Falling down in traffic?

Original post

Kevyh

Archived post

10 July 2004, 05:03 UTC #1

Hi all. Hope everyone is well. I was searching around for this topic thinking that someone must have asked this before, but only really found a discussion from two years ago that turned more into insurance things.

I used to mountainbike a fair bit but am new to road biking (what a rush!). Last week I bought an 04 Specialized Allez Elite and put clipless pedals on it.

Coming from the mountain biking world this bike already seems darn fast to me - I can coast along in a middle gear faster than I could race on the road with a mountain bike.

Anyways, on a large hill climb today I shifted down onto my smallest gear on the crank and the front derailleur moved the chain a little too far and off all of the gears. So I was suddenly stuck with an empty crank and quickly stopped. Then fell down onto my left (traffic) side because I didn't get out of my pedals quickly enough.

Now thank God I didn't have big trucks coming up on my left. But what if I had?

Does it bother anyone else that we tend to go at pretty serious speeds along roads with drivers who not infrequently shout out windows at us (even on multilane roads)?

Has anyone else out there fallen into traffic? Whether a rather dumb fall like this or running over some rock in the road or even just getting sided by a car, what generally happens then?

Should I try and get it into my head to, if I start to fall, try and fall away from the traffic side?

keydates

Archived post

10 July 2004, 23:17 UTC #2

Probably want to fall away from traffic. Of course, if there's a curb right where your head's going to land, that won't help much. Then again, it's probably better to crack your helmet/head against the curb than have it run over by a car...

As for being bothered by unaware/malicious drivers, there are many threads devoted to them. There are many stories.

I suppose if you hit a rock/pothole/gravel, you hopefully have the skills to stay upright. Otherwise, you'll fall...hopefully the cars that may be around you will quickly avoid you. If you are hit by a car, they may or may not stop to help you. Not quite sure what you're getting at when you ask "What happens then?"

BTW, have you looked at the (front) derailleur adjusters? That was probably your problem.

Harri_in_NS

Archived post

10 July 2004, 23:41 UTC #3

Why yes I have fallen but try not to get too pre occupied with it.
Just try to keep your head up and keep an eye on what is in front of you. Oh and don't use aerobars going downhill, that caused my last crash. Hope this helped..........Harri

velomanct

Archived post

11 July 2004, 19:26 UTC #4

you should practice getting out of your pedals quickly. it's not hard after some practice.

mysilver70sekai

Archived post

11 July 2004, 21:43 UTC #5

I had a problem getting out of my clipless system for the first few days until i got a system worked out...like which foot comes out first and which way to lean every time so that i don't panic and keel over again at 0mph. Luckily i have only crashed at red lights and been able to brush it off with a good laugh and a little scab on my ankle.
I find that the other time that i crash out the most is at the end of a hard climb where my speed is decreasing and i am getting fatigued and unmotivated.

Falling down in traffic?

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