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@deleted
Oooh. Forgot about one of the biggest oh shit moments I've ever had. It happened on Saturday and no, wasn't when I leaned too much and stacked it on the A10.
I was chasing JAMIE down Blackheath Hill on 48x18. I'm a relatively new fixed rider and don't often ride down hills. I was giving the BEANS. If I was pedalling at 120rpm I would have been doing about 25mph but given that I regularly top 175rpm and have on occasion topped 200rpm on my road bike when descending(according to my cadence meter) I think I was doing a lot more than 25. Maybe 35ish give or take.
Anyway, I digress. Being a new fixed rider I forgot to take into account that gravity is always going to add a little bit of pace to what you've generated from your legs and of course I had temporarily forgotten that freewheeling is not an option. I slipped from the maximum possible cadence that I can maintain to a few rpm over what my legs can handle. One moment I was riding my bike, next moment the bike was riding me. I suddenly couldn't keep up with the cranks and the bike started fighting hard to flip out from underneath me by flipping switching from side to side. I just about managed to wrestle the bars and shift my balance around for long enough to keep hold of it and to scrub some speed off with my front brake (I was on my drops too and not near the lever!). I was really surprised how much strength I had to use to wrestle it back under control...scary stuff when bike control is usually about fine calm movements.
I came so so close to having my bike remove itself from underneath me. When I got to the bottom of the hill my heart was truly in my mouth. It took me about twenty minutes to totally calm down. Hatbeard was behind me at the time and for some reason thought I was showing off by doing some kind of flashy "tail wagging" manouver.
To make things worse, if I had come off, I wasn't wearing gloves. Anybody who has lost the skin from their palms before will know how unpleasant that could have been.
Well, that was a lesson well and truly learned! Won't be doing that again.