just4tehhalibut

Obviously this would be something that you must have survived. Just curious as to what others have learnt the hard way, perhaps looking for a bit of wisdom on the cheap, someone else doing all the work.

Here's my contribution:
There's a section of pathway on my regular commute that involves hooning down a hill, turning onto another path at speed, hitting the anchors soon after and doing a sharp righthand turn into an dark underpass. You could top out at 50km/h down there, easy. One day I was doing this on my Greenspeed trike when I hit a bump as I came off the hill onto the path that feeds into the sharp turn. The chain dropped off the front chainring and being that I have a 63T ring up there a lot of chain slack happened, enough that it hit the ground in front of my rear tyre, got run over and tangled up around the wheel. Instead of a controlled brake I had a wild skid, skidding on a metal chain that is, heading towards a brick wall. Stopped just short but that was because I got my feet onto the ground to act as brakes. Took me half an hour to ease the chain off the wheel and untwist it all.
Moral of the story: always have a front derailleur or some chain keeper up front. It has saved me from some many other chain drop hiccups since.

What's yours?

LWB_guy

I rode about seven and a half miles away from home on a midsummer afternoon. While pedalling uphill only a mile before the turnaround point, a thunderstorm rained on us. I soon discovered my poorly performing caliper brake became a non-performing caliper brake. Also, I soon discovered pressing my shoe down on wet pavement on a busy street is a very poor way to brake. So I learned to not ride with a poorly performing brake.

recumelectric

My wreck taught me that I need to lay it down and just take the road rash on my side. The alternative is flying into a set of spinning handlebars. Hopefully, I'll have the right reflex if I start to wreck again.

ko40522

I was commuting to work and was about 3 miles away when I ran over something in the road which punctured my tire. I could hear the air leaking out slowly so I decided I would ride as fast as I could to get as close to work as possible before walking the bike. I rode an additional mile before the tire was too flat to ride. After work I planned to patch the tube and ride home. Well...I found that I had ridden over a relatively long nail which not only put one puncture hole in the tube, but made several puncture marks through the back side of the tube against the rim. I couldn't patch the tube, which resembled swiss cheese, and didn't have a spare so I had to walk the bike 5 miles home. Had I stopped the bike when the puncture occurred I'm sure the tube would have been repairable.

gcottay

Just off the top

• Turning way too quickly going way too fast
• Unclipping on what proved to be the wrong side
• Allowing rear brakes to drag
• Wow, that thunder was close!
• Who knew the water was so deep?
• Riding a DF for too few miles for too many years
• It's not that long a ride, who needs a patch kit?
• Whoops, there is some ice left after all.
• Living where warm weather riding isn't year-round!

Artkansas 

I was at the 40 mile mark of my first century on my Bacchetta Giro 20, and had pulled off the side of the road a bit to take an unscheduled pit stop in a rural area. It was a short steep bit of pavement that dropped down sharply to a dirt path and bushes. Good for a bit of private business.

All was well till I went back up. The side street was long enough that I decided to ride back up. To make the hill less steep, I started by riding at an angle.

But oooops. Even angling my direction, the hill was too steep to start comfortably on. I stalled out and lost my balance. As the bike fell over I slid off the seat and landed on the concrete. Since it was a hill, and my feet were still on the pedals, I landed all on my right butt. Oh that hurt!

I limped up the hill, pushing the bike and attempted to ride once I got back to the road. It hurt intensely, but after a little riding, the pain subsided to a tolerable point. So I rode on, the other 60 miles. Each time I got off the bike it was very painful. When I got to the end, I almost could not get off the bike, and driving home was very painful.

Afterwards, I could ride my regular commuter without pain, but riding the recumbent quickly became very painful. It took 6 months for the pain to subside enough to ride the Bacchetta on my regular 3 mile commute. I suspect I fractured the bottom of my pelvis.

recumelectric

Oooh. Just...ouch!

nkuvu

My own learning experience. I was fairly new to riding the Greenspeed trike I have, and was having a lot of fun with high speed cornering. I got to one T-intersection of two multi-use paths, and tried to take the corner... a little hot.

I learned two things. One, the Greenspeed trikes are able to tip. And two, wearing gloves would have been a really good idea.

I used to wear gloves on my diamond-frame bikes to give a bit more padding. But stopped wearing them on the trike because I wasn't putting any weight on my arms at all. A palm full of gravel and beauty bark convinced me that wearing gloves isn't a bad idea after all.

Square & Compas

What the hell is hooning?

JanMM

Shh! Just smile and pretend you understand - he's NOT FROM AROUND HERE.

cod.peace

Starting out at a stop light in the left lane to go straight, thinking I was in the 32 tooth cog in the rear and the 39 tooth in the front. Turns out I was in the 11 tooth cog on the rear (I swear I had downshifted), so wasn't expecting the resistance in the pedals when the light turned green. The bike swung 90 deg to the right and I nearly went down - if there had been a car turning right I would have put myself right in their path and probably have been hit.

Now I check the gear indicator on the shifter to confirm it's where I think it is.

altozwei

I got my first recumbent, a Catrike Road, in July. It has those duplex pedals that allow you to ride with or without clipping in. Since I didn't have a good way to carry extra shoes, I started wearing my running shoes on my ride to work (I work in a health club). After my chainring ate three of my shoelaces plus almost sucked my leg under the front of the trike, I broke down and bought a rack to carry the regular shoes and now ride clipped in.

purplepeople

Do not go up onto the sidewalk with your trike using the little wheelchair dip at speed...

Or do not build a trike with a track width of 32" or more...

Some years ago, I was "hooning" along on my homebuilt trike on the bike route to work. There was a sign that indicated road work ahead and directions for cyclists to divert to the sidewalk. The wheels must have hit about 3" of curb each side at maybe 20 kph because I ripped both cross-struts right off the main boom!

:)ensen.

worm6

riding farther than my legs could handle. stalled truck a couple a time going home. legs were to tired to push in clutch.

BlazingPedals

Alto, when I use regular street shoes on my upright, I just tuck the laces into the shoe. Preferably to the outside of the foot.

altozwei

Agreed, that works GREAT as long as you remember to do it. Unfortunately, on those occasions when I've gotten in too much of a hurry, I've always had an ugly little shredding sound as a reminder...

LWB_guy

WOW! That's a great idea. I"l have to remember to tuck in my shoelaces before I get into a bad, bad situation.

BlazingPedals

I have some bike shoes with laces. Yeah, they're older... What I do is make the normal bow, then flip the inside loop and tag end to the outside. The tag end originally pointing to the outside goes around everything in a half-hitch. This holds all the laces to the outside of my foot. (I only need to do it on the right foot.)

Pupsocket

On long organized rides with scheduled stops, the parking gets pretty congested. I pulled up to a stop on a hill, leaning considerably to one side. I did my usual "trike" stop, which involves unclipping, then a sharp stab at the brakes while dropping the feet to help me stand up.

At this point I was standing perpendicular to the trike but, unfortunately, not perpendicular to gravity. My tired legs couldn't hope to jump nimbly away, so down I went. I shattered one rearview mirror with my thigh, leaving a huge bruise but fortunately I wasn't cut.

Lessons learned: stop on level ground, use plastic mirrors for safety reasons.

geebee

I tuck my laces into the crossed laces on the shoe so that it doesnt annoy my foot being inside the shoe.

just4tehhalibut

It could have been worse and thinking of it leaves me with a visual of slipping down and dropping the family jewels onto that big front chainring, 63 teeth and all. I may not sleep well tonight. Yep, I do 'trike stops' too but will take more care in future.



P.S I hate laces, all my cycle shoes have at least one velcro strap and any laces are done up loosely, the ends looped through the lacing and never touched again. I find that laces give me compression issues on the tops of my feet that velcro doesn't and besides, velcro can be adjusted mid-ride.

Pupsocket

My shimano MTB shoes lace up, and have an elastic band attached to the tongue with a tab for pulling it up. Laces stowed under there.

ChiliDog

When I first got my tadpole trike I learned that straddling a pothole does not necessarily mean you ain't gonna thud down into the pothole!

Oh, yeah....forgot about that rear wheel! Ooops!

Tractortom

I loaded up my trike early, intending to ride from Moore Haven to Pahokee and
back. I stopped in Lakeport for the "all you can eat" Pancake Breakfast put on
by the Fire Department there, where my buddy Harry is a fireman and paramedic.
After a nice meal and a great chat with some old friends, I drove to the Alvin
Ward boat ramp area in Moore Haven and got on the trail. It was a little cool
and breezy, so I had on a long sleeve tee shirt from the Sunshine State
Recumbent Rally and a wind breaker over my jersey and shorts.

I rode through Clewiston without mishap, and stopped at John Stretch Park for a
potty stop. I was quickly back on the path, seeing the sights and having a
great time.

As I got to South Bay, I was looking off to the right side at the RV park there,
thinking about riding down with my trike and trailer and camping overnight. I
glanced back to the front, and saw, to my great surprize, a GATE, about seven
feet away and closing at 13.5mph!!!!!

Folks, I didn't even find the brakes on my trike. I threw my hands up to
protect my face, and WHANGED into the gate at speed....dead center.

OK, Quiz time for all you Physics Majors out there! What happens when a 266 lb
man, on a fully loaded Catrike Trail weighting about 55 lbs, goes from 13.5 mph
to zero in three feet? What does the impact sound like????

Well, the gate struck me on the point of the chin, and then my throat around my
adams apple. I was thrown from the seat over the right rear part of the seat
frame, and my back broke the bracket that held my rear rack in place and it and
the bag were on the ground behind the bike, but still attached at the bottom. I
was kind of wedged half off the bike and half on. I was moaning and groaning
and thrashing around trying to get free of the trike. A moment later, I was on
the path, on my back, blood dripping everywhere, from a cut somewhere in my
beard.

About this time, two nice women, who were planning on going fishing dashed up
and asked about my health and if there was anyone they could call (like
paramedics???). When I could talk, I told them I had my phone, dug it out of my
bag and made a first call to my wife.

Now, before anyone says it, in my own defense, the gates on the north end of the
lake are all painted bright bright yellow, and this one was galvanized and had
some red and silver reflective tape on it and is about the same color as the
faded asphalt of the path. I was busy sight seeing and just didn't see the darn
thing. That was a MAJOR mistake that will take weeks to get over.

So, once I could see again, and had staunched the flow of blood from somewhere
on my chin, I used my trusty (now blood stained) bandanna to tie my rear rack
back into place, got on the trike and took some tentative strokes of the pedals.
It wasn't too bad, the trike was pretty much OK, and I could still breath but it
hurt like HELL to swallow. I called the wife again and told her to meet me in
Clewiston next to the canal outside the gates to the Corps of Engineers Office.

I rode the 13 or so miles without too much fuss, other than I couldn't drink
much water cause it hurt so much to swallow. When I got to the meeting place, I
loaded the trike on the rack on her car, loaded all my crap in the back seat and
got in the passenger seat. As we drove away, I began to choke, and quickly
realized that my throat was closing up and I couldn't take a breath! I got
Diane to pull off the road and got out of the car, gasping and wheezing and
generally making a lot of noise. She immediately called 911 !!!! "My husband is
having trouble breathing, and this is the intersection where we are". The
symptoms began to abate a little bit, about the time the paramedics arrived.

They did a first check, got me in the ambulance and put on the oxygen mask.
That helped a GREAT DEAL and next I was hooked to a blood pressure cuff and an
ekg and a lot of wires and stuff. After an exam, it was decided that I may have
bleeding in my throat, and I needed a ride to the nearest trauma center, quick.
So, they called the Medivac Helicopter and transported over near the Clewiston
airport sirens and lights up RT80. and I took a 15 minute flight to Lee Momorial
Hospital in Ft. Myers. Once there, after initial triage, I had a CT Scan of my
throat, four or five Xrays of my chest and right shoulder and finally a
diagnosis. NO REAL DAMAGE! I have a muscle on the left side of my neck that is
swollen and putting pressure on my airway. I was given a steroid injection to
reduce the swelling, and finally, 5 staples put in my chin to close the gash
(after they shaved off my beard) and released!

So, we drove back to Moore Haven, picked up my truck that was parked there, and
took everything back to the house, where I took a long shower to wash off all
the dried blood, and got a good look at myself in the mirror. Ick! I'm
scuffed, and stapled but basically sound and now my one day ride around the lake
is up in the air.

I'm just GLAD that I'm not six inches shorter. I would have got my teeth and
jaw instead of my chin and neck.

Watch those gates kids! They are man-eaters!!!

Tractor Tom in Okeechobee

vincev

small front wheel
large back wheel
gravel
+turn
---------
=crash,road rash,1 month of side pain
_