SS: Fell off my bike NSS: War Wounds!

[sixpac shakur]

I'm fairly new to cycling. I was bound and determined NOT to fall by not clipping out of my pedals in time to slow down/stop. ALL of my cycling friends chuckled and insisted, "Oh you will fall. We all did when we first started."

ALAS, yesterday I pulled up to an intersection, clipped out the left foot and leaned to the right. My fall was in slow motion! And since I had stopped to let cars pass by they got an excellent view of me toppling over. Suckage and so embarrassing!

I scraped up my knee and got a nice road rash on the front of my leg. My knee was dripping blood. Luckily I tucked my elbow under and only got a slight bruise there. But NSS on the war wounds! Now I have joined the club and I can tell other beginners, "Oh you will fall. We all did..."

Oh did I add that I fell 20 yards away from my house? I was still on my own street. Doubly embarrassing.

[Napoleon54]

Yeow, suxor!

Now you're part of the club though

[cheapie]

now you're one of us! i've done that twice. first, on my road bike in town in heavy traffic. not funny to me. very funny to all the people in the cars. the other time was after a hard ride on the trail. got back to the parking lot and was too exhausted to pull out correctly. boom. fell over.


what kind of pedals do you have?

[oblongmelon]

Dumb ass...get a tricycle!

[Markel]

I once took a fall - had my feet in toe clips (no cleats), was carrying something (yeah, not smart, but I was a poor college kid and the bike was my "vehicle") and something twisted the front wheel.

[Devhux]

I still remember riding a tandem (2-seater) with my brother in the front. He ended up crashing into a reasonably-sized rock (couldn't react quick enough), and I literally went flying OVER him and landed on the road.

Thank goodness I didn't hit my head, otherwise that REALLY would have been painful. I did scrape my leg badly though.

[sixpac shakur]

Dumb ass...get a tricycle!

LOL, can you imagine putting clipless pedals on a trike? Now that would be awesome!

On a great note I ended up buying a used carbon fiber bike. Apparantly I got a really good deal. This guy was selling the Calfee Tetra-Tri on consignment for $800 and it included a full Dura-Ace build. I'm a fairly new beginner but even I knew that I paid less than what it's worth even if the frame is a 2002!

cheapie, I've got some kind of Shimano SPD pedals (I think that's the brand). They are definitely SPD, not speedplay.

[cheapie]

cool. that's a great price for the dura-ace.