Stupid Things We Have Done

[Aggie_Ama]

And because I am dumb the one that comes to mind. I fell over because I leaned to the side I was clipped in on. The bad part, it was at the intersection of 2818 and George Bush Dr in College Station, yes a large intersection right by the big old Bush Library. It didn't go unnoticed.

[7rider]

OK.. this one's not me (I swear!). My friend drove her car into the automatically lifted up garage door... with the bike on the roof rack! To make it worse, after the bike / rack and car were repaired, her husband did the exact same thing to his bike a couple of weeks later. (It was a new house, new concept ). At least his lightspeed wasn't injured. But -- I hope that I have learned from them!

Standard operating procedure for me when I had a roof rack - and parked my truck in the garage - was: bikes on the roof = garage door opener came OFF the visor and got pitched into the back seat! I never wanted to do that. Now....the bikes ride on the back of the truck, and I sweat everytime I stop at a stop sign or light with someone behind me ("Oh, please stop. Please stop. Please, please, please.....").

Some of the local gals here know I'm something of a half-arsed birder. One time, I was out for a ride, and I heard a bird call, and spun to look for it. I rode right OFF the road -- onto just a dirt shoulder and stayed upright, thankfully. But the surprise + the twist + the jolt of the dirt = I threw out my back! Ugh, it was a loooong, painful ride home to the ice packs, the Advil, and the phone number to my chiropractor!!!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

*Installed tires backwards (I still do this in my less “present” moments—fortunately it is pretty obvious once you put the wheel back in the frame)

Maybe not quite as obvious as you think.

[maillotpois]

Rode several double centuries with (undiagnosed) pulmonary emboli, thinking the chest pain during the last one was just indigestion from a carnitas burrito the day before.

[Norse]

3 times I have failed to disengage my foot from the clipless pedal in time to prevent slowly and ungracefully (and always with someone watching) tipping over. Luckily, this has not happened for awhile now. I have probably just jinxed myself.

[GraysonKelly]

Stupidest thing I've ever done on or with a bike?
Met up with some gals on the rail trail, started chatting with them while we rode, ended up riding 40 + miles when I'd only been riding about 15 max up to that point (uphill I might add), and rode for about 10 of those miles with knee and hip pain that just about killed me before I had the good sense to ask them what might be causing it. Turns out it was my seat height that they helped me adjust. I could barely walk up the steps when i got home and couldn't walk very well the next day.
That hurt!
Gray

[OakLeaf]

*Installed tires backwards (I still do this in my less “present” moments—fortunately it is pretty obvious once you put the wheel back in the frame)

Depends on the tire! I actually outline the directional arrows on my Conti GP4000s in silver Sharpie, because they're very hard to see otherwise, and to my eyes it's not immediately obvious from the tread. I'm not the only one either, because I had a little "help" with a flat on the road a couple of weeks ago, and dear helper put the tire on backwards. Good thing I made sure to check it as soon as I got home, although I honestly didn't notice a difference in handling.

I don't have any doozies for this thread that I didn't already contribute to the last one. Yet.

But, I'm new to skorts, and when I have to pee, I keep trying to reach underneath the skirt to get the shorts off, as I would with underwear or pantyhose under a regular skirt. Is that stupid enough?

[eclectic]

On the way to my 2nd ever triathlon I had my bike on my rear rack and I missed the turn but thought "no problem, I'll just go down a mile and take the grid road back" so I did, after a rain on a gravel road.

Of course I unloaded my bike and Duhhhhh the rims and tires were covered w/ gravel grit. Luckily someone had some paper towels and I cleaned it off best I could, still not thinking of any repercussions from it.

I made it through the tri, made it home and went on the club ride but 15 miles out of town I had a flat. However, I know how to time it! Our main LBS wrench was riding that night and changed it for me saying " hmmmm that is strange you have a lot of gravel caught in here" La de da de da

[Aint Doody]

I didn't know you could put a tire on backwards. How do you know???? What happens?

[OakLeaf]

Not all bici tires have directional tread. I suspect it's not that huge of an issue in any case, since the contact patch is so small. Probably more of an issue in the wet than in dry conditions. As I said, I didn't notice any handling issues when my rear tire was on backwards. But then again, it was likely underinflated in the field, too.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I didn't know you could put a tire on backwards. How do you know???? What happens?

Many bike tires have tread that has a 'direction', like this for example:


The grooves in the tread are designed to slant in a certain direction to help with traction. Putting them on backwards is not the end of the world but supposedly will lessen traction in some way.

[SadieKate]

Not all bici tires have directional tread. I suspect it's not that huge of an issue in any case, since the contact patch is so small. Probably more of an issue in the wet than in dry conditions. As I said, I didn't notice any handling issues when my rear tire was on backwards. But then again, it was likely underinflated in the field, too.

It's a VERY big issue on mtb tires - wet or dry.

[indysteel]

My biggest mistake was a crash that I caused while riding with 3 other friends. We were riding two abreast with me in the front left We were doing a route that we do together, and I do alone, all the time.

Part of the route goes through the grounds of our art museum. We're supposed to take the second right turn along the main road. For whatever reason, however, I always want to take the first right turn. Do you see where this is going?

Normally, I catch myself but on this particular ride I started to make the turn. A split second later, I realized my mistake but by then the damage had been done. My riding buddies scattered in different directions and one of them fell from his bike,although he caught himself before he hit the ground.

Nobody got hurt, thank God. But I burst into tears; I was so upset. My friend that fell tortured me about it for a while, no matter how much I apologized. The other people in the group were more forgiving.

It was a humbling experience, especially since I pride myself on being a good group rider.

[smurfalicious]

Oh my, good thing I don't possess a whole lot of pride. I got bucked off a spin bike. Uh huh. Over the handlebars on a spin bike.

Picture this, I've been mountain biking for a while, feeling pretty hot about myself. I've decided to try racing and since I lacked a road bike I figured spin class was perfect. I got myself some shorty shorts and a snug little basic jersey. I made a big show out of grabbing a bike with clipless pedals and adjusting my seat.

As the class progressed I was thinking I was quite hot stuff against these little soccer moms. 1/4 turn? P'shaw! I did full turns, and full turns, and full turns until all of a sudden I realized I was going to vomit if I didn't stop.

Naturally I just stopped pedaling forgetting all about the big red brake. With the force of an elephant that 40lb flywheel came around and shoved my legs another rotation, hurtling me into the bars. I probably would have gone over had my cleats not faithfully held me. I do believe I eventually went off the side, with a bang, of course. The whole class was staring at me. I started taking a class at a different time.

This is not my stupid but I became involved in it. While doing a "fall colors" photo shoot for work we approached a light behind our "team car." I don't think we were expecting it to turn red, but it did. As we stopped Staci apparently forgot about her pedals and started to topple towards me. She screamed, I looked and saw what was going down and as I was unclipping my left foot, tried to dive right. Fortunately I got my right foot out, but not until my bike had slid left with my foot attached and I was squatting quite awkwardly in the middle of the road. Impressive stuff right there.

[Zen]

though it's not bike related.

The instruction for black dye say to use gloves.
There is good reason for this.
I look like I just rebuilt a Chevy engine.