• Am new to London, cycling to get around, the left side of the road, this forum. I searched and didn't come up with anything, so hope I'm not repeating any covered stuff.

    I just took my first fall. It was completely my fault, had a bit of a wobble and flipped off. Actually the cars around were super nice about making sure I was okay. Luckily, only a scratched up elbow and knee. Remarkably, laptop is completely fine. I checked everything on the bike that I could think of and basically all I noticed is that the saddle has a scrape and the stem seems to have rotated a few degrees. Is there any good list of other things that I could check out -- I mean, some kind of checklist maybe that I could run down, perhaps to make a preliminary determination as to whether to take it in to the shop?

    Thanks

    The usual checklist I make is ...

    • Does the bike look fucked?
    • Jump back on bike and ride slowly until you are sure everything feels alright.
    • After 10 minutes you realise you have actually hurt yourself and you ache like fuck.

    Seriously though, normally after taking a fall, the stem/handlebars will be on the piss and possibly the saddle, chain probably would have come off and you may have stuck a nice buckle in one of your wheels. After that most of the damage is cosmetic, scratched up brake levers etc.

    Most bike kit is pretty tough and I have crashed enough times while under the influence that the bike is probably less likely to break than me.

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