clipless horror stories

"Claire Petersky" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:J_kic.23056$GR.3085013@attbi_s01...

Quoted message said:

"Tom Keats" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

There's /always/ an audience nearby for such incidents.
I think it must be some sort of law of nature.

Yeah, I remember when I was new to clipless. I was riding
with friends. We stopped at the light, and I did this slow
motion tumble into a nearby juniper trying to get my foot
out. They thought it was hilarious.

Warm Regards,

Claire Petersky

Ouch! Don't junipers scratch? Still, better than hard
cement.

Fri, 23 Apr 2004 10:12:17 -0700, <[email hidden]>,

(Tom Keats) said:

Dane Jackson said:

She obviously was unhurt, and so I silently pretended not
to have seen anything (knowing from my own clip-less
moment's the thing I wanted most was noone else to have
seen it).

There's /always/ an audience nearby for such incidents. I
think it must be some sort of law of nature.

My first and last clip-less moment happened riding the
redneck fixie on a CM ride. I was one of about five people
laughing at the display.

Now I've stopped reflexively reaching for the toe strap
before stopping. You feel kinda goofy to find it's not
there. Not nearly as bad as hanging on to it after cinching-
up on the fixie.
--
zk

Hunrobe wrote:
::: John Everett [email hidden]
::
:: wrote in part:
::
::: As I was approaching an intersection I noticed a
::: particularly good-looking woman walking a dog. I rode
::: right up next to her, came to a stop, and promptly
::: plopped over.
::
:: I think it's a rule of nature that all of our least
:: impressive moments will be witnessed by one or more
:: attractive members of the

:: My own most embarrassing failure to unclip moment
:: occurred fairly late in the summer about five years ago.
:: I was riding on a two lane suburban road that has a
:: center turn lane and stoplights every four blocks. The
:: only other traffic on the road was a convertible occupied
:: by three girls in their late teens or early twenties. The
:: driver signalled a right turn so I passed them in the
:: turn lane. They apparently decided they didn't intend to
:: turn after all and continued straight. I pulled back into
:: the turn lane to allow them past me and ended up drafting
:: them to the next red light. The rear seat passenger
:: struck up a conversation with me at that light, the
:: subject being how fast I'd been riding. The light changed
:: and like a fool I sprinted to keep in their draft. By the
:: time we hit the next red light a mile up the road I was
:: so badly blown I simply forgot to unclip. Kerplunk! Ain't
:: hormones a wonderful thing? <g>

🙂

::
:: Regards, Bob Hunt
::
:: P.S.- A little road rash, one severely bruised male ego,
:: and a chorus of giggles were the only results of the
:: fall so it could have been much worse.

Well, at least you had their attention. That would have
been a great opportunity to hand off a line to the one you
were talking to....something like how captivating you
found her 🙂

"Marlene Blanshay" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"Claire Petersky" <[email hidden]> wrote in
message news:J_kic.23056$GR.3085013@attbi_s01...

Quoted message said:

"Tom Keats" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

There's /always/ an audience nearby for such
incidents. I think it must be some sort of law of
nature.

Yeah, I remember when I was new to clipless. I was
riding with friends.

We

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

stopped at the light, and I did this slow motion tumble
into a nearby juniper trying to get my foot out. They
thought it was hilarious.

Ouch! Don't junipers scratch? Still, better than
hard cement.

Except there was a sort of sharpen (pruned?) branch
hidden amongst the greenery, that poked a big black
bruise into my thigh.

Warm Regards,

Claire Petersky Please replace earthlink for mouse-potato
and .net for .com Home of the meditative cyclist:
home.earthlink.netWelcome.htmOpen ↗ See the
books I've set free at:
bookcrossing.comCpeterskyOpen ↗

In article <[email hidden]>,

Ray Heindl said:

Last week at a club ride a new guy showed up a few minutes
before we started. He made a great impression as he
smoothly rode up to the ride leader, forgot to unclip, and
smoothly fell over. Surprisingly, nobody gave him any
grief about it -- being nice to the new guy, I guess.

I wonder if anyone's ever wiped out like that in front of a
TV news camera covering a local story :-)

Such an hapless one would have my empathy.

Good ride, Tom

--
-- Powered by FreeBSD Above address is just a spam midden.
I'm really at: tkeats [curlicue] vcn [point] bc [point] ca

Actually, I have a story of avoidance of disaster. On one
club ride, there was a guy with Look pedals, who had been
having trouble getting disengaged. At one stop, he yanked so
hard that his foot actually came out of the shoe, leaving it
attached to the pedal. He was able to put his sock clad foot
down to avoid falling.

Gary <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Do you have a horror story?? I'd love to here it..

In article <J_kic.23056$GR.3085013@attbi_s01>,

Claire Petersky said:

"Tom Keats" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

There's /always/ an audience nearby for such incidents. I
think it must be some sort of law of nature.

Yeah, I remember when I was new to clipless. I was riding
with friends. We stopped at the light, and I did this slow
motion tumble into a nearby juniper trying to get my foot
out. They thought it was hilarious.

Pain & embarrassment is never hilarious, except maybe to
the person who experiences it. And then, only as a
coping measure.

But you already know that, so I guess I don't know what the
h I'm talking about. But that's nothing new. OTOH,
I /do/ know what I'm saying. I've racked-up into hawthorn
trees, stucco walls, skunk cabbage bogs, etc,
myself. I don't wish that on anyone, except maybe a
coupla ppl.

Maybe the folks who thought it was hilarious were reminded
of their own mishaps. And maybe it was their own mishaps
they thought were hilarious.

Ppl getting hurt is never funny. But I guess ppl
experiencing life as usual (the common lot of humankind)
often is, eh?

cheers, Tom

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In article <[email hidden]>,

(Tom Keats) said:

In article <J_kic.23056$GR.3085013@attbi_s01>, "Claire

Petersky said:

"Tom Keats" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

There's /always/ an audience nearby for such incidents.
I think it must be some sort of law of nature.

Yeah, I remember when I was new to clipless. I was
riding with friends. We stopped at the light, and I did
this slow motion tumble into a nearby juniper trying to
get my foot out. They thought it was hilarious.

Pain & embarrassment is never hilarious, except maybe to
the person who experiences it. And then, only as a coping
measure.

No, that's not true. Pain can be very funny, at least if
there's no long-term consequences. Entire television shows
have been based on this idea.

Case in point: I post to this thread a few days ago. Then
while garage-sale hunting with Imaginary Dave, I try to
impress him with my best track stand (I'm only good enough
to impress people who can't do track stands). Instead, I
fall down quite heavily in front of him, something I haven't
done in months, and never while attempting a track stand.

I didn't even break the skin though, despite thumping down
arms-in on pavement. It must have been pretty impressive. I
compensated by buying three bikes.

--
Ryan Cousineau, [email hidden]
sfu.cawiredcolaOpen ↗ President, Fabrizio
Mazzoleni Fan Club

On Fri, 23 Apr 2004 21:57:52 -0400, [email hidden] (Chris

Zacho 'The Wheelman') said:

Not as far as being able to un-clip. I used to wear toe
clips and straps with cleats. The only way I could get out
of these _quickly_ (read: emergency un-clip) was to lean my
foot to the outside to get the strap loose and the cleat to
clear the rat-trap, then twist my foot out. So changing to
clipless was easy, as I already had the twist out part
mastered.

Not what I consider an actual cliplees fall, but my Looks
unclipped best by twisting to the inside when at the back-
top of the circle. Unfortunately, on the tighter-framed
bike, that occasionally put an unexpected brake to the tire
when my heel hit the tire. Rolling to a stop anyway, that
would be enough to occasionally put me on the ground.

Only happened on one bike, so I never modified my behaviour
enough to stop it altogether. (So you pick up the bike like
it malfunctioned and glare at something near the crank...)

Curtis L. Russell Odenton, MD (USA) Just someone on
two wheels...