LoneBiker
12-16-2002, 01:12 AM
Since im a just registered user I thought it good to post one of my many stories coming from the long rides to work. This was a usual day of my then 13 mile ride to work, down a light-moderate travelled state highway. About 11 miles into the ride, I took the lane and signaled to turn onto the road leading to work. Going about 20mph, right before i leaned into the turn, my left pedal comes completely out of the crank arm at the end of a downstroke. 3 major uncontrolled wobbles later the only thing my mind registers is the sound that my body is making sliding down the line in the middle of the highway.
I managed to get up and immediately drag my bike to the side of the road, and had to wait for the passing cars to retrieve my water bottle, pedal, and a few other items from my poor 12 speed pacific made premier touring bike. I should note that all 3 or 4 cars that passed, nor the guy mowing his yard at the house i wrecked in front of, checked to see if i was okay. I limped my broken body and broken bike to the gas station that sits at that corner and used all the bandaids, gauze, and medical tape in my first aid kit(ive learned to keep a small one in my pannier always). I made a call to work, which at that point was 2 miles away, to say id be late to work since id be walking the rest of the way pushing my bike, which suffered a good 3 inches of wobble in the front tire. I got picked up by the manager half way there and got a ride to work, which by the way was the horrid place known as Wendy's.
I was then praised for showing up to work even though my whole body hurt,(my entire left arm was bandaged, and i had some bad cuts on my leg). The funniest part of the story was that i was put on front sandwich station, right by the register and customer line, my blood soaked arm was in plain view of all who came through the line, and believe me i got plenty of looks. Thats the mentionable part of the story, i guess the moral of the story is to make sure you dont cross thread your crank arm when installing new pedals! and when you do install them visually inspect them during the first few rides.!
I managed to get up and immediately drag my bike to the side of the road, and had to wait for the passing cars to retrieve my water bottle, pedal, and a few other items from my poor 12 speed pacific made premier touring bike. I should note that all 3 or 4 cars that passed, nor the guy mowing his yard at the house i wrecked in front of, checked to see if i was okay. I limped my broken body and broken bike to the gas station that sits at that corner and used all the bandaids, gauze, and medical tape in my first aid kit(ive learned to keep a small one in my pannier always). I made a call to work, which at that point was 2 miles away, to say id be late to work since id be walking the rest of the way pushing my bike, which suffered a good 3 inches of wobble in the front tire. I got picked up by the manager half way there and got a ride to work, which by the way was the horrid place known as Wendy's.
I was then praised for showing up to work even though my whole body hurt,(my entire left arm was bandaged, and i had some bad cuts on my leg). The funniest part of the story was that i was put on front sandwich station, right by the register and customer line, my blood soaked arm was in plain view of all who came through the line, and believe me i got plenty of looks. Thats the mentionable part of the story, i guess the moral of the story is to make sure you dont cross thread your crank arm when installing new pedals! and when you do install them visually inspect them during the first few rides.!