godogs3

So I was riding home from class today, when suddenly I went flying over the handlebars without any warning. After picking myself up off the ground, I went back to my bike to discover a stick had gotten stuck in between the spokes and the fender rails. How on earth this happened I have no idea. My bike went from about 20 to 0 instantly. In the end, I am fine, but my front fender needs replacing. Also my left hood was a little scraped. Watch out for sticks!

n4zou

I found a young lady that had gone over the handlebars still laying in the path. I helped her up and asked what happened. She said she was trying to dodge a squirrel and then suddenly over the bars she went. I looked at her bike and what was left of the squirrel was wadded up in the spokes and fork. It destroyed the wheel ripping several of the nipples right through the rim. There were not very many spokes in that wheel to begin with.

ricohman

Is the fork bent??

godogs3

I think the fork is fine, but I never actually checked. I probably should before I ride it again. Thanks

capolover

Fail.
it could be worse though...

squeakywheel

Were you passing team Cinzano when it happened? (Breaking Away)

climbhoser

I had toe overlap with fenders on my Xcheck and a coupla times tapped it mid-turn, catching the fender on tire, which then dragged it through the fork and sent me a flyin'.

You might be able to re-shape the plastic fender. I did. Fun, isn't it?

sean000

Ouch! Glad you and the bike are okay. You might try replacing the front fender with an SKS fender. They have break-away attachments to the dropout/fender mount. If something gets caught between the fender and the tire, the fender just pops loose. I don't know if that would have helped or not in this case, since the stick ended up between the spokes and the fender rails... the force might not have been in the right direction to pull the fender loose.

Sean

Bike4More

10 points

CliftonGK1

You might try replacing the front fender with an SKS fender.

Those are clip ons. I don't think any of the clip ons are breakaway mount.

To the OP: I'd check all your spokes to see if anything snapped, bent, loosened, etc. Look over the rim for cracks at the spoke holes/eyelets. Best to just double check it all.

sean000

The OP's current fender is a clip/clamp-on, but the forks have braze-on eyelets for mounting a regular fender like the SKS with the breakaway mount.

- Sean

mike

OK, Folks, 100 points for the forum members who knows what squeakywheel is referring to here.

P.S. squeeky - I got it. Good one.

mike

[QUOTE=godogs3;6988603]So I was riding home from class today, when suddenly I went flying over the handlebars without any warning. After picking myself up off the ground, I went back to my bike to discover a stick had gotten stuck in between the spokes and the fender rails. How on earth this happened I have no idea. My bike went from about 20 to 0 instantly. In the end, I am fine, but my front fender needs replacing. Also my left hood was a little scraped. Watch out for sticks!

godogs3, what a tumble that must have been! Glad you are OK. Did you helmet provide any protection or take any scrapes?

Your experience reminds all of us not to ride over sticks and debri because they are so likely to jump up into our wheels.

By the way, that is a BEAUTIFUL bicycle you have there, godogs3. Really lovely. Get 'er fixed up and back on the road. You are definately beautifying your community with that machine.

kellyjdrummer

The movie with Dennis Quaid?

huhenio

How much to sharpen my bladed spokes?

robtown

You've got to watch those Italians with frame pumps - a tricky lot.

godogs3

Actually, I didn't even hit my helmet. Luckily the only pain i received was from a bruised leg that I think might have hit the curb. The bike has been good to me, especially since I got it for FREE.99 from a neighbor. The spokes on the front wheel must be really strong because they all seem to be in good shape.

Hydrated

I'm sorry... but living in Athens... shouldn't those tires be a different color?

Like maybe RED and BLACK?

I was a student at UGA at the same time as Hershel Walker... Go Dawgs!

AlmostTrick

I'm glad to hear you came out ok godogs3. By your photos it appears that you are running platform pedals without cages. Do you feel that not being tied to the pedals helped to spare you from additional injury? Not being attached to the pedals should make it much easier to separate yourself from the bike and roll it would seem.

godogs3

Haha. I was feeling more of a patriotic theme when I outfitted the bike. I might have to go RED and BLACK once it's time for some new tires!

MrCjolsen

I adjust my fenders so that the rear clearance is a bit tighter than the front. That way, any debris small enough to get inside my fender will be harmlessly ejected from the front.

godogs3

I think that cages definitely would have caused more injury. Cages are hard enough to get out of when you are trying let alone when you are falling. However I feel that clipless would have been fine. I have been in multiple mtn. bike crashes where I go over the bars, and my clipless pedals released me when I needed to be. However, I'm not a fan of walking around with the loud noise of cleats hitting the ground or the awkward walk that comes with it.

imabeliever1

Reference is to when one of the Italian bike team sticks his frame pump in Daves wheel.

walterk46

I had a spill similar to the OP last year. I don't recall it (memory goes from riding happily straight to being put in an ambulance), but I had spoke damage to the front wheel and a severely bent front fork. I must have picked something up in the front wheel.

Anyway, from the bumps and scrapes on me and the bike, I must have gone all the way around, still clipped into my eggbeaters. My hands were fine (probably still holding the drop bars), my face--scraped, helmet--cracked, butt--bruised, saddle--torn, rear rack--scraped. Its pretty clear that I didn't make like Superman and belly flop onto the pavement. Whether a flying dismount would have been better for me than a clipped in somersault, I'll never know. But I still use the eggbeaters.

squeakywheel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WCRk8bvNiE

A guy I work with ran over a chipmunk on the bike path a couple weeks ago. The little guy was doing the back and forth panic dance and timed it wrong. Could have been bad if he had got the spokes instead of the tire.

I don't have any road kill to my credit. Only time I went over the bars was when trying to cut across a corn field after getting lost on the way home from the bar. Didn't make it past the second row.