Tales of woe and emarrassment

Wrightstuff

This was suggested in another thread and I thought it was a good idea.

Let me get the ball rolling.

My very fit 14 year old son has expressed desires to come riding longer distances with me. Not wanting to kill him, I suggsted he learn't to ride using clipless pedals before attempting rides with me. I originally learned using brand new SPD pedals and cleats and had the obligatory crash or two.

I have been using egg beaters on my mountain bike which I think are easier to get out of than SPD's, and let him use an old pair of shoes and cleats as his feet are nearly as big as mine.

I suggested he practise unclipping for a while against the clothesline, then we walked the bike around to the local park, where he rode off and practised riding, unclipping and stopping. The little bugger looked at me with an expression "is this supposed to be hard, and have you really stacked it while trying to unclip"

After a bit of practise, he felt confident to ride into the city with me along a busy bike path. He negotiated the journey with ease.

Don't you love the young. ( He has yet to go out on a longer ride with me, he doesn't get up early enough !)

Steve

obxbes

Just had the same experience. Let my son(15 years old)use my shoes and pedals ended up getting him his own. He now says he is a pro at using the pedals. We did forty miles a couple of weeks ago and he didn't have his shoes and pedals. he said I had a real advantage. He asks me what I thought was hard about using the pedals. Isn't having no fear great. He has noticed the difference especially when first starting to accelerate. I have no shot now beating him uphills.

Wrightstuff

The beating me uphill is yet to come - but it will. It will be emarassing for sure, but every father is surpassed by their offspring (girls as well) at some stage in their life. It is the "is supposed to be hard attitude" that's tough on the ego.

mezzinator

I went on a saturday morning group ride about a month ago and didn't eat enough for breakfast. I started running out of energy at about 20k's and started getting left behind up the hills. This doesn't bother me as I always catch up down the other side being 94 kilos and a sprinter.

Anyway, on this particular day an experienced rider, but who on this particular day was a newbie to the group, took pity on me and started giving me a push up a hill and giving me advice on how to ride up hills. I couldn't be bothered saying 'Er, I'm okay, just haven't had enough brekky' so I let him push...

I ate a couple of banana's,a muesli bar and some fruit sticks and some energy returned but the damage was already done. I kept up with the group but stayed at the back.

ON the way back into town at about 60 kays I was feeling great. The banana's must have really kicked in so I thought. I decided to go with my forte - 'The leave everyone for dead (including hill climbers) sprinting up a steep 300 metre hill' trick. All went well for about 250 metres... Then the cramps started.

I stopped. I couldn't get off the bike. Both thighs were twitching like I had a family of monkeys in them fighting for some peanuts. I managed to get off the bike but had to kneel on the bitumen and keep my knees bent. I rested my head on the top tube and as the rest of them rode past I heard someone comment "What's he praying for?"

It was about 5 minutes of stretching before I could ride again. Every time I got out of the saddle the cramps would threaten. It was about another 10 k's of hobbling before I got home.

Hmm, that's another tale of woe and embarassment for me. I've put more in other threads... I'm beginning to look like a cycling spaz.

__________________
I'm pretty sure theres more to life than being really really good looking, and one day I hope to find out what that is...

Wrightstuff

Nope - we never stop learning. Apart from remembering brekky and you had food with you - what could you do to further avoid the same thing happening again while riding ?

Steve

mezzinator

I could...

a) take up lawn bowls
or
b) eat adequately
plus
c) hydrate adequately
and
d) don't ride early in the mornings

e) wonder if I get a prize for the correct answer....

__________________
I'm pretty sure theres more to life than being really really good looking, and one day I hope to find out what that is...

LeojVS

Stopped at a set of lights somewhere on the MTB. A Suzuki swift pulled up beside me. This thing was BRIGHT purple, with GLITTER thru the paint. This thing had all the stuff attached to it, but the thing that made me giggle was the tuff guy driving it. He saw me having a little one at his expense, and to prove his manhood and show how tough his car is, he revved it hard a few times. This got me going. I couldnt help myself. I was having a good old laugh now. I reached out for the street sign next to me to lean on for a little support, and I MISSED!!! I fell to the ground like I had been shot. Well. This had me laughing my guts out, the guy in the car was laughing, and the intersection was full. Many people laughing at my sorry butt.
Red faced and going home

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Ambition is a poor excuse for not having enough sense to be lazy

EoinC

I've posted this before - if it bores you, turn me off. When I was a young buck, a mate and I had taken his pushie up Karori's Post Office Hill in Wellington, NZ. It had a back-pedaling brake and the bolt fell out of the torque-arm while we were riding around the old motocross track up there in the clouds. I utilised my immense improvisational skills and replaced the missing bolt with a piece of wood (there are few problems in the World which cannot be solved through selective whittling). This held up well until the end of the day. Friend-Cuzy-Bro' was not too keen on riding his bike back down the hill. In the words of Paper Lace (1970's one-hit wonders) - "I need a volunteer to ride out..." - I was that volunteer.
Things went well in the early stages. The dirt road wound around the hill and I was drifting the corners like Roger DeCoster Jnr. Then...it went pear-shaped. The stick unstuck. No more brakes and approaching warp speed, the road surface had changed from slideable gravel to nasty rough-chip ashphalt. This road, I knew, continued its decline right until it ran into a fairly busy T-intersection at the bottom of the hill. Time to put the thinking cap on...
To my right was a vertical wall, carved out of the rock (= nasty). To my left was a big drop-off with the tops of tall pine trees at the level of the road (= nasty). In front was an Evel Kneival descent into a T-intersection Hell (=nasty).
The thinking cap, after making sure that I got close to terminal velocity, proclaimed that the sensible thing to do was to jump off the back of the bike. I immediately accepted such wisdom and pushed off the bars in anticipation of a 1-1/2 pike with perfect re-entry. Unfortunately, the thinking cap had failed to calculate just how far I would have to go back in order to clear the open rear wheel. My input was insufficient. I landed on the rear wheel, which immediately set about sucking my young and tender cajonnes into the gap between the seat stays, in addition to rapidly wearing a new bum crack for me as it set about shredding my jeans and my genes.
Being unable to assist myself with my, no doubt, rapidly waving arms, the saving grace came when my feet hit the rapidly passing tarmac and catapulted me in a graceful arc down towards downtown Karori. I bounced as only someone with burnt and elongated testicles can. The bike didn't fair quite so well and went over the bank to the left.
The wonderful part came when Mate-Cuzy-Bro' turned up and, instead of soothing me with "The ambulance is coming" or "those were just your baby balls - you'll grow new ones", all he could do was shout at me for buggering his bike. It turned me off bicycle sex for life...