And "over the top" I went!!! (and I laughed)

[Dave7]

Having recently "got back" into cycling and having my 1st fall with 'clipless' pedals it reminded me of the time (some years ago) when I had pedals with clips. I was about to complete my ride and turned left into our drive. In doing so the right pedal clip caught on the front wheel tyre which simply locked. I shot straight over the handle bars and over the garden fence....................unfortunately my feet were still in the pedal clips . So there I was-hanging over the fence head first in the garden but my legs/feet were still locked into the clips!
Fortunately I wasn't badly hurt and (even at the time) found it really funny though I got away a.s.a.p. before the neighbours could see me

 

[BigGee]

I had a similar incident but unfortunately did not land so well on a rather hard concrete path. Landed on the point of my elbow which shattered resulting in two operations, six months off the bike and an arm that will never be straight again! As you can imagine I was not laughing!

It actually took me a long time to work out exactly what happend. At the time it happened in a flash and all I really remembered was the pain of hitting the deck. I was obviously worried about getting back on the same bike and when the time came I took it to the LBS to ask them to give it the once over and make sure it was safe. Having explained what happened he showed me how the front wheel can catch the toe of the clip at a certain position in the cycle on certain bikes. By deduction we managed to work out what had happened. If the front wheel locks like that then there is only one way for you to go, over the top!

It is something to be aware of if you are doing a very hard turn usually at relatively low speed and mainly using the front wheel rather than leaning. Check when you get a bike that you have the amount of clearence to be able to do this. When I think back on it, I had brushed my foot a couple of times prior to that. I rode this bike for a long long time before this happend to me, it is only something that is going to catch you out on very rare occasions, but it can be quite devastating and painfull when it does