Came a cropper on a plastic bottle

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bonker

Guru
Is this common or was I just unlucky?

Travelling down New Cavendish Street at lunchtime on my Brompton just touched the brakes and the next thing I'm on the deck to a really weird noise.
At first I thought it was some kind of mechanical then I realised the noise was a flattened plastic bottle under the wheel skidding along the ground.
I have a front bag on the bike so can't see the front wheel.
Obviously my own fault and a momentary lapse of concentration but not something I'd considered as a major hazzard on my 700C bikes.

Came away with a bloodied hand and knee but luckily wasn't run over by the Porsche Panamera behind me.
 
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Threevok

Growing old disgracefully
Location
South Wales
Glad you are OK.

Had this happen to me at very low speed - I was looking back at my Son on his bike, and the front wheel wiped out - as I hit one of these

Unfortunately, I was using SPDs at the time and was clipped in - resulting in me breaking my left elbow.

Flattened cans are just as deadly - even more so as they can grip the entire tyre and rim and stick to the wheel. - resulting in them getting thrown at you and the bike at alarming speed
 
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davidphilips

Veteran
Location
Onabike
Thank goodness the Porsche Panamera did not hit you.
Another thing to watch out for is puddles they can hide all sorts of nasty things for cyclists, no joke the water is not the danger it may be an inch of a foot deep you can get pinch punctures/bent rims or even thrown of a bike.
 
Last edited:
Location
Loch side.
Was a Porche Panamera on your (kick the) bucket list perhaps?
I'm trying to picture how the flattened bottle did what it did.
I once purposely rode over a cool drink can back in the days when cans were made of stronger stuff. It folder over my MTB knobbly, gripped it, rode around and jammed behind the fork and made a huge noise as it ripped the knobblies off.
Another time I accidentally rode over a screw-top cool drink bottle lid and it shot out and hit a driver on the cheek, right through her open window.
Like Shaggy says, it wazznt me.
 

mjr

Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
Is this common or was I just unlucky?

Travelling down New Cavendish Street at lunchtime on my Brompton just touched the brakes and the next thing I'm on the deck to a really weird noise.
At first I thought it was some kind of mechanical then I realised the noise was a flattened plastic bottle under the wheel skidding along the ground.
I think you were unlucky to touch the brakes just when having a plastic bottle underneath the front tyre meant you would skid enough to fall.

I'm trying to picture how the flattened bottle did what it did.
Applying the brakes while the front wheel is on a surface that can move with the wheel seems a fairly simple crash but have I missed something in the physics?
 

Welsh wheels

Lycra king
Location
South Wales
Anything on the road can be a hazard for a bike. Whether it knocks you off is down to luck. I hit a large branch the other day, managed to snap it in half with my spokes but stayed on.
 

mjr

Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
[QUOTE 4833041, member: 259"]I've skidded on a flattened can as well. Almost as bad as beechnuts![/QUOTE]
Beechnuts? Try the pine cones on London Road Ipswich - they're as big as your fist and rather :eek:
 

Lonestar

Veteran
[QUOTE 4833041, member: 259"]I've skidded on a flattened can as well. Almost as bad as beechnuts![/QUOTE]

That sounds painful.:blush:
 

keithmac

Guru
Worth keeping a cursory eye on the road suface as well as the traffic and pedestrians as you've found out.

I hit a piece of plywood laid in the road on a motorcycle not long back, luckily I'd seen it in time and released the front brake before riding over it.

Same with manhole covers and to some extent road markings when it's wet, ideal candidates for washing the front end out under braking..
 
Thank goodness the Porsche Panamera did not hit you.
Another thing to watch out for is puddles they can hide all sorts of nasty things for cyclists, no joke the water is not the danger it may be an inch of a foot deep you can get pinch punctures/bent rims or even thrown of a bike.

Know what you mean, I once saw a cyclist try to ride through a puddle, unfortunately that puddle hid a very big pothole and the cyclist nearly got killed by a shark.
 
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