Road riding falls

[arnaew]

My only claim is the slow topple over sideways. My SO had just fitted a compact crank to my bike, and like a complete tosser, I took it for its first trial up the Gorge Road to Kangaroo Creek Dam, thinking 'hey, a compact crank will get me up these hills that I couldn't get up before!' (Adelaide South Australia is on the plains with the ocean on side and nothin' but hills on the others - if you want to get out of town, you have to climb.) So I'm climbing up an 8% gradient, come to one of those revolting turns around the cliff face that gets even steeper as you turn, change down to my new lowest gear and whack! it slips out of that gear and back to the higher one with an almighty jolt. I'm firmly clipped in and, will admit, am only doing about 6kph (very slooow) - the whack and subsequent jerk of the bike shifts my centre of gravity, my left cleat snaps out of the pedal, the bike is angled to the turn, I can't slide back in so can't pedal, going any slower means I fall over sideways - and of course I do. Wearing 3/4 knicks, so only have bitumen rash on my right calf, but oww! SO was pretty concerned about the new cranks... looked after me too, and adjusted us both beautifully.


Incidentally: massbikebabe, I note you wrote you fell on your "arse". I thought Americans always said/wrote "***". Is this a New England thing or is it just pronunciation vs spelling?

[im4smiley]

I too have had the clipless stumbles, I call them stumbles cause I never really fell, I did ride with some people once that I had never ridden with and one girl was very nervous riding in the road. we had to stop wait for traffic to stopp so we could cross a road and when it was clear we were all bunched up crossing and she just stopped I was in back of her, caught her back wheel and we went down kind of slipping sideways down the little incline. We were ok, her bike ok, my shifter hit the ground...not ok had to replace it.