch out!" The fellow stopped for a red light and I plowed right into him. Almost missed him, but I went down, and he thereafter. By that time, I was only going somewhere between 5 and 10 mph, so it wasn't a high speed crash. Scraped up my knee slightly and my elbow. I apologized profusely. Thankfully, he wasn't hurt and neither was his bike. My bike? The handlebars were twisted slightly, the left shifter was tweaked sideways slightly, scraped up my Dura-Ace pedal pretty good, and dropped my chain.

But, the front wheel didn't turn very well. I opened up the brake quick release and it spun freely. During the poker ride, I notice that my front wheel was wobbling. "Oh great!". After getting home, I notice that my wheel is out of true. "Uugh". One of the sponsors of the poker ride owns a local bike shop that I never stopped at before. Always thought it was a kids BMX shop. I was told that it was not and to go check them out sometime. So, I pulled the tire and tube and took the front rim into the shop.

I couldn't believe it! In about ten minutes after stepping inside the shop, they had trued the wheel as good as new and only charged me $16. Some kid did the job, and I'm mightily impressed. Scored a pair of zero-float cleats that were discounted. Guess most folks don't use zero-float and they priced them down to get rid of them. Paid about 2/3 what anybody else sells the things for. Even though I don't need them right now, I grabbed both sets that were on the wall.

The morals of this story? 1.) keep your head up; 2) anytime you see a "Bikes" sign on a building, at least make a short visit to check them out; and 3) never, that is NEVER EVER. let me ride in a pace line with you.

Thats right, always keep your eyes in front of you. Also, don't be always watching the rear wheel of the cyclist in front of you, instead know how to distance your wheel with his while only having to look at his back. Truing wheels is very easy, in less than 10 minutes a wheel can be trued without problems at all. I used to true them here at home with a stand I made with an old fork. I get free tune ups, fixes, anything for free because it sponsors my team and it is like a benefit; so I don't have to do anything for my bike and less when the LBS is a block away home.

However I think those slow crashes are the worst, I was cycling once and the person in front of me lost control of the bike and went sideways. I crashed unto him and went to the floor just at 9 - 10 mph just like you. Nothing happened to the cyclist but I had a fractured pelvis. Spent a month off the bike and 2 weeks laying in bed. Four days of those two weeks in bed were spent with morphine at the hospital

Even spending four days with mor'fine doesn't make for a good crash. How was the bike after the crash?

Glad that you wern't hurt more than just a few scrapes. I just got back on the bike two weeks ago after being off for a month with a severely contused shoulder and arm, after dumping my bike to avoid getting hit by a car. Still having a little bit of a problem with the shoulder when I lift things. Fortunately, there was no damage to my bike.

velosong,

I am glad you weren't hurt worse and that the damage to your bike was minor. Here's hoping you have better rides in the future.

You don't have to be 50+ to have a "didn't look up" crash. I had one on the W&OD rail-trail (near Washington DC) in my early thirties. It started raining after I'd gone out 20 miles or so, so I turned around. I was keeping my face turned down and letting my helmet visor deflect most of the rain. Unfortunately for me, there were periodic road crossings, and some of them had steel I-beam barriers painted yellow to keep motor vehicles out.

I was chugging along at around 20 mph when I looked up and noticed that I was flying directly at one of these steel barriers. My second mistake was grabbing both brakes full on, which in the rain with almost no traction seemed to actually make the bike speed up.

My bike hit the steel bar right at steering column level, putting a huge kink in my frame and producing the most spectacular endo I can imagine. I summersaulted and landed on my back with a crumpled helmet and my glasses squashed down over the bridge of my nose. The remains of my bike bounced several times on down the greenway.

The good news for me was that I survived mostly intact, did not need an ambulance, and reassembled enough of my bike to painfully limp home. The lesson was never assume that the road is clear ahead, even if I checked a few seconds ago.

Scott C. in Cary, NC USA

Stupid crash? Had one this weekend. We were about 60 km into a 200km loop that was the final portion of a 600km brevet on Saturday when I cut a turn too close and my front wheel washed out in some gravel and uneven pavement.

I laid there for a few seconds when I did a quick inventory of the pain. As I realized only my hubris was only bruised, I got up and started checking the bike. I did a quick adjustment or two and started off again when I realized I had ripped the quick release off of my left shoe.

I pulled out some duct tape, did three wraps and was on my way again. It wasn't quite a full "Breaking Away" but I did finish the brevet!