As a motorcycle journalist, there’s little that scares me or surprises me on the road. But heading down the Embankment one night on my Scott Speedster, I found a new thing that scared me and at all of about 25mph; getting a plastic bag jammed in my rear mech and cassette.

Just minutes earlier I had been testing the grip (or lack of) in my front tyre on the rain-soaked Tarmac. This was the first time I’ve ridden these tyres in the rain. I could lock the front with little provocation either with no weight over the bars or with weight over the bars. It hardly felt encouraging. Never had I felt more exposed in Lycra.

The altercation with the plastic bag was entirely my fault. After all, the bag was not crossing the road under its own steam.. I saw it ahead and, in that split-second calculation, thought ‘I won’t hit that’. Then, with a slight gust of wind, on second thoughts ‘I probably will’.

After my earlier brake test, I didn’t want to swerve – I just didn’t trust the grip – and I know from my motocross days that when the back is going to let go, you don’t want your weight over it. So I got my weight over the front and applied the brakes just as the bag hooked up into my running gear, sending the Speedster gently sideways. Then more sideways to the point where to the passer by, I probably looked like I was very good at showing off.

I couldn’t scrub the speed off as fast as I wanted to and prepared to mate with the back of a taxi. Fortunately I stopped within a foot of the black cab and a couple of guys on the side of the road gave me a small ripple of applause, with one of them shouting; ‘Well held, sir!’.

Looking back up the road, I’d exchanged a 20 metre-long snaking line from my rear tyre for a now very secondhand plastic bag and a round of applause. I felt cheated. The spokes were bent, the rear mech had snapped off (leaving the derailleur hanger intact) and the chain was looking very worse for wear. However, I didn’t really care about the damage, I was just happy I hadn’t stacked it on Shell-Grip in just Lycra. That goes on the ‘what not to do’ list along with stubbing your toe and treading on an upturned plug.

The damage was, in actual fact, minor and Richard helped me sort it out. I forked out for some new hoops and a new rear mech, the cassette and chain escaping unharmed. Now we’re entering winter, I’ve got to decide whether I want to risk it all again. But, like stubbing your toe, the thought is often worse than the reality…

Ben Cope is editor of www.visordown.com