I went to go pick up some bar tape for my KHS this afternoon. I noticed a slight scuffing sound coming from my front wheel but figured my newly built wheels might just be settling in a little and the brake was rubbing. I also knew I had to tighten my lockring up and figured I'd take it easy riding down to the coop I belong to. There's a trail I usually take to get down there that picks up after a 4 way stop.

It's pretty common for cyclists to get off the trail and go straight through the intersection. I noticed the intersection was clear of cars but there was a cyclist approaching the end of the trail. No big deal. She made eye contact and I figured things were cool since I was already in the intersection and she wasn't. Not so. She not only pulls out but veers right in front of me. I was able to scrub off just enough speed with the brake to avoid hitting her, but I felt my cog slip. Lame.

I get on the trail, take a deep breath, and get start rolling again. There's that scuffing sound again. I stand up to pickup up some speed and BAM! Next thing I know I'm on the ground. I pick the bike up trying to figure out what the hell happened, give it a once-over and continue on. The peds who witnessed the whole thing definitely got a good laugh. The cog seems ok, brake doesn't seem to be rubbing. Only one small scuff on the bars. But the bike is still making that sound. I put both wheels on the truing stand at the shop and they're basically fine. I check for rubbing on the brake. Nothing.

Finally I looked at the fork straight on. What should have been a few millimeter of clearance was down to nil at points because the wheel was off kilter in the fork. A 700x23 tire barely clears as it is. When I built the wheel it was rounded to within a millimeter or so, but apparently the combination of the wheel not being perfectly centered when I put it on, it not being fully cranked down combined with the braking pressure was enough to throw it out of place so that when I stood up the extra force was enough to bend the fork against the tire, locking the wheel, and pitching me over the bars.

So... Today's lesson is if your bike has tight clearances in the fork, make sure your wheel is centered and tighten that **** down.

My worst over the handelbars came from a poorly installed cog. I stood up to pedal, the cog slipped and locked, and somehow I flew over the bars. I skidded on my face for a few feet. People who were watching said it was awesome.

Is that a stock Flite 100 fork? I thought that was good with up to 28mm tires?

Funny, that. I trued my rear wheel Tuesday night in preparation for the Lebowski race on Saturday and ended up feeling uneven on my bike yesterday. Kind of wobbly like. Not being the best truer ever, I figured I just did a crap job and would retrue when I went back tonight to change my chainring. I got it up on the stand tonight and the rear wheel looked about as true as it did when I took it off the stand on Tuesday. Passable. So I gave the whole thing a lookover after I got done installing the new chainring and, lo and behold, the front wheel was 3 mm or so off. Corrected it and all is well. My question now, since I didn't take the front wheel off on Tuesday, is how did the problem become apparent only once I trued the rear?

I can't recall ever going over the bars riding fixed. In many years past, I had some pretty gnarly crashes over the bars on mtn. bikes / mtn. trails, flew a good 10 feet into gravel / small rocks one time. Still don't know how I fell, as it happened just out of nowhere, one second riding, next second lying on the ground. Good times after the H2O2 took care of the scraped off skin

aka yet another reason brakeless is better

no he has the curvy seat tube kind

Last fall I lost my front wheel on an off camber curve riding trails on my geared commuter. I didn't get hurt but i did **** up my front fender enough that i went over the bars ten minutes later. I was pretty hurt and not thinking clearly so I just took off the fender part and left the stays, figuring i would just get the hell home. Five minites after that the stays caught in the wheel and I went over the bars again. The whole sequence of events had this great cartoon violence/ God hates me vibe.

Last year during the Kings of New England race series, I noticed that the front of my bike was making a weird clunking noise whenever I went over a bump. I thought it was a loose headset. Until, after two days of racing, during the third day I got a flat on my front wheel and found that one of my front track nuts wasn't even finger-tight. The whole front wheel was only held on by one nut for 2.5 days. No wreck, but I thanked my lucky stars I never dropped that wheel in the 100 times I picked up the front.

you remember that steep, curving hill we were coming down right before you got that flat? i can only imagine how horrible a crash would have been there...

OT but which coop were you headed to? I've been trying to find a good one in seattle

Wright Brothers in Fremont.

I cant even remember the last time I went over my handle bars. I almost went over a lot when i went mountain biking (not my forte btw) and that was scary enough.

Went over just today. Riding behind my 9 year old, when he laid down his bike on wet concrete. I hit my brake (front only; fixed MTB), and lifted the rear way off the ground. I went up and over the bars, and somehow managed to land on my feet!

don't forget to always tighten down you cog and lockring too lesson 2 of the day