I still remember deciding to ride a bike to work for the 1st time in about 20 years. Arose at 0400, out the driveway by 0430, with the steepest part of the ride being downhill for the first 2 blocks in a residential subdivision when nobody was awake, and as I was coasting through the 1st intersection, a sportscar pulled up quickly on my right to a stop. I slammed on my bicycle brakes, but had forgotten not to use both brakes simultaneously, and went head over heals over the front of the bike onto the asphalt with a nice road rash and embedded chunks of aggregate in my forearms. I drove to work that morning and bought a headlight, then began again the next day with less turmoil.
That’s nothing. I was riding my bike at night once, and went over a speed bump. Instinctively I clamped the front wheel brake at the same time my rear wheel hit the speed bump. The effect was to basically slap me face-first into the pavement. For the next month following that my face resembled a combination style pizza.