Friday, May 04, 2012

Damage

During last weekend's ride, I overheard a cyclist tell his friend that when learning to ride clipless, you will fall three times. I had my third, and worst, fall last night.

I was exiting a shopping center (what my friends and I call the "Bavarian Monstrosity" at the corner of Centreville Road and Sunrise Valley in Herndon) and the driveway was a fairly steep hill. The driver in front of me gunned his car to make a right turn but then hit his brakes. I hit my brakes and unclipped on the right towards the curb. Unfortunately, Circe decided to go left. She never goes left. All my falls have been to the right. But left we went and I couldn't unclip fast enough and went down in front of a car. I hopped up as fast as I could, yanking my foot out of the left shoe and bounded with bike to the grassy spot next to the driveway. I lost a little skin on my left knee because I was wearing bike shorts instead of my usual capris, but I wasn't bleeding much. It took some work to wrench the shoe off the pedal, but eventually I got everything in order and walked the bike up the hill so I could clear my head of the shock and adrenaline.

Eventually I felt comfortable enough to get back into traffic and, because darkness was quickly falling, headed for home. I was a couple of miles from home when I realized that my left brake handle felt weird and I had to put my hand in an odd position to use it. It was only then that I noticed the left horn was no longer 90 degrees from the handlebar; it was more like 75 degrees from the handlebar. That didn't seem good. But it was working well enough and I got home just as full darkness came on.

Today I'm a little sore on my left side -- dull surprise -- and have discovered that I scraped up my elbow as well. The road rash on my knee isn't too bad, but I've got some pretty spectacular bruises. This isn't putting me off riding with a girlfriend tonight; though I will be on my hybrid. Scott works half days on Fridays and will take my bike over to the shop and get them to fix my handlebar. He said he could bend it back into place, but I want the professionals to handle this first repair.

6 comments:

  1. Kudos to you for not allowing the fall to keep you off the bike. When I tried out the clipless pedals, I did so on an old bike. Once I felt comfortable, I put them on my road bike and, of course, I then fell (worst of all, in my own driveway!). That was all it took for me to have them immediately removed from the bike. I think I am personally too klutzy and accident prone to be "trapped" by a pedal. Maybe one day I'll try it again, but for now, it's best that I can easily remove my foot. :O) Hopefully, your wounds heal quickly and you aren't too banged up.

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    1. Thanks. :) I told a friend earlier that the only things which will keep me from getting right back on the bike are broken bones, a concussion, or if the bike is too mangled to ride.

      I've been very lucky that my falls have been at stops or low speed. When I'm barreling downhill at 25+ mph I always think, "This is going to suck if I go down." If that happens I may have a few more qualifiers for what keeps me from getting right back in the saddle. ;)

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  2. Sorry to hear you've hurt yourself. It's a common accident when getting used to them, always hurts too! Stick with it!!

    As for your bars only bend them if they are steel. If aluminum then replace them......asap, as they are much more brittle and could just snap.

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    1. Well, crap. I think they are aluminum. Scott thinks that it's just the brake assembly that's out of joint. He's taking it to the shop now and get a professional opinion so that I quit fretting.

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  3. A friend of mine is just starting out with clipless and I have seen him have a couple of 'almost' falls. I remember that when I started out with clipless I had some spectacular and very embarrassing falls. Glad to hear that you weren't too badly hurt.
    By the way- I reiterate what Jez has said about your bars...never attempt to bend aluminium.

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    1. Happily, it was just the horns which bent. I didn't know they were supposed to do that; I guess it's like the car side mirrors which bend inwards if you pull up too close to a bollard.

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