Commuting Capers

how many letters does that count for?

OK back on topic.

Binned it last night in the slippery cobbled gutter of Albert Rd, in front of assembled peds. Hopped up and pretended it didn’t happen, in the manner of Basil Fawlty (funny sometimes what adrenaline will do). A few seconds silence behind before raucus, derisive ped laughter rang me down the street.

A week after getting hit by a car I was negotiating a sharp corner in the rain, I thought I was going slow enough but the bike just slid right out from under me. I’ve evened up my injuries now though.

Yesterday I forgot fenders so I had road grit all up my back, covering my legs and some blobs on my face. Delicious.

Running a rear 23c Gatorskin at the moment- most ridiculously slippery tyre ever…

Well I figure I might as well embarrass myself with my first post… The other morning I pulled up at a set of red lights and rather then risk performing one my (very sketchy) track stands tried to reach out and lean against the traffic lights missed and end up doing a exceptionally coordinated stack into the half full gutter. At least I gave the bloke in the car next to me something to laugh at!

Sorry ,but i can’t resist- was that outside Donaldson’s Dairy?

last year when it had just stopped raining, i was gunning it down brunswick st and lost on my own world when suddenly i noticed a tram had stopped ahead of me and passengers were disembarking.

quickly locked into a skid but being so wet, i kept sliding and sliding even when i had fuck all speed.

in the end i slowly slid past a whole bunch of bemused tram passengers at approximately 2kms an hour.

reminded me of the episode of the simpson’s where homer is oiled up and slowly glides into mr burn’s office.

I’ll see you and raise you one.

Detonators. I was sliding all over the place today. Shittest tyre ever.

Hahaha No but it was near a Milk Bar, near enough?:wink:

Fed Square, 8am, full peak hour. I went to ride up the little ramp after the first set of pedestrian lights, didn’t realise the small lip at the bottom of the ramp and my front wheel slid along it. Crashed in front of everyone at Fed Square and the tram stop at 10km/h, landed clipped in.

A couple of us were dawdling along St Kilda Rd when some super commuter over took us and told us “if you going to ride, then ride.”

Riding at walking pace through school, go to hop or something stupid over a speed hump, end up going A over T and pinching my tubular. Still not sure how it happened.

Having no room in my bag on the last day and having to ride home like this

Went for a ride out in Heidelberg on Saturday and stopped at Heide Gallery briefly. The loose gravel in the carpark was perfect for pulling a few rogue skids (on my roadie) until I lost it and went down on my already-bung knee and took off a healthy amount of skin. Made me wish I shaved my legs (and exercised a little maturity in such situations).

Late last year I was cruising home on a sunny Sunday afternoon. Would have been commuting fixed for at most 3 months. Less than 300m from home doing maybe 30 a white terrier (unleashed and without owner) ran out from behind a wheelie bin just as I was entering the roundabout before the final stretch to my house. I swerved to miss the dog and slammed into the edge of the concrete road divider which is maybe 15-20cm high, that impact sent me airborne over the ped crossing and crunching down on the opposite side. Spinergy Rev-X front wheel exploded around me and i went straight over the bars and dislocated my right shoulder. Witnesses included said terrier and a guy working across the street “farck moight, are u alright? I tryed catchin dat dog be he gone and run off”. I picked up a few pieces of carbon from the road, not wanting to litter in my own street then hobbled the rest of the way home. I think I’ve seen the dog since with it’s owner but unfortunately I can’t be sure. The accident cost me a spinergy, a 5hr old continental competition tubular, physio and five weeks off work.
Oh, and the rolls has never quite been the same.

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs429.snc3/24752_378254181057_612661057_4275629_7061667_n.jpg

shit mate… thats the worst so far! atleast ur luck can only get better…

I have the same attitude, I’ve had a squeaky clean record since then bar a few near-doorings and some pot-hole punctures.

lols i remember that, and you’ll remember this…
riding down macarthur st towards the city, going pretty fast. pedestrian light goes red and i go to pull a skid when my lockring pops clean off. the only way to stop was to throw my foot on the back wheel for a skid, which worked! worst part was, i cracked it once i was stationary, swearing about how shit my bike was, and fell clean over because i couldn’t unclip my foot.

I got cut off by another bike and the front-on impact bent the down tube and top tube of my frame. On the way home, I found out I had two inches of toe overlap when previously I had none and ended up on the ground, but only Jess was there to initially laugh/be sympathetic when I didn’t get up for awhile given it was my second off of the day and super painful. So the following day I rode my full-fendered bike to work. Turning off Lt. Collins into the laneway I work on, I caught my foot on the fender, flew off my bike and into an outdoor table of two coffee-drinkers at the corner cafe. I apologised for startling them, picked up my bike and limped the extra 20m to work and didn’t ride for a few days.

I’ve since done the fender toe catching thing again in front of multiple people… But my ass and feet stay dry.

These kind of stories make me nervous…

and it’s always amusing for the onlookers… :slight_smile:

Not a funny story, but GOD DAMN I’ve had a lot of punctures lately. It’s always on those mornings after a night of rain when the roads are really greasy. I always find a dirty great bit of glass/wire/chainsaw in my tyre, so it’s nothing I’m doing wrong…well, apart from riding over it. Three in one commute last week…am I alone here?

just wrecked $50 of brand new tyre (put it on on sunday) today, brake block rotated up onto the edge of the tyre, wore away the bead, and the side exploded in a mass of spiky wire things. one good thing about schwalbe marathons is on the road they ride perfectly fine even with no air in them. unlike gatorskins for example. I shouldn’t have ignored the faint rubbing i heard when i braked. fail/