[Simon_MacMichael]

The idea for this thread came over the weekend when I was riding up the outside of a queue of traffic on the Kings Road, vehicles coming the other way, and approaching a zebra crossing foiund I couldn’t unclip my right foot … was so intent on trying to disengage it that it didn’t occur to me to unclip my left foot. 

Luckily managed to zig-zag through a gap in cars to the kerb and a friendly lamp post to hold on to while I sorted it out, but for a few seconds I thought I was going to end up under the area’s apex predator, Chelseaus Tractorus.

Topic

[MammimalDave]

Disclaimer: this does involve

Disclaimer: this does involve a driver… but for good.

Tanking it down Rte Des Gets from Morzine one summer and as anybody who has done that hill will know, it’s a nice smooth descent and you can get up some real speed… right until the hairpin at the bottom. I’d given it full beans and dropped the group from the top and was approaching the hairpin at 50mph or so.. Right on the edge of my control skills for a road bike. My eyes were streaming with the wind and everything was a bit blurry.

A car was approaching from below the bend so I couldnt go wide and carry much of the pace I was coming in at… I yank hard on the brakes and the front tyre goes BANG! Blows out and I have no steering and no front braking… then I went hard on the rear – I’d been using that on the way down to save my front for emergencies so it now seemed to give up however hard I pulled.

Over the other side of the hairpin are 3 options to aim for (or avoid!): a rock wall, a narrowish steep gravel path or a short sharp metal fence and be flipped into the trees below – I’m thinking “this is it; Im going home in a body bag.”

The gods were with me though; an ancient land rover decided to cut me up just before the bend so as I hit the exact point of stinky pants… I bounced off the side of him into the grass verge on the inside of the hairpin. Some scuffs and a broken seat and me sat there rattling off expletives and laughing my head off with the adrenalin.

10 minutes later everybody else turned up saying “oh thats where you went”… they had stopped near the top to wait for me forgetting that i was in front of them. Then took the P for the rest of the day as I had no seat and kept forgetting and sitting down on the post 😀

[Creakingcrank]

My worst ever crash was at

My worst ever crash was at that exact place. I miscalculated the corner descending in the dark (foolishly thought I knew it well – I live very close and have been up and down it many times). I thought I was in the centre of the road, looked down and realised I was on the right hand edge. Then I was sliding along the bottom of the ditch beyond the verge. Broken rib (painful for weeks), bent forks (steel ones) and the buckles ripped off one of my fancy cycling shoes.

 I don’t think it counts as my scariest cycling moment though, because it was pretty much all over as soon as I realised it was happening.

[peted76]

I know that hill.. are you

I know that hill.. are you local to Leam/Warwick? 

[Spokesperson]

I was cycling up a steep

I was cycling up a steep mountain in the foothills of the Himalayas 20 years ago. I reached the top and waited for my friend. I suddenly felt a warm fuzzy buzzy sensation on my hands and handlebars… and looked down to see a big swarm of bees arriving. I panicked and started the descent so quickly that I nearly came off my bike a couple of times. Bees clung to me and my bars. Eeeek! I came to a rushing stream over the road and dipped the bike and me into it. Bees gave up! I didn’t get stung once, but did get badly scraped knees and very waterlogged bags.

[vthejk]

I was descending Sun Rising

I was descending Sun Rising hill in the edge of the Cotswolds, on my rim brake 2005 Specialized Allez. I qualify the type of brakes involved because they were OK, but certainly a slight handful (literally) in the wet or if I had to stop quickly and urgently. I think I *might* have had old housing on too…ANYYway.

If you know Sun Rising hill at all, you’ll know it has a very steep crest (say around 20-22%) that leads down to a sharp hairpin. It’s a bit of a bastard because you pick up steady speed on a flat section just before descending it, and then immediately bomb down this descent loving life and then encounter an impossibly sharp hairpin.

This would all have been fine if I’d bothered to check the route beforehand. I had not. So – I bomb down the first downhill, keep my fingers fully off the brakes, spot hairpin at around 35mph, grab handful of brake, skid for what felt like at least several metres, miraculously stay upright, tiptoe down the hairpin and immediately pull over, shaking. To this day, I still don’t know why I didn’t end up flying over the crest of the bend downhill.

The only other time I was this scared was descending another hill (there’s a pattern forming here…) on my old Cannondale CAADX that had some species of cable disc brake. Somehow, this brake’s pad adjustment bolt had worked itself loose, so when I pulled the lever, it bottomed out….and I didn’t slow down. Cue Fred Flinstone-style dragging my feet as I barely negotiated the bend at the bottom of the descent, again, at around 15-20mph. 

Lesson learned? Blame your brakes for your rubbish descending skills and buy a bike with hydraulic disc brakes instead ?

[Recoveryride]

TL:DR – At speed, very, very

TL:DR – At speed, very, very narrowly missing an old dear who calmly sauntered out into the road on a fast downhill.

The full version: this was in Jan or Feb 2020 – I remember it was just before lockdown. Where I used to live – a fairly small village sandwiched between 2 decent sized towns – was essentially at the top of a fairly big hill. There were/are 3 roads in/out: from the north, the hill was steep and could be a sketchy descent in bad weather; it was a poor road surface and had a sharp bend about halfway down, as well as featuring a few houses with hidden driveways. The route from the west was a bit steadier and very straight but linked the 2 towns and was hence quite a busy road. From the south, it was a long, fairly gentle meander down to a B road at the bottom, and that was my usual route out and home.

Anyway, I’m about 2/3 down the south hill at the start of my ride, gently ticking the pedals over but not gunning it, so I’d guess c.25mph or a hair quicker. There’s a pavement on the near side. I see an elderly lady on the pavement in plenty of time, and she is looking up and down the road as if to cross (though there’s nothing obvious on the other side of the road to cross to). She looks right at me, and waits. Oh good, she’s seen me.

Nope.

A clear 4-5 seconds later, when I am c.20 yards away, she steps confidently out. Despite my yell, she takes another step out. In a split second, I decide I can’t go outside her, as there’s a car approaching, so try to cut between her and the pavement. I felt my jersey brush her coat, and my front wheel went within an inch of the kerb, but I miraculously she and I both stay upright, and I bring the bike to a stop 100 yards down the road. 

The car driver has stopped, as if to confirm the miracle he’s just witnessed.

I look back up the road.

The old lady has just about finished crossing the road, apparently heading for a hedgerow, and is looking dead ahead, as if nothing at all unusual has taken place…

To this day I wonder if she ever saw me at all.

[peted76]

A rear wheel slip and then a

A rear wheel slip and then a front wheel skid out on patches of gravel, both on hairpins whilst going down the Galibier.. that sort of killed my mood and put a stop to any previous enthusiasm I had for a speedy decent. 

I’m not sure it’s as scary as the flash of a badger run across your path and miss your front wheel by inches whilst bollocking along at full pelt in the pitch dark.. that sort of stopped me going full pelt in the dark and made me buy a massive lumens front light.

Tour of Cambridgeshire a few years ago, my second or third time of doing it, always a bit ‘crashy’ for sure as it’s full of choppers, but I won’t forget the fellow next to me/on my wheel who simply disapeared from my peripheral view with the most horrendous carbon mashing sound as two thirds of a huge group about three miles from the start just dissapeared, a look behind and the road was blocked by a massive pile up, that was pretty scary knowing if I’d have been one bike back it could have been a different story. 

All heart in mouth moments for sure. 

 

[chrisonabike]

Today – not following my own

Today – not following my own processes, crossed the tram tracks at the West End at a rather shallow angle and speed because a coach was breathing down my neck.  Felt the slip… and suddenly recalled this was where someone died in very similar circumstances  … but recovered.  Probably saved by being loaded (low) with Chrimbo shopping.

If I’d have been thinking I’d have pulled off the road to left and done a 2-stage turn.  Especially because of the proximity of the coach and we’re now in winter slippery black sludge weather.

So it turns out that practice only makes habit if you regularly reinforce it.  I don’t make this turn often enough now to remember!

[TheBillder]

Another one, just today,
Another one, just today, cruising along on club ride, post-cafe, and then multiplied today’s cafe spend by 52 to come up with just the £360 I’m spending annually on coffee, cake, bacon rolls etc.

[Owd Big 'Ead]

Nottingham City centre, 20
Nottingham City centre, 20 odd years ago, a relatively young, fit, idealistic self riding hard as a bike messenger. Had just bought a Bob Yak bike trailer allowing me to move heavier/bulkier loads. One particular day it was pouring down and I descended from the top of the city centre, loaded up to the gunwales with legal documents, took a right hander at speed resulting in the overladen trailer to spin round and literally drag me backwards down the road until I theatrically fell off ?.

[IanMSpencer]

Nothing stopped in the rain
Nothing stopped in the rain back then, including cars. I think the first car I had that stopped in a straight line I bought in 1999. My MK3 Cavalier 180’d on me, I had an Allegro which went in random directions under heavy braking, I learnt on a Viva and on my test I skewed over the road, but that was fine because I stopped without hitting the kerb. It must have been hell as an examiner in the 70s and before.

If cars couldn’t stop, why would bike makers worry?

Even on foot wasn’t safe, broke my collar bone in the school playground aged 6 on the mega ice slide that spanned the whole playground (Hastings Hill Infant School in Sunderland). We would have shoe inspection and you could only use it if your shoes were properly worn.

[jaysa]

As a teenager, I’d saved for

As a teenager, I’d saved for a Raleigh 10-speed, and unable to wait, took it out in pouring rain. Came flying down a dual carriageway, thrilled to have it in top gear, and braked for the 3-lane roundabout. Absolutely nothing happened. Miraculously sailed through 2 lanes of cars, forgot to steer and landed in a heap on the grass in the middle.

Chromed rims, Weinmann centre-pulls and cheap brake blocks … nasty.

[SlowOldSteve]

Now then, now then, now then!

Now then, now then, now then!

[AlsoSomniloquism]

I’ve gone on ice once. The

I’ve gone on ice once. The night before had been -5 but I kept to the main roads as surely they had been gritted. Got to close to work where I had to take a right at some lights (lucky for me it was a green right filter so oncoming traffic would have to be stopped). I just noticed a couple of vehicles were stopped on the other carriageway withj their drivers having a “fender bender” chat as | approached. Just as I wondered if that meant there was some ice the front wheel went on the turn and me and the bike slid all across the carriageway coming to a half just in front of the stopped cars. I got up and moved myself and the bike out the way as the lights changed. Yep, no one asked if I was ok. 
I checked the council website when i got into work. Turned out they hadn’t sent the gritters out as they didn’t think the temperature was too low.  

I also went over on slippery bricks along a canal recently as well. Wasn’t doing more then 8-10mph. A lady walking her dog suddenly appeared at a bridge. I braked to stop to let them through, and a combination of paniers loading, camber and disc brake forces sent the suddenly slightly locked back wheel right. My bike ended up facing the other direction on the floor. 

[IanMSpencer]

Nothing like a bit of self
Nothing like a bit of self-inflicted terror with added embarrassment of incompetence:) Nice one.

[Author]

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