VeloNewbie

I had a mechanical failure yesterday with my bike that caused me to wreck. I fortunately thought quick and steered towards the weeds. I'm fine and the bike is fine. But I started thinking. I was in my street clothes (jeans) instead of my Lycra. What if I was in my Lycra and fell down, ripping the shorts? It would be embarrassing to ride home with my *** cheeks hanging out. LOL. I was wondering if that ever happened to anyone before and what kinds of looks did the receive from pedestrians/motorist? I'm thinking about taking a pair of boxer shorts with me on rides now when I'm in Lycra LMAO. Seriously. It would be SO embarrassing.

nhluhr

When you've wrecked hard enough to have your ass hanging out, you definitely aren't worried about onlookers during your ride home. I had it happen once. Didn't even really realize my shorts were tore that wide open until I got home and started looking in the mirror to see my backside.

rpenmanparker 

I carry a three-piece suit with me for those occasions. I prefer charcoal gray in a tropical wool worsted. Blue shirt and maroon tie. Totally classic. That is why I only buy black cycling shoes. Last time I rode home from a wreck that way I passed a couple of nuns on the street. My face was all bloody and blood was running down my wrist and ankles.

Sister Mary Margaret said to Sister Catherine Dolores, "Oh Sister, look at that poor bloody cyclist. He can hardly pedal the bike to get home."

"Yes, Sister," said Sister Catherine, "but isn't he a sharp dresser."

You have to have priorities!

RPK79

Same, but I prefer a dark purple dress shirt and a tie to match the suit. I didn't have the exact same nun story to share either; in my case it was some older retired gals who were out golfing at a club I had to ride by on the way home.

svtmike

I bypass the entire problem by wearing kit that makes it look like I'm naked and have horrible road rash.

Stucky

If it ever ends up happening to you, you'll have a strong urge to become a plumber afterwards....

gpburdell

I think the Colombian women's cycling team beat you to it...

ColaJacket

You weren't this guy were you?

Crash at 30mph

GH

Ragriz

It actually takes more than you would think to rip lycra. I was in a recent accident and had some pretty bad road rash on my hip, but my shorts didn't even tear.

VeloNewbie

I guess you are right. If I wrecked that hard, I really wouldn't care about what others thought haha. I imagine I would be in too much pain.

bbattle

The street cred from shredded, bloody shorts is totally worth it.

FBinNY 

I had a friend lay his bike down (intentional to avoid hitting a dog), and shred his shorts such that they split and became a tube covering one leg only. That's why you wear a separate jersey instead of a skinsuit. A bit of improv and he was decent enough not to get arrested.

berner

I can see the ads in my mind now. "Pre-shredded bike shorts available at your favorite bike store. 10% off your first purchase."

gpburdell

<tangent>Since I'm somewhat newly returned to bicycling, how exactly does that work here? In my years in the motorcycle world the guidance was typically in favor of keeping the bike upright; brakes&tires braked better than sliding on your side.</tangent>

Sidney Porter

This. Intentionally laid their bike down is code for I am inexperienced and I crashed but I am going try to save face by telling my friends I meant to do that (at least with motorcycle).

FBinNY 

Not quite, I've known a number of people who've intentionally laid bicycles or motorcycles down to avoid what would have been a more serious crash. I did this once to avoid hitting a child that I felt I couldn't avoid otherwise.

sloar 

10 miles from home training on my triathlon bike. I really don't remember what happened, I just woke up in the middle of a country road. One of my shoes was 50 feet away. I think I hit a pot hole and flipped over the bars. I was knocked out and my helmet crushed. I tried calling my wife with no answer, so I put picked up one of my bar end shifters, put it in my jersey pocket and rode home with one gear and my butt cheeks hanging out. I was hurting so bad I didn't care who saw my butt.

gpburdell

How did you do it?

... and how had you practiced that maneuver prior to needing to be able to do it?

FBinNY 

I have no idea how you'd practice it, except maybe when snow riding. As for how "exactly" it's done, I can't say. In my case the child was running across a street and I tried to steer behind him, He saw me, panicked, and reversed back into my intended track. I simply opened the turn a bit, hit the rear brake, and gravity did the rest.

But basically, that's it, bring your body to the inside of a would be turn, start then turn and hit the rear brake so that wheel slides out. It might help if you've accidentally laid a bike down on sand or gravel, and your body remembers how that feels.

I don't recommend laying down a bicycle, but I read about so many people going over the front, or the high side if they oversteer. All in all, I think going down to the inside is a better deal.

Bike handling skills are an under rated facet of staying safe on a bike. I developed many of mine riding on snow and ice, when I was much younger and less brittle, along with plenty of dirt road riding. Many riders who started out as children developed handling instincts abusing their 20" cst brake bikes. Mtn bikers and cross riders also develop good skills from riding on treacherous surfaces, but many road bikers, especially those who come to the sport late in life, never have much practice riding close to the edge, and when they have their first handling problems, lack the instincts to manage them decently.

yankeefan

Absolutely golden insight. Riding in NYC has taught me that there are some situations where a crash is inevitable, and you as a rider need to be able to evaluate the situation in a couple seconds to chose the safer/lesser crash.

FBinNY 

I wish we had anything like seconds to consider options. At 20mph, a bicycle travels 30 feet per second, so you typically have fractions of seconds to react by reflex. You don't think about this stuff, but put some preconditioned reactions into motion.

I practice a crash avoidance method I call "steer for the rear", whereby I'll always steer for the rear of a crossing person or vehicle. This isn't ALWAYS right but it affords the highest likelihood of being able to avoid a crash, or if there is a crash a less deadly one. I've drilled myself on this, and start thinking about it as a situation looks like it might develop.

For example, If I'm moving fast and see a car facing em in his left turn lane, or simply slowing or waiting as if contemplating one, I'm already checking over my left shoulder and moving to the left in my lane. Then if/when the left coss happens, there's no thinking, just follow through of a pre-programmed reaction. If you first think about avoiding a collision when it's imminent, you're few seconds too late.

All this doesn't mean I've never been surprised, or had very close calls, it just means I've had fewer.

BoSoxYacht

I fell hard onto my hip in a hard right turn, and never damaged my bibs. My hip looked ugly 24 hours later.

FBinNY 

Yep, that what it looks like 2-3 days later, and the area can be hard as a rock. But I'll take big time bruising over most of the alternatives any time.

VeloNewbie

Yes indeed. This is actually how my recent wreck I was talking about in my original posting happened. I had a mechanical failure and I intentionally laid my bike down to avoid hitting someone. I was going downhill. If I did not do that, things would have been MUCH worse. I ended up in the weeds, no one hurt. Fast thinking.

VeloNewbie

Yea I would give anyone the finger if they gave me crap for my *** hanging out if I was in an immense amount of pain LOL