I’ve been riding my new road bike around a fair bit. Loving it.
This is the road bike all of my friends gave me for my birthday. [the nicest thing that’s ever happened to me… my goodness, i have the best friends in the world.]
Anywho, I’ve taken to it. LOVE IT. Wanna find excuses to put on those hilarious bike shoes and click in… ride somewhere.
So, yes, I’ve been riding with clipless pedals. [that means that my shoes actually clip into my pedals and i have to unclip them… get the out… when i stop.] Can someone tell me why these are called clipless? As I see it, there is much clipping.
And I was TERRIFIED to start riding with clipless pedals. I asked Evan…
– Am I going to fall over at a stop sign in the middle of town?
Fully expecting him to reply with the, “No, babe… You definitely won’t…”, he, instead, replied with…
– Yeah. It happens to everybody.
WHAT?! Seriously??
He was serious.
But I was rocking it. Unclipping yards before I had to stop. I had it dowwwwwn. I had even thought to myself, I won’t ever fall over… I got this.
The other day, I babysat South of town and was excited to bike to the gig. Not only did I get in a great, gorgeous ride, but I also got to stop by Factory Studios after working to try on some sweet creations by Abbie Miller. [i was good and only made one purchase… for now…]
I digress…
Chatting with Abbs was great, trying on her clothes was amazing, but, alas, I had to leave to get to a meeting at a local Mexican for an upcoming river trip.
Flustered, running late, I got back on my whip. I rolled up to a stoplight… wanting to turn left but stay in the right lane… i got into the left turning lane… confusing myself…
Am I in the right lane? Will this be okay? I’m fine, right?
All this thinking, and I TOTALLY forgot to unclip. All the sudden, I’m at a stand-still and panicking… there’s no time to get a leg out.
This is it., I thought… and I went down.
There was a truck next to me… not close enough for me to catch myself on it, but close enough for me to slam some body parts into as I fell… making a huge ruckus.
The driver of the truck turned it off, jumped out of the vehicle and yelled…
– OH, MY GOD! ARE YOU OKAY?! WHO HIT YOU?!
Me, immediately jumping up like, “What? Fall? Me? Nooo… Haha… I’m fine,” I could only say to this helpful fellow…
– Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope.
Then I finally got it out…
– No one hit me, I just fell over. Sorry.
– My goodness! It sounded like you fell from the sky!
– Well, ha, I’m really tall? [dear lord.]
[the light is turning green.]
– Alright, I hope you’re okay!
– I hope your truck’s okay!
And then I bashfully got back on to the bike, hardly got my feet back into the pedals, and slumped off… not even paying attention to the cars behind me… but I know this conversation will happen many times around town now…
– Do you know Rachel Stevens?
– Not well… but I saw her fall into a truck at a stoplight once!
Good grief.
I finally got to Pica’s [aforementioned taco joint] and found the 14 people I was meeting with, waiting on me.
Noticing I was frazzled, Evan asked me…
– What happened? You okay?
– I fell over at a stoplight. I need five margaritas.
Happens to everybody.
wull hay. 
love this story. last summer it happened to me in my driveway…and i also swore it WOULD never happen to me….I still have 5 little scars on my right calf where the chain will ate my leg because I was still clipped in.