Worst bike rides..............
629
Member
720 days
Ironmom posted 23 weeks ago.
I don't have any bike rides like that. But I did have a run where I got stung repeatedly by a hornet, then had to swerve off the running trail and ran through a patch of waist-high nettles in shorts, then a horsechestnut tree decided to start dropping big spikey horsechestnuts on my head. I finally just gave up and went home, but by that time my face was swelling like crazy from the hornet stings and both eyes ended up swelling shut. I think I blogged about it here: When God Tells You to Go Home
Blue Skies, -Robin-
http://ironmom.blogspot.com/
193
Member
464 days
Nutty posted 23 weeks ago.
My best was the day i tried to drive to DC (i live in metro detroit) to visit a friend and didnt make it through ohio before i got a flat. Then pulling onto my own street got another flat. So i thought ok, ill get on my bike and blow off some steam.
Well, about 6 miles into my ride it got dark. I was riding in a familiar area so it didnt bother me that i didnt have a light. As i was cruising along at about 20-22mph i found something new in the area. Road construction. They were resurfacing the road, and i hit the unsurfaced pavement at full throttle. Went down, bent up my tribars (3 days old) screwed up my front wheel real good, destroyed my right knee, a perfectly good shirt, good portion of my right shoulder, and ended up having to drop half of my classes in culinary school as my hand was so messed up i wasnt allowed in the kitchen for 2 or 3 weeks. It was a good time.
What started out as me trying to blow off steam in a productive way, rather than drinking, ended up my dad and friend (now girlfriend) both coming over to make sure i was ok... with bottles of jack daniels. Which proved useful when cutting the dead skin away and digging out the gravel. The ladyfriend nearly threw up watching me dig out the knee cause there was so much blood.
So i started the next day with only two tires on my car, an unrideable bike, a hangover, and a destroyed knee with my first marathon in 2 weeks.
In hindsight, probably should have just ridden straight to the hospital (it was between where i crashed and my house afterall) and gotten stitches. but hey, now its a good story.
My father and i have a theory of camping trips also. It is thus: The trips where everything goes wrong youll be laughing about for decades, the ones where everything goes right you wont remember at all.
-Alan
My fancy new blogitty blog.
http://therunningfridge.blogspot.com/
581
Member
183 days
jtrimom posted 23 weeks ago.
I woke up for my usual 4 am 6 mile run, expecting my running partner to be there, he wasn't. The forecast was for 30% thunderstorms so I felt lucky: no rumblings. I get literally halfway through my run and the lightning starts flashing - big time- thunder right on top of me...someone up there does NOT think I should be running right now. Then it starts pouring, the wind is PUSHING me over, and it begins HAILING! no joke. I was saying, "Okay, if I make it through this run, I will not go out again if there in anything over a 10% chance of thunderstorms. I think I got about one block away from my car when it finally died down. my question is, did my running partner have inside info I was not privy to?
1188
Member
335 days
TriSooner posted 23 weeks ago.
thesonicson wrote:
You are doing it wrong. When you drop the chain, keep rolling, don't stop and/or get off. This is noob move. Shift to the BIG chain ring and peddle slowly and the derailler will move it from the bottom bracket all the way back onto the large chain ring. This works 100% of the time unless you drop it uphill then you are screwed unless you can get a grip before gravity pulls you down.
Mile 4.1 chain falls off while shifting front gears, not so much of a problem, just have to ride with a little lube on my hands.
16g CO2 is the right size. Probable cause for blow-out is improperly seated tube. The tube was probably pinched between the rim and bead of the tire. I say this because when I change a tire this always happens to me. I suck.
330
Member
254 days
diva_mom posted 23 weeks ago.
i went to a point to point mtn. bike race once, with a friend of mine, and we failed to note part of 'no parking' near the start line. so we drove to the start, drove the 2 miles back to acceptable parking, got on the bikes and rode back to the start. my class had already started - so i took off on my own. 26 miles in the uintah mountains on my own. between classes. about 5 miles from the finish, the next class caught up and i had some folks to ride with. but once again, i was 'that guy' as in, did you see that guy? she was soooo far behind, i wonder what happend?
after the race was over, we boarded a bus to ride back to the start line. and the bus broke down. had about 35 miles to ride back to the start on the highway - after racing. long, long day.
Don't be so easy on yourself 'cause this one might be all that you have left
4910
Member
1714 days
beads1985 posted 23 weeks ago.
TriSooner wrote:
You are doing it wrong. When you drop the chain, keep rolling, don't stop and/or get off. This is noob move. Shift to the BIG chain ring and peddle slowly and the derailler will move it from the bottom bracket all the way back onto the large chain ring. This works 100% of the time unless you drop it uphill then you are screwed unless you can get a grip before gravity pulls you down.
Not just a noob move. I have seen experienced roadies do this too. Sometimes it doesn't hurt to get of the bike and see what happened.
TriSooner wrote:
16g CO2 is the right size. Probable cause for blow-out is improperly seated tube. The tube was probably pinched between the rim and bead of the tire. I say this because when I change a tire this always happens to me. I suck.
I too have done this when prepping my bike fro a tri and blew a tube and then replaced it and then blew the next tube. Thankfully I had that one extra spare but none left for the race., and I didn't flat out during the race.
Nothing to it, but to do it
4910
Member
1714 days
beads1985 posted 23 weeks ago.
Worst ride, was during my worst tri experience.
I did the NYC tri last summer.
The swim was in the Hudson, and I swallowed quite a bit of river water.
I threw up during the swim.
I threw up repeatedly on the bike leg, and surprisingly did not crash and die.
I continued to throw up on the run.
The bike was scary since I couldn't really see what I was doing when I was chucking and my eyes were all teary when I was done.
Nothing to it, but to do it
42
Member
432 days
DTinVA posted 23 weeks ago.
TriSooner wrote:
thesonicson wrote:You are doing it wrong. When you drop the chain, keep rolling, don't stop and/or get off. This is noob move. Shift to the BIG chain ring and peddle slowly and the derailler will move it from the bottom bracket all the way back onto the large chain ring. This works 100% of the time unless you drop it uphill then you are screwed unless you can get a grip before gravity pulls you down.Mile 4.1 chain falls off while shifting front gears, not so much of a problem, just have to ride with a little lube on my hands.
This just happened to me this past weekend on a group ride. The group was going quite a bit faster than I was and I was shifting to try to keep up. When I shifted, something jammed and I couldn't turn the crank any more. Had to get off and do some pulling and tugging to get the chain free.
Needless to say, the group kept going and I finished way behind them. Oh well -- I'll never get faster unless I ride with fast people.
1817
Member
1078 days
tri-ac posted 23 weeks ago.
well, there was this...
http://www.trifuel.com/forum/13166/you-call-that-a-workout
Adam
Tri-ac
181
Member
183 days
zagfan posted 23 weeks ago.
On my first bike ride last summer I got a flat 10 miles in and had to wait for my wife to ride home and get the car out in the sun with a sleeveless shirt on. So needeless to say I got toasted (Colorado sun is much stronger than TX sun I found out). Well, I decided that I needed to go on a run a couple of days later, arms covered this time. Arms felt good, until I took off my shirt and noticed all of the blisters that had formed from the shirt rubbing againsts the sunburn. So one of the blisters decides to get big and nasty and long story short I took care of it myself and bandaged it up. I was all proud of myself until I got home and showed my wife my quick patch job. Her first question was, "what kind of tape did you use?," my answer, "there's different kinds of medical tape?" It only took my wife trying to peel back one of the corners of tape to realize that her bonehead husband (that's me) had placed heavy duty medical tape on a severe sunburn. The doctor's solution from the urgent care facility: "Yep, that skins coming off with that tape?" Thanks doc. So for half an hour that night my wife proceeded to not only peel off the tape, but also the top layers of my skin (she was in nursing school at the time so it was good practice right?)
So I now have a permanent farmer's tan on my arms complete with freckles. The bad part is that it doesn't even match up with the permanent bike jersey tan I have in the summer. Luckily the missing rectangles of skin healed quit nicely and I have a funny (well, funny now) story to tell. My wife also has a reason to remind me that she's smarter than me (a point which I've learned not to contest).
Lessons learned:
1. When you buy your first bike and the guy says, "Don't worry, you don't need any spare tires yet, just go enjoy your bike this weekend and then come back and we'll set you up with more equipment." DON'T listen to him, buy yourself a spare tire and CO2 kit.
2. When you live in Colorado, always wear sun screen.
3. There's a reason nurses an doctors go to school for a long time, don't try to fix yourself.
Worst bike ride by far.
65
Member
374 days
derek5 posted 23 weeks ago.
well there was this one time i got t-boned by a car (his fault) on a bike i did not own. Then as I was waiting for the ambulance i hobbled over to the curb to sit down. After about 2 minutes my road rash on my leg felt like someone had poured alcohol on it. I look down to realize: that's not alcohol those are fire red ants feasting on my leg. That for me ranks up there on the bad bike rides list!
581
Member
183 days
jtrimom posted 23 weeks ago.
beads1985 wrote:
Worst ride, was during my worst tri experience.
I did the NYC tri last summer.
The swim was in the Hudson, and I swallowed quite a bit of river water.I threw up during the swim.
I threw up repeatedly on the bike leg, and surprisingly did not crash and die.
I continued to throw up on the run.The bike was scary since I couldn't really see what I was doing when I was chucking and my eyes were all teary when I was done.
wow, you're my hero (or just dumb :)) I would've packed up after the first hurl
112
Member
435 days
Toothless posted 23 weeks ago.
Good game. Here goes:
A couple of years ago my wife and I were out on a nice fall bike ride doing a 3 hour loop, and as we were returning about 15 miles away from home we realized that the bridge was out over the creek that separated us from the main highway. Doubling back to find another road would have added about 30 minutes or more onto the ride, so we turned down a dirt lane and followed the creek until we found a safe spot to wade across the water.
After crossing the creek, we continued on a dirt lane on the other side that seemed to be heading back to the highway when I noticed something stuck on my front wheel. I stopped and realized I had at lease 10 goat-head thorns in my front tire. Then I noticed I had at least the same number in my rear tire. My wife's tires were in the same state. I pulled out one of the thorns and my tire deflated immediately. Very bad luck - I had one spare tube and no patch kit. Not that a patch kit would have helped .... My wife hadn't brought any spares.
We pushed our bikes out to the highway, and I ended up changing my front tire. My wife stayed put and I rode home, stopping EVERY MILE to re-inflate the back tire. Almost 2 hours later I was in the car heading out to find my wife when I saw her pedaling toward me on the highway. She had sat there so long that a nice cyclist with 2 spare tubes stopped and fixed her flat tires.
Lesson learned - now I always carry 2 spare tubes, and I always stop to see if other cyclists need help with flats.
4480
Member
1633 days
kylie posted 23 weeks ago.
Worst thing I could ever see on a bike ride (and it was actually during a half IM): an airlift helicopter, multiple cop cars and a couple ambulances about a mile from the end of the bike -- and then recognizing my boyfriend as the one on the stretcher while I tried not to look. Found out that my dura ace brakes do sure stop better than my old ones had, and left some nice bare patches on the tire.
I don't remember most of my personal worst ;) Found out bits and pieces as I got hospital bills in the mail over the next month or so (including a helicopter one and weird head scans).
Other scary rides include the back wheel coming off at about 31 mph and a mtn bike ride where I started hiking my bike at sundown and got back to roads at sunrise -- hitting multiple cacti with the tires on the way. Although I guess in a way it was fun and what I'd signed up for (24 hr adventure race).
46
Member
429 days
IronAdge posted 23 weeks ago.
I went out last Saturday and after already knocking out 60 miles I had 20 to go. I met 30mph headwinds with heavy rain and about 15 minutes of hail, some golf ball sized. Thank goodness I had my helmet on but I pretty much just tucked my head and pushed on, couldn't see out my glasses. The relief to come out of the hail was amazing. I arrived home to find out all the streets were covered in brush from the trees, hail everywhere, and my garden destroyed. Oh and 12 missed calls from my mom thinking I would be huddled up in a ditch somewhere. The pic is of me showering in the hail. Are we all crazy?
“I like a man who grins when he fights.”
4910
Member
1714 days
beads1985 posted 23 weeks ago.
jtrimom wrote:
beads1985 wrote:Worst ride, was during my worst tri experience.
I did the NYC tri last summer.
The swim was in the Hudson, and I swallowed quite a bit of river water.I threw up during the swim.
I threw up repeatedly on the bike leg, and surprisingly did not crash and die.
I continued to throw up on the run.The bike was scary since I couldn't really see what I was doing when I was chucking and my eyes were all teary when I was done.
wow, you're my hero (or just dumb :)) I would've packed up after the first hurl
I kept thinking 'I paid for this, so I'. gonna get my moneys worth'. So I think that might be dumb or ...
IronAdge wrote:
I went out last Saturday and after already knocking out 60 miles I had 20 to go. I met 30mph headwinds with heavy rain and about 15 minutes of hail, some golf ball sized. Thank goodness I had my helmet on but I pretty much just tucked my head and pushed on, couldn't see out my glasses. The relief to come out of the hail was amazing. I arrived home to find out all the streets were covered in brush from the trees, hail everywhere, and my garden destroyed. Oh and 12 missed calls from my mom thinking I would be huddled up in a ditch somewhere. The pic is of me showering in the hail. Are we all crazy?
Crazy just might cover it too !! ;-)
Nothing to it, but to do it
581
Member
183 days
jtrimom posted 23 weeks ago.
beads1985 wrote:
jtrimom wrote:beads1985 wrote:Worst ride, was during my worst tri experience.
I did the NYC tri last summer.
The swim was in the Hudson, and I swallowed quite a bit of river water.I threw up during the swim.
I threw up repeatedly on the bike leg, and surprisingly did not crash and die.
I continued to throw up on the run.The bike was scary since I couldn't really see what I was doing when I was chucking and my eyes were all teary when I was done.
wow, you're my hero (or just dumb :)) I would've packed up after the first hurlI kept thinking 'I paid for this, so I'. gonna get my moneys worth'. So I think that might be dumb or ...
IronAdge wrote:I went out last Saturday and after already knocking out 60 miles I had 20 to go. I met 30mph headwinds with heavy rain and about 15 minutes of hail, some golf ball sized. Thank goodness I had my helmet on but I pretty much just tucked my head and pushed on, couldn't see out my glasses. The relief to come out of the hail was amazing. I arrived home to find out all the streets were covered in brush from the trees, hail everywhere, and my garden destroyed. Oh and 12 missed calls from my mom thinking I would be huddled up in a ditch somewhere. The pic is of me showering in the hail. Are we all crazy?Crazy just might cover it too !! ;-)
I couldn't decide which adjective to go with, but crazy (for any and all of us who put ourselves thru this form of masochism) crossed my mind too ;)
Ok, I might be new to this game, but what happened to me tonight was pure fun! I started my ride on a chilly 87 degree evening......
Mile 4.1 chain falls off while shifting front gears, not so much of a problem, just have to ride with a little lube on my hands.
Mile 7.9 cruising at 24 mph, when I hit a bridge entrance that had about a
1 1/2" concrete riser going onto it. Instant blown tube. My fault, should have slowed down to reduce impact. But still no biggie, change it out and back on the road.
Mile 8.4 come across another overpass, smooth transition, cablammie!! another blowout!
Mile 8.7 after 1/4" mile walk, friend comes for the rescue pick up.
Does anyone else have a similiar story? I'd love to hear it!
P.S. is a 16 gram co2 too much for a 700x20c? might be the cause of the second blowout???