First Road Crash-With a Mailbox

Oh you read that right. This a.m. I am finally commuting for the first time in at least 5 weeks since I got that stomach bug, finally got my mileage up so I could commute 34 miles round trip. So I'm riding and I'm thinking, which is one of the reasons I love to commute. Thinking about the guy on the other side of the road riding his bike. Thinking about how nice this wide shoulder is and how I wish it was on my whole ride. Probably thinking too much. And looking at my bike computer- 16.1 mph impressive on a flat road!Haulin stuff! Well I look up and there it is. A big. Rubbermaid. Mailbox. I put my right hand up and go NOOOO! and it hits my hand then my torso then over I go! Handlebars! Like usual! The mailbox spins around and spits out all the mail waiting to be picked up and I'm flat on the ground like an idiot. I pick up myself and start laughing. I stepped on my muffin I bought on the way. My vitaminwater is rolling out in the road. The biker on the other side says "you alright???" Oh he got to see the whole thing! And I go "only my pride is hurt...only my pride". Luckily no cars were going by. For me. Because they would of had to pull over and stop laughing. If the mailbox was metal and cemented in, I'm not sure that would be as funny. But looking at the mailbox it's poking in the road. Not to say I'm not to blame, but someone at work said they will look at it on their way home as their spouse is a postal carrier. In either case, I had to turn it back around and put the mail back in it. I had to fix my chain again (had to fix it earlier as it went winging off around my crank arm..wtf!) and rode up the road listening to it being grumpy.

I started really laughing because I thought of the thread about being an epic ride. That my friends, would be epic. Injury. Wreck. Mechanical. Muffin in Road. Witnesses. Oh.My. A perfect grease print of my big chain ring on my calf. Road rash on my elbows.

So as primarily a mountain biker, I guess I found my niche. If I'm not hitting trees I'm hitting mailboxes. Maybe I should get my eyes checked. :rolleyes:

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y141/smcr/rofl.gif
Great story!

The only problem I have with thinking is parked cars. Kind of like your mail box, but you'd think they'd be a lot more obvious. :rolleyes:

Glad you're ok. What a hillarious account!! LOL!

This is the stuff made for AFV!! You could've gotten an easy $10,000!

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Originally Posted by TahoeDirtGirl

I stepped on my muffin I bought on the way. My vitaminwater is rolling out in the road.

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OH, that would SO happen to me. I'm glad you are OK. Quite an adventurous commute!

Glad you're up and laughing about it:)

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Originally Posted by TahoeDirtGirl

The mailbox spins around and spits out all the mail waiting to be picked up and I'm flat on the ground like an idiot.
I stepped on my muffin I bought on the way.

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I'm laughing really hard at this vision. I'm glad you're ok.

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Originally Posted by mudmucker

I'm laughing really hard at this vision. I'm glad you're ok.

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Yah, me too :D *snort* :D

Very nice writing!

For some reason the thing I feel most bad about is you stepped on your muffin :o

We need a new forum:

"Crazy Mailboxes."

Really glad you're okay!!!

Wow, great write-up. I got taken out by a No Parking sign. I KNOW I shouldn't have been riding on the sidewalk, but such action was a bit drastic.

Evil Mailbox

I bet that mailbox is warning all the other mailboxes "if ya see that chick, get out of the WAY!"

;)

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Originally Posted by Zen

For some reason the thing I feel most bad about is you stepped on your muffin :o

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Me too.

Glad you weren't badly hurt! :o

Glad you're ok. :)

My one and only 'accident" was running into a parked car. I was tired after a tough climb and my head was down. D'uh...

Oh I'm perfectly fine. Just a bruised ego. I hope no one got a pic of it. No, I must say, I just know how to wreck. Tuck and roll. I have no idea. That's the funny thing, one minute I'm going-wow I'm loving this morning...and then..crash.

I think my early years being thrown off of horses and falling out of trees is paying off. Plus the extra pounds pad my hips when I fall.

SO I'm getting ready to make the return ride home. I think I'm going to get on google maps and find an alternate route. Because if I drive by that mailbox and someone is outside scratching their head on why it's moved a little out of the ordinary, I'm gonna laugh. I can see the little grouping of neighbors now..."someone said a girl hit it on a BIKE"...yeah. Hi. That would be me.

But on the upside I did spy a pick your own blueberry farm, and two or three more 'honesty farm stands' (self serve) and a farm stand that I have stopped at before but nothing was in season. So this time if I hit something, produce will abound from the Wald baskets.

Was a little worried about the laptop. But it's been working well. The muffin was in good form, only a little smooshed, just alot of grease on stuff from me fixing my chain. Oh and my lunch bag had little pebbles in it. haha. I made everyone's day here with my road rash elbow.

What kind of muffin????

too funny! Great story. Glad you, the bike, muffin and laptop are all ok.

There is nothing like running into a stationary object to make you feel stupid. I know from experience, I ran into a parked car. Of course, I had the fun of going to work for a week with 2 black eyes and sutures in my lip, so I had to explain what happened to everyone that came into the office. That really makes you feel stupid. I'm so glad you didn't have to go through that.

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Originally Posted by Crankin

What kind of muffin????

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Blueberry cRUMb. Heavenly. They bake it at this little bakery on the way to work in the middle of nowhere.

I hit every farmstand I could find. I had no room but I somehow found it.

I hear you on the parked car. I remember hearing about someone in the Bay area that had hit a parked car that was parked in a bike lane and I couldn't understand how he didn't see it. Now. I know. It would be so easy not to expect it to be there and totally absorbed. I think this accident taught me to pay attention more. Trust me, I was paying attention on the ride home!

My wrist and shoulder are now starting to ache, so Advil and ice is on the menu before bed:o

Glad you're (basically) ok, tahoe! Nothing worse than having someone see you crash, either....

I came close to having a similar crash on a club ride a couple of years ago. A guy riding quite a ways ahead of me stopped (for some reason) on the edge of the road, but still on it. He probably should have pulled off the road completely, but did not. I must not have been looking very far ahead (my bad), maybe looking at my computer or something, and all of a sudden I had to swerve quickly to avoid plowing right into him. Quite scary. I am SO glad I managed to avoid that crash as it would have been pretty darn uncomfortable. You just don't expect people to stop on the road in front of you, but still, like with motor vehicles, a crash would have been my fault/responsibility.

Hope you'll heal up fast! And the muffin sounds yummy! :p

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Originally Posted by TahoeDirtGirl

I hit every farmstand I could find. I had no room but I somehow found it.

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If you keep hitting farmstands as well as mailboxes you'll need a lot more Advil. Be careful out there. :D

On our ride last weekend there were lots of signs for CRAB, LOCAL CLAMS AND SCALLOPS and so forth. I almost stopped but I don't know what a crab would have felt like in the back pocket of my jersey...

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I almost stopped but I don't know what a crab would have felt like in the back pocket of my jersey...

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POKEY but TASTY! !;)

Tahoe - I'm glad you are ok. That is SO something I would do! I've learned to just smile, tell everyone, "I'm ok!", and keep on going like NOTHING HAPPENED! :rolleyes:

OMG, I'm glad you are ok!

I actually saw a guy do almost the same thing on a commute last week. I was stopped at a light with a bunch of cars. A guy (riding the wrong direction, on the sidewalk and not wearing a helmet) rode directly into one of those sandwich board signs sitting there. It made an awful racket as he attempted to recover, put the sign back up, and get on his way like nothing happened. The thing was, because all the cars were at the light, it was very quiet when he smashed into it and EVERYONE heard it and was watching him. I was laughing the whole time! He also had a vitamin water rolling down the street - but he left it behind in his hurry to get out of there! Poor guy!

I'm glad that you were at least able to laugh at yourself. Sounds like you handled the situation with considerably more grace than the guy I saw, did!

Yah, I think if anyone was laughing the hardest it was me. I was still laughing throughout the day just wondering...what the heck did I look like?

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Originally Posted by GLC1968

OMG, I'm glad you are ok!

He also had a vitamin water rolling down the street - but he left it behind in his hurry to get out of there! Poor guy!

I'm glad that you were at least able to laugh at yourself. Sounds like you handled the situation with considerably more grace than the guy I saw, did!

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I need that vitaminwater after 17 miles of riding AND crashing. Oh today. I'm feeling it. I think this rivals some of my worst mtb crashes in stiffness. My friend, after telling them how stiff and sore I was, reminded me "well you DID say you looked down and saw 16.1 mph on your cycle computer!" I almost forgot, yeah. That's pretty fast.

I cannot imagine riding without a helmet at all. I used to do it once in a while on the road if I was going a short distance but not anymore. Too many mailboxes.

I hope that mailbox learned a lesson!!