Wow… I swear, that wasn’t intentional, but it damn sure is funny.
Nice analysis, Blaster Master. I agree that there are about a thousand things more likely to flip a bike than a wad of gum. The only thing you missed as a possibility is that **Stan **just accidentally squeezed the front brakes instead of the back while he was going downhill. Since his entire worldview is dependent on him never ever being in the wrong, he cast about for someone to blame and decided to point the finger at the gum he picked up at some other random point.
But, you made a few minor spelling errors, so be prepared for Stan to blow off your entire post because of that. Oh well.
Yep. Sorry Stan, I don’t know you from Adam, but the non-Newtonian fluid comment made me giggle. We have lots of experience with gum and it doesn’t act that way under jolts. Perhaps at relativistic speeds? I would expect the carbon fiber to break first…
Were you wearing a helmet?
Of course he was. I even got a picture of him wearing it.
It does if you’re pedaling at any appreciable speed, and, from your description, it sounds like you were. Just expressing my incredulity.
To clarify:
It seems rather incredible that a chewed piece of gum, small enough to work its way between your brake pad and forks, is big (and strong) enough to halt (what I presume is) a grown man powering a bicycle. Are you sure that some coincidental, contributing event did not occur?
And I agree that people who toss cigarettes and gum on the ground are depraved scum.
Well, looks like Stan has abandoned his thread. I should have predicted that would happen - that guy can dish it out but he sure can’t take it.
I’m submitting his “a chewed piece of gum on the sidewalk can upend a bicyclist” claim to Mythbusters for evaluation.
If I knew that gum would stop a cyclist in its tracks, I’d spit gum on sidewalks every day (and twice on Sunday).
An SOP just came down (up?) from Lucifer: Hell is no longer accepting open-mouthed gum chewers. Even Lucifer finds them to be too morally reprehensible.
I was so amazed to see a woman actually spit her gum in the trash can on my way to work today, I give her a $10,000 gift certificate to Tiffany’s, promised to surrogate-mother any two of her children, and started the paperwork for her beatification with the Vatican.
I was so pleased with her I didn’t even ask her if she’d comitted the mortal sin of gum-popping when she was chewing it.
Hah! That’s nothing! I saw a man spit some chewing gum into the trash can yesterday. I gave him Tiffany’s (yep, the whole store; hope they’ll still honor the gift certificate), can’t have any more kids, so I gave him my first two children; I nominated him for two Tony Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, one Nickelodeon’s Kid’s Choice Award, and I’m now in the process of baking him a cake. 
If you had any clue how much red tape is involved in a Vatican beatification, you would realize that your offers pale.
So, I think what happened is what other posters have guessed; the OP just had a coincidence. There was a gum wad, but the crash was caused by something totally unrelated, and the OP just was too angry to think it through clearly.
Why aren’t any of you jerks walking by when I’m spitting *my *gum into the trash?
Is chewing gum ok as long as I keep my mouth shut?
To me, some sugar-free mint gum burns a few calories, cleans my teeth, freshens my breath, and settles my stomach.
Right into the trash? Ew! I always put my gum into a napkin or a piece of paper first so it won’t stick to the trash can liner.
Oh, we’ve seen you. We just don’t like you very much. . . 
Because we like girls who swallow and not spit. I’ll tell you what, I’ll start the court proceedings to have your Beatle-fication made official. I’d do beatification, but that jerkass pope doesn’t return my calls, IMs, or text messages any more.
It was wire-mesh street trash can and, praise be to her, she held her head over the can and it went pretty much into the middle of the trash.