Last night I rode my bike to Mass.
When I get home I have to leave the bike out, open the front door and go to the garage to get it in. Well, I happen to be dogsitting and I guess they distracted me, so I totally forgot to get my bike in.
It was in my driveway overnight.
Luckily, it was not stolen!!!
But that's not the stupid part...
Today I got in my car and started backing out into the driveway...and I hit my bike.
Yep. Very stupid. I forgot it was even outside (for nearly 21 hours).
I think it just knocked the chain off a gear and it seems to be okay.
I am very lucky it was stolen or damaged. Phew.
Did you ever run over your own bike? No? Oh. 
O no!
That is impressive that it sat in your driveway overnight, though.
If the shifting seems funky, have a shop check your rear derailleur. It is pretty easy to get it out of alignment if it bends during a "fall."
Glad you still have your bike!!!
I've seen people back over little kids' bikes, and drive into the garage with bikes on top of the car.
My mom once backed into my car with a bike on the back of hers. No damage to the bike, but both cars needed some cosmetic repairs.
It kind of makes you feel good when things that should have gotten stolen didn't. Yesterday I drove to the ss works to bike with my wife and kids and parked in one of the outside lots to the east of the bridge. In my haste to depart, not only did I forget to lock the car, but I left two door wide open. And nothing was touched when we returned a few hours later. I guess it gives you some hope for the world.
And don't feel bad. I actually backed my car into my other car in my driveway a few years back.
My uncle backed a car (with two bikes on a rack) into a wall of the garage once when he forgot that he had bikes on the back... he salvaged enough parts from one to maintain at least one functional bike. One wheel was seriously damaged and another wheel was destroyed. One of the rear chain-stays was bent to about a forty degree angle.
Not that I'm stupid free, I once forgot to tighten the lug nuts on the last wheel while rotating my car tires, only to have it fall off later while driving (taught me the valuable lesson of not leaving a job to answer a phone call until the work is complete).
.
I've done the two-bikes-on-the-roof while backing under a tree trick. For the life of me I couldnt figure out where the noise was coming from. Fortunately nothing was broken.
One day while working, completely forgot to lock my bike up underneath the first avenue T station. Was working a late shift, so didn't get back until 10:30-11, but I guess a pretty miyata with a brooks saddle just wasn't that appealing that day.
Felt super dumb. But! It was so much faster to just ride off without having to unlock, right? right?
I've also felt like I have used up all my good luck with theft since then, and never risk it now.
I had planned to ride to work one morning a few years ago but woke up too late to make it on time. So I put my road bike on the rack on the back of my wifes car and asked her to give me a ride to work and I would just ride home. Unfortunately the transition from my driveway to the street was too steep to back out of with a bike on the rack and as my lovely wife approached said transition both of my wheels made contact with the sidewalk and bent sideways around the car's rear bumper! Both wheels were completely irrepairable. I was beside myself with incredulity and my wife was absolutely mortified. But I still had to get to work so I took my mangled road bike off the rack, put a spare bike on the rack (after pulling the car out of the driveway) and got my ride to work. I was pretty mad at my wife at first (just picture yourself staring at your own mangled bike in this scenario) but after I calmed down I realized she couldn't have known what was about to happen and then I was just sad.
My floor pump's gauge has a dial with an arrow on it. You rotate the dial to point to the pressure you want, so you don't have to try to read the tiny numbers on the pump and the tire every time. I had set the dial long ago.
It took multiple ruined tubes, tires, and one ruined wheel until I finally thought to double-check the arrow against what was printed on the tires (since I "knew" it was right). I discovered I'd been inflating my 35-65 psi tires to 90 for I don't know how long. Turns out the dial with the arrow can rotate on its own a bit when the pump's knocked over. Alternative explanation: Long ago, saw "6", thought "9".
Some weeks later, I got a flat way while off in Washington County, and found that my frame pump was missing a vital part, a little metal cap. I dragged the bike on its working front tire to a gas station, but couldn't get the air pump there to make a good seal. Decided to drag my bike 3 miles back to the bike trail, hoping to find a cyclist with a working pump. After almost an hour, having going only a mile (heavy bike!), I finally remembered the mysterious metal knob I'd found at the bottom of my backpack a few months prior. A working pump, hurray!
Then a week later, I needed that same frame pump again, and it took me most of an hour to once again work out how to attach it to a tube. Sigh.
I've never forgotten to lock my bike, but once I left my house keys in the lock in my front door while I went out for the day. No harm done though.
I guess it's time to come clean and tell the full story behind my wreck that took me off the road for three months last year.
Early January 2010, biking home the 17 miles from FedEx, I get to the corner of Highland and Wellington in West View. Wellington is a nice, gentle, flat, easy slope from Highland down to Perry Hwy. Highland involves about a 50-foot descent, and Perry about a 30-foot climb, to get to the same spot. And I avoid the sticky corner at Highland and Perry. Problem is, Wellington is one-way, away from Perry.
But it's nighttime, it's dark, not much traffic, who's going to notice or care, right? I took Wellington. Just as I thought, not a car in sight, a nice & easy roll down the hill toward Perry.
Unfortunately, I forgot about the bump at Montclair. The road had heaved in recent days due to the freeze/thaw cycle, making a substantial hump in the street, easily a six-inch-high ramp when approaching it from that direction. Nor is there a stop sign pointing that way, since it's one-way opposite. If I'd imagined a stop sign there, and stopped/reallyslowed for it, I'd've been fine.
As it was, though, I hit that ramp going 15-20 mph and went skyward. I did not land straight, and at that speed, lost it in a most unpleasant manner, coming down largely on my right hand, arm, shoulder and my head.
What made this particularly stupid of me was that I had gone TO work that morning that same way, and creeped up that hill at 3 mph, clearly seeing that hump in broad daylight, so I knew it was there, but just plain forgot.
btw, the helmet was toast. My head was fine.
Note to self: Obey the rules.
Ouch Stu. You shattered your helmet? Yikes.
I once left my garage door open for two weeks straight, totally oblivious to it (it doesn't face the street or the doors I used to go in/out of house, and I don't keep a car in it). Nothing missing, no critters moved in.
My idiotic bike adventures have been very well documented here - only after full and prompt confessions can the pride begin to heal!
It does feel really good to have something that totally should have gotten stolen stay safe despite all inane attempts at losing it.
I've left my garage door open overnight a few times, ejwme. I think one time it was winter and I was wondering why it was so cold in the house.
- Strapped bike to rack, but rack was not
affixed to post (like kind out of hitch)...
made it to about New Stanton before it fell
off the car and got run over by an 18
wheeler. I just built it up maybe 1 week
prior.
- Once left my and my friend's bikes in the
backyard (lawrenceville) for 7+ hours while
we went and ate. Both were carbon fiber
with lots of fancy stuff on them. Came
home to them being there.
I made a left hand turn on a green light in front of a car today. In my defense they were waiting and I think they let me go, or they just flat out were clueless about the light.
geez there are a lot of paranoid people here.
I certainly believe I can outdo all of you in this, but I am hesitant, hesitant indeed, to post in public.
I dont' think statutes of limitation actually apply, but...
Strapped bike to rack, but rack was not
affixed to post (like kind out of hitch)...
made it to about New Stanton before it fell
off the car and got run over by an 18
wheeler. I just built it up maybe 1 week
prior.
this is seriously my nightmare, every time i put my bike on a car rack. most of the time, i'd rather ride to the place someone might want to drive to and bike from, but the thought of my bike falling off a rack scares the shit out of me, and solidifies it.
Surprisingly, i don't think i have evert left a bike out or injured my bike, but I will mention the reason why my right knee has scars on it that kinda look like a lop-sided smiley face.
Earlier this summer I was taking the north side trail northbound to the 31st St bridge. I was going past the kayak rental place. There was just a small amount of water on the trail there, but combine that with the shadow from the bridge above and i didn't see how wide the gap between the pieces of concrete slabs was. My wheels were just the right size to get lodged in that longitudinal gap and I couldnt get them out. I tried to correct with unbalanced panniers and I went down on my right knee and somehow got road rash also on the back of my left shoulder. Good thing I had my tough commuter bike. There was just some damaged grip tape. Luckily it didn't keep me off of my bike. It just burned a lot when I got water on the road rash in the shower.
I usually make my husband drive when we have the bikes in the bike rack so that I can obsessively watch them for the slightest signs of excessive jostling or sliding that may indicate pending doom. I WAIL on those straps with all my might (some day I will break them off just setting it up) but still don't trust it (or my ability to follow directions). And honestly, the same principle has delayed my getting a trailer to haul the dog around in so that we can bike to parks instead of driving. I'm just not confident the trailer wouldn't go careening off into traffic with her in it (either due to my stupidity in setting it up, faulty design, or her anxiety due to my lack of adequate training).
I very rarely succomb completely to paranoia and allow my fears to limit my activities. Typically I see fear as the useless speedbump of a cousin to caution, a much more informative feeling. Traffic issue avoidance is one of the few places I don't feel bad giving in to fear.
I left town for three days recently and when I got back I realized that I left the keys to my antique Volvo, truck and house in the ignition of the truck outside the house with the windows down if that makes you feel any better?
When I just finished my green tall bike, I was getting it up on my roof rack--the wheel was off and the fork in the clamp, the rear wheel was in the tray, but the rear wheel wasn't strapped down, and the fork clamp wasn't closed. I stepped down from the door sill to pick something up, which I have done before with bikes, but with the tall bike on top the the car, the seat and bars in a tree, a breeze knocked the bike and resulted in the bike coming down. Luckily I was able to catch it, but it did bend the tray and the right dropout on the fork. I bent both back and headed to Olive Garden for dinner with the THICK team for the MS150.
The plan was to drive up to Buffalo, rent a car, drive to Albany and then ride the Eire Canalway back to Buffalo. I was two hours out of Buffalo after renting the car when I realized that in my excitement to embark I had forgotten my BoB trailer and all my gear in the trunk of my car parked back in Buffalo.
http://www.tasigh.org/gps/erie2009.html
