First Wipe Out!!

[samismom22]

I wiped out today, I just got my bike about 4 weeks ago, I have been biking off and on for several years, with a cheap Wal Mart bike. Finally got a Trek hybrid, and was loving biking. Just going a nice hilly route about 4-6 miles 4-5 days a week. Well today I went off on the shoulder of the road slightly and wiped out trying to get back on to the road. I landed with my bike on top of me, palm of my left hand bleeding, laying on the side of the road. My head also hit the road, but thats what helmets are for!! My bike seemed ok, I had to straighten the handle bars out. I finished my work out, but it was slow.

Anyway, any tricks for getting back on the road after you go off on the grass, I hope to be more graceful next time.

Still learning!
Sandy

[Trek420]

Hi Sandy,

Glad that you are ok, and that you had a helmet. Time to get a new lid and maybe have the bike checked.

Let's see, watch that lip of the road or path. Right, if you go off onto the gravel road and sometimes even hybrid tires can "catch" on the lip getting back on. This is similar to crossing rail road tracks, It happens to even experienced riders.

you can:
swerve further out to the right (thinking US, left for Brits) and come back at the pavement as close to perpendicular as you can....but that puts you at odds to other riders on the path or....

look for a place that is kinda level and head for that but feather the pedaling. Click here for a good article about how to handle your bike in sand and gravel, it's no "day at the beach" but fun once you get it:

http://www.velogirls.com/resources/p...tions/sand.htm

or....

Get off bike, put it back on the path, get going

[KnottedYet]

Second what Trek said: get a new helmet no matter how nice your current crashed one looks. Some companies will take your crashed helmet and give you a replacement free. Check into that, but don't wear this one again.

I just switched from big juicy hybrid tires to sleek sexy touring tires. Whoa, Nelly, I'm having to relearn some bike handling! Met up with some RR tracks yesterday (after nearly doing what you did on the edge of a path) and decided to walk the bike across.

I tried to kinda hop my front tire up onto the edge of the path, and that went fine. Then tried to float my back tire up onto the path. Hah! The back wheel got knocked out from under me and I had to do some bouncy thing to keep everyone lined up. The next time it happened I stayed on the gravel until the path was at the same level and I could just ride over. I gotta get a feel for these tires before i do that again.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Knotted- I'm interested in what tire sizes you switched between?....


and yeah WATCH OUT for crossing the "black hole" of RR tracks- cross at right angles so the gap doesn't turn your tire and clamp it like a bear trap!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Sandi,
So glad you emerged from your fall ok! I was happy after my first fall because it was minor, and I no longer had to keep anticipating and dreading it or building it up in my mind.

Beware of any road irregularity that runs parallel to your wheels. This goes for ridges, gaps, cracks, gravel shoulders, ditches, curbs, mud&grass strips, etc. Try to maneuver over the irregularity in a way that avoids riding over it in a parallel way. A cross angle is more stable. (but don't slam head on 90 degrees into a curb thinking it will be easier that way! )

[SouthernBelle]

(but don't slam head on 90 degrees into a curb thinking it will be easier that way! )

OH, just reading that made my teeth rattle.

[still balancing]

Noticed that replacing the helmet was recommended...how bad does a fall need to be to replace a helmet?

[Fredwina]

Repeating Trek and Knotted:
If you fall, Pitch your helmet and buy a new one!
With the "Hard" shells on modern ones, it's had to tell if the helmet has recieved a fatal blow. Better to spend $100 on a new one than $100,000 on Hospital bills....
Knotted, not sure if anyone has told you this, but alway cross RR tracks at an 90 angle. Less chance of the tracks "grabbing" your wheel

[Eden]

Noticed that replacing the helmet was recommended...how bad does a fall need to be to replace a helmet?

The recommendation is any time you hit your head or think you might have hit your head - or if you drop it.

[KnottedYet]

Yeah, 90 degrees at RR tracks has always worked for me before, but since it was my first ride on my new bike I figured discretion was the better part of valor.

Since that ride I've gone 160 miles or so on the new bike, and have a better feel for it and am a bit more comfortable with handling it on irregular stuff. I'm also used to the tires now. I switched from 38s on my hybrid commutermobile to 28s on my Waterford roadie. (actually, she's a cyclocross bike, but she's being a roadie right now)

Hopped on and off pavement edges several times yesterday. It does get better with practice!