[Skidmark]

After riding four months I crashed today. No injuries, and no bike damage but hopefully a little smarter. My wife had just purchased riding gloves two days before as a gift stating "the guy in the LBS said you will crash sometime and he will be glad he is wearing these". He was right! I ride on a lot of sidewalks, unfinnished developments, uneven pavment, etc. on a hybrid. Today there was a older lady walking in front of me. As I approached her I down shifted and do what I always have done I turned off the sidewalk onto the grass and rode slowly around her. Grass was long, I did not see the sidewalk was above the ground two inches or so. As I tried to re-enter the sidewalk at a thirty degree angle my front tire instantly turned right following edge of the walk. I kept going straight with the rest of the bike skidding on the concrete on my stomach, knee, and HANDS. Other than a nice raspberry on my knee all is well. Finnished the ride.

 

[Smiley]

That's too bad, glad your bike and yourself were not hurt. Can I ask why you ride on the sidewalk? I know here you aren't supposed to.

 

[TxCyclist]

Good thing nothing serious. Did the old lady see the whole thing?

 

[Xela]

Your pride was injured more than anything, huh? I've done the exact same thing while playing around on the university campus. Hairline fracture in my shoulder, but I was lucky that was it as hard as I hit the concrete.

 

[Skidmark]

Yes, she saw it happen. Sweet person kept apologizing to me for being there. She made sure I was up and okay,tThen told me it had happend to her!

We life in a rural area, with some very Large unfinished develpoments. Its common to ride the parameter side walks around them here. The main roads are pretty narrow, and can be busy with traffic. We take the safe route with many other riders and use the walks when possible. There are also many unfinnished roads in portions of the community. We ride those as well. Crossings are uneven, some are gravel etc. Actually a very entertaining ride. I love riding, love the different terrain. I love that I can ride right from my home as well.

Pride, to be very honest, at 56, and after loosing 64 pounds I was just thrilled to be able to get up, fix a brake issue and ride on!

 

[funetical]

wow what a horrible wipe out. I ate dirt last week in an intersection a car pulled out to far and I jutted to avoid it. Ended up hitting the curb in front of me and just fell off my saddle. Racked myself a tiny bit ( no pun intended).

 

[Biker]

Those are both horrible stories.

 

[funetical]

Ouch Pride and your knee?

 

[darkangel]

Why aren't you supposed to ride on the sidewalk? I would rather ride on the sidewalk than deal with cars passing me who don't know their own dimensions (i.e. duelly trucks with HUGE sticking out rear view mirrors to hit you in the back of the head)

 

[Skidmark]

We ride 10-15 miles daily. About eighty percent of that is on sidewalks. We only pass walkers / joggers every two or three days and rarely pass bikers. You see them, but most of the time "over there" and just wave.
With such a big area and so many miles of it its a non issue here. I can see in a city or busy subdivision there would be a safety issue.

Might be and improvment to my knee. Looks like I sanded off all of the calus built up over the years. Im thinking new skin will grow back and be good as new.

 

[Meeg]

Yikes! Glad you are okay!
Even small crashes can shake you up sometimes. I remember my first crash came after a year of biking. Riding out on some country roads, I started paying way more attention to these mini-vans for sale in somebody's front yard (why? I don't know!), and ran into my friend's rear tire. I was okay, but put a nice hole in my new pants!

@darkangel:
In most places, the bicycle is legally considered a vehicle and therefore should be ridden on the road. Laws will vary, though, depending on your city/state. Here is a nice compilation of bicycle laws across the US:
MassBike: The Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition

 

[Xela]

Why aren't you supposed to ride on the sidewalk? I would rather ride on the sidewalk than deal with cars passing me who don't know their own dimensions (i.e. duelly trucks with HUGE sticking out rear view mirrors to hit you in the back of the head)

Yeah, Darkangel, as Meeg said, laws vary. I was watching a video on the net the other night that was a training video for the bike officers of the Chicago PD and it mentioned that it is illegal for anyone over 12 to ride a bike on the sidewalks in Chicago.