We talk a lot about helpful safety tips for new riders, to hopefully save them some angst and risk in their new adventures. But even experienced riders have the troubles. For all my planning, I leave without a pump or my ventilator or misplace a glove here and there. But as a general rule, I manage to avoid bonehead moves that put myself at increased risk (you know, skitching, that sort of thing*)… but sometimes, I can find myself in a situation you’d expect of a newbie.

This morning was one of them, though perhaps experience saved me from a newbie fate.

I was riding wB(tm) to my wifebot(tm)’s office, as Critical Mass is tonight and I wanted to ride it thus, but some sensitive shit was to arrive today by freight at the office, so I’d need the MINI to bring it home. So, I ride to her office, she drives there, we swap, she gets all the cool comments for walking the fixie into her office, I sit in traffic to head into Marin. OK.

Around 3rd and Townsend (dammit, tole, Townsend again!) I sensed that something wasn’t right. I glanced down, and my pantleg had come unrolled on the drive side. That’s not good on any bike. But ESPECIALLY on a fixed gear. What happens when a fixed crank stops? It stops. The bike. What happens when a pantleg gets up IN there? The deaths.

So I see my pantleg halfunrolled, but not allunrolled, so I still have a chance. But there’s an errant tendril of cuff hanging below that, from how my pantlegs sort of drag and I step on them. That’s an Indiana Jones type problem there, as it danced around the fairly quickly spinning chainring. I was spinning pretty fiercely, and the traffic was heavy. So I veered the right foot as far out as I could to minimize the catch, and looked for a curb cut. None. I knew I had to stop, in the bike lane, and risk deaths by SUV swipe. So as I began to apply brakes and backpedal, it caught, and in one rev, ripped up my calf, wound itself deep into the ring and crank, and the bike came to a sudden, violent stop. Because I was already stopping, and because I run/rock/roll two brakes on my fixed gear [ayhcsmb] I was able to stop upright, before being hurtled into traffic. But it was wound up so much I couldn’t even dismount. And I couldn’t backwind because it had made punctures int he pant and gummed up.

Fortunately, I was able to disentangle myself before too long, roll the leg up to just below the knee, and proceed. But it was one of those moments where not only was I on the brink? I had time to predict that on-the-brinkness.

GAH!

wB(tm) came out of it unscathed though, that bitey little devil.

*admittedly, i did consider it, as my wifebot(tm) was in the MINI just ahead of me for a stretch. HA

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