had a nasty shock today

[gavroche]

Out on a ride. Trainers neatly tucked into the straps when I suddenly felt a tug in my right foot and nearly fell off.
My shoe lace got caught in the chain!!
My fault really as I have proper cycling shoes with velcro straps but I like my old trainers, they are comfy.
Anyway, cut the laces shorter when I got home so problem solved.
Have you had silly happenings like that?

 

[chewy]

That happened to me as a boy.

Had to back pedal furiously to unwind my lace from the pedal in the middle of the road!

Still pulled my shoes apart though!

Always done my laces up property since then :-D

 

[snorri]

Have you had silly happenings like that?

It was worse than silly for one poor cyclist a few years back whose lace came undone just as a lorry was overtaking him on a fast bit of trunk road not 100 miles from my home. I've been putting double knots on my shoes when cycling since then.

 

[DTD]

Has happened to me – luckily realised what was happening and stopped pedalling

 

[Hip Priest]

When I wore trainers, I'd tie the laces towards the outside of the shoe, away from the chain.

 

[Seigi]

I normally tuck my laces underneath the rest of the lace which is fastened up (if you know what I mean?) keeps it down and stops it flapping around.

 

[Red Light]

Lucky you weren't riding a fixie

 

[HLaB]

Its another reason why I went clipless, with flats/strap too often I'd catch my laces, its pretty easily avoided by tucking the loops under the rest of the laces but I often forgot
Edit: you can also stay in the big ring

 

[Matthew_T]

I normally tuck my laces underneath the rest of the lace which is fastened up (if you know what I mean?) keeps it down and stops it flapping around.

+1

It used to happen to me all the time when I rode my mountain bike (poor bugger is all rusty now).
The most embarrassing thing that happened to me on it though was in the middle of last winter. I was riding very slowly down an extremely icy road approaching my friends. For some reason I thought that it would be a good idea to speed up a little and yank my rear brake. (You can see whats coming) . The whole bike immediately toppled onto its side and I glided up to my friends (who were wetting themselves now). Needless to say that I was fairly embarrassed and had a sore bum. And to add to this, my two friends were both girls.

 

[rustychisel]

even worse if a loose lace wraps around the pedal spindle BTW. A mate had it happen, the lace wraps around until there is no more then it jams the pedal solid and you cannot move your foot either. Bad things happen.

 

[Crankarm]

This is a signal telling you to ditch riding in your minging trainers and buy some proper SPD cycling shoes. Shimano lace up cycling shoes have a loop through which you can thread the laces so they do not freely flap around at risk of going into the chain and chain rings. Trainers are so not good cycling shoes. I can't think of anything worse to cycle in. You only see NEDS, chavs and numptees cycling in them. Cycling shoes have rigid soles which do not bend which so improves pedalling technique.

 

[akb]

I use astro turf football trainers because I am a cheapskate and dont want to spend the cash on cycling showes/SPDS etc. Double knot and a bit of tuckage does the job. And the extra large tongue keeps puddle splashes out of the socks.

 

[Davidc]

Crankarm is right.

When possible wear appropriate shoes. Cheap and grotty trainers are the pits, with non-supportive uppers and soles that flex too much.

Always either tuck laces in or make sure they're short enough and tied double so they can't undo. I learnt that lesson about 50 years ago exactly the way you have!

Good ordinary shoes with rigid soles are fine for local riding, purpose made cycling shoes for anything longer. They're available for all clipless systems and also for flat pedals. There's no excuse for damaging your feet on a bike.

 

[BrumJim]

Lucky you weren't riding a fixie

+1!

 

[mickle]

Lucky you weren't riding a fixie

Happened to a mate of mine when the lace of his Converse hi-top wrapped around the pedal when he was coming down off a fly-over on his fixed wheel. The lace broke eventually.