The Stupidest Thing I have ever done on a bike!

[runner]

Some 9 years ago whilst commuting into Bristol on my trusty genesis ridgeback day 01...and approaching the pedestrian underpass at Gardner/Haskin close to city centre...I decided....rather than follow the route/path around to the entrance to the underpass I would "sharp" right and jump the pavement cutting the corner!! Naturally the pavement lip thought different and threw me to the ground....I thought that could not have happened and just for good measure I came back the following day and did the same thing again (what was I trying to prove?) In all the years since I do not cut that corner...but some months ago again approaching the underpass I saw rider on the pavement astride his shiny specialized....I smiled and said I know what happend to you

 

[glenn forger]

Stuck a firework down my handlebar and rode along with Sparks and flames shooting out as I sang Tom Hark. Brian Avenue, Norwich, 1983.

 

[summerdays]

My memory of my first off was sneaking off by bike to Knockloughrim with a cousin when we were meant to be doing some jobs around the farm. On our return journey, took a corner too quick and wide and tried to correct it as a car was coming towards me. Cousin managed it, I didn't and ended up sprawled in front of the car. He got out and told us off and asked who our parents were. I thought I would be ok since I was living in England but he went to school with my mum! So I got a second telling off later.

 

[downfader]

When I was 17 I rode into work, down the steep hill at the top of Western Esplanade with the intention of turning into the car park behind Toys R Us. What I used to do back then was stop, dismount and head over the pedestrian crossing and over the railway bridge on foot.

...trouble was on that morning it had been 2 weeks since I'd been in work as I'd been on holiday. I didnt realise the Council had redone the pavements and my front wheel hit the kerb with a bang sending me Superman style through the air only to skid to a stop on the palms of my hands. Honestly, it was like stigmata by the time I'd all friction'd out.

 

[andyfraser]

I can't decide between two incidents that happened when I was 8 or 9, both on my old red Raleigh Grifter.

We'd been watching CHiPs on TV and decided to go round in a big circle as fast as we could. Eventually I got so low that I just carried on until I hit the ground.

We were cycling off road. I decided one day to just ride over the top of a hill without knowing what was on the other side. It turns out the hill went vertical for a couple of feet so I ended up going over the handlebars and landed on the other side with my bike on top of me.

Luckily I only ended up with cuts and bruises.

 

[HLaB]

My daftest moment was using a cycle path. Lol, the path goes down the side of a church but what I failed to notice in the dark, the path takes a 90deg right then left around a small patch of church grass. Double lol, there's a small black chain that runs round the grass about a foot off the ground and whilst I wasn't going fast enough to damage the wheel, I was going fast enough to be catapulted from the bike, aka superman. At least the grass was dry and soft

 

[Flick of the Elbow]

When I was a kid I had a small flag, pennant might be the term, on a thin but rigid metal rod attached vertically to the handlebars. We also had a double swing in the garden with the gap between the chains of the two swings just wide enough, but only just, to allow me and my brother to ride our bikes between them. One day I misjudged it, caught one of the chains, over the bars I went creating a lengthy vertical breakage of skin down my torso from said pennant. Could have been a lot worse !

 

[roadrash]

The internet is not big enough to list all the stupid things I've done on a bike

 

[Glow worm]

Dumbest thing I've ever done is decide it would be a brilliant idea to cycle home bladdered, 25 miles from Coventry to Worcestershire after the 1997 office Christmas party. Remarkably, I did make it home, though with a broken collar bone, and I now have the titanium plate there to remind me of that happy occasion!

 

[Supersuperleeds]

I've gone down the canal in the pitch black with insufficient lighting and taken a tumble on a bend, luckily I didn't fall in the canal

 

[cyberknight]

Rode down a hill standing up no hands when i was about 11-12 ?

 

[Mrs M]

Rode down a hill standing up no hands when i was about 11-12 ?

I did that too, if I tried it now would end up in A&E

 

[nickyboy]

Today

Went for a long ride including some roads I've never tried before. GPS told me to turn left down a really steep lane that was signed as a dead end (yeah, thanks ridewithgps). Got to the end and it became a narrow, steep, downhill cobbled track (about 2 metres wide). The sensible thing to do would be to get off and walk; it was raining, muddy, really uneven. But no, I decided to keep riding down the track.
I managed about 50m and the off I came. Ripped my tights, fair bit of blood (but no bones broken). Managed to break the Campagnolo shifter, that's gonna be expensive. Walked down the rest of the track. Stable door, horses etc etc

 

[Jenkins]

Using an old quill stem with the clamp cut off I managed to fit a car steering wheel scavenged from the local dump to a bike in my youth. Didn't last long as it was quite wobbly, there was no way to fit usable brakes and I kept hitting my knees on the wheel, but it did prove it could be done.

 

[downfader]

Using an old quill stem with the clamp cut off I managed to fit a car steering wheel scavenged from the local dump to a bike in my youth. Didn't last long as it was quite wobbly, there was no way to fit usable brakes and I kept hitting my knees on the wheel, but it did prove it could be done.

The modern generation would upload such a contraption to youtube.