mrvandango
Regular
- Location
- Dorchester
So, I knew it would happen in eventually, but this morning I had my first 'off' from a bike since I was a kid.
I'd been getting a faint tick tick tick for a few miles or so, a quick peek revealed little so I continued on thinking I could give it a more thorough going over later.
Fast forward to a sharp left hander where the cycle path has a semi chicane in it and at just under 20mph the front wheel suddenly disappears from under me, the bars now useless in my hands and pointing in the opposite direction to the wheel, leaving me very quickly sliding down the tarmac on my left side.
I pick the bike up and do what any man would do after such an incident :
a) check to see if anybody had seen
b) make sure the bike was ok
c) check for injuries
Continued walking to work and noticed there was a drawing pin stuck in the front tyre! Clearly here was the source of the ticking. It seems that after losing a bit of pressure I got what I assume to be an instant pinch flat under the pressure of the hard turn and there could only be one outcome from there.
I got off very lightly - much skin missing from hip and calf, sore left wrist and bizarrely a spotted bruise/blemish on my right hip and I can't raise my right arm sideways above shoulder height. I can't fathom how I got those last two.
The hard lesson I learned is not to ignore strange noises from my bike. Ever!
I'd been getting a faint tick tick tick for a few miles or so, a quick peek revealed little so I continued on thinking I could give it a more thorough going over later.
Fast forward to a sharp left hander where the cycle path has a semi chicane in it and at just under 20mph the front wheel suddenly disappears from under me, the bars now useless in my hands and pointing in the opposite direction to the wheel, leaving me very quickly sliding down the tarmac on my left side.
I pick the bike up and do what any man would do after such an incident :
a) check to see if anybody had seen
b) make sure the bike was ok
c) check for injuries
Continued walking to work and noticed there was a drawing pin stuck in the front tyre! Clearly here was the source of the ticking. It seems that after losing a bit of pressure I got what I assume to be an instant pinch flat under the pressure of the hard turn and there could only be one outcome from there.
I got off very lightly - much skin missing from hip and calf, sore left wrist and bizarrely a spotted bruise/blemish on my right hip and I can't raise my right arm sideways above shoulder height. I can't fathom how I got those last two.
The hard lesson I learned is not to ignore strange noises from my bike. Ever!