"Oh Shit" moments...

Thanks haha!

Fortunately I was on my way to meet the mate who had my spd shoes...

Approaching the ped crossing outside Baker street station, heading west down Marylebone road at about 20 mph, road largely clear 40m from lights, lots of green left so got on with it when a ped from each side start crossing, no probs they'll be gone by the time i get there so only slow up to let them clear the middle of the crossing. Then utter dickhead just starts marching out two steps behind the guy in front without looking. This means the centre won't be clear and neither will the edge of the crossing due to the first two guys, two loud shouts do nothing, end up missing her by 10cm at about 15 mph.

Did i mention it was also raining?

WAC

Just realised my works regional day coincides with payday and I'm just round the corner from condor

Be so very strong.

spend all the wages!!!

Oh shit moment about 5 minutes ago riding home, coming down a hill with a junction at the bottom the traffic was piled up so I was passing cars on the outside lane. Lock the rear wheel to slow ready for the junction, all fine and dandy then I lock the wheel again and pop goes my foot off my pedal. Brief oh shit soon followed by amazement as I start skidding with one foot, clipped up again and gave the Ped that shouted "wow" a nod and was away laughing at myself. I've been meaning to tighten up my right pedal for about a month now, safe to say I'm about to do it!

Just got nudged by a van. I was coming up the left hand lane, gap kept getting smaller as van came across from right-hand lane. I should have slowed to let him in, he should have seen me - joint fault - got clumped by the passenger door but stayed on, no damage to me. Sort of slowly ride beside van but we both looked at each other as to say: "oops" and it was clear everyone should just go about their business so off we both went. Very silly.

Just got back from a 20 mile ride, 2nd half of which I did with my saddle bag half open. Contents: iphone, credit card, house key, lock key, railcard, tube, allen keys. How they all stayed in I don't know, I would have thought any one of the speed bumps I went over would have dislodged them!

I lost a flute doing that.. Truly, the gods are with you this day.

This is a pretty awesome one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXB15DdMjo0

^ Another forum groupie/impersonator!

^ Big timer in an online community congrats

Riding down Buckingham Palace Road, going pretty quick, probs 18-20 mph, in front of a taxi and with no traffic in front of me. Taxi decides to overtake me, fair enough, as it's doing so a 3663 delivery truck starts reversing straight backwards about 30ft ahead, 2m on my left. As the taxi is almost alongside me (with 1ft or so gap) the truck suddenly starts swinging the cab round to the right, still reversing, closing the gap to about 20cm and forcing me to swerve into that 1ft-2ft space between me and the now parallel cab. During all of this I would have been fully visible in the trucks wing mirrors. WAFC. I just squeezed through. It would have been full game over. Taxi was being a bit twattish overtaking in that scenario but really it was 95% the truck driver being a FUCKING IDIOT. I'm going to report the driver. I don't have the plates but i've got the company, location and time. Shat myself and had to react v quickly, it all happened in the space of 3-4 seconds.

Sounds like a narrow squeak - stay safe out there Ollie...

Riding down Buckingham Palace Road, going pretty quick, probs 18-20 mph, in front of a taxi and with no traffic in front of me. Taxi decides to overtake me, fair enough, as it's doing so a 3663 delivery truck starts reversing straight backwards about 30ft ahead, 2m on my left. As the taxi is almost alongside me (with 1ft or so gap) the truck suddenly starts swinging the cab round to the right, still reversing, closing the gap to about 20cm and forcing me to swerve into that 1ft-2ft space between me and the now parallel cab. During all of this I would have been fully visible in the trucks wing mirrors. WAFC. I just squeezed through. It would have been full game over. Taxi was being a bit twattish overtaking in that scenario but really it was 95% the truck driver being a FUCKING IDIOT. I'm going to report the driver. I don't have the plates but i've got the company, location and time. Shat myself and had to react v quickly, it all happened in the space of 3-4 seconds.

qualifies as an oh shit moment

Down Shaftesbury avenue, near Chinatown, there are plenty of small traffic islands. I am cycling pretty fast southwards as it's Saturday morning and the streets are fairly empty. Still this is not fast enough for a white van behind me who needs to assert his car supremacy.

He speeds up, properly revving his engine, and overtakes me. But his front right wheel hits a traffic island with a loud bang while he is immediately next to me. I am pretty sure he just didn't see the traffic island as he accelerated. My guess is that his aggression got the better of him so that he only focused on me, not the road ahead. Because of his speed the traffic island makes the car jump rather than stop, but it only makes the left side jump so the van inevitably tips sideways while I am right next to it.
For a split second I have the white van to my immediate right leaning/dipping fast towards me reaching a roughly 70 degrees angle. For that second I was certain I was going to get crushed beneath it. But again, possibly because of its speed, it continues forward and seems able to drive whilst presumably only touching the tarmac with its two left wheels. (I couldn't see if his right wheels were on the island or in the air). Since the traffic island was relatively small it clears it after a metre or two and lands back on all four wheels after about a second more.

I am not too clued up about physics so I don't know how much more the van would have had to lean sideways before it would have keeled over and crushed me, but it was definitely the scariest moment I have had for a long time. And I just cannot see how I could have avoided it seeing as the van came fast up from behind and I was in near primary position.

Down Shaftesbury avenue, near Chinatown, there are plenty of small traffic islands. I am cycling pretty fast southwards as it's Saturday morning and the streets are fairly empty. Still this is not fast enough for a white van behind me who needs to assert his car supremacy.

He speeds up, properly revving his engine, and overtakes me. But his front right wheel hits a traffic island with a loud bang while he is immediately next to me. I am pretty sure he just didn't see the traffic island as he accelerated. My guess is that his aggression got the better of him so that he only focused on me, not the road ahead. Because of his speed the traffic island makes the car jump rather than stop, but it only makes the left side jump so the van inevitably tips sideways while I am right next to it.
For a split second I have the white van to my immediate right leaning/dipping fast towards me reaching a roughly 70 degrees angle. For that second I was certain I was going to get crushed beneath it. But again, possibly because of its speed, it continues forward and seems able to drive whilst presumably only touching the tarmac with its two left wheels. (I couldn't see if his right wheels were on the island or in the air). Since the traffic island was relatively small it clears it after a metre or two and lands back on all four wheels after about a second more.

I am not too clued up about physics so I don't know how much more the van would have had to lean sideways before it would have keeled over and crushed me, but it was definitely the scariest moment I have had for a long time. And I just cannot see how I could have avoided it seeing as the van came fast up from behind and I was in near primary position.

Definitely an Oh Shit moment right there.

As for physics, that would depend on the load in the van, the camber on that stretch of road, speed vs elevation in the jump - Not something either you or the driver would have had time to think about right then and there.
Little else you could have done, Primary - Tick, good speed - Tick, over zealous/lack of attention van driver - Tick....... Just glad you're okay despite the epic start to your day.

^^ Pretty epic Oh Shit moment.

Vans have quite a low centre of mass, since the engine is low and the top half it essentially a sheet-metal box. You'd need more than 45 degrees to topple it. But! When driving on two wheels, at 70 degrees, if the driver had steered right to avoid you this would have shifted the wheels underneath the CoM and increased the lean massively with a serious risk of tipping.

Interesting physics problem, but I'm sorry you had to experience it!

And if he'd steered left to pop the van back on its wheels, he would've driven into your path.

It sounds shit scary. If it's any consolation, the van has probably bent some suspension component or damaged a wheel - it might make the driver act differently in the future.

I hope he did some serious damage to his van and his load.

Had a very mild 'oh shit' moment compared to that. I was grinding up the hill up Copenhagen street and suddenly my front wheel lurched sideways, which knocked my right leg hard against the top tube and locked my back wheel. Just about stayed on, albeit with a serious wobble, and a bruise on its way tomorrow.

At a couple major junctions (Shepherds Bush, Old Street etc) all this rain has made a few manhole covers like ice and my back wheel has slipped out on initial acceleration into traffic. Nothing major but it's the definition of 'oh shit' when I almost tumble down and imagine the traffic rumbles over me. Doesn't compare to the fucking Steve McQueen two wheel van altercation however. That shit was fucked up.

last night on my way past waterloo cars on the way to elephant one of the cab drivers swung his car door open as i cycled past.

of course i was riding in a sensible position and didn't have to swerve but fuck me did it shit me right up. literally as i went past it, bam!

he apologised and said he didn't see me.

i told him that would be a pretty fucking useless excuse if he had hit me.

stay safe out there.

At a couple major junctions (Shepherds Bush, Old Street etc) all this rain has made a few manhole covers like ice and my back wheel has slipped out on initial acceleration into traffic. Nothing major but it's the definition of 'oh shit' when I almost tumble down and imagine the traffic rumbles over me. Doesn't compare to the fucking Steve McQueen two wheel van altercation however. That shit was fucked up.

I had a childish moment on the way home last night across Clapham Common, on the long grass, meadowy bit: cut across, sprinting hard and having wheelspin all over the place. Great fun.

I nearly stacked it yesterday in Camden. I'd just met Wayne for a T-shirt and waved at him in turning, took my eyes off the carriageway for a moment and got into a rut, which catapulted me sideways against a green recycling container. If that hadn't been there, I would have fallen over. As it was, no damage done.

Later there were some more nervous moments owing to the bad surfaces due to roadworks there at the moment.

Last Friday I inspected my front brake (disc) in order to find the model number and order new pads and noticed that the cable had frayed a bit. I took it easy on the way home and when I took it all apart found that one strand remained intact. One.

I shall be checking these things more often in future!