What a fool - first fall

dcs01

Folk's,

How do you tell people that you fell off while stationary and fractured your elbow.

I was out riding through town , we have a large number of cycle lanes, I had stoped to cross a main road from one lane to another. Just as I was to cross a car comes around the corner at speed, I stay on the side of the road and try ! ! ! to balance while staying still. Didn't work big time, this is my first week using clip less.
Now I have to wait till the elbow mends before I can get out again. Never had any breaks when motorbiking.

Regards

Dave

redvee

A clipless virgin. We all have had injuries when clipless novices but none as bad as a fractured elbow. I've still got a skin blemish where I landed on my knee when I was a clipless novice some 15 years ago.

Hope you heal soon.

toasty

Doh I'm sure most people using clipless have done it at least once, unlucky you came out quite so rough.

dcs01

Folk's,


It certainly has not put me off, expected to have some sort of 'incident' while getting used to clip less. Just didn't expect to be stationary when trying to cross a road. Bummer that it has put me off work for a while and with a Doc's ban on driving let alone biking, I am stuck doing the walking thing around town.

Regards

Dave

haggisonwheels

sorry i have to admit i just had a wee giggle reading that! shouldnt laugh too hard tho, planning on getting some clipless soon myself and dont wanna tempt fate! :P

hope you heal up soon buddy!

stumpyjon

Just didn't expect to be stationary

That's when it's most likely to happen, in most serious crashes you end up unclipping without even thinking about it

Dan67

Bah I done that when i went to unclip on my first ride. I ended doing the comical fall then riding off as fast as I could. The The mother and her family stood close by looked a bit bermused as to what happened. But now it is more natual and Im tonnes better at track standing as its essetial to riding clipless

numptyfish

I joined the clipless stationary fall club a while back. Flagged down by White Van Man for directions. Went to put my foot down and the reat was comic history.

maclark

did the same myself when i couldn't get my foot out a couple of weeks ago in the middle of a bust hight street! turns out the cleats had come loose in the shoe.

a sensible question now - have you checked the tension in your pedals isn't too high?

dcs01

Maclark,

Good point, I have no problem getting out of the clips when I think about it and am not trying to do stupid things.

Dave

stubs

Its funny I never fail to unclip when there is no one watching BUT when I have an audience :oops:

dcs01

Folk's

Have been back to the fracture clinic, for a check up. Apart from the laff from the Doc's when I told them how I did it, I am now off work for another two weeks. O the joys of two more weeks of daytime TV. It's amazing how many free thing you find to do, just to get out of the house.

Regards

Dave.

dcs01

Folk's

All well that ends well,

I have now been given the all clear by the Doc's. second opion ( better / more experianced at looking at x - ray's) could not find a fracture. so am now back on the bike and praticing hard on uncliping from the spd's.
Will be going to the bike show on Friday, See what the next bike might be next year.

Regards

Dave

boybiker

My only clipless incident was when someone couldn't unclip at low speed fell over on top of me and buckled my front wheel.
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

xgeek

Gawd. Looking at getting a set of clipless for my new bike. The more I hear the more I think I may live to regret it. :?

BTW glad you are okay and back in the saddle.

Northwind

dcs01 wrote:

How do you tell people that you fell off while stationary and fractured your elbow.

<snip>

Never had any breaks when motorbiking.

Start with this, it's the best bit. Just last week, I hurt myself more badly failing at steps than I have in 6 years motorbiking including falling off at 70mph, people love hearing this sort of thing :roll:

Gothmeister

For the benefit of a this beginner, what are the benefits of clipless pedalling??

nick_1871

I got my first clipless pedals last week, no problems on the road but went into the forest today and fell off 3 times :oops:

Got cut and bruised knee where I landed knee first and got a sore back where I landed on a tree stump! I'm hoping this is just teething problems and i'm gonna stick with them as it makes riding easier esp climbing. All my falls were from getting stuck in mud and not getting my feet out quick enough, I wasn't the only one though, my mate got his front wheel stuck in a deep puddle and went over the bars! The advantages of following someone else spared me that little episode (I managed exactly the same thing last week!).

Same as the original poster, I've been riding a motorbike for 18 months without incident but 4 falls in my first two weeks of mountain biking..

nick_1871

Gothmeister wrote:

For the benefit of a this beginner, what are the benefits of clipless pedalling??

I'll try and answer but i'm a beginner too..

Clipless makes pedalling more efficient (approx 12 % apparentley). I've been using them for a week now after one week with flats and they are definately better. Not so sure about off road yet as I fell off 3 times today after my first trip to the forest with the new pedals. If you ride mostly on the road then I can't see why you wouldn't want clipless.

dcs01

Folk's

Having now got into clipless, I would not go back to flats. Certainly puts you in touch with what is happening. lots of pratice on roads and clipping in / out is what is needed.
I was like thoses who used to ride motorbikes, you have to get into the mind set that you WILL come off. Once you have that then you seem to bounced so much better, Rolling down a major road at some speed while your motorbike is going in a completly different direction gives you something to think about.

Regards

Dave

Whitters1uk

I almost had a comedy moment last month when using clipless for the first time, but JUST got a foot out in time to stop myself.

I took a closer look at the pedals and noticed that the bike shop had them set at pretty much the strongest setting. I changed it to the easiest 'hot knife through butter' setting and haven't had any problems since, although I tend to unclip myself for now on tricky sections.

Must say though that they are much better than flats and would thoroughly recommend them (they're Shimano M520's).