What's your most embarrasing moment?

[Joe24]

Errr, not so embarrissing but i was trackstanding at some busy lights, and this woman came up the left of me(in her lane) and i turned to look at her, lost balence and went over. I got my foot out, and didnt go completely over because i put my hand on her car. She appologised to me though
I went to go off from some lights faster then a motorbike, and bent my chainring
But, the other one was i was on my fixed, powered off up a hill, racing someone on the talent squad, got to the top before him, and we had to wait for the rest. So i kept one foot clipped in, my wheel turned the wrong way, the bike moved, i went over That was infront of 2 very very good riders, and the group who were just pulling up as i went over

 

[ColinJ]

(I've mentioned this one on CycleChat before)

I was out on a ride in the sunshine, very fit, lean and tanned and I thought I looked so coooooool on my bike.

I was on an upward-sloping lane coming to a T-junction with the A646 near Hebden Bridge. A sports-car was ahead of me waiting for a break in the traffic to turn right. I wanted to turn right too, so I pulled up on the left side of the car and put a foot down.

The car had its top down and there were two attractive young women sitting in it. I had mirrored sunglasses on and I knew they couldn't see my eyes, so though apparently looking straight ahead, I was in reality eyeing up the women.

A gap was about to appear in the traffic and the car started to inch forward so I pressed down hard on my right pedal and went to clip in my left foot. Unfortunately the uphill slope brought me to a standstill just as I got it in and I toppled over onto my left knee, still clipped in. The women were laughing so much that they were almost wetting themselves!

 

[ianrauk]

You had a great clipless moment too... I had stopped & turned round just in time to see you go sideways into the verge... I didn't laugh (much) then, but I was creasing up inside... sorry mate

this thread is so funny, i guess mine was in my more inexperienced cycling days a few years ago, taking a right turn and managing to get some enormous pedal strike on the curb opposite- causing me to go flying over the handlebars... right in front of a load of people... ouch

 

[iLB]

You had a great clipless moment too... I had stopped & turned round just in time to see you go sideways into the verge... I didn't laugh (much) then, but I was creasing up inside... sorry mate

thanks for that ian, you know the clipless fairy will visit you now

 

[phaedrus]

I'm about 14, out on my first real bike - a beautiful drop-handlebar Raleigh with a Brooks saddle and everything. It's a beautiful sunny day, and I'm doing my utmost to impress the three very attractive young girls who are walking towards me on the opposite side of the street.

A little boy off to the right in his front garden decides to see how high his toy bow will project an arrow. Up it goes, then down, straight into the spokes of my front wheel.

I perform a highly acrobatic front somersault and land flat on my back in the road. Not to be outdone, my bike performs the same manoeuvre and lands on top of me.

To this day I still feel mortified...

 

[Maizie]

Not on a bike, but bike-related, and I need to get it out of my system...

Yesterday I was shopping in Cambridge with my mother. We went to a bike shop as I wanted to get another pair of shoes. We go in to the shop and my mother gets distracted by baskets, and wotnot. So we end up talking to the lady in the shop about how to properly attach a basket to an old-fashioned ladies bicycle.

After which, I say that actually that was just a distraction, I'm here for shoes. So we hunt out the shoes/size I'm after, while I am trying them on my mother starts talking at the shop-lady again.

"She cycles to work", says my mother proudly, "it's ten miles each way! Ten miles!. I don't even manage the mile and a half to work very often myself."

So I'm sitting there trying on shoes, mortified, while shop-lady is suitably unimpressed with cycling ten whole miles. She did tell my mother that she does the odd century now and again.

We left the shop, and my mother was all "well, she wasn't at all impressed by that" and I let her know that ten miles is really not a significant cycle ride to a Proper Cyclist in a Proper Cycle Shop, but it's perfectly OK for her - as my mother - to be quietly impressed by it

 

[Lisa21]

HaHa!!!!!!!!!!Not cycling related at all but the most embarrassing thing to happen to me up to now............When I was 19 I worked as a chaimbermaid in a hotel.It was a VERY hot summer and we had awful nylon dress type uniforms we had to wear, which fastened all down the front with poppers
As I came out of a room the door closed behind me and unbeknown to me id trapped the bottom of my "dress" in the doorframe. As I walked off-in a hurry-cue poppers popping and my uniform almost left behind in the doorway with me in my (very) skimpies Real "carry on" moment
Thank god there were no witnesses to that

And no-this post is NOT useless without pictures!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

 

[Arch]

Mine would be my grass verge moment. I was pulling over to stop so that I could take my jacket off, as I was getting too warm. I'm quite short of leg, so mostly I slide forward off the saddle to get a foot down, but there was a nice high grass verge, so I pulled up and just put my left foot down, staying in the saddle.


Except, the grass verge wasn't higher than the tarmac after all. It was just long grass. The actual ground was lower than the tarmac. So I put a foot out, lean, lean, keep leaning, and eventually perform a full somersault sideways, and slither into the ditch under the hedge. Result, I'm upside down, still 'on' (or rather under) my bike, feet on the pedals, hands on the handlebars, with the top of my head in a puddle, and my wheels gently spinning.

Thankfully, although I was towards the back of the group I was with, I wasn't right at the back, because I was completely stuck in this ditch, and had to yell for help to get out.

Once I was out, I thought it was hilarious, and I do wish someone had caught it on video. It all happened in that special slo-mo timescale.

 

[Piemaster]

Another clipless moment.
Making a very sharp 90 degree, slowspeed turn. Realise I'm going a bit too slow and its too sharp to make it so go to unclip and put foot down. Unfortunately said foot is at the same height as a 18" high fence preventing me twisting foot out and resulting in me falling over the fence onto my back with the bike on top of me.

 

[Headgardener]

Mine would be my grass verge moment. I was pulling over to stop so that I could take my jacket off, as I was getting too warm. I'm quite short of leg, so mostly I slide forward off the saddle to get a foot down, but there was a nice high grass verge, so I pulled up and just put my left foot down, staying in the saddle.


Except, the grass verge wasn't higher than the tarmac after all. It was just long grass. The actual ground was lower than the tarmac. So I put a foot out, lean, lean, keep leaning, and eventually perform a full somersault sideways, and slither into the ditch under the hedge. Result, I'm upside down, still 'on' (or rather under) my bike, feet on the pedals, hands on the handlebars, with the top of my head in a puddle, and my wheels gently spinning.

Thankfully, although I was towards the back of the group I was with, I wasn't right at the back, because I was completely stuck in this ditch, and had to yell for help to get out.

Once I was out, I thought it was hilarious, and I do wish someone had caught it on video. It all happened in that special slo-mo timescale.

Sorry Arch but that is so funny.

 

[buggi]

HaHa!!!!!!!!!!Not cycling related at all but the most embarrassing thing to happen to me up to now............When I was 19 I worked as a chaimbermaid in a hotel.It was a VERY hot summer and we had awful nylon dress type uniforms we had to wear, which fastened all down the front with poppers
As I came out of a room the door closed behind me and unbeknown to me id trapped the bottom of my "dress" in the doorframe. As I walked off-in a hurry-cue poppers popping and my uniform almost left behind in the doorway with me in my (very) skimpies Real "carry on" moment
Thank god there were no witnesses to that

And no-this post is NOT useless without pictures!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

and that's fookin hilarious too!!!!

 

[stedlocks]

In Hatfield Forest on a sunny but wet day and saw an inviting hump next to a 3 foot or so ditch.....thought 'Thats got a jump written all over it'

Attacked it, hit it, realised in mid air that I should have lowered the saddle, bounced once on the wheels and landed on my back (still clipped in) in the only cow pat within 50 yards..........white T-shirt now dark brown and very smelly.......

still had another couple of hours and pubs in me though

 

[byegad]

My first ride on my new recumbent bike. I wheeled the shining new thing out into the back lane and sat on it for the very first time. AS...........................

The next door neighbour, his wife, the three kids, his entire extended family and several others walk out of their back gate. They all gravitate to the strange man on stranger bike and ask lots of questions! Then child #2 says, 'Are you gonna ride it then?'

The resulting entertainment is still spoken of in their family, along with all of their seemingly infinite number of friends.

What I shouild have said was. 'No I'm just back from a 50 mile tryout.' and retreated into the house until they'd all got into the fleet of cars awaiting them and b*ggered off!

 

[Arch]

Sorry Arch but that is so funny.

No need to apologise. Even I thought it was funny, once I was out. The few seconds I thought I was stuck forever were a bit scary though.

I'm just thankful the ditch wasn't full of water, although being the only person ever to drown on a bike ride would be some epitaph.

 

[threefingerjoe]

This one isn't bike-related...I've had so many mishaps on bikes that I'm no longer embarrassed by them.

Most of my embarrassing moments are caused by my mouth. One night, on a service call, as a power company mechanic, in a dark alley, I was working on one of our lorries. I had the bonnet up, would try to prop up my torch so I could see, but it would roll off to the side, or fall over. The driver, whom I didn't know, and couldn't see well in the dark, offered to hold the torch for me. I thanked him, and said, "I just don't have enough hands." At that, he laid his arm up on the fender, and by the light of the torch, I could see a HOOK where his hand should have been! He was an amputee! I felt myself shrink to about 1 inch tall!