diphthong

what was your worst cycling (related) decision of 2021? could have been a purchase...inclusion of a nooby rider into the cadre...
extending the ride, pushing through a difficult moment that turned out baaad...dish!

SoSmellyAir

Possibly the hoarding purchase of "spare" chains, cassettes, chain rings, tubes and tires (on sale) due to the oft-mentioned supply chain issues regardless of my actual mileage.

But I know at least some of you would laud those decisions.

mstateglfr 

On a road ride, a car behind me honked to let me know it was behind and passing. I looked back because who honks?...and hit a frost heave in the road as I turned back forward. My front wheel contacted the bump at an angle that caused me to lose balance and slam to the pavement.
Broke 2 ribs, separated my clavicle, and my hip was bruised for weeks.
Totally unnecessary- the car gave me plenty of room when it passed and didn't need to announce its presence.


Looking back to see why that car honked is easily my worst cycling decision of the year.

waters60

Pushing through horrendous cramps at 57 miles and 5,000’ into a 106 mile, 10,000’ + ride and actually feeling good at the end.

waters60

Pushing through horrendous cramps at 57 miles and 5,000’ into a 106 mile, 10,000’ + ride and actually feeling good at the end.

palesaint

Choosing to not ride enough. Worst decision ever.........

znomit

Ordering the BLT sandwich in the middle of a 200k ride. Was a fairly unpleasant few hours afterwards until I threw it up. Finished the ride feeling great though.

Iride01 

Only doing a dozen rides between October 1 and December 18th. But now I'm getting back on track. I haven't looked for certain, but I think my number are as bad as they were when I started riding for fitness back in 2009.

Part of it was full week down with the flu. I knew I should have gotten my flu shot before going on a trip, but I got to busy with other stuff. Then a few weeks later my covid booster gave me a very strong reaction and had me down another three days. Otherwise it was laziness and staying here at BF too much. <grin>

rsbob 

Entering a 50,000’ outdoor only climbing challenge in November and alternately getting dumped on by rain or freezing my a$$ off on long descents.

The worst single decision during said challenge was taking a transition stage between two climbs during a monsoon downpour along a state highway with flooding on my side of the road with semis and trucks whipping by at 55 MPH slashing me with spray and no where to go. What a dumb @$$.

I did not complete the challenge since I was 17,000’ short due to wussing out because of increasingly bad weather.

Inusuit

Missed some decent weather days for riding in December. Now it's 2 degrees and windy with no relief in sight.

Seattle Forrest

Drilling holes in the spokes to save weight.

ofajen

Back in August, I decided to remind myself what it feels like to fall off a bike from standing height onto rock strewn pavement while landing mostly on the hip, elbow and ankle on one side. Turns out I’m still allergic to pavement. Two weeks on crutches and off the bike. Actually took longer to get back to walking comfortably than to biking comfortably, which only took a few more weeks.

Otto.

shelbyfv

I actually had two fails during the year. First was deciding to try SPD SLs after years of SPDs and single sided A600 pedals. I tried them for about 6 months but never felt right. I went back to SPDs and made two friends happy with the lightly used shoes and pedals. The other regret was cancelling a week long supported ride because of Covid concerns. I was vaccinated and it was pre-Omi but I was still nervous about standing in buffet lines, etc. The folks I know who went had a great time and AFAIK nobody got sick. At least I gained knowledge from the pedal episode. Nothing good came from missing the ride....

Koyote

My worst cycling-related decision of 2021? I should have ridden more, and posted to bf less.

Chuck M 

My worst decision was probably riding a suspect chain up a steep hill on a bike with minimal standover clearance. Fortunately I was able to protect everything important and only pushed the bike about two miles to get home.

growlerdinky

riding into the back of a parked Rav4.

Chuck M 

Weird decision right there.

Rodrigo Kenobi

Buying an MTB Bike, spending a bunch of money on it, barely riding it and selling it at a loss 6 months later.

tomato coupe

Worst decision: I waxed my chain and my legs in the same crock pot.
Second worst decision: I installed rim brakes on my car.
Honorable mention: In a quest for the ultimate low rolling resistance, I bought 200mm wide GP5000 tires.

Homebrew01

Not riding enough. Bored of the roads around here.

LAJ

They better have been tubeless....

downtube42

Having a popped rivet on my leather saddle fixed by a shoe repair shop three days before a 1200k. That ineffective repair had a rivet digging in my butt for 89 fricken hours of riding.

SoSmellyAir

I think it is OK to ride and/or tinker for content to post on BF; beats riding just for Strava, eh?

Hiro11

Trusting Chicagoland weather forecasts. The forecast for anything more than 18 hours into the future in the Chicago area is always, always, always wrong. In fact, Chicago weather forecasting is frequently wrong inside of 12 hours into the future. If you've risked starting a century because the forecast is calling for "10% chance of rain", there's a 100% chance it's going to rain exactly when you're furthest from home and then continue to rain all the way home. If you dropped out of a group ride because at 9pm the night before the forecast says its definitely going to rain in the morning, it's guaranteed not to rain and your friends are guaranteed to have a good ride. If you've dressed based on a forecast of 68 degrees, it's going to be 53. If you've dressed for a forecast of 28, it's going to be 42. 5 mph winds from the north mean it's going to be 21 mph winds from the east. It's an absolute clown show here.

kraftwerk 

Not doing a century which I kind of planned to do.. Shudda done that...
Not spending more time riding up in VT w/ my Bro. He knows some nice routes....
Not convincing the wife to ride IRL w/me more, for better or worse, she is addicted to Peloton, as our tandem collects dust, arrgggh.