Jose R

Is Farrah doing a no-handed trackstand on a road bike while wearing pumps!?

Serendipper 

YES. And she is God...

my58vw

Crazy uncoordinated riders in crits and road races.

Loose or new asphalt on the roadway

Buldges in lycra

Not indicating directions or handing out route slips before a ride

Railroad tracks when wet!

DannoXYZ 

Forgot to add that I ran over a cat once. Tried to steer away from it but it still got under my front-tyre. Trying to corner over a cat doesn't do much for traction, so I crashed. As I'm laying there bleeding to death, the cat come up, takes a look at me and runs off... bastard!!!

bccycleguy

Don't forget wet leaves on a turn, I ended up in a 2" puddle on my side still clipped-in because of wet leaves once. By the way what happened to the Squirrel?

Serendipper 

Damnit. This keeps coming up every friggen other post already! No wonder you people crash so much - you don't pay attention! Has anybody mentioned that one?

NOT PAYING ENOUGH ATTENTION

reneuend

I was riding downhill on a long switchback road in a wooded area when I ran over a large stick. It rammed up between my front wheel and forks locking up instantly. I was doing 40+ mph. Luckily, I went into a side roll down an embankment while the bike tumbled down the road. The bike frame was bent beyond repair. I didn't break any bones but I was really messed up. I still don't have any feeling in my side and that was 3 months ago.


Another one is letting a loose jacket or other item get caught between your wheel and brake.

John Wilke

Wet paint stripes.

Wet sewer covers.

Sewer grates with big slots.

Not taking your epilepsy medicine (true!)

Needing new glasses (true!)

Not keeping your eyes up when putting your head down (me!)

Not believing the sign _really_ means "Speed limit 15".

jw

manual_overide

Any crash I've had has involved these accursed clipless pedals and their inability to know that I want off the bike NOW, damnit!

Oh, I guess I did crash once when my bike slid out from under me when I hit a patch of black ice while cornering.

curiouskid55

Well any law inforcemet officer will tell you that the overwhelming cause of accidents is speed in excess of drivers abillity to control vehicle relative to current road conditions. Almost every cause of crashing listed here could easily be avoided if the speed had been reduced.

DannoXYZ 

Yup, that's exactly why there are so many more bike-crashes than car-crashes. And 75% of all traffic fatalities occur at intersections well below the speed-limit. About 3% of traffic fatalities are on the freeway where the highest speeds occur...

Last officer that pulled me over tried to write me up for a lane-change in an intersection and passing on the right. Couldn't even find it in the CVC book after 30-minutes of searching. Wrote it up as "unsafe lane-change" and "wreckless driving", both of which got tossed out of court. Yeah, any and all law-enforcement officers are omniscient gods.

jhglaw

Wet concrete the consistency of oatmeal filling an unmarked trench across a road that is a designated (signed) bike path in Mission Bay Park (San Diego) where the trench is 48" wide and deep enough for the front wheel to instantly sink to the hubs.

jhglaw

Your 6 year old daughter suddenly moving to her left directly in front of you and stopping while you are looking at something on the side of the road. You suddenly see her, slam on the brakes as hard as you can while you are unfortunately sitting high and forward, and catapult yourself over the bars, digging your knckles into the pavement while still gripping the bars and brake levers. If you are lucky, like I was, you just hit her back wheel with your feet as you slam into the pavement, shatter your elbow and drive your arm under your ribs and every bit of air out of your lungs. She is unharmed by my momentary stupidity.

WD_40

Unless I'm misunderstanding your post, you should use counter-steering at high speeds, you'll have no choice but to lean.

WD_40

As a kid, I had a freewheel break on my BMX bike at the start of a sprint. I imagine we probably shared a similar type of crash.

Mr_Super_Socks

+1
I was riding home last Wed eve and felt a troubling slippage in my rear wheel. I soon realized the black pavement I was on was actually black ice. I knew I could only hold my line and hope for the dry pavement to resume, but, alas, it did not and as I tried to follow the downhill slope as the road went right, I went down HARD. After I went down, I just kept sliding for at least 100 feet. A car tried to stop to help but instead just lost his traction and started sliding sideways coming toward me. I had started moving off the road and he luckily went wide by a good distance. I thanked him for trying to help, but I wanted to scream at him. The annoying part is I have studded tires at home that I have been to lazy to put on.

curiouskid55

leaning is just counter steering in reverse. Has the same effect on the frame/fork just a much less efficient wat to do it.

jsf252

I admit I am new to bicycle riding, but have ridden motorcycles. I haven't heard anything about large flying insects. I've never had trouble on a bicycle, but I caught a June Bug in the throat @ about 60mph on a motorcycle one time. I thought I was going to cry!

Just a thought

Mr_Super_Socks

yup. bug (or other foreign object) in the eye should be on the list.

manual_overide

Except for most of those clipless pedal mishaps. In that situation, speed is good as the bike will hold itself up while you fumble around getting unclipped.

DannoXYZ 

Bikes are actually very stable and obey the laws of physics quite well. It's the organic component on top that makes them fall and crash... In a lot of cases, the bike continues on its own afterwards in a straight line quite well...

Summit

Traffic control sign and cones along lane markers in the last mile of a road race while the large pack is coming in at 28+mph = ouch

Keith99

And how fast is too fast for current road conditions?

Fast enough that you have an accident. If no one moves at all there are no accidents at all.

DocRay

That photo is often misinterpreted, the guy on the ground is a contortionist motorcycle mechanic adjusting the left turn signal stalk, you people over-interpret everything.

DocRay

Is there nothing she can't do?