hhnngg1

Was cruising down Page Mill Road this afternoon at a brisk (not blazing) pace, probably 25ish, and noticed my front tire felt a bit wobbly. Strange, I thought.

2 seconds later, the front wheel is all over the place, and down I'm going. Dang.

Head and body ok, got the requisite road rash. Just as importantly, bike ok (just had to reposition the shifters, brakes, and tire.) Turns out it was a slow leak - probably at least 30psi was in the tire, but enough to take me down.

I was actually wearing a Camelbak this time (I know, FREDly) and honest to god it took the brunt of the impact - I pretty much fell toward my right but rolled and landed pretty much on my back, and I have nary a single bruise or sore spot anywhere on my back. (Leg n elbow took minor hits.)

Final thoughts -
- Roller skills won't save you on a fast front wobbly flat. (I can ride rollers easily one handed and at speed, and it was useless.)
- Most important thing is to make sure you're ok. I spent about 5 minutes just making sure I didn't sustain any major damage.
- Check your bike again a few minutes into your ride. I noticed that my rear brakes were all out of whack, and I had a good 2 miles of downhill to go.
- Blood really attracts motorists to help. I didn't need help, buy didn't notice how much blood was running down my elbow and knee until I noticed that I was causing a near-traffic jam on that road because so many folks were stopping to check on me. (I ended up jumping behind a bush to change my tire to avoid this!)
- Camelbak is surprisngly helpful for a fall. So are gloves. I don't think I'll ever do a long training ride without either again, especially in damp conditions.

Just venting thanx

Looigi

Yeah, that sucks. Page Mill road? Palo Alto? I used to live and ride in the Bay Area and got flats all the time from thorns, sometimes several on one ride. There was lots of glass on the roads too. My buddies and I went to riding on Specialized Armadillo tires which helped some. I've gone a whole year riding out here in MA and haven't seen anybody flat. No thorns and virtually no glass on roads. This fall I was on a ride and enjoying the fantastic autumn foliage. At one point going down a hill some stopped and turning cars forced me further to side of the road onto wet leaves and my front wheel went out. No camel back but no significant bodily injuries or bike damage either.

tjspahr

Glad your OK, and that the bike came out fine. I pinch flatted on a downhill on crappy tarmac this year...luckily it was the back, so could more easily ride it out. Flatting the front on a downhill would just plain suck.

Paul Y.

Never happened yet. Think about it when going down long steep hills. EVERYTIME!!
Glad you and your bike are good.

Flatballer

sounds more like a slow downhill. Sucks though.

grolby

Not for nothing, but riding one-handed on rollers is not all that indicative of good bike handling skills and reactions.

Which is not to say that recovery from a front flat on a downhill is easy. I haven't had one yet. Hope I never do. Sucks that you did. I'm glad you weren't more seriously hurt.

diverguy

Other than the road rash, you're okay and that's the important part. Good that you rolled and let the camelback absorb the impact. Bad timing that it went flat where it did but the outcome could have been much worse.

hhnngg1

Craziest thing is that I realized that my iphone was in my backpack - but it definitely survived the impact. I guess another lesson learned is to put your tech toys in the deeper pockets (which I did).

And I agree - roller skills do NOT equal great cornering ability. I've seen so many posts both here and elsewhere about people raving about how they expect their cornering to improve after training with rollers. While it'll improve your ability to hold a line, it's not that helpful for cornering where you need to gauge the amount of lean to get a great turn. Rollers keep you dead-bolt upright - any tilt/lean, and you're going off the rollers. I've posted this before, but I've been generally underwhelmed by my rollers. By far the most useful skill that I've learned (and am still learning) on the rollers is to take a quick look behind me without going off the rollers. Everyone does it on the road, but on rollers, you quickly realize how hazardous and swervy you are when you do it.