Rifle said:
Well, I guess most people here can pedal if they need to, so we could also mention the worst you've had to do with pedaling home.
Full story:
http://electricle.blogspot.com/2009/12/blown-mosfets-due-to-chain-jam-possible.html
Quick version:
--Rightside chain derailed, tangled, jammed (destroying at least 6" worth of links in different places in the chain)
--Jam caused rear wheel to be pulled out of the dropouts *only* on the right side, along with the derailer bolted to it, by the super-high torque of my non-hub motor (nearly destroying wheel, bending axle, rim, etc)
--Wheel stopping rotation and chain stopping caused motor to stop and controller current limit didnt' work fast enough, 80A MOSFETs took over 153A and bottom leg of controller blew.
--Spent an hour on median fixing wheel and chain enough to pedal 2.5 miles home (a real chore on a 150-pound bike that won't stay stably upright at less than around 9MPH).
Haven't had a chance to fix controller or correctly repair wheel yet, either; may not for a couple of days minimum, so I'm on the old upright pedal-only DayGlo Avenger for now.
Had lots of other failures including a few that required walking home, like when the motor actually ripped out of it's 1/8" thick steel mounting plate (had to double it up to 1/4"), and in very early drivetrain versions before motorization when even the torque from pedalling was too much for my "handcrafted" adapter parts....
There were some also with the DayGlo Avenger before it was motorized and after; most let me pedal home, but not all.
EDIT (added): In my nearly 3 decades of cycling, all unpowered prior to 2007, I've had other disasters of various kinds including a rear wheel actually coming entirely out of the dropouts on a cheap Murray Biotech 10-speed when I hit a very deep pothole I couldn't see at all (managed to just clip the edge with the front wheel but the rear went right in and didn't come out with the rest of the bike!), and got lucky that someone with a pickup truck happened to be right there at the time. That was around 11 or 12 years ago. Lots and lots and lots of other "little" disasters that don't quite meet up to that one.