This comedian had a real-life funny moment when he fell into a canal in a busy part of London, whilst riding one of the city’s popular Lime Bikes – the dangerous accident cost him £3.80
If you’ve been to London, you’re no stranger to a Lime Bike, but nobody has quite been tried and tested by one quite like the cyclist who recently fell into the canal whilst riding one.
Having just moved to London from Australia to pursue a career in comedy, Nathan Hugh Robért had a moment where life imitated art when he was involved in a dangerous, albeit funny, biking accident. As he’s new to the city and therefore new to Lime Bikes – the rental e-bikes dotted around the city – he decided to follow his Google Maps directions and take a quicker route along the canal path.
“I’m not confident on Lime bikes at all and was hesitant to ride that day, but I wanted to explore more of London,” he explained. Nathan added: “So, when I saw I could ride through Victoria Park and along Regent’s Canal, I thought I would overcome my fears and ride.”
Although, as soon as he reached the canal path, one problem became immediately clear – it was full of runners. The narrow path didn’t quite allow space for the two of them. When trying to stop to make way for runners, Nathan fell into the canal, with both him and the bike landing in the murky waters.
He explains in a TikTok video, which has now amassed over one million viewers: “I thought, if I don’t stop, I’m going to fall in. But I was wrong, because I did stop, and I still fell in.” Lucky for him, three strangers came to the rescue and “hoisted him like a baby” out of the canal.
His biggest fear, once he was out of the water, was not the fact he was soaking wet, startled and now bikeless and phoneless, but the fact he was still being charged for this ride by the minute by Lime Bike. He said: “It was when I realised that my phone was in the bike holder, in the bottom of the canal, that I started to panic, because I thought Lime would just charge me indefinitely for the ride.
“I thought, “Oh man, Lime is going to drain all my savings. And I’ll be stuck in a new city with no money, no phone, no house, and no job. This is not how I was expecting the move to go,” Nathan joked.
In another moment of panic, he dived back into the Regent’s Canal, with no understanding of just how unclean the water is, and managed to save his phone, which survived being submerged in the water. He cancelled the ride and walked to his intended destination through London Fields, soaking wet.
As many Londoners will know, Lime requires you to take a photo of where your bike is parked as proof before you can cancel your ride, but this feature can be a little testing at times. Nathan was in luck, because snapping a quick picture of his bike, not-so-carefully sprawled in the bottom of the canal, seemed to do the trick. The cost of this ride was £3.90.
Although the Aussie did reach out to Lime, explaining: “I reported the accident to Lime, and they were genuinely nice about it – they made sure I was ok and didn’t charge me for the bike.”
The comedian had already been posting daily videos in a bid to garner some attention for his comedy when this hilarious incident took place and decided to share the story in a TikTok. Londoners were quick to flood the comments with their sympathy, shared stories and jokes about the Aussie’s lethal accident.
A user commented: “Sorry to be a hater, but as a runner who constantly encounters inconsiderate and entitled cyclists along the canals, this made me a little happy.” As another added: “Ooh no, you said Regent’s Park canal, and I knew immediately the trauma! There are a lot of runners on there, poor thing.”
One joked: “Having to take a photo of the bike at the end would’ve sent me spiralling.” “Your phone working is the biggest shock of the story, to be honest,” another user said.
It wasn’t until he received a message on a dating app that Nathan realised his video had gone viral. The comedian explained: “She had ghosted me almost a month ago but said she had seen my video on TikTok, found it funny and would be keen to get a drink. That’s when I knew the video must be going viral, because I didn’t really know this person. And, if it’s coming up on her feed, it must be blowing up.”
