Our very own humiliation/embarassment thread

[Trekhawk]

When I first got my bike I had no idea that people didnt go clipless straight away. So off I go (much to the horror of my husband) clipped in with really not much of an idea about changing gears (hmm husband tried telling me but I was like yeh yeh how hard can it be).

Well I head down the street and decide it might be easier to go right instead of left at the corner and proceed up a pretty steep hill. Im sure you all know what happened from here. Bike starts to slow I change down a gear except its not down but up and the bike comes to a complete stop. I start to topple and only that my husband set my pedals for easy release am I not getting up close and personel with the road.

Im horrifed at this stage and hope no one has seen and then I hear it "are you ok dear" I turn and there is an older lady in her garden. I say yes thankyou and try to make some sort of dignified exit from this hill.

Two weeks later we get invited to a fourth of July party up the street and Im chatting to a neighbour about how I have started cycling when I hear this voice " so been up the hill lately" . OMG its the lady from the hill she apparently knows all my neighbours and explains how she saw me fall the other day while she was gardening and knew I must be new as I didnt really seem to know what I was doing.

I decided from that days things could only get better - but I still hate that hill.

[salsabike]

On bikeforums it was called "the humbling thread" and it was incredibly funny. I learned some interesting things about my husband's embarrassing bike moments...

When I first started riding I had a very heavy bike. I was stopped at a stoplight with both feet on the ground, lost a firm grip on the bike, it fell to one side, and knocked me down. Thus, I fell over in front of many cars while at a dead stop. My, my--Dork City.

I fell three times in one ride trying to learn how to stop with one foot still clipped in (I can do it now--but I have a few knee scars I didn't have before). The last time I bent the derailleur and couldn't get it unbent, so limped into a nearby business, called a cab, and got a pinch flat on the way home because the cabbie bungeed my bike in his trunk and squashed a tire in the process.

[Nanci]

My first 5k race (running): I had never been a runner my whole life, and just took it up because my BF at the time was really into tri's. So I sign up for my first race, maybe a month after I started running, and I think my time was something like 50 minutes!!! _And_ the only runners I managed to beat were an 80 year old guy with a brand new hip replacement, and an 11 year old fat kid...

(Now, as Dianyla says, I am so used to being passed/dropped/last, I could care less any more. Whatever! I'm having fun!)

First date with current BF, or I should say first athletic date, we go MTBing on some pretty tame trails. First, I fall for no reason in the grass parking lot, then proceed to fall two more times while riding! I bet he was _really_ impressed!

Nanci

[bikerchick68]

I'm glad you started this thread!

OK... when I was really new my now ex-husband explained about watching for grooves in the road... and not to get your front tire in one... I didn't equate that with trolley tracks tho... we were out and I dropped the front tire into the trolley track because I didn't quite cross over it... and I stopped when I hit the curb on the other side... endo onto the sidewalk at the stoplight, bike on top of me... traffic ALL screeched to a stop... apparently they all needed to see the dumb newbie crashing...

I did Tour de Poway this year with friends... on my race bike in my full gear... there was some dude on a rusty old mtn bike in flip flops and board shorts... that dropped us like a rock and didn't even appear to be sweating...

I got a speed wobble at 47mph when I came out from behind the hill onto the overpass that is part of that downhill... how I kept the bike upright I'll never know... I don't race that downhill stretch anymore...

and Xmas Eve, for the first time ever I crossed my front tire into the back tire of the person I was drafting... the bike reacted much like a slingshot... sending me straight out into the oncoming traffic lane at 18mph, weaving like a drunk, one foot unclipped and water bottle flying across the road... I did not crash and fortunately there was no traffic. I woulda cried if I wrecked my bike...

[Grog]

I did Tour de Poway this year with friends... on my race bike in my full gear... there was some dude on a rusty old mtn bike in flip flops and board shorts... that dropped us like a rock and didn't even appear to be sweating...

There's a cyclist who's pretty well known in Quebec, I can't remember his name but he was Lynn Bessette's (one of our female pro-racer and olympian in both road and mountain) coach at some point, probably an ex-elite racer himself. He was always biking around on an old clunker, dressed exactly as you describe, plus usually a buttonned-down shirt, with his small dog in a basket attached to his handlebars. He would do the whole Grand Tour (a 7-8 day supported ride with a couple days of major hills usually) this way, too.

Rumor has it that on the first day of training he would meet Bessette at the Gilles-Villeneuve Course (where they have the Grand Prix in Montreal, a favorite spot for cyclists because of the smooth 5,5 km loop of top-notch pavement with one lane closed to cars). He would make her do her first workouts on some old rusty bike. Not sure how she was dressed, but in any case she certainly passed every Colnago and Cervélo around that morning, "humbling" a couple of guys. Of course they didn't know who she was.

So the take-home message is: I think more than a few elite racers have an old clunker they like to use to have fun on the bike and enjoy their sport instead of focusing on speed and performance. So next time you're passed by one of these, you can always think that to yourself, and not be embarassed.

[Dianyla]

bikerchick68's trolley tracks experiment reminded me of another incident. Here in Portland we have these highly illustrative signs for bicyclists near most train tracks:


Every time I see one of these I wince at the memory. I think they used me as the model for this drawing, and I've still got a lovely road tattoo on my elbow from this. Though, I think I was in too much pain to feel embarrassed.

[AuntieK]

My most memorable oopsie was when I went out for a ride with Super-Amazing-Cyclist Woman. At the end of the ride, on the way back to our cars, she dropped me bad and ended up waiting for me by my car. As I come cruising into the parking lot, I realized that my cleat must be frozen to the pedal (this was New Year's Eve, and it was cold and started snowing shortly after the ride). Whatever it was, I could NOT unclip! So, I could either run into Super-Amazing-Cyclist Woman, or I could hit my own car. I choose the car. I jerked hard on the handlebar, bonked into my back bumper, and fell over. Finally, mid-fall, the cleat unclipped. She didn't laugh, but I'm sure she was laughing on the inside...I must have looked mighty funny.
Once I got home I realized that the handlebar jerk had broken my computer wire.

[Tater]

I had finally gotten a sleek new road bike with clipless pedals after years of riding mountain bikes with and without rat-traps. I had practiced clipping in and out from the comfort of my own living room before daring to take the show on the road. I even rode across the yard a couple times clipping in and out, just in case I fell, the grass would cushion the blow. Finally, I decide to head out...down the hill to the signal, slowed down, unclipped one side, negotiated the red light just fine. Half mile down the road, a stop sign appears and suddenly, I forget that I am clipped to my pedals! I think the crash happened in slow motion, because I felt myself ever-so-slowly tipping to the left, then down on my rump. I wasn't hurt, more importantly, the bike was unharmed, but as I was untangling myself from the bike, a car pulled up beside me. Down rolls the passenger side window, 'Are you okay?' a woman asks. As my cheeks flame, I nod and say yes. I am sure she drove off thinking I was some sort of clod!