Tried going no-hands on my commute after watching a YouTube video and ate pavement at a stoplight

So last week I saw this super smooth video of some guy cruising along with no hands on his handlebars, looking all relaxed and cool. I thought hey, I've been commuting for about 2 years now on this old hybrid bike, how hard can it be? Big mistake. The very first time I tried it, I was rolling up to a stoplight on Grand Avenue and hit a tiny crack in the asphalt. My front wheel jerked sideways and I went right over the handlebars. Scraped up my palm pretty bad and my elbow still hurts if I bend it too much. My backpack with my laptop took most of the hit though, thank goodness. What I learned is that those videos are probably filmed on perfectly smooth bike paths with no traffic, not a cracked city street full of potholes. Plus my bike has a slight wobble in the steering from when I overloaded the front basket last month. Has anyone else tried something flashy on their commute only to regret it immediately? What happened?

2 comments

2 Comments

ben82724d ago

Did your laptop survive, or did it learn a painful lesson about your bike skills too?

paul_mason1224d ago

that reminds me of my buddy Dave, who tried to ride to work one rainy morning with his laptop bag slung over his shoulder. he hit a wet patch on a roundabout and went down hard, the bag slid off and got pinned under his bike. the laptop survived surprisingly, just a few scratches on the casing, but his pride took a real beating. he had to walk the rest of the way with a bent front wheel and a broken backpack strap. now he wraps his laptop in a towel inside his bag and takes the bus whenever it looks even a little cloudy.