I think for most riders the fear of tipping your bike over is a big one. And yep, I tipped my bike over on myself. The worst part was that I did it at a stop sign waiting for a small traffic jam.
I pulled up to the intersection and being that I was cool on my bike, I completely forgot and did not put my feet down and boom! Down I went. There were about 5 cars at this intersection and they all saw it happen. One guy rolled down his window and asked it I was OK. By that time I was up and trying to get the bike back up. It weighed about 280lbs. (Good thing I'm not frail) I told him that I was OK and got the bike up and went to work. By the time I got home later I had some nice bruises on my leg and tummy where the handle bars hit me. Good thing I didn't get a burn from the exhaust pipe.
You ever do something boneheaded like that in front of others?
Last year when I started bicylce commuting to work, early in the season, I decided to bike over to the hair salon for a hair cut appointmnent after work.
ReplyDeleteAs I approached the hair salon in the parking lot, I started to pull into a parking stall, but forgot I was locked into my pedals with my cleats. I quickly tried to release my shoe, but I could see I was going to hit the curb in front of the hair salon so I basically had to just fall over on my bike to stop!
Of course this had to happen right in front of the hair salon that is all windows!!!!
To make things worse, a guy in a car, saw the whole thing as he wanted to pull into the parking stall that I just crashed in. He just sat there in his car waiting for me to get up off the pavement!
I was so mad...I kinda yelled at him and told him to go park somewhere else. When I got up off the ground, my leg was all bloody.
Every cyclist has had at least one stupid thing like that happen!
tainterturtles - that guy was jerk and certainly not a gentleman!
ReplyDeleteI didn't know the bike you had was like a real street bike. I'd always envisioned a little dinky dirt bike! Wow... you just went up a couple notches in the awesomeness department! Maybe you should get a (C)harley Davidson or something!
ReplyDeleteA few years ago, I learned how to downhill ski. I have to admit, I was pretty proud of myself, but I didn't like it at all. So much so, that this year, I got out of going when my husband took the boys skiing. Whew!! Anyhow, my bonehead thing that I did was the last time I went skiing, I was going up the T-bar tow where you sit, or rest, on a bar that looks like an upside down T as it brings you up the hill. My skis were following along in the grooves from the other skiers. My husband had gone ahead with the boys and I got on a few bars below them. Don't I fall off. I was so embarrassed and angry at myself for allowing this to happen, that I took my skis off, picked them up, and began trying to walk up the slope alongside the T-bar. My husband realized what had happened and he and the boys went down the nearest slope, just off to the side of where I was walking. All that time that I was trying to walk up the soft powder carrying my skis, I could have just crossed over the little ungroomed area and skied down the hill. To this day I still feel stupid for not doing that, but instead making it harder on myself by trying to walk up the side of the hill.
ReplyDeleteI can see you on a MC.
ReplyDeleteI peeled off a friends door on his car when I was a teen. Actually it was kind of his fault. He had an old two door mustang he was fixing up. He was parked pretty close to me in the parking lot at church. I was upset with something he had said to me. He was in his car with his door open, well I started my car, pressed on the gas and zipped out accompanied by a loud metalic noise. Opps. His door had been touching the side of my car and when I peeled out of the parking lot his door came with me.