My first spill

[pegkerr]

I debated quite a bit whether to bike or drive today. I was very tired, and I knew that there was fresh snow on the ground. Laziness/the desire for comfort warred with the desire to work out and save money. I finally decided to compromise by biking to the light rail station and taking the train in.

It was 21 degrees Fahrenheit when I left, but I had my heavy coat on so that didn't bother me. I took it slow, testing the brakes at the first stop sign. All seemed fine. It's about a mile ride to the light rail station.

The station was in sight when I started slowing for a red light--and I hit sheer black ice, probably from car exhaust. I had started leaning just a little to put my foot down when I came to a stop, but the bike skittered out beneath me, falling sideways, and I fell underneath it.

Fortunately, there were no cars behind me.

A woman was standing at the corner bus stop. "Are you all right?" She came over to help me right the bike and get to my feet.

I swore. It hurt, but nothing seemed broken. "I guess I am." I looked at my bike and swore some more. The handlebars were torqued about 30 degrees sideways. "Oh, no."

My first instinct was to reach for the cell phone and to call Rob, to ask him to pick me up. How could I finish the ride with the handlebars wrenched sideways like that? I fished around in my purse and then remembered--I'd left the phone with Rob because he wanted to do some job hunting calls during lunch. I was on my own.

I opened my big bag and pulled out the 3-in-hand torque wrench the nice young man at the bike store suggested I buy. God, I hope this works. I have no idea what I'm doing. I squinted down at the handlebars and then decided, rather desperately, that if I loosened the whatchamacallit there at the top, maybe I could straighten out the handlebars. Fortunately one of the ends of the wrench fit, and even more fortunately, I had guessed correctly. I had the handlebars back in the correct position very quickly. I re-packed my bags, mounted the bike, and rode the rest of the way to the train station.

All went smoothly after that. I had no further spills; I was careful. And yet, dammit, I was being careful when I spilled, too. I hadn't been doing anything reckless at all, just slowing to a stop, not even abruptly in the least. It has rather shaken up my confidence, although I'm rather proud I managed to get the bike back into working condition on my own.

I have already taken some aspirin, because I'm hurting all over.

I suspect I'm going to have a big, glorious bruise on my ass in a day or two.

Comments

[aeditimi.livejournal.com]

Ouch! Sorry to hear about your spill, but major props to you for being able to fix the bike on the roadside! Feel better soon.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

You deserve confidence: which is more self-reliant, to breeze through never expecting problems or to be able to deal with them and fix them when they happen?

Sorry about the fall and the bruise, though. Ouch.

[kiwiria.livejournal.com]

Ouch! Poor you.

Please don't let it shake your confidence. Even the most experienced bikers tend to spill when biking on ice. I've been biking almost daily for 10 years, and yet I managed to spill and hurt myself badly just this past December. I'm glad you weren't seriously hurt, and impressed that you managed to fix the bike yourself! :-)

[naomikritzer]

I meant to send you e-mail yesterday asking if you'd biked in the snow, with the explanation that if you had, you were entitled to a bowl of chocolate microwave cake, with ice cream on top if there was any in your freezer, as that's the rule. (People who bike to work in nasty weather get chocolate microwave cake.)

Since I forgot to mention this yesterday, you clearly are entitled to two bowls of it today. I hope the aches get better instead of worse! If you've got any ice packs or improvisable ice packs around the office, you might want to ice the bit you landed on.

Prior to age thirty, I could wipe out spectacularly and just dust myself off and keep going. Post-thirty, it's amazing how much more it hurt when I fall down. It's like it's nature's way of making me a little more cautious before I get to be a fragile old lady.

[tinymich.livejournal.com]

That's interesting (and a bit of bad news for me!) -- I was a terribly klutzy child and young adult, but was more or less made of indestructible rubber -- I'd "wipe out spectacularly" but never once broke or cut anything, even in the most minor ways (excepting one beautiful knee scrape when I was 14).

Then I started dancing, and got a lot less klutzy, but still retained the indestructibility. It makes sense that that can't and shouldn't last forever -- but I apparently get about another 5 years! Which says to me that I should start trapeze lessons now...

Peg, in lieu of a medal for coldbravery, I confer upon you much chocolate cake and arnica.

[naomikritzer]

Well, YMMV, of course. But after a fall I had this winter (I cracked my knee on ice in January, and it still hurts -- though I've had trouble with this particular knee for years) my friend Lyda noted that falls became a lot harder to bounce back from when she turned 30, and I realized that yeah, that was when it happened for me, too.

When I was 28, I fell down spectacularly while trying to prevent my toddler from taking a hard fall on some concrete steps. My first thought was that I had broken or at least really badly sprained my ankle. I managed to drag kid, self, and rolling wagon inside, limp to the freezer for ice, and collapse onto the couch. Within a half hour, it had quit hurting and I could walk normally again.

I'm 33 now, so not exactly an old lady. But see above about the knee stuff.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

I will definitely have a bowl of it tonight. Without guilt.

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

Good recovery. Falls happen. I'm very cautious of ice; it's the only thing that's ever done me in (since my younger days of being reckless on loose gravel). Once the front wheel starts to go, you're basically screwed. The problem is that the front wheel is where all the braking power is at, but if the front brakes are on and you start to slide, the brakes will just make it worse. If there's a question of ice generally you want to use your rear brake. That's hard to remember since the rest of the year the rear brake is hardly ever used since it's so useless.

Generally if the bars get turned sideways, I just grab the front wheel between my legs and turn it back; loosening the stem bolt isn't usually necessary, but if you want to take the time to do it, it's probably better for the bike to do so. I usually want to just get back on and keep riding.

I did drop my bike last year once when I neglected to put on my studded tires one day too long, I was going about 10 MPH so after bouncing off my hip I slid for a while.

The funny thing is, apparently I don't bruise anymore (or at least, I can't remember the last time I got a bruise, regardless of how hard I got hit). A few months ago I put a framing nail clear through a finger with a nail gun and it didn't bruise either, just healed up.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the advice re: rear brake. I will try to remember that!

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

Ice is about the only time you'll want to rely primarily on your rear brake. Since the rear brake is so weak, that means that you'll have to be taking it easy; you won't be pulling any hard stops using the rear brake, but hopefully since you're cautious of ice, you're taking your time anyway.

When there's no problem with the surface, you want to use the front brake primarily. One important exercise you need to do if you haven't already is to get to a parking lot or something and practice stopping as quickly as possible with the front brake without locking it and causing you to endo. If you don't get that practice, you may find yourself in midair over your handlebars some day when you need to panic stop.

In a panic stop situation on dry pavement, the rear brake is 100%, entirely useless. If you're perfectly modulating your front brake to maximum stopping power, there will be ZERO weight on the rear wheel (it will all have shifted to the front). Obviously a wheel with no weight on it also has zero stopping power.

I use the rear brake only as a drag brake; slowing down when I'm timing traffic lights, possible idiot ahead, etc, but not if I'm actually stopping. No reason for it other than to take some of the wear and tear off the front brake.

[katakanadian.livejournal.com]

I just always use both brakes. When I was little I always used only the rear brake because I was told it was dangerous to use the front braek (because I might endo) and I never had any problems stopping very quickly.

I had little trouble with Victoria's occasional snows well into my 30s but now I have become quite chicken. >_< At least with global warming we will probably have even less snow although the extra rainstorms won't exactly motivate me to bike either.

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

Using the rear brake is good advice for rank beginners. But the rear brake is extremely limited in stopping power. As soon as you apply the brakes with any force, almost all the weight shifts off the rear. You can't stop ANY faster with both brakes than you can with just the front, assuming you're using the front properly, because if you are, you will have taken every last ounce of weight off the rear tire.

Using both brakes in NORMAL braking is fine, and distributes the wear on the brake pads. Beginners probably won't remember which brake to use when so telling them to use both, or just the rear, is a good starting point.

Once you get the experience to modulate the brakes properly, you won't endo (well, not from brakes anyway). The only risk of endos comes from inexperienced riders who, when they feel themselves losing control and starting over the handlebar, panic and don't release the brake slightly to regain control.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Only caveat on that -- a _panic_ stop with front brake only will cause the whole bike, and you, to rotate around the front axle...ass over handlebars.

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

When I say "panic stop" I really mean "emergency stop", not "forget how to ride a bike and do something stupid." Sorry if I didn't make that clear.

A proper emergency stop definitely means using the front brake as heavily as possible, which means essentially front brake only.

You can squeeze the rear brake if you like, but if you're braking properly in an "as fast as possible" situation, it won't actually do anything. The rear tire should be slightly off the ground in an emergency braking situation, and the front brake should NOT be locked up (if it is, you lose control), it should be applied PRECISELY as hard as it needs to be to barely lift the rear tire, but no harder. Also, you should have shifted your weight as far back as possible; on short frame bikes this can mean that your butt is actually down behind the seat.

If you can stop ANY faster by using the rear brake in an emergency situation, then you weren't using the front brake hard enough. Simple physics will show this to be true. The only exception would be if you had a bike that had such a low center of gravity that it isn't possible to endo it. Maybe some recumbents.

Of course, most of the time an emergency stop is to avoid something in the road. In most situations, an emergency counter-steering avoidance is probably a better way out of that.

None of this has anything to do with Pegg's situation this morning though. On ice, the rear brake is the one to use, with the caveat that it's a very weak brake so leave room to stop slowly.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

Just don't ride when it's icy; that's easier to remember. I know there are a lot of people that bike in the winter, but personally I think they have a death wish. As I'm sure your mother would have remarked if she'd thought of it, "If all your friends drove their pickups onto the lake in March, would you do it too?"

Hang in there for another week or so, and then it should be safe. I mean, it's almost TAX DAY fer gosh sakes! T.S. Eliot was right, April IS the cruelest month...

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

Depends on your equipment. I ride with studded tires, and I can assure you that it's safer than driving a car in icy situations. I've ridden my bike to work on days when I would definitely NOT have driven my car.

The biggest danger for me on ice is that I fall on my butt when I get off the bike; I don't have studded shoes.

[jbru.livejournal.com]

I was going to mention just turning the handlebars back into position as well. I'm impressed Peg took the time/effort to do it "correctly."

[joelrosenberg.livejournal.com]

I hope all will be well in the end. So to speak.

[aome.livejournal.com]

This is just not your day week month, is it? I'm glad you weren't more seriously hurt, but I know how jarring falls are. Ow. I hope you can squeeze a hot bath into your crazy day somewhere.

Vitamin C

[lsanderson.livejournal.com]

Take a large dose of Vitamin C. It's great for fighting bruises.

[jbru.livejournal.com]

Hey: Nothing broken (you or the bike). You made it to work despite the spill. Nothing to show for it but an ass-bruise. (You should use this opportunity to coax a massage out of Rob.)

I say you did great! You fixed the problem. You got on your way. You didn't collapse into tears. If anthing, this should boost your confidence! You now have first-hand experience of one more thing that you can handle and probably a few ideas of how to avoid a similar problem in the future. (Plus, according to the rule, you get cake!)

I say: Rah, Peg! She is mighty! She faced the dragon of the first spill and lived to tell the tale!

[hobbitbabe.livejournal.com]

Wow, you are a competent woman! Wear that bruise with pride!

[rachet.livejournal.com]

Oh thank God you didn't break anything!

*sends healing thoughts* Hope the bruise won't be too bad. :(

[eeknight.livejournal.com]

Ouch! But nice recovery there, Lara Croft. Feel better soon. Run out to CVS and get one of those big bags of Epsom Salts, and use half tonight in the tub.

I went into gravel while out-of-control on rollerblades once. The hill didn't look that steep from the top...

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Congratulations. You are now a bike rider.

(For future reference, you can usually line-up the handlebars by standing at the front of the bike, straddling the wheel and clamping it with your knees, and twisting the bar back into position with your hands. If the bar is loose enough to move once, with the spill, you often can move it back without loosening the clamp nut.)

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Okay, somebody already suggested that fix. Teach me to post before reading comments...

[whiskeychick.livejournal.com]

wow! you're my hero! self-reliant, dedicated -- truly deserving of that microwave chocolate cake and maybe some new biking accessories?

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

Wow, good for you on fixing it.

[malinaldarose.livejournal.com]

Big owie. Glad you're mostly okay.

And, hey, even cars slide on black ice.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

You rock.

And of course, it's a useful research experience.

[handworn.livejournal.com]

I've done that-- torqued my handlebars accidentally-- too. If you have someone else to hold the wheel and shaft in place, it's possible simply to straighten them the same way they got bent, with a good sharp physical twist.

Sorry to hear about the spill. Another thing I've done, too, riding and crashing when it's icy out.

[metmamandy.livejournal.com]

Congrats on your first spill -- you're a real road warrior now!

And you should definitely be proud of yourself for managing to fix the handlebars. Rock on!

[vass]

I am so impressed with you for fixing the bike and going on. That was awesome.

[mayakda.livejournal.com]

If the bruise really hurts try sitting on a bag of frozen peas.

I hope you think twice about biking in icy/snowy conditions -- I think you did GREAT today but there could easily have been a car behind you. Stay safe and in one piece.

[kijjohnson.livejournal.com]

Oh, I am so sorry! The only car accidents I have ever had were about black ice, and there's just no way to protect yourself against it, no matter how careful you are. We'll not do anything involving falling, okay?

re: your adventures in bicycle commuting

[kimwinters.livejournal.com]

Peg,

I've been following your on-going adventures in bicycle commuting and I was proud of you before reading this post. After your latest adventure, all I can say is: "you go girl!" *Lifts mug of Earl Grey high, and offers a warm toast: Wear that bruise with pride!

Kim