Oh the shame!

slc1
slc1 Posts: 5
edited September 2012 in Commuting general
Just completed a successful right turn across my commute's busiest crossroads this morning, proceeded to turn a sharp left onto a dropped crossing to enter a bike lane. misjudged it and clipped the kerb and fell flat on my rear in front of massed throngs of motorists. Unable to do anything else I got up, took a bow and rode away feeling exceedingly sheepish. Hope it doesn't end up on Youtube. Anyone else managed to do anything quite so publicly stupid?

Comments

  • jeepie
    jeepie Posts: 497
    Back luck mate. We've all done it. Reading Borough Council put barriers up on the thames path to slow down cyclists and I was negotiating the final of three chicanes when I clipped a wall on the exit of one of them and crashed on my side in front a family on a boating holiday emerging for the day..... humiliating....
  • Kieran_Burns
    Kieran_Burns Posts: 9,757
    buy clipless pedals.

    Pratfalls kind of become the norm...
    Chunky Cyclists need your love too! :-)
    2009 Specialized Tricross Sport
    2011 Trek Madone 4.5
    2012 Felt F65X
    Proud CX Pervert and quiet roadie. 12 mile commuter
  • anton1r
    anton1r Posts: 272
    The first day I had spds on I had a clipless moment, squeezing up the inside of a taxi to get to the front of the queue (a ropey maneuver i'll admit) and the taxi started moving off. At which point I wobbled and toppled over to the left onto the pavement. I was laughing before I hit the deck. Unclipped apologised to the bemused pedestrians, got back on my feet and speed off.

    If i wasn't laughing so hard, i'd probably of been crying.
    "I have a plan, a plan so cunning you could stick a tail on it and call it a fox." (from the Blackadder TV series)
  • anthdci
    anthdci Posts: 543
    I managed to do the C2C on my mountain bike with SPDs, the whole route without issue. Until I got to Sunderland beach, about to dip my tyre in the sea to signal I had finished, only for the back wheel to get away from me on the softsand and could not get unclipped fast enough so I went flat on my face 10 feet from the finish in front of my mates who I did it with, plus a few of our family members all watching...
  • malcsussex
    malcsussex Posts: 32
    Cycling in the Alps turned uphill kept changing gear got harder and harder then realised I was changing UP not down Crash! No one around fortunately but pride still hurts.
    No one told me about that hill!!!
  • Glasgow Calum
    Glasgow Calum Posts: 52
    Oh no! enough of all the clipless chat! :D I've just fitted my first pair being well reassured that I won't fall off and that they are fine! :D:lol:
  • Initialised
    Initialised Posts: 3,047
    Last month I did a 1000 ft descent down Cairngorm Mountain on SPDs, didn't come off.

    http://www.cairngormmountain.org/activi ... -cairngorm

    Thoroughly recommend it, awesome experience.

    My only bad SPD fail happened going up hill and left me scarred for life, chain jumped off the top sprocket and I ground to a halt, horizontal trackstand and lodged the handlebar in my chin.
    I used to just ride my bike to work but now I find myself going out looking for bigger and bigger hills.
  • PlymouthSam
    PlymouthSam Posts: 64
    Glasgow Calum wrote:
    Oh no! enough of all the clipless chat! :D I've just fitted my first pair being well reassured that I won't fall off and that they are fine! :D:lol:

    You WILL come off and you WILL laugh about it !
    Specialized FSR XC Comp
    Scott Speedster S55
  • The Rookie
    The Rookie Posts: 27,812
    Only 2 clipless moments, both at very slow speed when the person in front just jammed on the brakes, and your sorry worried about stopping you forget.....thud.....to unlcip.

    The Ritchies on my MTB unclip a lot easier than the 520's on my commuter, not a single moment on the Ritchies.....
    Currently riding a Whyte T130C, X0 drivetrain, Magura Trail brakes converted to mixed wheel size (homebuilt wheels) with 140mm Fox 34 Rhythm and RP23 suspension. 12.2Kg.
  • JayKay3000
    JayKay3000 Posts: 163
    Once on the clipples, did 60 miles of road work and about to congratulate myself by getting off near the flat only to unclip the right foot on the road side and then leaned the bike over to put my foot down on the pavement on the left to realise I was clipped in and wiggled my foot only to slowly tip over. Moved the front de-railier out a bit. No pedestrians seemed to care.

    I ride the mtb clipless and even with an otb experience my feet came out. I've had plenty of moments where I need to put my feet down in a hurry and it just happens now. I simply set the spring to the weakest setting for mtb and a bit tougher for the road set.
  • ThatBikeGuy
    ThatBikeGuy Posts: 394
    Mine happened outside of a school just as the kids were coming out, stopping at a junction and just couldn't get my cleat out of the pedal, cue the slow motion sideways topple onto the tarmac! :lol:
    Cannondale SS Evo Team
    Kona Jake CX
    Cervelo P5
  • jejv
    jejv Posts: 566
    malcsussex wrote:
    Cycling in the Alps turned uphill kept changing gear got harder and harder then realised I was changing UP not down Crash! No one around fortunately but pride still hurts.
    Done that. Changed from MTB shifters to Campy Brifters - so the fingers & thumbs do opposite things. I found that a good way to annoy people was to forget which way they went in the middle of a group. :oops:

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