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  • Quite a few. Worst was when I borrowed an Eddy Merckx from a friend for a ride. It was not fixed or anything, just a standard racer. We went to Brick Lane, on the way back it started to rain. It turned out the bike was not as well maintained as it could have been, since in the wet the brakes literally ceased to work. We came up at a fair old clip to the traffic lights on Newington Green, they were red. I tried to stop, then discovered that both brakes were useless. I shouted "BRAKES! BRAKES!" passing my friend (she was in front and had stopped at the lights).

    Luckily an alert van driver had spotted what was happening and halted. I twisted the bike into a skid and stopped half-way into the first lane of cross-traffic. If he hadn't seen me it could have been so much worse.

    Another one - hitting a hideous pothole near Bishopsgate. I came off the bike and there was traffic behind me, I was convinced something really bad was going to happen. Luckily they stopped in time. Afterwards I was a bit shaken but continued to cycle to work. At the end of the day my wrist was still really hurting from the landing. I went to hospital, they said it was just a sprain. A week later it turned out it was in fact broken. I continued to ride my bike with a cast, this was in retrospect quite stupid. I had the cast for 12 weeks.

    On one trip to the hospital, I forgot my lock. I asked security at Homerton if I could leave the bike with them. They said no due to "Health and Safety" even though the security office was fucking massive. They then told me it would however be OK for me to keep the bike with me. So I took my trusty pug with me to the Fracture Clinic, X-Ray room and then the Plaster Room (when it turned out it was still broken). I got a few weird looks.

    Other non-bike related moments include:

    1. Falling off a cliff.

    2. Getting my arm impaled on a branch when falling out of a tree. I literally hung there with a branch sticking through my arm.

    There are lots more too, just can't think of them all right now :)

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