Confessions of a Bicycle-Loving Klutz

By nature, I am a klutzy person. There's just no getting around it, and the harder I try to avoid this flaw, the more it seems to rear its little head. It started quite young, too. One of my earliest memories is of tripping on a toy at the age of 2 and falling through a sliding glass door at the back of our house onto a courtyard of bricks (I still have the scar on my forehead from that little doozy). At age 11, I was in our backyard, daydreaming on a self-supported cot when my mother called out to me. I immediately lifted my head to see what she needed and managed to flip myself over, face first, on to our cement patio. Blood immediately poured from my mouth, and I have to admit, that one really hurt. To this day, I cringe when I think about it. At age 20, I was miniature golfing with a small group of friends. While teetering on the edge of a cement block in some wedge heels, I managed to fall and twist my ankle. I couldn't walk for weeks.

*Image source here

This could be a never-ending list of episodes, and while these are just a few examples, I was always bruised or scabbed as a kid and young adult. It's slowed somewhat in adulthood, but I can't help but hold on to those experiences. This has led to some strange behaviors when it comes to bicycles. I had my share of bike accidents as a kid, but there haven't been too many major falls in adulthood. Strangely, I have adopted some interesting (some might say odd) habits to avoid falling. 

For instance, I have to start pedaling with my left foot. For some reason, I am off-balance when I try to start with my right. It doesn't seem like a huge deal, except that I know it must be annoying to watch this crazy person back pedal her crank every time she stops so that she can start on her left side. I've tried to break myself of this habit, but I am petrified that something disastrous will happen if I start off with the right foot.

Another of these odd habits is that I cannot "properly" mount a bicycle. I can't even do a push off when straddling a bike to get some starting momentum. Instead, I must have the foot as described above and simply start pedaling. I just feel shaky and unsure of myself and imagine myself toppling immediately.

My feet are kind of cut out of this shot, but you can see that my left was going down first

Stopping is no better. I have to put my left foot down first. I've wondered if perhaps there is some sort of opposite-dominant-hand scenario playing out in all of this, but I've realized that it's one of those things I've done simply to protect me from myself (or rather, my clumsiness).  

Other small oddities that have popped up? I have a kind of strange fear of people watching me take off on a bicycle. There's something unnerving about it that puts me on edge. I am most keenly aware of this at bike shops when I'm test riding a bike, or when taking off on a bike that I don't normally ride. Often times the sales person at bike shops will follow me outside (merely to make sure everything is set up properly), but they always watch me set off which completely freaks me out. I have a fear that I will somehow fall off the bike (though this has never happened) and be absolutely mortified and potentially bruised.

While none of these behaviors are life-altering, I have become very aware of my continual need to do them. So, confession time...what sorts of habits have you developed while riding your bike that perhaps fall a bit from the norm? Do you have any odd behaviors you can't seem to break, or maybe they don't seem to be a bother at all?