I was going to congratulate you on living so close to the canal path, I've heard it's really nice. Of course that also means you live really close to the canal! I've got to get up there soon, but I guess I'll turn my cell phone off.:D

I'd have to say one of two things:

1. while on my road bike, unclipping with my left foot while approaching a stop light and the bike leaned to the right--you guessed it, I hit the road--in a non-figurative sense.

2. approaching a thick bed of beach like sand at the bottom of a drop (MTB) and reaching for the front brake really hard (my mosts heavily used brake) when I hit the sand--a face plant. I learned long ago that brakes and sand don't mix.

I'm not that close, not that far, from the towpath ~ 8 miles from the trailhead in New Franklin/Manchester (close to the Summit/Stark County line). Back when I first started riding I spent many miles on the towpath but I stick to the roads now unless I have the time to make a daytrip out of a ride in and around the towpath areas.

Lately, at least during the warmer months, the towpath can be amazingly crowded! Lots of walkers, runners, other bikers, dogs, etc. A rookie mistake these days could result in taking somebody else down into the drink with you!

The southern portion of the path is less crowded, it's almost into Barberton but I think the New Franklin (Center Rd) trailhead is the northern-most for now. This can take you down and probably past Massillon.

The stretch from Akron to just south of the Cleveland proper is very beautiful and covers a variety of terrain and scenery. You just have to ride gingerly to keep due regard for the safety of others around you.

Well, eight miles is a lot closer than I am. :) A couple people have told me that it's a pretty ride. I have heard that the canal path has gotten very crowded, and that a weekday trip would be better than a weekend.

This very same thing happened to me. With touring gear, in downhill. Me and bike parted ways, but some of my touring stuff stayed loyal to me and disengaged on impact as well. Myself and gear was all over the road (80 kmh speed limit). Luckily there was no traffic right then, we had just time to pick up the pieces with a touring friend before the first car arrived. Road rash to hand, arm, knee & thigh; two broken spokes in the rear; handlebar bag required extensive duct tape repairs.

And what is it with the Japanese tourists phenomenon? No matter how deserted it seems, there's always someone to witness your smooth move. One summer I stumbled and fell trying to climb off the kayak after landing on a shore. As I was climbing up from the shallow waters, a lady literally materialised from the bushes, stared at me for a while and asked "Did you get wet?" Here's your sign.

--J

trying to tie my shoe while still clipped in at a stoplight and falling over in front of an old lady in a caddy. The lady rolls down her window and asks If I am okay. She said she thought I had a heart attack or something. Yeah, I was probably red from embarassment the rest of the day on that one.

Thought I might share because it happened tonight. Coming back from class I notice a rattle in my front wheel as I pull up to my apartment. While focusing on the rattle I come to a stop get cought in my toe clips and fall over onto the stairs all the while cursing my reflector for ratteling itself loose.

Tried to wheelie up onto a curb. Did it too late and went end over end. Tried to laugh it off in front of downtown pedestrian traffic, but was unsuccessful.

1) Not waiting for a traffic light. Can you say MORON?
2) Not protecting my cell phone in my bike bag on a rainy day. Can you say SIZZLE? :-(

Rode to work one day years ago, down the hill, ovewr the tracks, around the corner and off to work. The way home, was the same route except for a stop at the bar. So the way home was down the hill from the bar, around the corner, over the bars and... over the bars? The Railroad had torn out the RR tracks to re-do them and nothing was there but very very deep gravel.:cry: A few days later, they had them all nice an smooth but I always checked, just to make sure!

A few years back I was riding through town on a brand new, full suspension mountain bike. Stopped at the corner, a bunch of people were walking by, admiring the bike. Thinking I looked cool, I didn't look to see that I'd put my foot down in a low spot in the pavement. As a result, I went off balance, waved my other leg wildly to try to regain balance, pivoted sideways and went down on my bum. Laughed a little too loudly, and got funny looks from the people walking past. Probably thought I was drunk. Ugh. :o

Back in the 70's when I was a teen I was riding down a dark street, gazing down at the front tire when "WHAM" I smacked into a parked car.

Many years ago, I tried to find my lost youth while on some kid's Stingray bike, I thought I was going to do my best Evel Knievel only to end up doing an Awful Knofel. My reward was nursing a sprained ankle for a month.

My first winter riding, started out down my sloped driveway and remembered I didn't turn my blinkie on. I hit the brakes and the driveway was a sheet of ice, no studs either. Went down flat, it was kind of odd at the time but funny in retrospect.

5 years old or so. There was a bug stuck to one of my spokes on my front wheel, so I stuck my foot in and tried to use it to rub the bug off as I was riding. Next thing I know it, I'm on the pavement :)

Riding my old mountain bike down these tight concrete switchbacks on the lakefront. Decided to hit my front brake....bam!!! Instant front end washout, I some how manage to land on my feet, my bike slams to the ground, but not before the pedal decides to come full circle and slam in to my calf. All this in front of two hot girls that were out sunbathing. Result: bruised ego, bruised and swollen calf and a two week limp. Lesson: do not hit front brake while in a downsloping tight turn.

Someone on here posted a screw up of what happens when you try to ride with your hands crossed, ie. left hand on right handle bar and vise versa. Shortly after reading that I decided to try it out, after practically falling dropping the bike at speed, I almost rode myself right into a tree.

Falling in front of a fully packed CTA bus because I was still getting used to clipless pedals, less than an hour after forgetting to clip out and falling in front of no one.

Had just bought a new helmet, sprang an extra 10 bucks for the mountain bike version because it had a visor (but the main reason was it was red, red>blue for visibility), first day using it (with the visor on), I filter up to the front of the line of traffic on the drivers side, cut across the lead car to get back to the right side of traffic to wait for the light, only to realize the light had turned green while i was pulling said maneuver to get curbside. I failed to see the light change because of that stupid visor, could have ended much worse. I removed the visor as soon as I got home and haven't used it since; stupid visor, stupid me.

I tried to take my hoodie off while holding a waterbottle and trying to hop a curb. I started laughing when I realized how dumb that idea was and ended up falling over while still laughing. My friend thought it was funny. Only slightly skinned my knee and forearm.

I was riding in Downtown Charleston, SC by the waterfront. I coasted across a small intersection, crossing the opposing lane of nonexistent traffic to ride up onto the sidewalk. I was going to stop and refill my water bottle at a fountain there in White Point Gardens. Unfortunately, I overshot my turn up the ramp onto the sidewalk. The inner edge of this sidewalk is a curb (protecting the grass I assume...). I slapped both my front and rear wheels against the curb, hard. Fell over, tucked my body up in a natural reaction I suppose. Thank goodness for lycra. I slid probably about 15 feet across the grass before I stopped. Got up, dusted off, walked to the fountain and refilled. Unfortunately, I didn't have my allen keys with me and my handlebars were knocked out of alignment. So I went by a local hotel that rents out bikes. they let me borrow theirs.

Lesson learned: Most all sidewalks have one curb. Some have two. It's the second one that will catch you by surprise.

On a MUP that had a concrete section where the local water board has some structure buried under it, I decide to "hop" the tiny, tiny, lip that is there, completely ignoring the fact that I was angling slightly across the path, aimed right at the longitudinal seam in the concrete. made a great little "hop" came down with the front wheel alongside the seam annnndddd, yup, decked me and the bike at about 25 mph, on concrete, for the first bit, then luckily ended up rolling off across the grass. cost me some gravel rash, the bike picked up a couple of scratches, and a bent big ring. It wasn't even a big bump, no idea why i suddenly decided to try and hop it. The only good thing, no witnesses, just as well, felt like a big enough goof as it was.

Some years ago, first day with clipless pedals. On an MUP, I see a cute woman roadie waiting for cross car traffic. I slowly roll up next to her, ready to unclick my cool clipless pedals, and promptly fall over. She looks down at me, doesn't say a word, the traffic clears, and she slowly pedals away. That never happened again.

She could have been my future wife, bore my children... It's the little things that change your life...