Dumped my new bike! What Happened!?

[Blue_Wildflower]

Wow. Sorry about your fall. Hope you heal up well.

Are you riding a hybrid or road bike? I admire those that ride road bikes. I am no where near ready to hop on one (though I do know which one I want when I am ready, lol)

What kind of hybrid do you have? I have a Trek 7300, which has been called a "grandma" bike by my Bianchi riding ex-bf.

[OakLeaf]

"Just turning around" as in making a U-ie?

I don't know the specs on your new bike vs. the old one, but it sounds like it's probably lighter and has a shorter wheelbase, and if so, it may take a bit more attention to keep it balanced.

Also, were you looking behind you where you wanted to end up, or at the ground? It's really important to look THROUGH your turns, look where you want to go, for a lot of reasons. Glance at the ground to make sure there's nothing you don't want to run over, then look up. Looking too hard at the ground is a pretty good way to wind up on it.

Hope you feel better soon. Pain is exhausting even when your injuries are minor, so get plenty of rest.

PS - good thing you DIDN'T put your arm out. That's how people break their collarbones.

[alpinerabbit]

ditto on the arm/collarbone connection.

When you are healed up, maybe you can go to a road cycling clinic. They also teach you falls sometimes: I learned how to let myself fall onto grass on an incline. I don't "do it regularly", but maybe it will teach your neuromotor system not to stick your arm out if it happens.

A friend told me you have to take cracks at an angle - can't do it head on like I did with the fatties.

eh ? - maybe you misunderstood your friend, or I am misunderstanding you. You have to go over cracks, tracks and such at a steep angle, best is 90 degrees like so --|, so "head on". Don't cross them on a narrow angle like so /|.

A road clinic will teach you other useful stuff to handle your bike.

[wackyjacky1]

Oooh, that sounds scary, DMB. Hope you feel better soon. (Ribs can take a while to heal...I had a bad cold back in July and pulled a muscle in my ribcage from coughing, it still bothers me a little bit even now.)

I believe that when you encounter cracks in the road, or other things that might swallow a tire (such as RR crossings) you should take them at as close to a 90-degree angle as you can. If you're riding in the same direction as the crack, and the crack is wide enough, the tire's gonna catch in there and cause you to crash.

Also, I'm thinking that if there was only a light rain, so that the pavement still looked dry, it's likely your husband is right -- a light rain only makes the roads slicker, it takes a heavy rain to wash road oils away.

Heal up soon!

[Grog]

I'm glad you're okay - and really glad you didn't extend your arm! That's the #1 rule of crashing and you've learned it already, so you've been doing something well!

As a prize, you need to get yourself a new helmet now.

All that the others said about turning and rain and angles is right. Another thing of course is to have the inside pedal UP (and to put your weight on the outside pedal so that it's down and weighted) when you turn a tight corner. You don't want your pedal to scrape the pavement, it would also send you down.

There might be a club teaching some skills in your area. Others will maybe have suggestions.

Heal well and take it easy...

[tulip]

Geez, I hope you feel better soon. Be sure to get a NEW helmet pronto. Throw the cracked one away. Everyone else has given very good advice.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Sorry you got hurt!

My alltime favorite bicycling book:
art of cycling
It's mostly about defensive cycling and avoiding dangerous situations in traffic.....but it has a great long chapter about road hazards aside form cars- things like bad pavement, cracks, debris, curbs,rough or slippery surfaces....and how to cope with them to avoid injury. You might like the book, I do.

[Grog]

Geez, I hope you feel better soon. Be sure to get a NEW helmet pronto. Throw the cracked one away. Everyone else has given very good advice.

Or bring it back to the shop, who'll send it back to the manufacturer and is likely to give you a discount on the next one.

Bell and Giro both have a helmet return program. (I think they want the used helmets to study how they are impacted by accidents. It usually requires a bit of an explanation of your accident and how you hit the ground if you can.)