Years ago but been on the receiving end of road rash three times
I’m a cyclocross dork. I don’t mean that cyclocross is dorky. I mean that I add a thick veneer of dorkiness to cyclocross.
One of my dorky cyclocross habits is that I must Bunny Hop everything and when you live in Tokyo there are a lot of things to be potentially Bunny Hopped.
Just in case you are imagining something impressive, please adjust your mental image to that of the 5-10cm variety.
On a number of occasions, upon spotting some almost non-existent rise in the concrete sidewalk, I have launched myself in the air only to come down with my front wheel turned to either side, resulting in immediate ejection from the bike. Usually in front of a few surprised but safely distanced witnesses. I’m always back up and on my bike before anyone has a chance to say anything. Who knew the running cyclocross remount could be so useful!
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I used to shave for big meets when I swam many years ago but I haven’t done it yet for cycling. I did my first season of racing without it and this was going to be when I probably did it. But with COVID cancelling all races I haven’t. It definitely would have made my crash last year more bearable though.
Has your wife ever confessed to removing them from your bag and leaving them at home? HAHA!!!
On the serious side: Good man! I find that family weekends have longer-lasting benefits anyways.
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Oh man. When you began your story, I thought you were gonna say, “I left the key fob on the top of my car when I set out for a ride to save grams (a definite weight-weenie thing to do), and when I got back, my car was gone”. THAT would make me feel pretty dumb, but I could definitely see it happening (because I’ve done that exact thing 
without the car getting stolen bit)
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That would be totally extreme weight weenie!
Oh yeah you’re totally right, if it’s anything more than 1/8" or so, I tend to bin it. I’ve actually had pretty hilariously good luck in my life with flats (and I live in an area that doesn’t have goatheads or anything) So yeah, most of my flats ARE snake bites when I just messed up, or a clean puncture like a nail. I’m pretty liberal with patches as long as I can get a good coverage though.
Bit of a necro post here, but in case you haven’t had an answer. Not all of your hair follicles grow at once, so while some (~1/3rd in my case) leg hair may be back to normal length in 6-8 weeks, it takes more like 6-8 months for full regrowth.
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I participated in the first Disaster Day. Those were dark times.
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my friend bailed with about 200m to go in a cross race because he flatted… he had 1 corner left but there were trees blocking the view, so he didn’t realize how close he was 
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I was at an early morning TT and I’d unloaded my bike and laid it on the ground behind my car.
Some numpty came running up telling me to move my car, (a cyclist hater).
I jumped in ,reversed it . Say no more. I felt such an idiot , went home red faced , with the remains of my bike in the boot. That TT cost me £700!!!
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I once set my bike against the curb at a race, it fell and knocked another person’s bike over… that made me feel dumb. Backing over my bike? Can’t imagine!
Deciding to fit a cycle commute in around a day trip from London to Edinburgh for work in the middle of January. Left the house at 3:30am in 2C temperatures and pitch darkness in order to cycle the 17 miles to our office to park the bike, grab a shower and get the first tube to City Airport for a 6:30am flight. Landed back at 10pm after a full day of meetings and early dinner with the team and started my ride home shortly after 11pm by which time it had started to rain for which I had failed to pack any waterproofs. As I headed out of the city and the temperature dropped the rain turned to sleet, with a nice headwind as well. I got home at around half midnight shivering uncontrollably and half blinded from squinting into the driving wind and freezing rain.
Aim had been to maintain the streak I was on of not having missed a single day of training for over a month including the whole Christmas/New Year period. Net result? 4 days off training while I recovered from a stinking cold brought on by the sheer stupidity of hammering my immune system with air travel, sleep loss, work stress and training in freezing wet weather all in the same day. To add insult to injury I turned up at the airport with my pump and favourite multitool in the bag I was taking on as hand luggage, they both got confiscated by security!
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I was riding with a mate one day and he was asking something about my bike which lead me to point to my down tube and fork area. My finger obviously got a bit too close to the wheel and it very quickly got jammed between the wheel and frame. Before I knew it I had gone from 30km/h to 0 and was doing a somersault over the bars onto the bitumen. Not my finest moment.
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Think I’ve heard that story before…
Oh, you aren’t Nate. 
a) Around the big 90deg turn north of Spuds (zoom in the map a couple of clicks, south east end of the ride) realized I’d forgotten to put on sun screen. (Note the date on the ride.) “No big deal. Lots of shade on this road.” Until about Spuds. Then the rest of the ride is not shady at all.
b) “I’ll stop in Palatka. There’ll be somewhere on the route through with sun screen and I need to refill my bottles anyway.” Nope. The route I’d plotted was residential. I didn’t deviate.
c) About 11 AM, north of Palatka on US 17 (trees are cut back far from the road along that whole road), see a gas station/convenience store on the other side of the road. “Crossing 17 is going to be a pain. It isn’t that far to Bostwick.”
d) Bostwick (much further than I thought) I stop at a convenience store (on the right side of the road), get ice, water, mix more Skratch in the bottles. Then finish the ride instead of calling for a ride.
I did learn that aloe vera gel is very effective at treating a bad sunburn.
Different ride…
On a narrow MUP. That turn at the bottom of this hill is just like all the others, I can take it easily. (a few seconds later doing >20mph) That’s a 90deg turn! (About one second later, road/gravel rash as I lock wheels and skid off the trail.) Five miles to the end of the ride, where I used most of the event organizer’s first aid kit to clean up. Changed, ate.
Drove about two hours home because I didn’t want to drive the 30 minutes to my parents and deal with them worrying.
I did the same trail a few months later. Didn’t make the same mistake twice. 
Parents never found out. 
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That’s so Australian. Did they tell you about drop bears as well?
Drove to a Sportive in Portsmouth from Central London. Forgot my shoes.
Bought Magura brakes. Three times.
Sold an aluminium bike because it was a bit too stiff in the rear. It was likely bad cornering technique on older tyres on cobblestones that was the issue…
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The third pair, the cheapest MT4s were actually pretty good. But Martas and MT6s were good until you serviced them. Thinking about it, the MT4s were never serviced. Lol!