What are the reasons you have fallen down?

Ablang wrote:
From reading here, it seems that falling down is not a unique
occurrence to just me. I haven't fallen since I was a tween (but did
fall about a week ago), so it was strange for me to read other adults
falling down.

What are the reasons you have fallen down? Was it b/c of klutziness in
general, tire failing to grip due to lost traction on water or sand,
etc?

Oh, I fall all the time personally. Some of that is due to riding in
poor conditions, but there are other reasons too.

* Wet leaves - twice
* Ice - lots of times
* wet road - I don't think I've ever fallen because of this actually.

* One inch lip between one lane and another - this hurt so much
* Car collisions - three times so far
* Stick rolling my front tire sideways - stitches and dental damage
* Someone's bullhorn bar snagging my drop handlebars
* Heavy trailer pushing rear wheel out from under me while braking

I'm sure there are others, but those are the highlights.

--
Dane Buson -
The penalty for laughing in a courtroom is six months in jail; if it
were not for this penalty, the jury would never hear the evidence.
-- H. L. Mencken

In article ,
Ablang writes:

What are the reasons you have fallen down?

much embarrassed, hands-in-pockets hummin'-&-hawin'
Forgetting to pedal.

And forgetting there's a tall load in the milk crate,
going to "cowboy mount", and my leg bounces off the
load.

A couple of years ago I high-sided off the left turn
from No. 6 Rd onto Bridgeport in Richmond BC. Killed
a new pair of jeans doing that. There was a pavement
divot I tried to avoid, and in so doing, my steering
went all squiggly, with more over/under-steers than
my brain could timely process.

I've done some hops at speed that have gone horribly
wrong, what with one wheel or the other landing on a
nicely rounded robin's-egg rock or a babyhead, and
rolling out from beneath me. Those are the worst,
and result in real road rash. If you're gonna hop,
look on the surface ahead first.


cheers,
Tom





--
Nothing is safe from me.
I'm really at:
tkeats curlicue vcn dot bc dot ca

On Jul 13, 1:03 pm, Ablang wrote:
From reading here, it seems that falling down is not a unique
occurrence to just me. I haven't fallen since I was a tween (but did
fall about a week ago), so it was strange for me to read other adults
falling down.

What are the reasons you have fallen down? Was it b/c of klutziness in
general, tire failing to grip due to lost traction on water or sand,
etc?

Forgetting to unclip! Other than that I've had a few close calls
taking curves to fast.

In article ,
Jorg Lueke writes:
On Jul 13, 1:03 pm, Ablang wrote:
From reading here, it seems that falling down is not a unique
occurrence to just me. I haven't fallen since I was a tween (but did
fall about a week ago), so it was strange for me to read other adults
falling down.

What are the reasons you have fallen down? Was it b/c of klutziness in
general, tire failing to grip due to lost traction on water or sand,
etc?

Forgetting to unclip! Other than that I've had a few close calls
taking curves to fast.

Descents on curvy roads while trying to stick to a tight line
instead of using the width of the road are classic, textbook
cases of bailing/freaking out at the last moment.

IIRC Jobst has written about it. At any rate, whatever I
read was 100% correct -- you've gotta make good use of
whatever lateral road space you have during a high-speed
descent. Because if you don't, and you try to follow a
line as tight as on flatland, you're pretty much screwed.

I guess it all has to do with steering bikes by leaning
left or right, and how much the road allows you to lean
your bike. As you've no doubt observed, some roads have
curves banked the wrong way, and that really makes things
interesting.


cheers,
Tom



--
Nothing is safe from me.
I'm really at:
tkeats curlicue vcn dot bc dot ca

"Jorg Lueke" wrote in message
...
On Jul 13, 1:03 pm, Ablang wrote:
From reading here, it seems that falling down is not a unique
occurrence to just me. I haven't fallen since I was a tween (but did
fall about a week ago), so it was strange for me to read other adults
falling down.

What are the reasons you have fallen down? Was it b/c of klutziness in
general, tire failing to grip due to lost traction on water or sand,
etc?

Number one is Ice second on the list is dogs.

In article ,
Zoot Katz writes:
On Sun, 13 Jul 2008 11:03:18 -0700 (PDT), Ablang
wrote, in part:
\
What are the reasons you have fallen down? Was it b/c of klutziness in
general, tire failing to grip due to lost traction on water or sand,
etc?

I fall down because I **** up.

That raised bike path on the Stanley Park Seawall
is an odious endangerment to riders (and walkers,
for that matter.) Whomever designed that thing
f'd up royally. I think the Parks Board should
just get rid of it, flatten the whole surface of
the seawall to one single grade, and ban riding
on the seawall altogether.

Ooooh, I so destest bike facilities that are
unnecessarily raised above or lowered below
the adjacent, "normal" grade. If designers
want visual separation, they can use colours.

I even dislike those stoopid li'l islands with
the bicycle-allowing cutouts at Bike Route
intersections, like at 37th & Main St. Those
cutouts leave raised concrete "stepping stones"
that serve to complicate blind people's feeling
their ways around. And there's a fair number of
blind people in my neighbourhood.

What are they tryin' to do, kill us?

My next rant will probably be about useless bollards
on bike facilities, that only serve to get in the
ways of, and pose hazards to riders. But I'll save
that for another time.

People get too fancy when designing bike facilities.
They throw-in so many afterthoughts, just for the
hell of it. I used to like the public drinking
fountains along the bike routes, until I found
where some ignoramus put a bag of dog poop in
the one at 37th & Ontario.

And then there's traffic circles/rotary islands,
which are The City's response to drivers not
understanding ROW rules. I appreciate the ones
with gardens in 'em, but a bunch of tall gladiolas
growing in the middle of the street doesn't do
much good for sight lines.

If you wanna fall down, just make use of a bike facility.

Y'know those zig-zag gates at dismount points on the
Seawall? I wonder if you can ride your Xtracycle
through 'em :-) I bet you could, if you approach
the task gingerly.

What are they tryin' to do, kill us?


cheers,
Tom

--
Nothing is safe from me.
I'm really at:
tkeats curlicue vcn dot bc dot ca

"Ablang" wrote in message
...

What are the reasons you have fallen down? Was it b/c of klutziness in
general, tire failing to grip due to lost traction on water or sand,
etc?


I guess I'm closer to Dane B than Frank K when it comes to frequency of
falls.

Falls over the last year:
- Pedestrian on a cell phone stepped in front of me on the I-90 trail
- Slipped on the Montlake Bridge in the dark and pouring rain - I was tired,
too, as it was late
- Rim blew out in the middle of a busy intersection downtown,
- Misjudged the difficulty of coming down a steepish dirt trail on my road
bike

--
Warm Regards,

Claire Petersky
http://www.bicyclemeditations.org/
See the books I've set free at: http://bookcrossing.com/referral/Cpetersky

In article ,
"Claire Petersky" wrote:

"Ablang" wrote in message
...

What are the reasons you have fallen down? Was it b/c of klutziness in
general, tire failing to grip due to lost traction on water or sand,
etc?


I guess I'm closer to Dane B than Frank K when it comes to frequency of
falls.

Falls over the last year:
- Pedestrian on a cell phone stepped in front of me on the I-90 trail
- Slipped on the Montlake Bridge in the dark and pouring rain - I was tired,
too, as it was late
- Rim blew out in the middle of a busy intersection downtown,
- Misjudged the difficulty of coming down a steepish dirt trail on my road
bike

I fell last week because a kid rode through the runout area of the dirt
jump ramp I was landing on, and I grabbed too much front brake trying to
avoid him.

Broke a perfectly good helmet, and maybe wondered if mid-30s was a
little old to take up dirt-jumping.

On the other hand, I think I rode through an entire season of cyclocross
without lying on the ground, though there were dabs here and there.
Also, I memorably and violently threw my bicycle to the ground after
carrying it through a sandpit, but again, I didn't fall myself.

Oh, and I nearly dumped getting on my bike at the start of a crit,

--
Ryan Cousineau http://www.wiredcola.com/
"In other newsgroups, they killfile trolls."
"In rec.bicycles.racing, we coach them."