Most embarrassing fall?

Peewiglet said:

Reading about the SPD related incidents reminded me of my own
embarrassing fall earlier this week.

My most embarrassing fall was on my road bike (700-23's) rolling
downhill on Vauxhall Bridge weaving between queuing traffic I rolled
over a grate and the front wheel slipped into the slots. I went over
the bars and ended with the bike on top of me (I was clipped in of
course) with a very badly buckled wheel and bent bars. I have done
this wheel in grate on a previous occasion and always watched out for
it happening again. This grate caught me out though because it wasn't
at the kerb as a bus-stop had been added.

I recently fitted SPD's to my Birdy and nearly fell over it trying
them out in the hall. Coming to SPD from Time I find them a little to
easy to inadvertently clip into again whilst doing a trackstand. The
Time pedals have a far more positive click to engage and I can keep
the left foot safely unclipped whilst I adjust my balance.
--
Phil Cook looking north over the park to the "Westminster Gasworks"

Peewiglet said:

Reading about the SPD related incidents reminded me of my own
embarrassing fall earlier this week.

Anyone else?

Don't recall if it was my first or second clipless fall, but
approaching traffic lights couldn't unclip. Thought I'd lean
nonchalantly on the illuminated bollard on the traffic island between
the two lanes (one forward, one left filter). Bollard was not
attached to ground. I blocked one lane with me plus bike plus
floundering, and the other lane with the ejected bollard. Of course,
it all happened just as the lights went green, so no-one got through
the junction, and I righted myself and retrieved bollard just as they
went red again, so everyone got to sit and stare at me for another
cycle of the lights.

Younger brother of a friend of mine saw some girls he fancied
impressing waiting at a pedestrian crossing he was approaching. To
impress them, he pulled and very looooong skid up to the line (not
necessarily convinced this actually impresses girls, in my opinion).
Forgot he had clipless pedals. I expect the consequent rolling around
in the gutter was not the impression he was seeking to make.

regards, Ian SMith
--
|\ /| no .sig
|o o|
|/ \|

I fell of my bike on thursday of this week. Cycling uphill on the fixie with
too big a gear ground to a halt i was virtually stomping on th left pedal
but would it go round 'no'. I decided that it would be in my best interest
to launch myself into the grassy verge on the left which was slightly uphill
rather than slide down to my right.

cheers
Jon_H

Peewiglet said:

Anyone else?

Taking the trailer from the allotment (picking up some tools) to the
church to do some gardening today. Decided to take the shortest route
through the hill in Balgay park (Dundonians will know what I mean,
there is a cleft through the hill with the observatory on.

The gate is just wide enough for bike and trailer. Unfortunately, the
edges of my trailer are at right angles and when you it a post you stop
dead - and then fall over. And as the trailer was attatched it took a
bit of effort to unclip with the extra weight on the bike.

Then managed to take out yet another rear light coming out of the park
(grr.. ) - fortunately this time it was the bike mount, not hte light
that broke so I can swap with the previous breakage..

Then took my second trailer load to the dump. Thought about rescuing
some of the bikes there for future projects but couldn't be bothered.

...d

Peewiglet said:

Reading about the SPD related incidents reminded me of my own
embarrassing fall earlier this week.

I was almost at work and stopped on the cycletrack to turn right
across the dual carriageway. When I turned the wheel 90 degrees to the
right, though, the bottle that carries the compressed air for my Air
Zound cunningly slipped under the bar and prevented me from turning
the wheel straight again. At that stage I began to fall over to the
left, and was unable to get my foot out of the pedal clip thingy, so I
just toppled heavily onto my side. Fortunately it was a grotty day so
I had lots of layers on, otherwise I think blood would have been spilt
from several parts of my body 🙂

I thought I'd escaped detection, but after I'd crawled back onto the
bike and limped over the dual carriageway it turned out that a bloke
had watched the whole thing from the other side of the road.

Anyone else?

My first trip using SPDs many years ago....I was very careful clipping and
unclipping in practice and the first ride, until I rolled alongside a horse
and rider waiting to cross a road.

Not wanting to spook the horse I made some noise (cough, gear change) before
approaching so they would know I was there only to pull alongside and stop,
forgetting the SPDs - cue slow motion fall to the side accompanied by much
laugher from the rider (and the horse, I suspect!)

Right.
As a local gp I find that there is always someone around to report my
activities.
I sped down hill toward the traffic stopping at the road works traffic
lights, hopped onto the right pavement which ran alongside a bushy
hedge and was obviously unused, and rather smugly continued at some
pace down the hill until I almost reached the traffic queue at the
downhill lights.
At this point a branch projecting from the hedge stuck through my front
wheel , stopping me instantly and flipping me upside down ,feet(spd)
and hands and bum still on the bike , into the hedge, which supported
me and bike perfectly in this inverted state.
As I sat there planning my next move I had to watch a column of drivers
go past laughing their heads off, upside down.
TerryJ

Quoted message said:

Right.
As a local gp I find that there is always someone around to report my
activities.
I sped down hill toward the traffic stopping at the road works traffic
lights, hopped onto the right pavement which ran alongside a bushy
hedge and was obviously unused, and rather smugly continued at some
pace down the hill until I almost reached the traffic queue at the
downhill lights.
At this point a branch projecting from the hedge stuck through my front
wheel , stopping me instantly and flipping me upside down ,feet(spd)
and hands and bum still on the bike , into the hedge, which supported
me and bike perfectly in this inverted state.
As I sat there planning my next move I had to watch a column of drivers
go past laughing their heads off, upside down.
TerryJ

Lol! :-))

How did you get down?

Wet fishes,
--
,,
(**)PeeWiglet~~
/ \ / \ pee AT [guessthisbit].co.uk

Chris Malcolm said:

Peewiglet said:

Reading about the SPD related incidents reminded me of my own
embarrassing fall earlier this week.

Quoted message said:

I was almost at work and stopped on the cycletrack to turn right
across the dual carriageway. When I turned the wheel 90 degrees to the
right, though, the bottle that carries the compressed air for my Air
Zound cunningly slipped under the bar and prevented me from turning
the wheel straight again. At that stage I began to fall over to the
left, and was unable to get my foot out of the pedal clip thingy, so I
just toppled heavily onto my side. Fortunately it was a grotty day so
I had lots of layers on, otherwise I think blood would have been spilt
from several parts of my body 🙂

Quoted message said:

I thought I'd escaped detection, but after I'd crawled back onto the
bike and limped over the dual carriageway it turned out that a bloke
had watched the whole thing from the other side of the road.

Quoted message said:

Anyone else?

Nope, I was looking the other way at the time :-)

:-) Doh.....

Wet fishes,
--
,,
(**)PeeWiglet~~
/ \ / \ pee AT [guessthisbit].co.uk

Well, this was just a matter of unclipping feet and tumbling to the
ground then pulling the bike out.
I did ,of course, maintain a proper professional demeanour throughout,
just as though it happens every day.
I did go through a long period in which I regarded falling off as
normal.
It seems that as I have got older and more breakable I have also got
more careful.
TerryJ

Peewiglet said:

Anyone else?

After a day off road around Glen Clova, returning to the bunkhouse
and there is the South Esk in front of me... looks a little tricky,
but if you don't try these things... anyway, I get a good run at
it egged on by a friend, who is then somewhat amused when I run out
of steam pretty much exactly in the middle, fail to unclip and do a
sideways topple into the river. Some of one side of me is, well,
not so mucg "dry", as "less wet". Pal decides she won't give that
a go, and heads down to the nearby bridge!

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email hidden] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

Peewiglet <[email hidden]> wrote:
|
| Reading about the SPD related incidents reminded me of my own
| embarrassing fall earlier this week.
....
| Anyone else?

The people who saw mine weren't aware of how embarrassing it was.

As a kid I had a Peugeot back-pedal-brake fixed-gear thingy. Looking at
it one day I noticed the front dropouts were vertical so I thought why
bother with the axle nuts - gravity will keep the wheel in (it was years
before saving wieght might have occurred to me first). So I removed
them, as part of my efforts to engage with the technology before me,
Sheldon-Brown-stylee. A month or so later the family drove out to some
wooded place for a picnic with another family - "Can I take my bike?"
"OK but you'll have to take the front wheel off to get it in the boot".
Aha, thought I, brilliant mind creates multi-purpose solution to
problems still in the future. When we got there there was a long path up
through a wooded bank which appealed to my wish to try a really proper
long uninterrupted downhill ride, so I push the bike to the top, turn
round, and let go. It was fast. And bumpy. But I kept control by
standing on the pedals and using the back-pedal-brake. At the bottom,
which was muddy, I wondered why I hadn't had an accident yet (yeah, I
know), so I tugged on the handlebars to check the theorySPLAT! Hands
deep in mud I looked up to just glimpse my front wheel bounding away
into the bushes. Various grown-ups looking at me quizzically not
realising the giant mental leap of comprehension that had just taken
place.

--
Patrick Herring, http://www.anweald.co.uk/ph

Peewiglet said:

Anyone else?

Don't know about embarrasing, but I've certainly provided plenty of
entertainment for friends whilst off-road (on a 2x1, not a 4x4). One "SPD
newbie" related one came from when I ground to a halt going up some single
track and unclipped safely (having fallen over in the clips about 5 minutes
earlier). However when I started off again I was in the wrong gear, the
front wheel lifted but being determined to stay clipped in the front wheel
kept rising until I'd done a nice backwards somersault down the hill then
landed (still clipped) on my side in a nettle patch. Ouch! 🙂

Graeme

Some years ago, riding along Oxford Street I slowed to allow a kindly
gentleman in a wheelchair time to cross the busy bus/taxi-laden
thoroughfare. Slow, slower, slower... Of course I couldn't extract my
foot from the toe clips in time. Went down sideways at 0.1mph.

I think this was in front of about 1000 people, at least 20 ran up to
check I was OK. That was in the 80's.

There have been one or two clipless related topples, but nothing to
match the setting and audience.

regards,
daren
--
remove outer garment for reply

Also sprach Peewiglet <[email hidden]>:

Quoted message said:

Anyone else?

Where to start? The tumble into a dry river bed when totally
mis-remembering the direction taken by the road (after first riding headlong
into a tree)? A damp and muddy piece of Belgian cyclepath causing me,
Kingcycle and trailer to find ourselves in an ungainly heap in the bushes?
But I think the best one had to be descending Helvellyn. After what felt
like a month of picking our way over and around Big Rocks, and cursing the
twonk who described the route as "90% ridable", finally some open ground
appeared. Wha-hey!!

Let go of the brakes for the first time since the summit and let 'er rip
towards this inviting piece of greensward. Shortly after which the front
wheel buried itself axle-deep in what was, frankly, a bog. Exit Mr
Larrington, over the handlebars. At least it was a soft landing, but after
burying a piece of my pork pie atop the peak, as an offering for the Earth
Goddess, you'd think she'd show a bit more gratitude...

--
Dave Larrington - <http://www.legslarry.beerdrinkers.co.uk/>
Electricity comes from other planets.