I have fallen three times due to unclipping. Once in front of a gas station while I was sitting at a stop sign. I was trying to be that great rider that does not need to unclip and can stay stationary with both feet on the pedals. I guess I am not that rider.

My cleat came off my shoe once on a long ride. That was a fun day, my foot slipped off the pedal constantly. I tried riding a tandem once that had normal platform pedals. My shoe came untied and wrapped around the chain. I fell to the ground with amazing speed. The bike came shortly after, along with my riding partner (both on top of me) I was riding a bike once that did not have clips or clipless pedals. It was raining real hard and my foot came off the pedal and some how found it's way into the front spokes. Well I went head over handle bars and landed in the middle of the road. No one stopped to help, they just slowed down, pointed and laughed. I can't say I blame them. Ride on and have fun.

After buying my first road bike, I was putting my bike in the trunk of my car (rear seat folded) and was trying to take the front wheel off the bike, I released the wheel but couldn't remove it because the brakes were too tight, after trying for few moments I was still not able to remove the wheel. hmmm it doesn't look anything like my mtb wheel...thinking to my self.

I stood in the parking lot for almost 10 mintes refusing to go back in because the bike store had too many hardcore riders in there and didn't want to ask the stupid question.

Not before long the owner of the store came out to help another customer with something and I was able to get his attention and ask him, he had a huge smile but tried to keep a straight face. I can't believe how easy it was and why I didn't try it.

i was dropped by a girl once on a climb in montreal. her name was judith arndt.

My friend Ed and I were heading home across Simi Valley into a headwind and we're just dying. A track racer I knew named Patty shows up and offers to pull all the way back. Gladly we sit in behind her until we get to the climb on the end of the valley. She politely excuses herself and says she will wait for us on the other side. I had seen her awesome power before and knew she was going to sprint the hill but Ed was a Cat 4 and couldn't stand to get dropped by a girl. She took off and the fool went after her. On the other side I found them waiting, her smiling and him with pain on his face. He had torn a muscle in his glutes and was off the bike for 6 weeks. When he came back and people asked him about it, he would never tell them it was a girl he was chasing when he injured himself. Of course, I had to let the cat out of the bag.

laughing. out. loud. can we start a vote?

I'll join in on the fun,
-On an 18 mile hill climb race i weaved so much back and forth across the street I ended up doing 22 miles and still didn't finish the race.
-I crashed on my way to school when i decided to pass a group of kids on the side walk. got on the grass got infront of them and then i didn't see the dip between grass and concrete. I bit it hard and have a scar on my leg from where the tire dug into my leg.
-I stopped counting how many times i crashed once i go pass 10 times.
-I did a group ride that was going to do 60miles in my first 3 months on a bike. big mistake. the field had a guy that got silver medal in nationals in the masters catagory. the course was filled with hill and their warm up was doing 23mph. by the 10 mile mark i was crying and 50 yards off the back. they always waited but i was not ready and bonked at around 30miles and didn't have any food whatsoever. i crawled home in tears and sweat and couldn't walk for 1 1/2 days.
-More to come!

This was the best! Thanks for the laugh!



Besides the usual unable to clip or forgetting to clip, I once got my jacket caught in my back tire on a downhill and I reached back and yanked on it. The jacket caught in between the brake pad and the tire and down I went. It took me at least 5 minutes to get the jacket untangled, all the while people stopping to see if they could help.

Another time I was talking to another rider and didn't notice that a parked car had his car door open. That one hurt, but I was 20 years younger so I didn't fall apart like I would today.

Another time I was riding across the city park on wet grass and I came up to the tennis courts. The brakes obviously didn't work and I rode right into the fence and flipped over into the courts.

Non-biking: On a winter day in college, I ran across a busy street and jumped over a puddle and on the sidewalk on the other side. The sidewalk was covered with ice and I instantly flipped on my back.

Non-biking: I was at a busy grocery store and had just dropped off the groceries in the car. I ran the grocery cart up to the store with my GF watching. I hit a 1/2" high curb and the cart stopped instantly. I didn't. I flipped over the cart in front of a bunch of people coming out of the store. My GF was laughing her fool head off. I did eventually marry her. Who else would marry me?

I had a head-on collision while borrowing a cute girl's bike back in highschool with another cyclist. Obviously, I didn't impress her.

If we're doing non biking now...

Back in the day, I was teaching myself to roller skate, I used to fall on my butt all the time. My solution? Tape a pillow to my butt.

back to biking:
when I was younger I used to love poppin wheelies. I got carried away though, and popped one so high that I flipped the bike over and landed on my back, and somehow took all the skin off one of my elbows.

Here goes:

- When I was about 16 or so I was going down my parents gravel driveway which is a pretty steep hill so I was on the brakes. Anyway someone drove by and waved so naturally I waved back, started to lose control and mashed the front the brake and went right over the bars. Suprisingly my ego hurt a lot more than the gravel stuck in my hands and forearms.

- For a while, I was riding in yellow tennis shoes on platforms(not even toe clips), white socks, black lycra shorts, a baggy white t-shirt, and a red helmet. I encountered a pretty good looking woman at a stop light while wearing this. I don't think she was digging it because she dropped me on the next hill while on a full time trial frame while staying seated and in the aero bars while I had to stand in one of my lowest gears.

- A couple weeks later I was passed going down the same hill by a guy on a fixie.

- Once I was riding on the sidewalk and it made 90 degree turn at one point. I tried to cut it by going into the grass but there was about a 3" jump from the ground to the concrete so my front wheel hit, stoped and I slow motion endoed at like 3 mph. Everbody around looked and then went back about their business like it was just a regular occurence.

- I saw a guy about 1/4 mile, maybe a half mile, ahead of me so I decided to chase him down. I ended up catching him after like 5 miles of flats. When I finally caught him, I was pretty pumped untill I turned and it was this 70+ year old guy on a really old steel frame hardly spining. He gave a smug look like "yeah, you're the next Lance Armstrong, I mean it only took 5 miles to pass me." That was a nice reality check.

- Okay, last one. One of my first times on a trainer I hoped off but forgot the bike was up an extra 3 inches or so and crotched the top tube. Needless to say, my "boys" were not happy about that.

Maybe it was me.


Ok, probably not, but I'm glad to see a new Madison-area BF poster. Welcome.

I was once "hooted" and "propositioned” by a car full of guys, because they thought I was a chick with my long hair and shaved legs. When they passed me and saw my facial hair, they sat back in their seats real quick. I bet they made a pact with each other never to speak of that incident again.

Falling over still clipped in - lots of times on the mt bike
Recently bought a road bike and when a guy from church invited me on a ride I said sure - he's just had his 64th birhtday I'm 20 years younger and ride my mt bike a lot, no worries
He proceeded to drag my butt up and down every hill in our area and on a folding bike with tiny little 13" wheels.....humbled until I found out he's been riding a couple hundred miles a month for the last 20 years

....otherwise known as a "Cat 5 Tatoo" or, as my wife calls 'em, "geek marks".
To avoid, just keep your right foot clipped in at all times.

Lots of good fell-over-while-standing-still stories here. Only thing I can add is that I actually managed to break my wrist doing it. Busy intersection in Pasadena, too slow to unclip, and I did a perfect Artie Johnson to the right. Tried to break my fall by sticking my hand out (dumb), and fractured my wrist. The damn thing was in a cast for six weeks. I did learn that when you ask for directions to the nearest hospital with a look of intense pain on your face, people tend to be pretty helpful!

About the worst I have ever done was when I was 15. I was riding a bike trail that ended abruptly at a busy road. Not wanting to ride on the busy road I hurried across, fully expecting there to be a curb cut on the other side leading up to the sidewalk. (At that time I didn't know that I was supposed to be on the road.)

So I sped across the road, watching for traffic each way, not looking for the curb cut. There was no curb cut. I pulled a very nice endo in front of the driver's ed class that was exiting the high school; 50-100 15yo's who got a good laugh out of my spill.

I was pretty banged up too. Road rash on hands, elbows, and knees. Blood running into my shoes. There were however some people nice enough to stop and see if I was okay. I got quite a few looks riding back through town though... I was a bloody mess.

Twenty-six years ago. My G/F & future wife, parked the car and hopped onto the bikes on the Canadian side of the border and headed over to the city of Niagara Falls, on the USA side. Specifically to that dot of ground between the USA Bridal Falls and the Canadian Horseshoe Falls. Goat Island I think it's called.

Soon after clearing the US Customs, I was doing a good clip and left her far behind me. I got to the top of the island and viewed the Falls and gorge ahead of and below me, about an 1/8th. of a mile out, on a 20% to 25% doward slope. Still pumping my ride very hard, the gorge edge and the railing was coming up very fast.

I'm going flat out.

No problem. I'm a "skilled" cyclist I say to myself. I gently loaded and squeezed the rear brake, then I hit the front brake, firmly.

POP!

The front cable pulled right through the retaining nut on the brake arm. NO front brakes!!! Crap,.. 70% of my braking effort is now GONE! I'm running out of road,...FAST.... the guard rail is approaching and the gorge is widening!

I can hear the crashing falls on both sides of me by now.

Quickly, I squeezed the rear brake lever.......HARD, VERY HARD...... go to fade....instantly!... NO REAR BRAKES! I've barely slowed at all and now I have no brakes WHAT-SO-EVER!

I'm now close enough to see into the Falls and the Niagara Gorge by now and actually visualized myself hitting the guard and catapulting over the rail and into the misty abyss. It was Spring, midweek and preseason. Only a few individuals on the whole island and my future wife is nowhere to be seen.

NO-ONE-WOULD-WITNESS-MY-FANTASTIC-CATAPULT-AND-PLUMMET-OVER-THE-RAIL-AND-INTO-THE-NIAGARA-FALLS-GORGE-NOR-WHITENESS-MY-IMPENDING-YET-SPECTACULAR-FLYING-F-ING-DEATH-!

Truly a "Ripley's Believe It or Not" tacky moment I'm having. Time slows down exponentially and the brain speeds up relatively.

I slipped my runner toe-tips down and off the pedals. NO GOOD, the seat is TOO high! I can't touch the ground enough to have any drag braking effect!

I'm just a few dozen yards from the boiling Falls now. The water roar is deafening and I'm preparing to get the ride, not to mention a view of the gorge that very few people have EVER seen and even fewer have ever lived to talk about.

Just moments away.......

I then quickly slide off the saddle and land HARD, right onto my "Wedding-Package", crotch-slamming onto the cross bar and then DUG-HARD-DRAGGED-MY-RUNNERS-TOPS-RIGHT-INTO-THE-ASPHALT, sliding along what seemed like hours, the leather and rubber shoe tops quickly heated up and burned right through the Adidas Sierras I was wearing.

THUCK! My front wheel hard "kissed" the flat silver aluminium guard rail at the gorge edge ........ I had stopped,.. I think.

It was very, very quiet at that moment. I looked around and NOT a single soul had witnessed my close encounter with my "maker". I looked down at my runners and both of the tops of the big toes had heat/abrasion ground right through to the cotton socks!

My heart was still pounding in my mouth when up beside me, smoothly in rolled Janine on her cycle.

"Isn't that the most beautiful site in the world?" she innocently asked. As coolly and calmly as I could muster, I replied: "Yup, honey, ....... it sure is, it sure is".

ha! that last bit is classic, hilarious, sorry but its funny, Didnt you think of bailing?

.......... it was a new bike!

- Forgetting to downshift from 53/12 before leaving the Monitor Pass / Rt 395 rest stop on last year's California Death Ride and falling over right in the middle of a large pack. Didn't take anyone down with me, which was good.

- Forgetting I wasn't last in the pace line during last year's High Sierra Century, blowing an enormous snot-rocket, and nailing the guy behind me.

Two very humbleing experiences: Was riding in the Black Forest Germany on a nice little rolling Mt. pass with a few switch backs. I could see a rider ahead of me everytime the road swithched so I decided to go for it and try to reach him. After a very long time and a great deal of effort I closed in, compleatly winded, then I finally passed him, only to realize he had one leg! Again in the Mts. (this time real mountains) I was outside of Grenoble France (the tour goes through here every other year for the great roads) Anyway, I am climbing and climbing For over an hour, really feeling pain on a MT that just wouldn't stop, never seen anything like it,. In the middle of nowhere all alone and its dusk, I climb some more hoping it will level out it never does-- just relentless. I am in pretty good shape (at the time about 33yrs old) but really I had had enough this incline never ends, so I just turn around and go back down... Just 45 seconds into the descent who do I see? fresh as a daisy making the climb-- but an old geezer dude on a 60's road bike in a wool shirt, guy mustv'e been mid-sixty at least, not winded smiling away.... Humbled allright.[I]

I decided to get back into cycling 6 or 7 years ago when it was time for my daughter to graduate from training wheels in the driveway to cycling on the street in front of our house. I dusted off the old 12-speed Niskiki which had been sitting in the basement for 10 years and went out for 1/2 hour ride, about 5 miles or so. This subdivision is built on a good sized hill and by the time I made it back up the hill to my place I was so exhausted that I quite literally thought I was dying. I remember lying sprawled out on the breezeway beside the back door so tired I couldn't even see, and thinking that I should bring my arms in beside my body so when "they" came to pick me up I could be put into a box easier.

Well, 6 years later I'm 45 lbs lighter and rode 4,000 km last year. Just keep at, it'll get better.

Funny thread...

Most embarrassing:
Trying to take my arm warmers off while riding (no hands) - I started to loose control of the bike and swerved into gravel at the side of the road. Yard sale!

Scraped elbow – check
Torn knee warmer – check
Scrapped leg - check
Bruised ego - check

Truly most humbling:
I trained on a 2-mile, 8% grade hill for months. During one climb I was nearing the top and was about to achieve a personal best time when I got passed like I was standing still by another cyclist.

A couple of years after I got back into cycling, I had been "training" 3 or 4 times a week on a 18 km ride with a few big hills. I thought I was getting into pretty good shape and happened to run into a neighbour down the street. Well, he was an older German guy, late 60's, maybe 70 and he mentioned he'd seen me on my bike and that he used to ride. I suggested we go out for a ride, he agreed and the next day we got together.

Well he hadn't ridden his bike for 3 years and it was looking kind of rusty when he dug it out of his garden shed, and I was really having second thoughts when he put on his "helmet" which was made out of these thin tubes of leather. We started off and then had to stop while he found some oil because the chain was all but seized-up. Then the front derailleur cable broke, so he tied it off on his top tube.

Well to make a long story short after he finished "my" 18 km training ride, he graciously rode back to join me at roughly the halfway mark.

I'm still too intimidated to ask him for a second chance, even though I regularly do that ride in half the time I used to.

I later found out that he's Incredibly fit, used to do amazing long distance rides and even today swims across the lake (a few km.) in front of our house every morning at 5 AM.

How about not being able to keep up with guy on a beat up mountain bike, on the flats, with a kid in the kids seat on the back!