Near misses

For those of you who ride, you know how biking can be fun and how a slight miscalculation can bring you tumbling down especially if you happen to ride wearing cleats. For the uninitiated, that’s a case where man and machine are one. It’s a combination at the foot unlike the many cases where it is in the hip.

Regular readers know of the many falls I have described ever since I convinced myself there was something to gain in riding clipped. Well, they tell you about energy transfer, and all many nice things but they hardly ever mention embarrassing falls that come with it.

So on Saturday I am out on my long ride as I am fond of doing. It is the final few km back home and there is traffic into the city. I am weaving in between cars in traffic that seems only to out a tortoise. At some point I get behind a van and all over sudden, the guy brakes. I am at such a speed that undoing clips is almost impossible. I stretch my hand to hold onto this van while trying to steady myself and just at that moment, it starts to move. At that moment, I was now seeing myself coming one with the ground and not the bike but luckily given I was on a soft gear, giving the bike some momentum wasn’t so hard.

I survived without embarrassing myself. If you are a learner, don’t embarrassing yourself by going to the highway or some other popular street because cleats have a way of causing embarrassment where you least expect to fall.

Have a fun biking week.