Anyone gone down yet?

[Rumbleseat]

I took my T50 out for its first serious ride this weekend and had two minor falls. First one was on a greenway near the house that gets pretty slippery any time there has been rain during the week. I was going through a turn on a wooden foot bridge and the bike lost grip and low-sided out from under me. Due to the fact I'm already sitting low down because I'm on a recumbent I walked away with a very minor scrape.

Later that day I went to a local park with a much drier and more spacious path. I was trying to make a sharp left around a person stopped on the path and went down again. I will admit the bike tends to go out from under me very quickly and without much time to try and correct before the bike is down.

With this bike being such a different experience from riding other bikes I under I'll get better with practice. I'm curious if anyone else has had any falls. All my injuries have been very minor thus far and I plan to keep riding.

 

[DavidCH]

Generally with these cruzbikes you will fall out of the side and yes as they have a lower c of g you will see many experienced riders lift their shoulders off the back of the seat for manuverability ,when going around bends , as it raises your c of g. Sometimes everything happens very quickly and the bike skids out from underneath you. Not much you can do. Recovery from a cruzbike fall is usually a lot quicker than a DF.

I had such painful ribs from going over the top on a DF that it took in excess of 3 months. Where as the only slide I had on the Vendetta at twice the speed was to graize my elbow which only took a week to heal.

 

[rx7mark]

I have about 600 miles now and have not gone down yet, but I have had several moments that were very close things, mostly in the first week or two of riding. One was serious enough that I pulled a muscle during the save, and could not ride for a week. But I am now riding 80-100 miles a week and have not had a close call for months.

So I think the risk of a fall goes down as you gain experience, but never really goes away completely.

Glad your injuries were minor!

Mark

 

[cpml123]

I fell once doing figure 8 exercise and scraped my elbow and bruised the hip. I have started wearing Fox elbow sleeves with pads in case I fall again. Will probably ditch that after I get in a few hundred more miles later.

 

[McWheels]

Yeah, I've been down. Twice tipped out the side. Once was all me for going too fast for my skill level (16 mph!) down a hill. Got a death-wobble on and thought I might save it, but the weaving didn't miss the kerb, and over I went, in uniform too. For reference, I now hit a solid 30mph on that hill no worries.

The other was a massive side-swipe by a wind shear that had been following me solidly right up to that point. Again, would have saved it had I not been pushed into the kerb and thus onto the pavement. I was 1000 miles in then, so just a bit of bad luck and some holes to repair.

 

[hurri47]

I've been down a few times on various recumbents, but only once on the Silvio. I was waving at a driver to thank him for letting me cross, and I didn't notice I was going to miss the curb cut until too late. I put little rips in the bar tape and one brake hood, but my Garmin got the worst of all - it got its bezel scratched. Oh dear. The bike and I were both fine.

-Dan

 

[Gary123]

Beware of front flat. Pothole flat took me down almost instantly with a couple of hundred miles on vendetta. Hope I can avoid flat crash after 2000 miles.

 

[Tuloose]

Went down 3 times on my Silvio.
Riding side by side with a DF riding friend, he suddenly turned into my front wheel (later figured his bar end mirror must have hooked my wide bars).
I came out with a scraped knee. He had a fractured femur.
The other 2 times were due to icy roads resulting in no injury.

 

[rx7mark]

I have about 600 miles now and have not gone down yet

Ha Ha, I wrote this the other day after riding to work, and the biking gods came down a smote me on my ride home. On the way home I went down for the first time, at very slow speed (3mph), as my front wheel fell off the side walk edge into the gap between the grass and side walk as I passed a pedestrian with headphones on who could not hear my call to pass on the left, then I fell when I tried to turn back onto the curb. No damage, except to my pride. This 2 block region is the only are where I ride on the side walk.

3 miles later I picked up my first nail in the rear tire. Amazingly I just stopped and pulled the nail out, and kept riding. I checked the air pressure as I rode but my tubeless sealant had plugged the hole, and when I got home the pressure was down only about 5 psi. Got to love the new tubeless technology.

Mark

 

[Opik]

hmm, If its really a fall, never had. But many close calls.

I recall in the early days, how many times I did an endo and had to stand with the rear wheel in the air. As breaking was more on the front and I braked the front too hard with my body weight more on the front ( didn't lay back as it was a bit unusual and scary. I was more like stting straight as it was easier to control the balance)

Other was hitting those lips( getting to the footpath which is a bit raised, not a smooth ramp) and had the cruzbike fall sideways, But I didn't fall as i quickly put my foot down and the T50 just slid.

 

[bladderhead]

When my Silvio popped both its tyres simultaneously I slapped the tarmac. When it was new I had a few almost-falls. It was the wheel-spins that got me. It always seems to happen when people are looking. The bike knows when it can get an audience and make you look like a plonker.

 

[Don1]

thankfully i have yet to fall after 4000km. but i learnt on gravel. my driveway is 1km of loose gravel before i get to a real road. its quite scary when these bike pop and drop over stones and twigs but i get to practice everytime i ride.

 

[jond]

Oh yes last fall on an audax. Roadworks asphalt had been removed down to bare earth. As I came over rise the water cart had sprayed for dust.

Bummer. Half way through roadworks off camber zip went the muddy vendetta front wheel and I lay in mud. Cold mud.

But no audience

I walked rest and changed clothes on roadside.

 

[bladderhead]

Where I come from, if you have a 1km driveway you are really blindingly posh, like the duke of Devonshire or something. I am typing this with one hand because I am tugging my forelock.

 

[McWheels]

The simple test over 'ere is this.

What do you see when you open the back door?
1. the back yard
2. the back garden
3. Devon

 

[3bs]

we rode the kalhaven last weekend, and between the snow, the ice and the muck, i went down once on my t50 and my co rider on his quest wiped several times. he was way undertired, and i was trying to find bad surfaces to practice on. no guts no glory.

 

[MrSteve]

-Downed by wet algae on clay, uphill, going very slow;
-Low-sided on pea gravel in a high-speed turn;
-Center-punched the neighbor dog. It misjudged the angle... the TFT absorbed the impact and the dog survived.
Monotrack vehicles have their drawbacks but they sure are a lot of fun!

 

[ed72]

Has any recumbent rider never gone down?

I'd like to meet that rider.

 

[Opik]

Has any recumbent rider never gone down?

I'd like to meet that rider.

I'm sure some Trike users never gone down. And I think TTrike users too

 

[ed72]

I'm sure some Trike users never gone down. And I think TTrike users too

Velomobiles all seem pretty scratched up.

One of the best things I ever read when being the journey to benthood was the Cruz Skills checklist on page 14 of the owners manual. Some of the skills seemed rather rudimentary but the listed timeframe to master gave me sufficient pause to practice in safe locations for quite some time.