Whats the most stupid thing you have done

peddlingmadness

Ok just for fun, what's the most stupid thing you've done on a bike?

I wrapped a rain jacket around my handlebars which of course worked itself loose dropping down into the front wheels of my bike causing an Instant wheel jam and a flight over the bars. Broke my arm in 3 places and lost 2 teeth! (I wasn't pretty to start with) yes I know pretty damn stupid. I've no defence your honour..! The bike actually faired better off than I did even though it did a 360 with me as I took most of the impact.. happened many years ago and wet weather always reminds me, not that it was raining on the day just that my bloody elbow still throbs..

TheHound

Actually buying a bike is no doubt the stupidest thing I've done. Then the bug bites and I always want a better bike or better gear or something cool. There's always a reason to spend more money.

marylogic

I climbed Mont Ventoux on a holiday hire bike with panniers without any training. It was quite possibly the slowest ever ascent.

ashleydwsmith

Buying a lapierre sensium 100 and now seeing a look 675 which I have to have. Does anyone want to buy my sensium?

imposter2.0

I once joined a cycling forum with the username 'peddlingmadness' - and then someone pointed out that I had spelt pedalling wrong..

butcher of bakersfield

Not quite so severe consequences but I did a similar thing bikepacking. Sleeping mat strapped to the forks, noticed it coming loose, thought OK, OK, I'll tighten it up in a bit. Before I knew it I was lying on the floor when it got caught in the wheel...

Thankfully I was going quite slow at the time. Over the bars fully loaded, tent, the works.

It never fails to amaze me how easy it is to fall off a bicycle.

Jon_1976

Bike related stupidest thing: My sister had her bike upside down, on the bars and saddle, spinning the cranks. Me, being a rather silly 4 or 5 year old, thought it would be a good idea to stick my little finger in the spokes :oops: Snap!

onemoresolo

Imposter wrote:

I once joined a cycling forum with the username 'peddlingmadness' - and then someone pointed out that I had spelt pedalling wrong..

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Peddling

Pituophis

When we were kids, someone gave my younger sister a massive, super heavy 3 wheeler, which you could set off going down the street, then actually balance on the handle bars and swing your legs
Some years later I was riding my Raleigh Chopper down the road when I suddenly remembered that you could balance on the handle bars. Well you can't, obviously :oops:

chrisaonabike

Stupidest thing I ever did on a bike was when my last bike was new - 35 years ago. It had five speeds, and I was riding along, changing up and down the gears, admiring the way the derailleur moved the chain over.

Sadly, I hadn't yet figured out that looking in the direction you're going is generally the recommended approach, and rode straight into the back of a parked car. This left me with a bent wheel, and various bits of bleeding body.

Ironically, that experience saved my bacon recently. I was riding behind a bus in traffic, when I was distracted momentarily by riding over a bit of metal plate on the road which made me look down. In that instant, something weird connected in my brain, and I had a flashback to my crash 35 years previously. The lesson had obviously been well-learnt, since I snapped my head back up to look forward - just in time to slam on the brakes, since the bus had stopped.

imposter2.0

onemoresolo wrote:

Imposter wrote:

I once joined a cycling forum with the username 'peddlingmadness' - and then someone pointed out that I had spelt pedalling wrong..

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Peddling

yep - thanks for confirming that..

moltryn

Got married...

Oops.. missed the 'on a bike' bit of the question

denniskwok

In my early teens, I tried to impress a girl I fancied at my local BMX track by trying to jump a double for the very first time. I failed on both counts. Pride and body hurt for quite a while afterwards!

fatsmoker

Aged 14 on my paper round, looking in the bag, not where I was going, and rode into the back of a car, my elbow smashing the rear window.

cyclingsheep

Was riding with a mate when we saw a coke can in the road, he said "watch this", popped up his front wheel and dropped it dead centre of the can which promptly turned into a wheel clamp and taking full effect once it had rotated to the fork. Stopped him in his tracks as wheel clamps are supposed to do. Took us ages to pull the can off the wheel it was on so tight.

sancho_uk

I remember when I was probably around 15, on my mountain bike thinking it would be a good idea to try and ride over an iced over puddle..

Not that i need to go on, but suffice to say i was face down pretty much instantly. Taught me a valuable lesson though. Dont be an idiot

Stupidest thing i have seen is:

Around about the same age.. we used to ride under goal posts and jump off our bikes onto the crossbar letting the bike ride on and leave us swinging (yes i know stupid)..

My friend did this.. slipped on the cross bar and landed backside first onto his back wheel.. He had a perfect tyre burn mark where he landed..

Gpfanuk

Received my first set of shoes, cleats and clipless pedals and then whilst wondering how they fitted I proceeded to clip a cleat (without it being bolted to a shoe) to a pedal (without that being attached to the bike)! Spent the next half an hour cursing and sweating whilst trying to unclip... Eventually had to attach the pedal to the bike to be able to generate some torque to perform the task! Doh! :oops: I wonder if anyone else did this ?

kendobarron

1. School run. Cycled home carrying my daughters scooter over the handlebars. Ate contrete within 200 yards.
2. After a ride, I made it to my front door. Was more interested in what building work my neighbour a few doors down was having done. Clipped out with my right foot, leaned to the left. Ate front lawn.

tedmaul

I seem to have a few!

When i was about 7, riding along showing off to my mates and popping wheelies and whatnot on my BMX. Didn't look where i was going and went right into the front of a parked car - cue a backflip over the handlebars landing on my back on the bonnet with my feet up on the windscreen!

Got my first bike since I was a kid about 2 years ago, Trek hybrid thing. On about my 3rd ride me and some mates went up a nasty hill near where my folks live with some 20% sections. We huffed and puffed our way to the top, stopping many times. On the descent, I hadn't quite got my head around when to brake when approaching corners or how to shave a bit of speed off rather than just yanking on the levers. Locked up the backwheel on a v steep corner sending me flying into the grass verge, breaking 2 ribs in the process and taking chunks out of my knee, ankle, elbow and hands.

Now graduated to a road bike last spring but seem to be equally stupid as before. Couple of months ago, went out on a wet day when the roads were a bit slippy. Had thought a few weeks prior that my brake pads looked like they needed changing but hadn't actually got around to it. What i hadn't noticed was that they had actually worn away to pretty much nothing now, which i discovered to my horror as i started a short steep descent. Soon realised that no matter how much i pulled on the levers i wasn't going to be stopping any time soon. Ended up having to unclip and use my feet as brakes Fred Flintstone style, finally coming to a halt after getting to the side of the road and grabbing onto a hedge. Broke my front mudguard and any remaining pride i may have had.

Gpfanuk wrote:

Received my first set of shoes, cleats and clipless pedals and then whilst wondering how they fitted I proceeded to clip a cleat (without it being bolted to a shoe) to a pedal (without that being attached to the bike)! Spent the next half an hour cursing and sweating whilst trying to unclip... Eventually had to attach the pedal to the bike to be able to generate some torque to perform the task! Doh! :oops: I wonder if anyone else did this ?

haha, excellent - ok add that one to my list as well! Had almost forgotten i did that! :oops:

thebluegooch

Gpfanuk wrote:

Received my first set of shoes, cleats and clipless pedals and then whilst wondering how they fitted I proceeded to clip a cleat (without it being bolted to a shoe) to a pedal (without that being attached to the bike)! Spent the next half an hour cursing and sweating whilst trying to unclip... Eventually had to attach the pedal to the bike to be able to generate some torque to perform the task! Doh! :oops: I wonder if anyone else did this ?

I have to admit I not only did this once............ x2

keef66

Maybe 10 yrs old, pootling up the road on my gas-pipe sit up and beg first bike, noticed the light bracket on the fork leg was slightly skew-whiff. Tried tapping it straight with my right foot as I went along. Managed to overdo it and inserted my foot into the revolving wheel.

The exact mechanical explanation of what happened next has always eluded me, but what I think occurred was:

Foot continued to follow the revolving wheel, which prised me off the saddle and towards the bars
Foot met fork at which point the wheel locked, I felt as though I'd severed all my toes, and the entire bike commenced a forward roll with me still attached.
Somehow I too manage to roll (I think that certainly saved my face / teeth) but then when I landed on my back on the road I was soon joined by the bike which landed saddle first on my b0llocks. I cannot stress enough that the bike weighed half a ton.

All this in the middle of the road leading into the estate, so first reaction was to check for hysterical onlookers. Luckily my attempted suicide had gone completely unobserved, so I was able to hobble home and inspect the damage. Interesting crease in my shoe, and my toes looked like they'd been caught in a giant mouse trap. Testicular area rather tender. Bike completely unharmed. Light bracket still pointing sideways.

thegreatdivide

Giving up serious road cycling when I was in my late teens for wine women and song. I was good at the former – the latter just gave me grief. He could have been a contender etc.

peat

Too many to list.

Most recent was on a first ride out with the local club. We'd stopped on a village triangle junction at the top of a hill to let the group, er, regroup.

I was chatting to one of the guys. left foot unclipped and on the ground. We waited for quite some time as some chap has a problem halfway up the preceeding hill. Anyway, a car arrives and indicates that they wished to use the bit of road we were on. No problem, i'll just shuffle into the verge i thought. Totally forgot my right foot was clipped in and immediately lost balance. Proceeded to some some weird shuffle/dance, one way then the other trying to save it, pulling up on the bars and lifting the bike off the ground. Suffice to say, it didn't work, i ended up falling into the road right infront of this car.

The driver and the rest of the club quite rightly thought i was a bit 'speshal'.

smoggysteve

moltryn wrote:

Got married...

Oops.. missed the 'on a bike' bit of the question

This has been auto-redirected to your wifes email address. She says glad you like your cycling as you will have plenty of time to do so soon.

Isn't that nice?

xchudy_1325

had to stop suddenly going up a steep hill managed to clip out just in time before i fell over, tried to get going again up said steep hill, failed and fell left as my left foot was clipped in

mikeouk

late 70's on a bike id built up from bits id found on the local tip, it had cow horn handle bars and in my head I could tackle and obstacle. The frozen over pond looked like a fun place to ride, i had visions of doing perfect donuts and getting the back end out (speedway style). it all went wrong when the bike slid from under me, and i landed chin first on the ice, I nearly fainted when I looked at my split open chin in the mirror. Ive still got a great fear of bike+ice to this day.

zardoz

In my early teens(so a long time ago!) I decide to ride my roadbike offroad with a few mates in some woods. Not watching where I was going I hit a tree stump with such force it snapped the crossbar.

elbowloh

I was about 10 and on my older brother's racer (a falcon I believe), which was too big for me and we had nicknamed "the bike of doom" because anyone who had ever ridden it had fallen off it somehow....except for me, but that didn't last long.

I was going down a narrow path (nicknamed locally as "the struggle" because it's pretty steep) in the pouring rain. The wheels slipped in the wet & I fell, unfortunately where i fell was at the exact point where there happend to be a lamp-post, which i was propelled into head first. Some time later I came round and was found, bleeding profusely from the forehead, by 2 old ladies who walked me and the bike home. I was then taken next door to my neighbour who was in the St John's ambulance for a check-over, who promptly took me to his mate who's a paramedic for some butterfly stitches.

I've been extremely lucky since then.

I do remember going on a ride with a load of mates when I was about 15. All of us were on mountain bikes, apart from one friend who had made up his own bike with bits and pieces from BMX's and mtb's. Anyway, along the ride everysingle one of us on the ride apart from the lad on his own creation had mechanical breakages, punctures or accidents (one mate's mtb frame literally snapped on the top tube). We were about 50 metres from my house on the way home as the friend on his home-made bike was boasting about how he was the only one who hadn't had a problem, when he suddenly & for no apparent reason went over his handle bars and skidded along the road for about 10 metres on his face, whilst he was still on the bike (imagine a triangle with his face and the front wheel making the angles at the base, with the rear wheel in the air as the third angle). I shouldn't have laughed...

Wheelspinner

In my defense I was very young... but as a kid on my still fairly new bike, I was riding laps on a local tennis court, thankfully a grass one. On one lap, for some reason I decided to pass on the inside of the net post. Poor decision, since the net was clearly in place and had to have been held up by something....

The only lucky part was that I was standing up on the pedals at the time so the net cord got me across the chest, flat on my back in milliseconds. Had I been seated it would have been right under the chin. Still, the rather interesting mark across my chest and arms was a talking point at school for a while.

moltryn

SmoggySteve wrote:

moltryn wrote:

Got married...

Oops.. missed the 'on a bike' bit of the question

This has been auto-redirected to your wifes email address. She says glad you like your cycling as you will have plenty of time to do so soon.

Isn't that nice?

It's been more than nice for quite some time.. I divorced her four years ago

kingofthetailwind

Last night, climbing a steep (for me) category 4 hill out of Belfast. I started weaving to each side of the road to lessen the grade, weaved too much, front wheel in the ditch, down I go. Too steep to get clipped in again so I had the indignity of walking the last 20 metres.

First and last time weaving!