So about 10 mintues ago I wiped out on my bike while going through a huge intersection. I was ******, but then I laughed a little thinking about what it must have looked like from someone sitting in a car, haha. Anyway, Im trying to figure out what happened with the bike. It's a 21 speed Mongoose mountain bike that I bought several years ago for about $200, to give you an idea of what I'm working with, lol. It sat in my basement a lot, but I recently brought it to school and have been using it around campus, and probably haven't been taking care of it as much as a should.
I found out quickly that if i would down or upshift one gear while stopped (thinking about the road ahead), as I took off, during the time when I was putting a lot of torque on the crank, the bike would jump into the next gear violently and my foot would usually slip off the pedal. I stopped doing this for obvious reasons.
The reason I mentioned that is because that is what it felt like right before I crashed. I was sitting at one end of the intersection In 3rd rear gear (Middle Crank Gear). I started crossing the intersection and everything seemed fine. About halfway across I experienced the jolt as if it was jumping a gear, my foot slipped and I almost fell. I'm pretty sure it was in 3rd gear before I started moving but I guess it's possible it may have been stuck in 4th until that time. Since this had happened before I thought everything was find so I kept going. A few seconds later it happened again, except 3 or so times in a row in the span of a couple seconds. By this I mean im not sure what actually happened because I wasnt looking, but I heard the sound like the one when the chain would switch gears under high torque and felt the chain momentarily lose connection to the rear gearset. Since it happened multiple times and I was pushing hard with my foot, this was enough to lose my balance and wipe out fairly ungracefully, haha. Afterwards the bike seemed to function normally. I'm fine, im just wondering what was going on with my bike so I can prevent myself from being embarrased again. Thanks in advance.
I found out quickly that if i would down or upshift one gear while stopped (thinking about the road ahead), as I took off, during the time when I was putting a lot of torque on the crank, the bike would jump into the next gear violently and my foot would usually slip off the pedal. I stopped doing this for obvious reasons.
The reason I mentioned that is because that is what it felt like right before I crashed. I was sitting at one end of the intersection In 3rd rear gear (Middle Crank Gear). I started crossing the intersection and everything seemed fine. About halfway across I experienced the jolt as if it was jumping a gear, my foot slipped and I almost fell. I'm pretty sure it was in 3rd gear before I started moving but I guess it's possible it may have been stuck in 4th until that time. Since this had happened before I thought everything was find so I kept going. A few seconds later it happened again, except 3 or so times in a row in the span of a couple seconds. By this I mean im not sure what actually happened because I wasnt looking, but I heard the sound like the one when the chain would switch gears under high torque and felt the chain momentarily lose connection to the rear gearset. Since it happened multiple times and I was pushing hard with my foot, this was enough to lose my balance and wipe out fairly ungracefully, haha. Afterwards the bike seemed to function normally. I'm fine, im just wondering what was going on with my bike so I can prevent myself from being embarrased again. Thanks in advance.
