A potato made me crash my bike and faceplant.

[e-beach]

I hate crashing my bike. I seem to get at least one bad one per year. So this time I was riding back from my local market with a reusable shopping bag hanging from my left handle bar grip. It is something I have done 100's of time before. It was not heavy. I only had a small bag of potato's and four cans of beer in it. (And, no, I had not been drinking when I crashed.) I was at a point of the street where two lanes, that go down hill, narrow down to one lane that flattens out. I always stop to let the traffic pass because the cagers are always speeding down the hill and suddenly realize they have to merge together. It is always a mess there. So as I started slowing down, suddenly and without any warning my front tire locks up and I am over the handle bars face-planting chin first into the street. Somehow my bike lands on my back and, I can't get it off of me no matter how hard I try. Fortunately, the way I was pulling over left me near the gutter so the cars behind me didn't run me down. And, somebody nearby was kind enough to pull over and lift my bike off my back.

Between the pain and the blood and the surprise I thanked him a bunch of times and then looked at my bike.

Somehow the bag had swung behind my front fork and the spokes caught a potato, pulled it forward between the inside of my front fork and the spokes locking up my front wheel.

I don't think I need any stitches, but I do have cuts and scrapes on my chin and both arms.

Looks like I won't be shaving for a while........Guess it is time to grow a goatee.




I hate crashing!!!

 

[MadRhino]

I crash a few times a year, in the mountain trails mostly. Maybe 300-400 crashes in my younger riding years, but only one face plant that I remember. I was speeding down the stairs, ended in a superman flight rubbing 4 or 5 step edges with my chin in a painful crash landing.

Potatoes?
I am growing them this year, for the first time in my long life. I will remember not carrying them hanging off my handlebar. :wink:

 

[goatman]

was the beer ok?

 

[e-beach]

was the beer ok?

Lost one can, chilled down and knocking back the other three.

 

[serious_sam]

Lost one can

Devistating !

 

[markz]

Lost one can

Devistating !

You still get $0.05 back to recycle for your chin efforts.

 

[e-beach]

I will add it to the pile. As for now, the California recycling program has completely collapsed. In any case I am just happy to have my teeth.

 

[Dauntless]

So jus the other day I went and did mountain biking just like when I was a kid. When I was a kid we did it on 26" beach cruisers we got at garage sales for pocketchange. This time I'd bought the Huffy Cranbrook new some time ago but at this point it wouldn't cost much at a garage sale. More recent years there was an injury holding me back, before that I didn't have time. Wildly out of practice, eh?

So the slope was about a 45 degree angle, you're moving quick almost instantly, then the front wheel slid sideways and I was on my way over the bars. Been so long since I dealt with one of these, what chance was there I'd react by throwing my knees forward to stop my movement? Actually hook the bars when necessary. Then balance my weight on the bars like gymnast as the rear wheel slid to the side. Oh, this is hopeless, but with my weight balanced I didn't even think as I threw my feet back and pushed the bike in line and leaned my weight back on the seat just long enough for one big bounce and here we go again.

By the time I put my feet down at the bottom some people there thought I had done it all deliberately. Keeping from going over the bars was almost an accident, no matter how good at it I used to be. Yeah, you sure expect those old reflexes to come back to ya, but often does it work?

Ah well, fate was issuing a warning. But you're dealing with Doug here, and Doug does not faceplant. (Well, maybe next time.) Maybe I'll take advantage of the improved technology and get what y'all think is a REAL mountain bike.

Two great faceplant memes, who could decide? You get them both.

 

[Balmorhea]

https://www.jbi.bike/site/product_details.php?part_number=90227

If you're really tall, or your bike's wheels are really small, then you can hang bags from the handlebars. But it's still better to use a basket.

 

[dogman dan]

You are actually quite lucky on that one. That's a hard type of crash, much worse than the usual culprits such as front brake and some sand. I did a similar thing with a water bottle, at 15 mph. Would have crushed my head, instead it crushed my helmet. It broke both collarbones, and my rotator cuffs have never been the same since. So much pain for so many years, and its not over. Still trying to get over it, 12 years later. Maybe more surgery for the rotators, once I get to medicare.

But seriously,, you got off easy on that one. Bummer on the chin road rash, but you got off nearly scot free on that kind of unexpected front wheel lock up. Coulda broke all kinds of bones, lost teeth, or be dead if you hit the head bad. Plus a car could have easily parked on your ass.

Chin looks ok, it should heal completely in about a week, or a tiny bit longer.

 

[e-beach]

You are actually quite lucky on that one. .....

Yea, I was kind of thinking the same thing. Despite the stiff wrists, chin rash, and larger patches of skin missing on my left arm, nothing seems seriously broken or injured.

Sorry about your shoulders. I tore up my right shoulder in a yoga class about 15 years ago. It never healed right and is still weak. So I understand that part.

And, yea the reusable shopping bag over the handle bar isn't optimal and was really the result of using a "reusable" shopping bag with long handles. What happened around here is the local stores ran out of bags with handles on them so they went to handle-less bags. The handles on the old bags were short so the full bags didn't have a way to swing. However, the reusable ones have long handles that allow the bag to swing around. I did loop the handles one time around the handlebar grip, but I probably should have done 3 loops.

So why not racks? I am riding a full suspension bike with the batteries on the seat-post rack. The triangle is too small for a store bought 15a or 20a pack so I will need to build one myself. And, the 3D printer I had on loan for a couple of years was reclaimed, so I haven't built a triangle pack for that bike yet. And yes, I could just build one with hot glue and kapton tape, but I want to do something nicer then that. I guess that notion has cost me blood.

 

[999zip999]

Hey mr. Potato Head never never put jewelry on the handlebars. I forgot my backpack and had a 12 pack of rolling Rock my handlebars yes and one of those plastic bags.why coming up the street somebody in a long driveway put it in reverse and backed up at about 10 miles an hour into the street I made a fast left the 12 pack on my left hand of my handlebar pulled me down I flipped over and the car drove off I don't know what happened. I woke up in the hospital 3 hours later with my pants cut off and a bunch of Staples in my head. I look over on the chair and the paramedics put my 12-pack there I never even want to see that thing again.They are also good enough to get my keys out and lock my electric bike 2 a parking sign. The good thing out of it is I got Ca fed insurance so now I'm insured I get all my prescription drugs for free and some half-ass doctor work. But it also comes with free emergency room insurance. Thinking of the future.
P.s. that was two years ago 10 days ago I got weeds cutting my rear wheel went over the rattlesnake trail land in the weeds broke three ribs one rib in two places I've been laid up for 10 days. Lately. At least your mass will cover up the scar on your chin. Looking at the Sunny side of Life. hey when you heal up come down south and ride the rattlesnake trail.

 

[momus3]

When I first read your post title I thought, OMG, he ran over a potato(e?) and it nearly killed him? I got enough to worry about these days, and now it's runaway spuds?

Consider yourself really, really lucky. If you had gotten thrown into a car's path......could have been deadly. I've done the bag-on-the-handlebars thing myself, but probably won't do it anymore after reading this, so thanks for the heads up and hope you recover quickly.

Yesterday I went around checking all the fasteners on my eBike to make sure they were, well, fastened. I've already had one experience where one of the rear disc brake caliper's bolts vibrated loose. Several months ago one of the bolts that holds the hub motor together vibrated out, got jammed, locked up the rear tyre and cooked the motor. Think about that the next time you consider a front hub motor.

Face it, it doesn't take much to kill or maim us on a bike. That's my main gripe about bikes vs motorcycles. The quality of the build materials and fasteners is sadly lacking. Gonna get me some locktite next and put it on all the fastener bits. In my car racing days, anything critical had a small hole drilled through the bolt and nut and a safety wire run through it AND locktite.

A little off topic, but people who hyper inflate their tyres are nuts. I want the lowest pressures I can get away with, and the biggest tyres that will fit to soak up road debris and irregularities.

 

[MikeSSS]

Like the wise man said "you got off easily", we've all been there, better face plant falls than viagra falls.

Mucho hopes for a speedy recovery.

Rear rack, topped by a Harbor Freight cutting board, topped by a 15" Harbor Freight tool bag, put those potatoes in their place.

Enjoy the goatee, you've earned it the hard way.

Best wishes, Mike S

 

[999zip999]

Momus3 b somites play I never met a spud in my life that wouldn't go for a poke in the spokes most sbuds are the horniest things on earth. You're lucky you left with your virginity in tac. The worst and the horniest sbuds are from Idaho..
Hey deeee Beach a personal question you didn't get spot it did you.

 

[dogman dan]

Seat post rack might be a good idea for sure. Then bungee your knapsack to it so you have it when you need one.

 

[999zip999]

I used to carry my bowling ball on the left hand side now I found out if I put a bowling ball in the right hand side to I'm better balance

 

[markz]

Milk crates are stylish on bicycles.

 

[MadRhino]

Milk crates are stylish on bicycles.

It is the bicycle that is stylish under a milk crate. Like an ugly girl does look better when she has a Pug on her knees. :wink:

 

[John in CR]

Time to build something more robust. My bikes would plow through a potato stuck in the spokes like it was nothing.

 

[MadRhino]

Time to build something more robust. My bikes would plow through a potato stuck in the spokes like it was nothing.

My rear wheel caught a full garbage bag that was flying on the street, blown by the wind. Since I was fighting the strong lateral wind myself, I couldn’t swerve much and just avoided it by a foot or so, but it suddenly flew into my wheel as I was passing. I heard a brrrp and felt my tail rubbing pretty hard, but it went fine after a few seconds as I had released the throttle. No damage, but a freaking mess of stranded stretched plastic had spun around my freewheel and chain tensioner. Took me an hour to get the melted plastic out of there, pulling a never ending strand that would break every 5 or 6 ft.

 

[e-beach]

Time to build something more robust. My bikes would plow through a potato stuck in the spokes like it was nothing.

Well, now that my mind has cleared up from the heavy punch to the chin, it was one potato the the spokes grabbed, but it was the sack of potato's and the beer can that really locked up the wheel. The one beer can that was crushed open by the force of it all might have been the real culprit, but from the mangled sack of potato's, the crushed beer can, the shredded reusable shopping bag that was all jammed between the inside of my front fork, and the spokes I can only guess at what the ultimate cause of the wheel lock-up really was, except to say it was all of it.

What I do know is from now on, I will be using a back-pack (rucksack) for my shopping needs while riding that bike.

 

[Dauntless]

Time to build something more robust. My bikes would plow through a potato stuck in the spokes like it was nothing.

Yeah, that's why people here fear you so much. You'll come LOOKING for their potato sacks, not even their potato cannon can stop you.

 

[999zip999]

Let's not forget about mrs. Potato Head and she lost her husband in the crash . The problem is there was alcohol involved and mr. Potato Head was always a drunk he was probably going for the beer when he got caught up in the spokes.

 

[markz]

Let's not forget about mrs. Potato Head and she lost her husband in the crash . The problem is there was alcohol involved and mr. Potato Head was always a drunk he was probably going for the beer when he got caught up in the spokes.

Should have been smoking the wacky weed instead!