I had just built up my new Marinnoni, and it was on it's third or fourth ride with my riding buddies. We were booking down the road when I had the bright idea of taking a short cut down a gravel road to another even better riding road just a piece over. The group wavered, but I pointed out that the gravel stretch would only be 1/2 a mile at the most, and besides the gravel had mostly washed of the road and the crown was hard packed dirt. We made the turn.
Well, unfortunately, half way along my short cut we discovered that the busy local road crew had gotten the second 1/4 mile of the road regraveled before knocking off for the weekend. We found ourselves slogging along in three inches of pea size rock. I lost momentum and wobbled over to the shoulder. Bad move, as the gravel there was even deeper. Lungs rasping, bike creaking and knees squeaking, I ground to a halt and slowly toppled over. However, thanks to my just introduced first generation Look pedals, with the special "No Release" tension feature, and my death grip on the TTT bars, I remained firmly attached to my machine and was able to lift it into the air as I fell onto my shoulder and rolled onto my back. My left shoulder, of course, to spare the drivetrain.
By now my friends had dismounted, and were laughing themselves into a state of collapse at the vision of me flat on my back with my bike suspended above me. "Never saw a bike ride a man before" was one of the printable comments. After a few minutes order was restored and we were able continue on foot to the intersection of the good road. And the Marinnoni didn't get a scratch! (It's gotten more than it's share since then, 21 years ago.)
Tom Adams, Kansas City