mcours2006 just had a close call, I had my own last night. I leave my car at work as much as possible, where it can get free shade in the parking deck. I leave a bike rack on the back (saris bones). Last night I needed to use the car, so I drove down to the bike parking area, and tossed my bike on.
When I got on the freeway and started to pick up speed, at about 60 I see in the mirror my bike fly off!!! I'm such an idiot I put the bike in the cradles and forgot to close the buckle straps! (got distracted by bungeeing the front wheel in place so it wouldn't flop)
In the mirror while I'm slowing down (or probably mostly before I have time to react) I saw the bike take a bunch of tumbles.
FORTUNATELY (I'm so relieved and grateful)
- Nobody was directly behind me
- The bike stayed in the right side of the right lane
- In that section of freeway, the vast majority of traffic is in the left lanes
I put my hazards on and reversed on the shoulder (I'm the worlds worst backwards driver, and this stressful situation didn't help). Hopefully traffic seeing this crazy person weaving backwards on the shoulder with his hazards on helped alert them that something was up and notice the bike in the road if they didn't already.
I made it to the bike and grabbed it out of the road as quick as I could (felt like a car made a rudely close pass towards my head!), got the bike back up on the rack, WITH THE STRAPS BUCKLED, and went on my way.
All things considered, the bike is in great shape, I haven't had time for a full, close inspection yet.
- The frame (CrossCheck) is I'm sure totally fine. I guess there's a possibility the fork could be bent, but it looks ok
- The carbon seatpost seems fine, with a good bit of force I twisted it back mostly straight, so it seemed solid.
- The Selle Anatomica Titanico X sustained deep scrapes on the nose and the rear. Doesn't seem anything like about to tear apart. Not sure if I should soak with sno.seal, or apply wax, or what, to try to protect the exposed raw leather, or just ride it.
- The tires (new Schwalbe Hurricane, 700x50 in the back, 700x42 in the front) are fine and the tubes didn't pop.
- The rear wheel (32-spoke Velocity Dyad) is definitely bent, but not completely taco'd. I might be able to curb-stomp it back to where I can make it good enough with a spoke wrench.
- The front wheel looks straight, but I can't spin it yet because the handlbars and brake levers all shifted around which caused the canti brakes to lock.
- The shift cable housing coming out of the Retroshift (Gevenalle) levers got sheared open, but the shifters and brake levers are fine (no need to take advantage of Gevenalle's $18 repair/rebuild/replace for any reason policy)
- The cygolite hotshot is broken. I got it for free because my wife found it, and I have said many times if I ever lost it I would pay to replace it, so I will definitely do that. The headlight (flashlight hoseclamped to the handlebars) is loose but seems ok. Didn't actually test turning it on.
- The flimsy plastic water bottle cage is intact, and I recovered my beloved Sriracha water bottle on the side of the road.
All things considered, the consequences of my stupidity and inattentiveness are extremely small.
Everybody feel free to berate me in the comments, and I'll give updates about getting it fixed back up.
Stay safe out there everybody, double-check your racks!