Unluckiest bike day ever?

Yesterday I decided to cycle my 7 mile commute to work. Not a problem except one pot hole, a dud spare tube, and a total fail when negotiating a kerb (blew both tyres and went flying) I had managed to go through 4 tubes in one day. 

So 4 tubes in 14 miles (the accident was on the way home). Can anyone beat that for cycling mishaps?

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Comments

  • Nope you take the cake image

    I did go through a phase of many, many punctures on my hybrid after the farmers had cut the hedgerows and left crap all over the lanes  image

  • Grendel3Grendel3 ✭✭✭

    When I was younger ( a lot younger) I spent about 3 years wearing a brace to straighten my front teeth. Eventually the big day arrived to have them removed - a few days later over the handle bars and broken front teeth!!! Result a p*ssed off dentist!!)

  • Quite a few years ago having collectively run out of tubes and having sent my riding buddies on to the end to collect a car and rescue me.

    I spent 90 mins sheltering in a ditch in almost zero degrees sheltering from horizontal rain/hail.

  • Few years ago when i was care free and a bit mental.

    Miss judged a jump on a trails bike and hit the front wheel, which in turn tossed me over the handle bars and into a heap on the floor image

    Another time i hit the handle bars on a post, and again, tossed me off the bike and winded me.....that was not fun.

  • Since January this year with my first proper bike with cleats, I have hit 1 stationary car, 1 slow moving car, Ive had 3 traffic light topples and have killed next doors hedge, but my best was a spectacular topple into a ditch with my bike still attached to me and getting stuck upside down in a puddle while my O-H was uncontrollably laughing, I only slowed to wait for her but as I turned to look for her I lost my balance.

    No punctures yet though (touch wood)image

  • M..o.useM..o.use ✭✭✭

    I have chain ring scars on the back of my ankle which have received more than one admiring comment from cycling friends.... little do they know that they were not caused by some amazing bunny hop fail or a Pyreneen high speed descent incident but a poorly executed turn at approximately 0.134mph. 

    I also have nasty scars to shoulder and elbow from a road interface moment which took place 49.2 miles from home into a 100 mile bike ride. There was no quick way back. I had no choice but to get back on my bike and carry on. I got lots of (wo)man points for bravery from my riding buddies that day. 

  • mikasamikasa ✭✭✭

    We were cycling back from a camping trip, and at the first uphill I complained that the back tyre felt bit flat ( a common thing for me when I feel I'm not going very fast uphill - it's always the tyres! ). Eventually, bf agreed to have a look. The tiny pump we had with us makes it very hard to put the last bit of air in when they tyre is almost fully inflated already so instead bf managed to rip the bottom of the valve. I think this happened again on the first spare tube. Then bf lost his rag, threw the pump on the ground which made it unusable as it broke. So, bf had to cycle to nearest town, about 10-15 miles away. I carried walking with the bike and all the camping gear in the same direction. After about an hour we met on the road side, he'd bought a new inner tube and a pump. However, the inner tube had a presto valve and the tube that came with the pump was broken! Thankfully at that moment, a couple of proper cyclists came round the bend and I waved them to a stop and one of them lend us his gas canister. (Now I'm afraid to compain about flat tyres...)image

  • Ha Ha, we should all get together a start a support group for victims of cycling image

  • Two cycle rides recently of less than 2 miles resulting in inner tube failures.  The second one resulted in a rather loud explosion as I got on to my bike at my local farm shop and cafe on a lovely, busy, sunny day...  So embarassing!

    The lesson I have learnt is do not buy cheap inner tubes (Raleigh ones from Go Outdoors) with lots of ridges as when these ridges fail you can't repair the stupid things!

    I now have better inner tubes and a straightened back whell on my bike and managed 4 miles before a puncture on Friday which was repairable and did 21 in total.  I am hoping I have broken the rear inner tube failure curse that has been haunting me this year!

  • *snigger* 

    Did get me thinking - when was the last time I fell off my bike: I was about 10 doing a "Milk" triathlon in Ipswich. I fell off going too fast coming into a downhill bend. Destroyed my helmet. Paramedic allowed me to get back on and finish - I was destraught that my mum's car journey would have been wasted (must have driven around 100 miles)

    Got loads of claps for being "that girl who came off her bike". I quite enjoyed the rest of it! image

  • If this thread had been started at about 12:30 today I would have assumed someone had seen me a few minutes before.

    i have not fallen off my bike before but today did it twice within ten minutes!

    firstly just when I was setting off and got my feet clipped in my wife decided to ring and I hit the brakes before I clipping feet resulting in a cut and bleediknighthood knee. Nothing too bad so after phone call carried on as we arranged to meet in town for a coffee, just getting into centre i slowed for some railings uncliiping left foot gust as someone stepped out in front of me I had to turn right to avoid them, a sudden turn and right foot still clipped in and gravity did the rest. Not sure how but left leg got intwined in the bike so when I went down sharp pain in left calf and bruising coming out from ankle to above knee!

    apart from that I have had a great day !

  • Auto correct !!  Bleeding knee not bleeding knighthood 

  • Once lost a saddle less than 2 miles into a half Ironman ( managed to finish the race ).

    Wouldn't want to repeat that again.

  • My friends first triathalon was pretty much ruined by him borrowing his bosses bike and finding out after the swim that it had a puncture. 

    He almost thanked his boss for lending him the bike

  • First time I rode up a kerb I didn't know you were supposed to lift the front wheel, 6 feet flying into a hedge

    Did a wheelie once only to see the front wheel roll off into the distance

    Had the handlebars snap off the stem whilst riding

    All if these were a few years ago, obviously I've not done anything daft for agesimage

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Oh I did come off the other week image but it's so sad there was no race or tri attached to it!  I came up behind a car leaving from work (the car was in a line of cars waiting for the gates to open) and I was concentrating on getting my right foot unclipped as it is always the harder of the two to unclip, so I could swipe my security pass and I reached out tot car infront of me so I could unclip my foot and the car then went forward like a foot and I went down like a tonne of bricks image shot my arms out and my left knee took the brunt of it - awesome bruises tho' image  

  • spongecakespongecake ✭✭✭

    February last year, doing a 30 mile early morning ride.I took a short cut through a car park and crashed straight into the exit barrier at 20 mph.Resulted in some bike gymnastics,a spectacular somersault over said barrier with the bike still attached to my feet then me lying on the ground wondering what had just happened.Handlebars bent,gear changer smashed, huge briuses and a very uncomfortable 15 mile bike ride home stuck on the big cogimage 

  • A couple of weeks ago I went downstairs before work to change the inner tube on the bike that I use in the city. The rims are really big so it was difficult to find a replacement. I had purchased it after much searching, from an area of Bogotá that is a little dodgy, but has loads of bike shops mixed in with the prostitutes and dealers.

    While changing the tube it punctured again, and rather than go upstairs, I licked it to check where the hole was before proceeding to fix the problem (I know, I know).

    Several hours later I was starting to come around and found myself in a Colombian hospital accident and emergency. Tubes sticking out of me, MRI, CAT scans, Spinal taps, blood and urine tests. You name it, they did it! And I was stuck there for several days while they 'observed' me.

    Thieves put powder made from lillies on paper, or blow it into people's faces and drug them then rob them here. The doctors believe that it was on the inner tube, left there by someone who had been handling it or part of a botched attempt to rob me (Silver lining!)

    I have now missed a couple of weeks training, but back on the bike and off swimming this weekend...and LOADS of people visited me to cheer me up, which made me feel much more at homeimage

    Eeep

  • Nose NowtNose Nowt ✭✭✭

    Last week (honestly), I got a puncture in my rear bike tyre.  I guess it's my first one in 15 years - though I don't do anything like the miles of you triathletes.

    In the car, I drive 25,000 miles.  I honestly don't think I've had a puncture since the mid 1980s.

    What are you lot doing wrong? image

  • RicFRicF ✭✭✭

    As a lad I was cycling along-side a friend of mine chatting away (not looking where I was going) when he suddenly declared, "you going to watch out for that car?", "what c.?", Bang!

    I'd just ridden straight into the back of a neighbours Triumph Spitfire. It was an open top and that day it was 'open'.

    I did a nosedive over the handlebars, and thumped both thighs heavily as I ended up head first in the passenger foot well.

    The pain!

    🙂

  • I set off for work this morning when the wife shouted "have you got your phone" from the door, I turned to look at her and rode into the kerb and while trying to compensate for my loss of ballance fell into the road and the path of the bin men who all 4 sat in the front seat of the wagon were laughing and pointing as was the wife and probably the rest of the street, I got up bowed my head in shame and set off again, I didn't rub my poorly knee untill out of sight of the onlookers image

  • At the relay cross-tri last Saturday, one middle-aged male rider fell off during his bike leg - he was pronounced dead at the scene, so you can't get much unluckier than that!

  • I'd have thought surviving and being injured to the extent thatyou couldn't take part in sport again would be much more unlucky

     

  • First time contributor.

    Thought I'd give people a chuckle, my bike at Cotswold113 2 weeks ago was a bit of a nightmare!!  As a 19.5 stone ex-rugby player, the bike is always a bit of a challenge, but even more so when you forget to flip the brake lock down on the rear wheel, somebody knocks the wheel in transition and the block sits on the wheel rim: managed 8 miles before realising I'd effectively being cycling with the brakes on!!  To make things worse I had a slow puncture with 15 miles to go and forgot my pump (d'oh!) so had to limp the bike back (felt even better when a policeman who was marshalling pointed out that I had a flat rather loudly to his mate stood across the road a mile from the end....legs shot away with only a half marathon to go, didn't feel too flash, serves me right for crap preparation.  

  • I did it again, Saturday morning 5.30am outside my front door about to set off and fell off about 1 second after getting on, the wife said I'm getting good at it as there's less blood this time.

  • Back in 2010, in sunny Bolton, I rode my bike hard, and completed 112 miles within the time limits stiulated, meant I had to get off and runa bloody marathon.  Repeated the offence again in 2011, and hopefully twice again this year.  I'll never learn

  • I mean, obviously I've only ever fallen off whilst clipped in when I've been stationary. That fall seems to take forever, but no matter how long it takes you still can't get your other foot out of the pedal.

    No, this tale was about my daughter, who at 13 is on the verge of giving up exercise if her elder sister is anything to go by. Persuaded to use her bike again after a few months ignoring it, she falls off in a heap of hormonal anger onto the drive. It transpired that the handlebars were loose. Daddy fix it, and adjust all other moveable components too. Whilst getting the seat post right and properly tight the clamp snaps clean in two. Trip to bike shop. Spend twice as much as intended, on things I hadn't anticipated buying. Rebuild her bike, and she decides that she'll use her scooter.

  • fat buddhafat buddha ✭✭✭

    I once had a near calamity

    2006 at Swanage Tri, my 1st race after having had cancer treatment, so important in many ways

    during the week leading up to the event, I went out on my race bike to make sure all was OK and during the ride I heard something go "crack".  me and my missus stopped, had a good look and checked the bike over but couldn't see anything amiss so carried on.

    come race day, I was belting along on the bike leg on some lumpy bits and all of a sudden it felt as if my saddle had dropped but being in race mode I carried on thinking it just felt very odd below me.

    the road towards transition is down a steep hill where I hit 50mph - hammered into transition, racked the bike by the saddle - at which point the seatpost came adrift from the bike and the bike landed in a heap on the floor!!!   I carried on with the run as there was not much I could do but when I finished and checked it out, it turned out that the carbon seatpost had completely sheared at the clamp.    that was the crack I 1st heard, and the reason why it felt strange during the ride - basically I was holding the seatpost on by the pressure of my weight.

    and then it struck home - what if the seatpost had come off as I was doing 50mph downhill???  that didn't need thinking about frankly.....

    I spoke to bike builder when I got home - he said I should have received a recall notice as a batch of carbon seatposts were sub-standard.  I never got that notice but he supplied FOC a new carbon Thomson seatpost which has been fine since.

    I think that wasprobably the closest I have ever come to having a mega-serious bike accident - thank dog it never happened.

    so - if you hear something go "crack" while riding your bike and you can't see anything suspicious, check the seatpost - and frankly anything else like wheel rims etc where a small crack may not be immediately obvious but could lead to disaster.

    I was lucky

     

  • SideBurnSideBurn ✭✭✭

    You can imagine how pleased we were to see that the office next door were having air conditioning fitted... the units were to be fitted near our south facing window... Deep joy; not only will we be driven mad by the noise, we will know it is so -they- can work in air conditioned comfort.

    What is this to do with cycling you say?

    Well, while the units were being charged up there was a loud BANG. Like a gunshot going off. Followed by engineers running around; panic ensued but no fault found....

    But what is this to do with cycling you say?

    The engineer insisted there was nothing wrong, whereas the office manager was not impressed. A heated conversation ensued when the words, "If you can't work out what happened and what is wrong then I suggest you find someone who can!"

    What is this to do with cycling you say?

    An interesting and somewhat distracting day over, I went to jump on my bike to find that when I hit a stone on the way to work in the morning I damaged the side wall of the tyre.

    And at some point in the day the tyre had split and exploded.... I must have spent a good 5 minutes sorting it out with a bodged repair...

     Very frustrating

    Another engineer turned up the following day, more head scratching.....

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