What dangers did you not realize until they happened to you?

[ursi]

Today I was hit by a sudden crosswind that nearly knocked me over. It made me do a sudden lane change at 60 km/h. Had I been less lucky with surrounding cars, I could've died. This is a new reality I have to face with riding these things, and I was fortunate enough to learn about it without getting hurt. However, there are probably other dangers I haven't considered that I might not get so lucky to discover without injury. I am making this thread for people to share dangers that they didn't realize until they experienced them first hand, in hopes that we can all use this information to be safer riders.

Edited June 18, 2023 by ursi

[mrelwood]

- Back when I was starting, the unpredictability of everybody else caught me by surprise. Pedestrians, dogs, bicyclists, mopeds, cars… If I would’ve relied on everybody else to behave as they were supposed to, I’d probably have crashed dozens of times, jailed, as well as died.

- The braking distance of an EUC before properly practicing emergency braking.

[techyiam]

A car parked in a row of parked car darted out right in front of me, no signal, nothing. Just shot right out. This was on a residential street. Usually, residential streets that are part of a bicycle route is quiet and less risky. You just never know. 

[nakopf]

Unmarked speed bump at night. Log suggests that I was traveling at 21.6 km/h. I met the pavement suddenly and violently. Rode about 3 miles back to a friend w/ vehicle, then to the ER. Injured my shoulder; grade 3 AC separation required surgery. Helmet probably saved my life - but at the very least, saved me from some serious closed head injuries/head trauma. Gnarly x-rays. 

Edited July 27, 2023 by nakopf
Spelling/grammar

[sbb]

It turns out that corrugations / washboard can shake you off of the pedals.  Who knew!

 

[Poker]

Rogue holes on dirt roads and how hard they can be to spot when its getting dark outside. 

Or just how seeing depth in the shade when its bright outside can be difficult at a distance.

[bpong]

i took for granted that the bike lanes in toronto where pretty much in good shape till i got bounced off twice due to deep small potholes... rolling eyes...

[techyiam]

1 hour ago, Poker said:

Or just how seeing depth in the shade when its bright outside can be difficult at a distance

This one can be deadly if riding fast on a non-suspension wheel, even on a familiar road.

[psEUCdonym]

 - Unmanageable riding over syntetic grass

 - To give some km (miles) to know the real behavior of a tire.

On 7/27/2023 at 8:47 AM, sbb said:

It turns out that corrugations / washboard can shake you off of the pedals.  Who knew!

 

I have found the Shinko 244 bevaves the best, against those

[ursi]

I just had my worst fall yet, losing balance and falling over the front of my wheel. It happened right as we were transitioning to going up a fairly steep hill. I was either transitioning from standing to seated, or already seated and leaning very far forwards (I don't actually remember. If I had already been seated, I had just sat down). All of a sudden it felt like I hit a divot in the concrete and I fell over the front of the wheel. After inspecting the road however, there was nothing there. I am forced to conclude that it must have been the changing slope that did me in. So be careful when doing those things around large changes in gradient.

[Cerbera]

Yeah, now that the nights are getting shorter, I am increasingly being caught out miles from home as darkness falls. And today I was just leaving the country park as the sun went down, so was trying to get home quickly, down some rather steep and constant downhills, with periodic ramps. This week I noticed on the way up that they had repaired and rebuilt a few of the ramps, and made them much more harsh and steep than they used to be. Well, that came back to bite me in the arse on the way back, when I hit the first one of these pretty fast, and was comprehensively bounced off my pedals just as the wheel twisted under me coming off the ramp, and there followed a few seconds of desperate wobbling about trying to hold on to it, and re-establish proper foot positioning, which I eventually did. Also, the dreaded overhanging thorny vines are very much more difficult to see in low light, so had a couple of close calls with those as well.

And yeah, like OP says, the damn wind is a constant (or should I say capriciously inconstant!?) hazard... I should note; none of these things make a ride unenjoyable - it's all challenges to be anticipated, faced, avoided or conquered, and it's no fun if it's too easy !

 

Edited August 19, 2023 by Cerbera

[Cerbera]

Oh yeah - just remembered the 'Wasp in helmet' incident. I wasn't expecting that, and that sort of thing can really fuck up your ride in pretty short order ! 

Edited August 19, 2023 by Cerbera

[0000]

Ran into a local rider last night and got to talking - turns out he had a guy throw something at him from his car while he was at speed on a busy road a while back. Whatever was thrown knocked him off his Master which shredded and shed parts in the tumble and he broke both wrists and a knee-cap from the impact (and other damage from the slide) being somewhat under-geared. Always rides with full coverage motorcycle gear now which was what started the conversation asking about that.

Random asshole: can happen anywhere, anytime.

[Cyberwolf]

On 7/27/2023 at 9:54 AM, Poker said:

Rogue holes on dirt roads and how hard they can be to spot when its getting dark outside. 

Or just how seeing depth in the shade when its bright outside can be difficult at a distance.

Both of these (sort of) have driven home their respective lessons...

The first one had me kissing the hillside due to an almost invisible but ridiculously deep/large - and thoroughly unexpected - hole in the ground (made it a bit past the hole before wiping out)...wasn't going overly fast, but not exactly slow either...

Here's a pic I took - can you spot the hole? (hint: it's almost fully covered by grass growing in from the sides, and right at the base of a rather steep incline):

 

The second one (no pics) made me thank my lucky stars that I decided early on to be religious about *always* wearing full safety gear, and taught me to always do a full "bunny hop" up onto curbs, even if they look small or inclined and I'm going slow...

Those shadows can be a real bitch and very deceptive about the height of said curbs...

[mrelwood]

42 minutes ago, Cyberwolf said:

taught me to always do a full "bunny hop" up onto curbs

I think that’s a really good habit. One of our local group riders rides with the V11 totally straight legged, into every incline, decline and curb. I’ve seen him get pretty unstable on those slanted sections of pavement when a crosswalk transforms back up into the cycle path. I wish that he’d either start to flex his knees, or then just be lucky and not crash due to a yet steeper one.

 One could say that this is exactly the reason why it’s best to learn with a non-suspension wheel. And I almost agree. But then again, we can have individual bad riding habits no matter what we learn with. This just may be more common with the ones that learned on a suspension wheel.

[InMoOnGoWa75012]

Not for me but : forgot that RS19 or EX.n is not water proof at all 

[Mono]

I fell due to

1. Pedal clipping (a wall or other obstacles) until I learned that the pedals stick further out than I expected them to.
2. Speed bumps or humps until my heel-knee subconscious reaction time got appropriate for the speeds I am traveling at.

This thread about close calls gives valuable information on various dangers too.

Edited August 21, 2023 by Mono

[woke rider]

Snakes darting in front of me while riding barefoot. Getting struck by lightening 3 times while riding in a thunderstorm. Getting attacked by vicious pit bulls.

[woke rider]

Birds doing fly byes because they think I'm a big bird too.

[Robse]

The danger of my KS16X deluxe seat doing tricky tricks with where i touch the wheel with the side of my legs.  It cost me a close contact with the asphalt due to a completely uncontrollable downhill wobble. Lesson learned:  Going high speed downhill always seated.  I have never experienced any kind of wobble while riding seated.  I think it has to do with the fact that when riding seated you place the weight far above the axle, whereas standing riding places the weight below the axle. But why this should matter I cannot explain.

[Robse]

57 minutes ago, earthtwin said:

Getting struck by lightening 3 times while riding in a thunderstorm.

Awhat?  and stille alive, or electrified?

[Poker]

Yeah and did the wheel work afterwards?

[Barefooter]

My rides are on rural back roads where there are lots of deer.  Yesterday I was surprised when out of the deep brush a momma deer bolted away from the road and baby deer took off along the road a few meters ahead.  I slowed down to keep it in front of me until it found an area it could go after momma.

I've come up on several young bucks milling about more than once and slowed way down because it's difficult to predict a spooked deer.

Also yesterday I came up on two buzzards on a kill in the middle of the road.  One took off while i was still 80 meters out.  The other was busy so i slowed down to give it a chance to notice and fly..  It took two tries to get airborne then paced me..  I was getting concerned a fecal or barf bomb might be coming so i backed off further...

[Funky]

3 hours ago, Robse said:

Awhat?  and stille alive, or electrified?

Extra Range FTW!!!!

[woke rider]

@Robse and @Poker I didn't get hurt at all, just scared by the bright flashes above my head. Maybe my wheels high voltage was attracting lightening? and then my wheel and me protected from injury by the rubber tire? I don't know, but I wasn't injured and my wheel is fine.