Hitting the Deck
The terror.
I hit the deck today.
It was a ridiculous crash, but it still bloody hurt. In the end I have a bruise and scrapes on my hip, sidewalk rash on shin and elbows and in general my whole right side is not happy.
I was walking the dog. Well, kinda. I hate walking the dogs because the puppy tends to jerk at the lead, and it wrecks my back. Instead I harness the dogs up and run them, attached to the lead, while I ride my cyclocross bike.
It’s an arrangement that’s worked well for a while, especially when my husband is in Singapore. I’m the one walking them twice a day, else deal with their extraordinary enthusiasm in distracting me from working. Today it did not work well.
I ran my older dog (3 year old Cattle dog mix) perfectly fine, she likes trotting alongside the bike and being away from the puppy. When I did the same with the pup (<1 year old Mt. Erskine Malaysian special) she was great, until a momentary lapse in judgement caused the lead to drop through the handlebars, at the same time she lunged left around a grate.
Suddenly I was on the way to the unforgiving concrete sidewalk, remembering to not put out my hand to stop the fall, because I like having wrists and collarbones intact. My hip, leg and shoulder took the brunt of it, and I immediately got up to see where the damn dog had gone. She was now terrified of the bike, and also worried she had done something wrong, so she did a wide arc back to me. Unfortunately in the mayhem the lead got tangled in the downed bike, and when I went to lift it, the puppy took it with her, slipped the harness and ran for home. Sigh.
I tried to salvage my ego a bit, checked for broken bits, put the chain back on the bike and rode home. Of course like my last crash, also on the CX bike, there was a witness to the stupidity. This time the security guard as he made his rounds on his bike.
So, this week, how about you share your most ridiculous or pathetic crash so I don’t feel so bad.
– Ashley
My most pathetic crash was a time when I tried to bunny hop the gutter to get onto the path. I misjudged the height and clipped the kerb with my front wheel. Naturally, I started to go over the handlebars. Unfortunately, I was still clipped in and so the bike followed me over, almost like an attempted front flip. No damage was done to me or the bike, except for a bruised ego.
Ha! Sorry. I feel your pain. I’ve tried “walking” my dog (german shepherd/border collie mix) the same way and have had some very, very close calls when she goes one way and I want to go the other.
But most pathetic? Well…I’ve always prided myself that I’ve always been able to unclip from the pedals quickly, even in a panic. One Sunday morning, a couple months ago, I was on the road bike and came up to an intersection that doesn’t trigger with bikes. So, I smartly rolled over to push the button to trigger the light. I was going to roll around the light pole and cue back up to wait for the change. Only, the rocks at the base of the pole had other ideas. I went to move, stopped short and promptly fell onto my side in the grass and rocks. Luckily, there was almost no one around and I was able to laugh it off, but it was pretty pathetic.
Ride safe!
My most ridiculous crash was while going 0 mph on my mountain bike and pulling my son in the chariot behind. Yeah. We were on a family ride and I was moving into the center lane to make a turn at a stop sign. I got distracted and didn’t pull out of the clips. I hit the ground and cracked my arm. Insane.