Biggest scare on the bike?

marylogic

I'm not very keen on going over the level crossing even in my car - it gives me the heebie geebies, but it's even worse on the bike.

I was crossing it the other day and I was right in the middle of the train tracks when the alarm sounded that the barriers were about to come down. It was really loud - presumably so you can hear it over your car stereo. I jumped out my skin - I've never been so frightened on the bike even when I've crashed.

What was your biggest scare?

xscreamsuk

After 3 quickish slides on black ice any sight of anything shiny on the road surface. Simply not prepared to risk it anymore.
Not scary when I fell off cos it was a fraction of a second from riding normally to sliding along the road at 25mph.

goonz

I guess nearly being totalled by a truck turning left was biggest scare. Learnt me a lesson that day.

fludey

Going over a level crossing...didn't notice another track not at 90deg to the road...hooked front wheel and off I flew...a few stars and broken finger later....finished my ride thou :?

sungod

near the botton of a fast descent got distracted by a car, ended up cornering on the wrong line and heading for a crash barrier at around 30mph, at that point i felt The Fear, then i discovered the road was covered in dirt/gravel and the rear wheel slipped...

luckily it gripped again just in time, but it tore a strip of rubber off the tyre

had worse things happen, but for those i didn't have time to be scared

cougie

Chased by a big dog.

southdownswolf

Going way, way too fast down Butts Brow Lane on the mountain bike. A narrow lane that reaches about 25% gradiant. As I was going down at about 50mph, I went around a corner to see a bloke on one side of the road with his dog on the other side. An extendable lead was between the two......

Luckily there was a a steeply banked grass verge and due to my speed I managed to go up and down it, around the dog and then brake when I got back on the road. One of those split seconds where I thought either me, the dog, or both were gonners. I've always gone a little slower down since then.

Gary D

Going down Fish Hill near Evesham, a very fast descent with sweeping bends, and getting a severe speed wobble! :shock: :?
It was the first time it had happened to me and was very scary.
I found out it was due to there being a small amount of play in the rear wheel bearing on my Aksiums.
Gary.

shmo

I had a deer (or similarly shaped animal) decide to cross the road in front of me as I was descending a long, straight part of the tourmalet at some stupid speed. I shouted and grabbed the brakes and the rear wheel locked, I swear I saw the wheel sliding out sideways in my peripheral vision. Didn't die or fall off but did get to the bottom with slightly more appreciation of being alive.

ben@31

Cycling at night on a unlit track. The illumination of the bike light that I had at the time was pretty poor and only lit up the 6 feet in front of me. I was doing 16mph+
All of a sudden the track turned 90 degrees to the right to skirt around a field and there was the metal gate right in front of me.
At 16mph I was closing on this metal gate at a frightening pace with hardly any time to react, I must have missed the gate by millimeters.
The second frightening moment was my road bike then went over the clump of earth that surrounds the gate post and caused the road bike to leave the ground and fly through the air Evil Knievel style, pretty frightening when you can't see anything in the dark and worried about the delicate wheel collapsing.
After that I invested in some super bright cree bike light.

cupoftea

Doing something i've done before, but never again. Drafting a transit van at around 30 mph so close that i couldn't see ahead at all. The van indicated left, so i pulled to the right as the van slowed and began to overtake. What i didn't see was a car turning right from the side street the van was turning into. I missed it by inches. It scared the hell out of me. It was 100% my fault, the car driver had no way of seeing me at all.

ThatBikeGuy

cupoftea wrote:

Doing something i've done before, but never again. Drafting a transit van at around 30 mph so close that i couldn't see ahead at all. The van indicated left, so i pulled to the right as the van slowed and began to overtake. What i didn't see was a car turning right from the side street the van was turning into. I missed it by inches. It scared the hell out of me. It was 100% my fault, the car driver had no way of seeing me at all.

I tend to steer clear of drafting things i can't see through! :roll:

elbowloh

On Millbank just before the Houses of Parliament, was going round a bus. As we get past the bus, the car in front suddenly slams on the brakes, i follow suit (front and back), the rear brake locks, begins to slide out and i start skidding towards the car in front. At the same time, the bus is pulling out again and seemingly intent on squashing me into the car in front. Somehow i manage to get it back into a straight-ish line ans whip round the stationary car. Massive increase in heart rate but no harm done.

nweststeyn

Descending into Inveraray down the back of the Rest And Be Thankful pass - catching up with cars that passed me on the way up and passing a few at 50mph. On a smooth right hand bend I applied the brakes a little and heard a weird humming noise. Ignored it and kept flying down the hill.

A little while later, this happened to my chainstay.



The humming sound had been the carbon chainstay flexing so much that my tyre sidewall was rubbing against the frame. It then cracked altogether, but luckily this happened when I was no longer going so fast. The scenarios played out in my head where it broke as I was overtaking the car gave me my biggest scare. I reckon that woulda been me done.

I descend slower now, and still have a problem trusting my carbon frame.

xchudy_1325

on "the gap" decent heading towards west kirby today about 30mph and car passed my flicked up a stone, which i watched fly towards me hitting my chin, gave me a little wobble which scared me more lol

goonz

nweststeyn wrote:

Descending into Inveraray down the back of the Rest And Be Thankful pass - catching up with cars that passed me on the way up and passing a few at 50mph. On a smooth right hand bend I applied the brakes a little and heard a weird humming noise. Ignored it and kept flying down the hill.

A little while later, this happened to my chainstay.



The humming sound had been the carbon chainstay flexing so much that my tyre sidewall was rubbing against the frame. It then cracked altogether, but luckily this happened when I was no longer going so fast. The scenarios played out in my head where it broke as I was overtaking the car gave me my biggest scare. I reckon that woulda been me done.

I descend slower now, and still have a problem trusting my carbon frame.

Out of interest what bike was that, mental note to stay away from said manufacturer.

nweststeyn

goonz wrote:

Out of interest what bike was that, mental note to stay away from said manufacturer.

Well, I've got another one of the same bikes. They gave me no hassle on warranty claim and scouring the internet has brought up NO examples of anyone else suffering the same problem (unlike Treks/Specializeds etc. who I've seen multiple failure reports)- so I believe it to be a one off but that said, it was a BeOne.

Scotter

xchudy_1325 wrote:

on "the gap" decent heading towards west kirby today about 30mph and car passed my flicked up a stone, which i watched fly towards me hitting my chin, gave me a little wobble which scared me more lol

Sorry if this seems like spamming (it isn`t, btw) but this is the exact reason that, despite the expense, I wouldn`t wear anything other than Oakley glasses - to me, eyesight = priceless

http://www.oakley.com/innovation/optica ... protection

As for my own scariest moment...
Taking part in the Tour of the Peak sportive last year, I was ripping down a descent at 40mph+. As I rounded a bend, the car that I had been chasing had stopped dead in the road to allow a bus coming up the hill to pass a group of cyclists on their Sunday morning club ride! I slammed on the brakes, the bike went completely sideways but fortunately I managed to stop in the upright position, with a massive adrenaline spike!

desweller

Descending into Sabden last August I hit a pothole at over 40mph and slid along the ground head first into the air splitter of a Fiat Punto.

I thought I was going to break my neck.

slowmart

After a long lay off from the mtb'ing i went off with some mates to CYB.

I was excited and unusually for me I never put a plan together in my head. You know have fun but come back in one piece sort of talk to yourself. This supplies a margin of error and I usually back off a bit.

This time it was balls out with the inevitable outcome of going over the bars, taking a brief look at the probable landing place and on seeing a bed of rocks a feeling of pain and facial reconstruction featuring heavily in my near future crystallised in my head. I tucked myself into a ball and hit hard. It was that feeling of "well you tool you really have messed up here" that i found going through my head and the sheer helplessness of the situation. I was lucky just bruising to my shoulder and back.

sigorman85

When a car on my commute pushed me against the curb and I bounced off I then saw him laughing so I caught him at the junction and tapped on the window and asked him why he pushed me in to the curb he said he thought he past me !!! I then said you thought that was funny ?? How about I turn your face inside out he then wheel span off .... This could have finished me that's why I lost the plot

Mikey1976

Seeing a large patch of ice way too late on this mornings ride, was going down hill and I knew that if I hit the brakes it would be game over.

Stayed as still as a statue with the wheels dead straight whilst going about 25mph, and STILL going faster because I couldnt brake!!

I made it through to ride another day, why do we do this to ourselves lol

zoltansocrates

biggest scare ont he bike?

when i moved to london, i went out on my bike, i lived in palmers green - i cycled down green lanes towards highbury and then returned - i only stayed in london a further 11 months of which the bike was stored for that entire time, london in 2002 was not for cycling

real scare, mtbing once and descending a slope at speed with a 90 degree left at the bottom or a straight over a 30 foot drop my rear brake goes twang and i basically nursed the bike on fronty brakes then endoed head first into a tree - had a giro mushroom jobber from 93 to protect the head - it was the choice that was scariest, head into a tree or go over a drop too big for my steel carrera mtb :shock:

Ber Nard

Biggest scare I've had is someone pulling out from the road on the left here:

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&ll ... 61,,0,8.59

A car pulled out and then, when the river saw me, decided to stop across the road rather than continue. Thankfully I was able to squeeze behind the car and only clipped the rear bumper with my right foot. Had the car pulled out a fraction of a second later I'd have been looking at hitting the passenger door at 30mph+. It wouldn't have been pretty.

In the driver's defence, Cocknage road is a fast road and that cross road is completely blind; the only way you can see if you can pull out is to pull out.

Rob