sanitycheck

Aside from the obligatory and humiliating "first day with the new pedals" falls...

A couple of years ago:
I'd been riding a recumbent for just a week or two; more used to diamond frames. Descending a hill toward my house, carrying a cup of coffee in my left hand because "it's just a few blocks, so nothing can go wrong." As near as I can reconstruct, my rear tire flatted as I was going down the hill, but I didn't notice, probably because I wasn't yet in tune with the feel of the bike.

I took a right turn at moderate speed, the rear wheel failed to grip and slid out from under me, and I put my right foot down to try to stop the fall...big mistake. The ground swept my right leg and ankle back into pretzel-like configurations that nature never intended, and I hobbled around with a cane for a couple weeks before I could put any weight on the joint, let alone ride. Counted myself lucky I didn't break the ankle.

Spilled the coffee, too.


A year or so before that:
Riding at night in a heavy rainstorm on a road that I thought I knew well.

I didn't know the road so well after all; there was a ridge a couple inches high, running parallel to the direction or travel, from some old botched resurfacing job. On this night, the ridge (and the rest of the road surface) were hidden by a temporary river of rain water. I tried to move left to claim more of the lane, the ridge took my front tire out from under me, and I ate pavement before I knew what the hell was happening.

A lot of road rash, but no real injuries or bike damage. Still, how the hell had I never noticed that ridge when the road was dry?


And a couple years before that:
I endoed while climbing a hill, when a pannier strap came loose and wrapped around my hub. Main damage was to my pride, as this happened in plain view of a long, slow line of congested traffic, just as I was feeling seriously smug for rocketing past all those poor cagers...


I feel like I'm slowly compiling a list of all the stupid careless crap a person can pull on a bicycle...but one human lifetime probably isn't enough to go through all possible dumb moves, so I'll probably be working on it until I die. (Hopefully of unrelated causes.)

nocondorfx

1.hidden gravel + fast turn

Thats the only fall I will ever have.

sanitycheck

Ow, Siu.

At least there was no poison oak growing around the tree?

rocoach

My most memorable fall was entering a round-about at the bottom of a hill and hitting a patch of oil...
I rode over a footbridge once and the front wheel slipped into a grill. I went head over heels.
I ran into the back of a parked car once...
I came off when taking a corner too tight and caught my pedal on the kerb.
Most recently when my front wheel slipped on the cement edge of the wheelchair accessible dip where the sidewalk intersects the road.

Oh yes; no helmet and no injuries (fingers crossed).

Siu Blue Wind

No, but I was with a little 8 year old girl who wanted to "ride a bike like YOU!". So after the stars in my head cleared I heard a little pixie voice ask "you 'right?" as she tried to shake my body back to Earth with her little hand. I had to toughen up, and lie to her. "Yeah, I'm cool. You just have to turn AWAY from the solid object." ..as I winced in pain The ride back wasn't very delightful but I think I tricked her into believing I was juuuuuuuust fine.

Oh and Sanitycheck? You aren't the only one compiling a list. I only posted one of them....

StephenH

Failure to maintain proper balance on a unicycle. Happened multiple times, with minor abrasions to palms and knees on a couple of those times.

Machka 

1) Clipless pedals
2) Klutziness
3) Running into riders in front of me
4) Muddy road surface on a descent
5) Ice

JavaWolf

Surprisingly enough, I've only fallen once. I was at a dead end in the road and hit a large, conspicuous pile of gravel while turning around.

In my defense, though, I did clip out before I hit the ground.

chephy

AS A KID

* General clumsiness when just learning how to ride.

* Tried to make very sharp turns on roads with loose gravel. Kept wiping out, and kept trying. Yeah, I know, natural selection was very kind in allowing me to survive through childhood.

* Ran into a lamp post while playing bicycle tag at a school yard. See comment above re natural selection.

AS AN ADULT

* Foot slipped off platform pedal.

* Ran into a car hood when riding on the sidewalk (was just starting to ride then and had no clue about riding on roads, or the dangers of sidewalk riding, or anything bike-related, really).

* Too much front brake (went over the bars into a soft grass... it was fun, actually!)

* General clumsiness (embarrassing).

* Front wheel stuck in a streetcar track. My most serious accident so far... tore my favourite pants and got a sprained wrist that took a couple of weeks to heal. All the other stuff resulted in a just bruises and some road rash, or no damage at all.

* Lost traction when turning in snow. Twice.

* Didn't unclip in time. Twice.

cc_rider

Gravel filled pothole on a turn, sand at the road edge, taking a turn too wide and hitting a curb, avoiding a jogger on the wrong side of the trail.

MMACH 5

Wet pavement.
Wet pavement plus train tracks.
Loose gravel/dirt in the road.

neilfein

Lost my balance mounting my bike on the D&RC towpath. No serious damage, just my pride.

DanteB

Trying to miss a large rock some kids threw off the bluff above me. I did miss the rock, but I clipped a chain link fence and went down. I ended up in the hospital for 3 days with 3 broken ribs, a collapsed lung and a separated shoulder.

cyccommute 

Ice, dogs, taking a curb cut too shallow, plowed into by a pedestrian, sand, rocks, jumping water checks and forgetting to hold onto the bar, running off the road, pedal strikes on a rock on a narrow mountain trail, bottoming out a tandem on a whoop-de-do, catching linear crack in a trail, chainslip while climbing out of the saddle, getting hit by a car, running into the back of my daughter when she stopped short, wet pavement, water on icy pavement, snow, rocks, clipless pedals (several times), losing traction on loose climbs, sand pits on trails, stream crossings, hitting a handlebar on a tree while next to a 4' drop into Cherry Creek while the March of Dimes Walk-a-thon was happening on the paved trail above the trail I was on in March (Damn that was cold!), and probably about 100 reasons more.

A lot can happen in 30+ years of riding

cyclezealot

Three times, as I recall. 1. First day, not yet used to clipless. 2. A shop improperly installed a rear cluster and soon after leaving the bike store, the cluster jammed. 3. On a downhill I hit a rock in the road, I did not see. That time injuuring my right shoulder.

himespau 

Not really sure what happened, I think a bit of overheating/dehydration was involved, somehow was standing to climb a hill and the next thing I knew I was going over the handlebars and doing a faceplant and ended up with a concussion. Apparently helmets don't protect your noggin when the pavement decides to deliver a knockout blow to your chin...

krome

Three falls that I can remember having as an adult:

1: First "serious" bike purchase as an adult. The bike had clipped pedals with straps, coming to a stop, I got one foot out of the strap with no trouble. Unfortunately, just before I actually stopped, I accidentally shifted my balance for the other foot, so I go down, with foot strapped in. After that, no more straps for me.

2: Turning too much on a grade, the front tire didn't have enough grip on the surface, went down. No serious injury, just a lesson learned. Tough to describe the exact circumstance, but the short answer is that I pushed the bike too hard for the conditions.

3: Adjusting my hat with both hands, got distracted because earlier I had stuck something inside my hat and forgot about it until I was riding. I got off balance, tried to reach for the bars, and ended up going down. Speed was slow, injury was some scrapes on my legs. Another lesson learned.

apricissimus 

Two falls:

1. I had no problems with clipless pedals for like a week after I first bought them, and I was wondering what all the fuss was about. One day, I pull up alongside a car at a red light. As I slow to a stop, I fail to properly disengage form my pedals, and I fall over onto the car from a full stop. I slid to the ground and got up. Unfortunately for me there was a long line of cars waiting at the light, so I had quite an audience. They guy whose car I fell onto looked at me like I was a lunatic.

2. Caught in a sudden downpour, I tried riding off a curb onto the street. The puddle below was actually quite deep and was hiding a loose muddy gravel. So down I went, into that mess. At least the pouring rain washed me off rather quickly.

nubikebuzz

Olive oil. Seriously!! Decades of olives dropping from overhanging trees built up a slimy smudge on the road. Add a slight drizzle to make a barely wet surface. I was doing 16mph in a straight line. The bike slid out from under me. I hit pavement before I knew I was going down. Fractured wrist and 20 stitches in my face.

thisis amazing!

This. During rush hour at the Balboa Park Bart Station area. Luckily my toe clips saved me from flying over the handlebars

Other times I've fallen off the bike were due to slippery road conditions like gravel. Usually my rear tire spins out and I do a baseball slide on the pavement

OPC

In no particular order:

Dumb-***** wet pavement - hit a turn too fast & overshot into a chainlink fence
Wasp caught between sunglasses & helmet - freaked out & lost control.
Dumb-***** forgot to unclip

Zan

if it's offroad, the list would be endless. on road, the ONLY time i've wiped out was 'cause my friend hit me when riding together and smacked the front wheel out from under me.

Zan

and the kids are at the bottom of the local lake...

charly17201

Last time I fell was after moving my clipless pedals from the DF to my 'bent. Getting them set loose enough took some time, and while I was practicing (while not moving) I just kinda toppled over. Hey, at least not road rash or anything. Just one minor scratch.

caloso

Wet leaves. Black ice. Oily water in a parking lot. Slippery surfaces all.