What's your worst cycling experience?

[TheLondonCyclist]

Being taken out by a woman opening her car door just as I was along side, best mate said I flew over the door nicely before hitting the gravel!! layers of skin taken off elbows and knees, proud to say I didnt cry untill I got home . ps I was 11 yrs old .

I've been taken out by a Police car door. I fell like a sack of potatoes lol

 

[Andrew_Culture]

Grifter better than a Chopper ? Are you on drugs ?

In the full contact races we used to have The Grifter was Hummer to the Chopper's Austin Metro.

 

[hotmetal]

I'm sure Gary Fisher and his riding buddies would disagree but I can't help but think that (in the UK at least) Raleigh practically invented the mountainbike before the Americans, despite the lack of proper American-sized mountains. The Grifter, with its motocross-inspired fat knobblies and padded braced handlebar was almost the first stab at an off-road cycle for kids I'd guess. And of course, if you were too small for a Grifter, you had the Strika.

 

[dellzeqq]

getting rear-ended by a car doing 55mph and being left for dead beside the A41 in the middle of the night

 

[hotmetal]

Strewth! Proper hit-and-run. Thank goodness you're still here to post about it.
I can't imagine how someone who hits a cyclist can just drive off. I do know someone (a decent, gentle guy really) that knocked over a pedestrian and panicked and drove off. When he got home he did ring the police and fess up though. I think it was sheer panic/disbelief at the time.

 

[Andrew_Culture]

I'm sure Gary Fisher and his riding buddies would disagree but I can't help but think that (in the UK at least) Raleigh practically invented the mountainbike before the Americans, despite the lack of proper American-sized mountains. The Grifter, with its motocross-inspired fat knobblies and padded braced handlebar was almost the first stab at an off-road cycle for kids I'd guess. And of course, if you were too small for a Grifter, you had the Strika.

My cross bar padding was rock hard!

 

[hotmetal]

My cross bar padding was rock hard!

I chewed mine when I ran out of Texan bars… although I'm taking things off 'Topic' again (d'ya see what I did there?)
Eating Grifter handlebars is probably not my worst cycling experience.

 

[Crosstrailer]

In the full contact races we used to have The Grifter was Hummer to the Chopper's Austin Metro.

On my Black Special Edition Prismatic Raleigh Chopper, it wasn't about smashing into things, it was about looking goooooooood

Flaming exhausts on the chain guard, streamers hanging from the end of the grips, my mates grifter didn't come close. Some older kid at school tried to cut me up on his racer once, cue one severely buckled rear 700 and child sweeping the road with the side of his head. Not on the mark on the junior Harley........

 

[Crosstrailer]

I chewed mine when I ran out of Texan bars… although I'm taking things off 'Topic' again (d'ya see what I did there?)
Eating Grifter handlebars is probably not my worst cycling experience.

TEXAN BARS !!!!!!

I used to love those, I supposed they pulled them as they had about 1000 e-numbers in them

 

[ColinJ]

getting rear-ended by a car doing 55mph and being left for dead beside the A41 in the middle of the night

Blimey - it's amazing that you're still around and finding intriguing ways of drowning cyclists in the middle of the night!

I've just remembered what my worst experience on a bike was ... (how could I forget!)

Our Brad had just won the Tour de France and Cav had taken the final stage - again! It was a sunny day and a mate had cycled over so we decided to go and do a hilly little local loop to celebrate.

We cycled along the A646 to Mytholmroyd, a couple of flat miles. We were only doing about 15 mph but I seemed to be struggling to stay with my mate. I probably needed a while to warm up?

We turned right and soon passed the sign marking the start of the Cragg Vale climb. It ascends 968 ft in 5.5 miles, a mere 3.3% average. It is not a hard climb, with only a short section of about 8% midway.

Suddenly, Cragg Vale morphed into Alpe d'Huez and my mate became Contador! Effortlessly, he danced on his pedals and sprinted away from me on the intimidating gradient.

Reality check: Er, no, this was Cragg Vale, and the cyclist disappearing into the distance without even trying was my mate. I was terribly out of breath and gasping on the early 2% slopes. I was riding in a tiny gear and only doing about 2 mph. Something was wrong - I felt like I was dying on my bike!

The rest of the climb was awful and it took me nearly an hour. I rested at the top and then carried on to complete the rest of the 19 mile loop, got home, and collapsed in a heap on the stairs leading up from my kitchen. My pal made me a big mug of tea which I barely had the strength to drink.

Those of you have looked inside my 'GWS' thread will know what had happened ... I had developed a DVT (blood clot) in my leg, which led to a pulmonary embolism (feckin' big blood clot in my lungs!) - I literally had nearly died on my bike!

I ended up getting very ill and being carted off to hospital.

I've been terribly breathless on my bike lots of times, but normally it is after doing something silly like dragging my overweight body up a 20% climb. Experiencing it doing 2 mph on a tiny drag was no fun at all!

 

[hotmetal]

Blimey – that doesn't sound good at all! Haven't read the other thread but I hope you do indeed get well soon.

 

[Andrew_Culture]

I chewed mine when I ran out of Texan bars… although I'm taking things off 'Topic' again (d'ya see what I did there?)
Eating Grifter handlebars is probably not my worst cycling experience.

My Grifter's forks sat at a 20o off centre for last year or so I had it, I'll dig out the photo one day.

 

[mark st1]

Blimey - it's amazing that you're still around and finding intriguing ways of drowning cyclists in the middle of the night!

I've just remembered what my worst experience on a bike was ... (how could I forget!)

Our Brad had just won the Tour de France and Cav had taken the final stage - again! It was a sunny day and a mate had cycled over so we decided to go and do a hilly little local loop to celebrate.

We cycled along the A646 to Mytholmroyd, a couple of flat miles. We were only doing about 15 mph but I seemed to be struggling to stay with my mate. I probably needed a while to warm up?

We turned right and soon passed the sign marking the start of the Cragg Vale climb. It ascends 968 ft in 5.5 miles, a mere 3.3% average. It is not a hard climb, with only a short section of about 8% midway.

Suddenly, Cragg Vale morphed into Alpe d'Huez and my mate became Contador! Effortlessly, he danced on his pedals and sprinted away from me on the intimidating gradient.

Reality check: Er, no, this was Cragg Vale, and the cyclist disappearing into the distance without even trying was my mate. I was terribly out of breath and gasping on the early 2% slopes. I was riding in a tiny gear and only doing about 2 mph. Something was wrong - I felt like I was dying on my bike!

The rest of the climb was awful and it took me nearly an hour. I rested at the top and then carried on to complete the rest of the 19 mile loop, got home, and collapsed in a heap on the stairs leading up from my kitchen. My pal made me a big mug of tea which I barely had the strength to drink.

Those of you have looked inside my 'GWS' thread will know what had happened ... I had developed a DVT (blood clot) in my leg, which led to a pulmonary embolism (feckin' big blood clot in my lungs!) - I literally had nearly died on my bike!

I ended up getting very ill and being carted off to hospital.

I've been terribly breathless on my bike lots of times, but normally it is after doing something silly like dragging my overweight body up a 20% climb. Experiencing it doing 2 mph on a tiny drag was no fun at all!

Thats harsh ! love the way you continued and completed your ride Hope you get well soon and next time you can breeze past your mate up that very same hill

 

[Seryth]

Strewth! Proper hit-and-run. Thank goodness you're still here to post about it.
I can't imagine how someone who hits a cyclist can just drive off. I do know someone (a decent, gentle guy really) that knocked over a pedestrian and panicked and drove off. When he got home he did ring the police and fess up though. I think it was sheer panic/disbelief at the time.

On the subject of hit and run, at the beginning of last school year, we were studying tradgedy, and were asked to write a short story ourselves - I wrote "Hit 'n' Run", if you'd like to read it (it's only a few pagest long) and told by the perspective of the guy driving. Unfortunately it's not cycling related, but I had to think a lot about why someone would drive off:
http://db.tt/HYjGryTy

 

[hotmetal]

Oh my God I've just read your short story. Gulp. Don't even want to think about something like that happening.