What's the most stupid thing you have done on a bike?

damocles10

Just for fun....

For me it was when I was a teenager, on my Raleigh Team Panasonic Replica I thought I had a slow front puncture, so being the most alert kid on the street, I went to press the tyre to see if it was going down....I learn't a good lesson, you have to stop the bike first. Over the bars and in pain...It hurt! :oops:

alan_sherman

I rode my bike down the wavy slide on my climbing frame, falling off and crying lots.

Actually it wasn't me, it was my nearly 3 year-old yesterday. I wish I'd seen it! Maybe he is a future Danny McAskill in the making. Which begs the question - a lot of things are borderline stupid / amazing depending on whether you pull it off or not!

slowmart

On my paper round intent on getting home i was pedalling up hill going as quick as i could, head down and not looking where i was going...I went straight into the back of a parked car and chipped my front two teeth. I arrived home and got hit for being so stupid and ruining what in my moms eyes was a wonderful set of teeth.


How times have changed.......

wishitwasallflat

I just rode down a small ramp in a state park with my kids - skinned my knee, scraped my shifters and scuffed my saddle ....


PS I'm 52!

Smokin Joe

Riding 126 miles on an Audax including getting there and back home again after my previous longest distance that year had been twenty miles, and compounding the error by having a brand new saddle on the bike. That was over twenty years ago and I can still feel the pain of the final thirty miles into a headwind.

Myster101

Getting a front puncture while out on my mountain bike and thinking it was a good idea to stuff the tyre with bracken to get me down the rest of the single track. This ended up with me loosing it on a berm and hitting a tree head first.......was 10 at the time and obviously didn't need spare tubes or repair kits then :oops:

roux_guy

About a year ago... Brand new Whyte 19 Steel with really cool Fox forks. Cycling into a canalside cafe place with my cycling mate James. The path into the centre has speed bump after speed bump after speed bump and genius here (doing about 16mph) thinks "I'll just reach over and adjust the rebound of my shiny new forks". Next thing is, I'm hitting the deck, hard. I can hear my helmet bouncing and scraping along the ground. Final tally was totally bruised and skinned hip and elbow, wrecked shorts and all layers of tops and to top it off, it was near a road with a traffic jam and the very sympathetic drivers all cheering and laughing at me :? .

Still, it was at about mile 3 of a 40 mile road ride which, in a very 'man' style, we completed. Mind you, I could barely walk for about 10 days afterwards :oops: .

fatsmoker

Slowmart wrote:

On my paper round intent on getting home i was pedalling up hill going as quick as i could, head down and not looking where i was going...I went straight into the back of a parked car and chipped my front two teeth. I arrived home and got hit for being so stupid and ruining what in my moms eyes was a wonderful set of teeth.

Did someting similar on a paper round aged 13, but put my elbow through the back window of Mini Metro. Thought about riding off until I realised the front wheel was very bent. Very embarrassing to knock on the door to explain

nferrar

Either supermanning face-first into a dry stone wall after over-cooking a corner on a road bike or flying many many feet through the air and impaling myself on a wire mesh retaining wall after over-cooking a corner on an MTB. Both were clear examples of stupidity levels exceeding skill levels...

thegreatdivide

Wore white socks with black cycling shoes. Still haunts me to this day.

sheffsimon

thegreatdivide wrote:

Wore white socks with black cycling shoes. Still haunts me to this day.

White socks are the correct colour for cycling. Other colours are available but are best avoided.

zak3737

Perhaps trying to ride down the 4/5 flights of fairly steep steps that lead off the entrance onto the Humber Bridge, - I was about 40 and on my MTB, with lots of buddies watching incredulously, and unlike Danny McCaskill, it was a less than successful event......

Or - at a similar age, touching 47mph down a steep hill on a summers night MTB ride, - quite how the knobblies kept me upright I have no idea. Never repeated, even on a Road bike. *shakes head*

ai_1

alan sherman wrote:

I rode my bike down the wavy slide on my climbing frame, falling off and crying lots.

Actually it wasn't me, it was my nearly 3 year-old yesterday. I wish I'd seen it! Maybe he is a future Danny McAskill in the making. Which begs the question - a lot of things are borderline stupid / amazing depending on whether you pull it off or not!

Some guys who do amazing but highly risky stuff are just idiots but plenty others judge the risk, plan for it, approach it as carefully as possible but then make the call and if they decide to do it they just go for it and hope for the best.

thegreatdivide

SheffSimon wrote:

thegreatdivide wrote:

Wore white socks with black cycling shoes. Still haunts me to this day.

White socks are the correct colour for cycling. Other colours are available but are best avoided.

If you're still trying to follow a Rule written in 2011.

keef66

As a schoolboy on my hand me down gas-pipe sit up and beg bike, tried to adjust the light bracket on the fork with my foot while moving. Missed and stuck my foot into the front wheel, which caused the entire bike to do a jump and forward roll before the saddle pinned my testicles to the road.

Checked in the following order:

1) did anybody see?
2) is the bike OK?
3) are my toes still attached
4) ditto testicles.

Second most stupid was on a mountain bike on Teide in Tenerife. Company conference, so out with colleagues and showing off a bit. Downhill at speed I managed to end up riding in a rut with increasingly large rocks in it. Inevitably I hit one that stopped the bike dead, I flew over the bars and landed on my elbow. Crikey that volcanic rock is abrasive! Quite a lot of blood, and the tour guide had no first aid kit. Tools and puncture repair stuff yes, first aid not so much. Squirted a bit of water on it and wrapped it in a buff and finished the ride. I do have a couple of cool scars to show for it now!

mm1

Fitted a new chain without checking the length first (this was on a 1976 Carlton Corsa, my first proper road bike). Ok til I went off road in Oxshott woods, where I changed down and jammed the over long chain behing the block. Had to walk to my mates house in Fulwell where his Dad removed the freewheel with a brick! I remember a bemused Ronnie Barker drove past while I was carrying the bike in one hand and shoes in the other, having recently graduated from green flash plimsoles to my first proper cycling shoes with TA Anquetil plates nailed to the sole.

scottishdoug

As a kid, recreating famous 80s TV show "Kick Start" and constructing a jump out of some bricks and a piece of wood. Two problems - wood was waaaaay to thin ; plywood - who knew? - and my Raleigh Grifter was not what you might call "light" being made of something akin to lead/iron

Hit the ramp and it duly broke, front wheel slammed into pile of bricks and I end up faceplanting the road. Cue peals of laughter from my friends who quickly legged it when my mum came out to scrape me off the road. Bike completely undamaged. In fact, I think it might still be in my parents cellar to this day.

navrig2

Had a club pub crawl by bike.

Intention was a few beers on MTB's followed by a gentile ride home on the off road tracks near the beach.

Actuality was 7 pints, several whiskies, no food, mixture of MTB and road bikes. Not enough lights for a pitch black ride home.

Result was two crashing into each other at a junction due to testosterone and confusion - blood and plastic everywhere and one going over the handle bars as a result of forgetting he was riding his wife's MTB with disc brakes. He reckons he may have been knocked out briefly and he took several months to recover.

Out of 7, 6 made it to the curry house where we bled all over their napkins and carpets and proceeded to continue drinking.

The 7th was at home nursing his wounds and explaining to his wife why her MTB was scratched.

sloppyschleckonds

Lowered my stem too much once, ended up with neck ache.

cougie

Two things as as a schoolboy.

1. Noticed my bar plug was coming out. Gave it a whack and veered across the road.

2. Put a carrier bag of VHS Rental cassettes on the end of the bars - they started to swing and the oscillations got so bad they nearly had me off.

I'm not that stupid now.

70\ʹspenguin

scottishdoug wrote:

As a kid, recreating famous 80s TV show "Kick Start" and constructing a jump out of some bricks and a piece of wood. Two problems - wood was waaaaay to thin ; plywood - who knew? - and my Raleigh Grifter was not what you might call "light" being made of something akin to lead/iron

Hit the ramp and it duly broke, front wheel slammed into pile of bricks and I end up faceplanting the road. Cue peals of laughter from my friends who quickly legged it when my mum came out to scrape me off the road. Bike completely undamaged. In fact, I think it might still be in my parents cellar to this day.

Oh we must be of similar age! I too found some extremely thin ply wood and a load of bricks. My bike was a Raleigh Striker (with pedal back brake). We built the wall and set the wood at a 45 degree angle. We lay my mate Daniel and his sister Rebecca just behind the ramp so that I could jump over both of them. At full pelt I flew into the ramp, snapped the wood in half, ploughed into the bricks and sent them flying into my friends at the same time somersaulting into both of them. I don't remember much of what happened next aside from all three of us running off home crying and bleeding . I do believe it was the first time I touched a girls boob tho! Happy days.

bob6397

Forgetting about my SPD's on my first ride out on my road bike (having not used them on my mtb previously) and nearly collapsing in the middle of the road when I stopped at the lights...

My dad did something similar (without the "nearly" bit) out on his first ride with them earlier this year - i was behind him. Absolutely hilarious..

ravenvrider

Breaking my back, shit happens!

diy

Half way down a tricky decent on the MTB on a night ride, I realise I have my rear suspension valve on lock (pre pro pedal), stupidly reached down to flick the switch, unsettling my balance. My mate who was following said he saw my red and white lights do a cartwheel. Next thing, I'm soaking wet having landed on my back and burst my water bag. Cracked a rib, I reckon the water bag acted like an air bag.

Coolest thing I've ever done was on an MTB event when some guy in front stopped dead in the trail, I slam on, forward roll/ jump over the handle bars and land perfectly back on my wheels, danny macaskill style.

peddlingmadness

Strapping my packable waterproof jacket to the from handlebars then cycling the cobbles in Dent (North Yorkshire) resulting in jacket slipping free and into my front wheel. Result: over the bars fast and hard and a broken arm in 3 places. Lost an inch off my arm length, but hey ho

mm1

There is an apocryphal story about a well known Raleigh pro toppling over at traffic lights when the team was on the first generation of Campag clipless pedals (beautifully over engineered behemoths, Campag quickly bought a license to make Look pattern pedals); he had to be freed from his bike by a little old lady who was passing with her shopping trolley.

MisterMuncher

On my return to biking after years off, I bought a decent hybrid, and was happily bombing in and out to work for a couple of weeks until the wife said in no uncertain terms I needed a helmet. So, being a good husband, I hopped on the bike and shot over to CRC to get one. I wasn't quite used to the power available on disc brakes yet, and performing a rapid stop endo'd with some ferocity and put my head clean through the rear window of the Toyota that would have left-hooked me. Of course, this happened on the outward trip.

paulbnix

Many years ago cycling home from school trying to identify what was squeaking at the front I cycled straight into the back of a parked mini.
Not sure who was the most surprised - me or the couple that got out of the mini to find me lying on the roof.

Sam Kennedy

I rode to school with snow and ice all over the road on 23mm slick tyres. I somehow didn't fall off, but I did walk the bike home on the way back after almost falling off for the tenth time.

I really don't know what I was thinking.

I came off the road at ~30mph, overestimated how good I was at taking corners at speed, luckily no oncoming traffic in the other lane, went into a ditch. Bike was fine and I didn't come off, I was lucky!

Oh I almost forgot, I very nearly decked it after attempting a 'starfish' (pretty much the saddle becomes your only point of contact with the bike, turns out you need at least two for the bike to be somewhat controllable)

rob39

Coming to a junction, un-clip my left foot and the bike procedes to lean the to the right CRASH :oops: (done this a few times)

adr82

I kept riding on a pair of wheels I knew were getting worn out to the point where about a third of the front rim eventually just peeled off completely when I tapped the brakes, destroying a tube and tyre in the process. It was very stupid because I had noticed the rim was feeling rather concave a few days before, but figured it would be OK for a while yet. I was incredibly lucky that it failed when I was moving quite slowly and so was able to stay upright. The day before I'd done a long ride that included some fast descents with tight corners, and if it'd happened on one of those I'd almost certainly have been seriously hurt.

Will not be making that mistake again...