Hairiest moment / Dumbest manoeuvre / Closest shave. On a bike!

[Sig SilverPrinter]

Definately a dumb moment.I had a raleigh, rsw I think, which I used to pretend was a horse which meant I tied rope to the handle bars pretending they were reins.Julie baxter was sitting on the back we started off well then picked up speed going down Humber Drive next thing front wheel turned Julie flew past me then I followed.Surprisingly we weren't too badly injured.
Oh the stupid things you did as kids!!!

 

[hackbike 666]

Dom you need to spend more time in the Politics thread......you bike riding skills are lacking....

Are you having a popadom?

 

[BigonaBianchi]

I tried to jump th ekerb at Sun Corner in Billericay once on my mtb...hit the kerb went arse over tit and landed in a heap about a foot away from a car....thing is I had my baby son in a child seat on the back at the time...lucky he had a helmet on.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

Just as I'm almost behind it, the lorry decides to quickly reverse as he's not made it round at the right angle into the entrance and almost hits me on his way back.... Real brown-bibs moment.

Lesson - never assume that just because he's turned off in front of you that he won't change his mind and reverse just as you're directly behind. Never doing that again

He didn't "change his mind" as such, just needed another shunt at the corner.
My most memorable near miss occurred when I was approaching a junction at which I had right of way. A lorry pulled up at the junction and stopped while the driver had a look along the road. I couldn't see his face because his door mirror was in the way, so I very quickly realised he hadn't seen me. I was too close and going too fast to stop, and I wasn't going fast enough to get past him (it's funny how quickly you work all this out). So I did the only thing I could do and pedalled as quickly as I could. When I was right in front of the truck, I saw the radiator grille begin to move towards me, and as my front wheel cleared the danger zone, I was fully expecting my back wheel to be hit.

 

[Ranger]

I would have been about 3/4 years old and this moment is still burnt into my brain 30 odd years later.

Near where me and my older cousins lived was a long steep hill (called Alpine Road to give you some idea) that led to a major urban dual carriageway. Anyway my cousins were racing down the hill and stopping at the bottom and then racing back up, and I thought "That looks fun, I'll give it a go".

Unfortunately I was on my first ever bike with stabilisers and one brake on the back. The coming downhill part was great, what wasn't so much fun was the not stopping, going across 4 lanes of traffic and smashing into a wrought iron garden fence the other side.

I think my parents were so relieved that I was still alive when they got the explanation of why my bike was smashed up I didn't even get a telling off

 

[Fnaar]

About 10 yrs old, cycling "furiously" along what was even then a busy road, chasing my mate, who was cycling more furiously than me... he takes a left round a traffic-lighted (lights on green) corner; I follow, but don't take the corner successfully... sort of slide sideways across the road (still upright on bike if that makes sense), in front of waiting traffic, and slam sideways into road name-sign... two drivers got out to check I was OK... I was, just rather winded! Oh, and my mate came back too... and laughed...

 

[palinurus]

Once I was making a left turn from a side road. There was a continuous stream of slowish-moving traffic. I glanced right and saw a Range Rover with a gap behind it. Once the range rover had passed I pulled into the gap. What I hadn't noticed was the trailer.

Not exactly sure what happened, part of the trailer made contact with the bike. I stayed upright, got away with it OK.

That was pretty stupid.

 

[Piemaster]

Why is it most of these posts involve 'stupid things I got away with on a bike when I was a child'. Do modern kids still do any of this? Mine don't (AFAIK anyway).

I can't really recall anything from my youth, but sliding down a very steep icy hill with both wheels locked up and gaining speed on Sunday was quite interesting. In an either 'that signpost at the bottom will really hurt' or 'the front end suddenly finding grip will really hurt' way.

 

[Hilldodger]

Aged about 13, I was trying to max out a mates Dawes Pepper (knock off of a Chopper) down a local steep hill.

Bloody thing started to weave so badly that my left hand was thrown from the handle bars with the inevitable result.

Was off schools for two weeks recovering from gravel rash

 

[Rhythm Thief]

I can't really recall anything from my youth, but sliding down a very steep icy hill with both wheels locked up and gaining speed on Sunday was quite interesting. In an either 'that signpost at the bottom will really hurt' or 'the front end suddenly finding grip will really hurt' way.

So what happened? You can't leave us in suspense like that!

 

[yenrod]

Was going to step out onto a road without looking right whilst saying bye to a mate - walking away from him, THEN a bus passed right in front of me as I waited at the pavement !

Still chills me that.

On the bike: travelling round a roundabout and see a car aproaching said RA at speed how i made it I don't know ! - wouldn't mind it was a nice evening.

 

[Twenty Inch]

14 years old, freewheeling downhill with no hands on the handlebars, trying to get a pack of polos out of my trouser pocket, suddenly saw the hump-back bridge coming up and grabbed for the handlebars. Bike went into a wobble and I came off big time. Smashed up my front wheel, my brother riding behind me gave me his bike to lean on/wheel while he carried my bike as we went off to a friend's house for help. Two days in hospital for concussion, still don't remember the previous couple of days, and I got a lecture off my dad for coming off my bike so often. That hurt most, he compared me to my (bone idle) brother and said "he never falls off" - he hardly ever road his bike.

 

[Lardyboy]

Oh there's too many close shaves over the years to remember them all, yet alone list the worst!

 

[Piemaster]

So what happened? You can't leave us in suspense like that!

Hehehe.

I decided on the sign, being slightly more appealing than arriving at the bottom of the hill in a heap with the bike and still hitting the sign anyway. Released the front brake, squeezed th rear one even harder, if it was possible at that point, then tried my imitation of ABS with the front using all my limited cycling prowess. It sort of worked in that I was going slow enough to let go of the bike and grab the sign when I arrived at it so not hitting it too painfully.
Rear brake doesn't feel quite the same now though.

 

[buggi]

when i was a newbie i mis-timed pulling out and turning right at a junction and ended up riding between the two lanes of traffic on a single carriageway national speed limit road. absolutely shoot my pants. didn't do that again in a hurry.