One of the first places I rode off-road was a chunk of forested land formerly used to dump old cars and recently turned into a forest park. A paved bike path was built through it, and the dirt bikes got kicked out. I rode on the old dirt bike trails a fair bit at first. This piece of property is on a floodplain, so it gets pretty swampy. On one ride with my buddies, I buried my bike up to the hubs in mud 3 times (each time resulting in an endo into the mud). That was the last time I rode there.
Share amusing mistakes you made while learning
Some mistakes are good for learning from, others good for laughing at. Just thought it might be fun to start a thread to share ones you've made.
Yesterday I took my newly-purchased Boulder SE to a local power line right-of-way where the locals often ride quads and dirt bikes. First time I'd taken it off road, and the first time I've ridden in dirt since I had a BMX as a kid (and even then I didn't try tackling anything difficult). This one had a low, flat-topped hill. One side is about six feet tall and sloped at nearly 45 degrees. I thought I'd see if I could get my bike to climb it.
Well, like some other low-end bikes, mine has the seven-speed Shimano Mega Range. And that first gear looks so big that I thought I'd have enough torque there to just muscle up the hill. Well, whatever the Mega Range is built for, climbing a 45 degree incline is not one of them! Instead of going up the hill, pedalling in first just lifted the front wheel off the ground.
I nearly flipped the bike completely over attempting that one.
Yesterday I took my newly-purchased Boulder SE to a local power line right-of-way where the locals often ride quads and dirt bikes. First time I'd taken it off road, and the first time I've ridden in dirt since I had a BMX as a kid (and even then I didn't try tackling anything difficult). This one had a low, flat-topped hill. One side is about six feet tall and sloped at nearly 45 degrees. I thought I'd see if I could get my bike to climb it.
Well, like some other low-end bikes, mine has the seven-speed Shimano Mega Range. And that first gear looks so big that I thought I'd have enough torque there to just muscle up the hill. Well, whatever the Mega Range is built for, climbing a 45 degree incline is not one of them! Instead of going up the hill, pedalling in first just lifted the front wheel off the ground.
I nearly flipped the bike completely over attempting that one.1 - 20 of 55 Posts
Clipping out of clipless pedals
Actually this happened yesterday (though I do not consider myself a begginer now). It suck'd. I was doing wheelies after a ride in the parking lot. I got some pretty nice ones but then I did a very low-quality one. I got angry for doing such a bad wheelie so a tried hard to do a good one - TOO hard. I fell flat on my back on hard concrete because I could not unclip on time. OUCH. It hurt like hell. Actually I could not get up for about a minute and I started getting dizzy. Fourtunately, I had my camelbak on with a sweatshirt on the bungee straps. The pain faded away and I was able to ride today
Lesson of the day: Drops to flat suck
Actually this happened yesterday (though I do not consider myself a begginer now). It suck'd. I was doing wheelies after a ride in the parking lot. I got some pretty nice ones but then I did a very low-quality one. I got angry for doing such a bad wheelie so a tried hard to do a good one - TOO hard. I fell flat on my back on hard concrete because I could not unclip on time.
OUCH. It hurt like hell. Actually I could not get up for about a minute and I started getting dizzy. Fourtunately, I had my camelbak on with a sweatshirt on the bungee straps. The pain faded away and I was able to ride today Lesson of the day: Drops to flat suck
2 good ones I can think of. Like the others- not getting out of the pedals while learning to ride clipless. The other was riding wheelies clipped in while waiting for a ride to begin and going off the back in front of about 30 people but not coming out of the pedals...Slanter said:Some mistakes are good for learning from, others good for laughing at. Just thought it might be fun to start a thread to share ones you've made.
Yesterday I took my newly-purchased Boulder SE to a local power line right-of-way where the locals often ride quads and dirt bikes. First time I'd taken it off road, and the first time I've ridden in dirt since I had a BMX as a kid (and even then I didn't try tackling anything difficult). This one had a low, flat-topped hill. One side is about six feet tall and sloped at nearly 45 degrees. I thought I'd see if I could get my bike to climb it.
Well, like some other low-end bikes, mine has the seven-speed Shimano Mega Range. And that first gear looks so big that I thought I'd have enough torque there to just muscle up the hill. Well, whatever the Mega Range is built for, climbing a 45 degree incline is not one of them! Instead of going up the hill, pedalling in first just lifted the front wheel off the ground.
where to start.... riding in a foot of wet snow, not a smart idea, thinking you can beat the foot of snow and hit jumps, not a good idea, when falling down rocky hills do not try to stop your fall with your wrists, when landing its always best to have your weight back, as to not endo, when going down steep hills do not lean to far forward or hit the front brake hard, reuslts in a cool endo, if you go up a hill really fast and see that it doesn't go any where make sure your wieght is back before hitting the front brake this results in an endo and ripping your pants, hopefully all the fun of learning isn't over
My first big mistake was thinking I would get traction on a wet wooden bridge. Thankfully there was a well placed tree to stop my momentum.
After I installed my computer, I thought it would be a good idea to check how fast I was going on a particular section of singletrack. I was going roughly 17mph. I also looked up just in time to see a tree. I washed out my front wheel instead of hitting the tree.
I just installed my clipless pedals yesterday, and gave them a quick test ride around the neighborhood. No clipless related falls YET .
After I installed my computer, I thought it would be a good idea to check how fast I was going on a particular section of singletrack. I was going roughly 17mph. I also looked up just in time to see a tree. I washed out my front wheel instead of hitting the tree.
I just installed my clipless pedals yesterday, and gave them a quick test ride around the neighborhood. No clipless related falls YET
.Just last weekend I was very slowly powering up a rooty incline with a 10 ft deep 8 ft wide revene on the right side of me. I hit a root and just stopped, kinda balanced myself for a second right at that point where you can't unclip because you are balancing, fell over to the right and did a COMPLETE somersalt with bike still attached into the revene! Luckily someone had stretched some metal fencing accross it about half way down with tree limbs accross it so that broke my fall. Aparently I'm not the first one to do it! And of course just as I am climbing out of the revene trying to figure out how to get my bike out another rider comes by.
Let me see... I skidded sideways into a tree cause my friend would'nt give me an opening onto the path.Slanter said:Some mistakes are good for learning from, others good for laughing at. Just thought it might be fun to start a thread to share ones you've made.
Yesterday I took my newly-purchased Boulder SE to a local power line right-of-way where the locals often ride quads and dirt bikes. First time I'd taken it off road, and the first time I've ridden in dirt since I had a BMX as a kid (and even then I didn't try tackling anything difficult). This one had a low, flat-topped hill. One side is about six feet tall and sloped at nearly 45 degrees. I thought I'd see if I could get my bike to climb it.
Well, like some other low-end bikes, mine has the seven-speed Shimano Mega Range. And that first gear looks so big that I thought I'd have enough torque there to just muscle up the hill. Well, whatever the Mega Range is built for, climbing a 45 degree incline is not one of them! Instead of going up the hill, pedalling in first just lifted the front wheel off the ground.
I was riding a 4 foot high skinny in the rain and fell and landed on a root and tore a ligament in my ankle.
I had jumped up my kicker really nicely and then the next day I tryed again and hit my front wheel on the kicker but some how it came over the edge and I sorta nose manualed down the ramp and then went over my bars and ate it.
And of course went over my bars several times trying endos.
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