Share your best crash story

[prolesunited]

Admit it: You love your "war wounds" and explaining how they got there.

I had a pretty spectacular wipe out this fall. I was on a suburban bike path and they have big yellow posts at the intersection to keep the cars off the path. They are locked onto 2" strips of metal embedded in the pavement and removable for trail maintenance.

Anyway, a post was missing and my front tire smashed right into the metal mounting bracket. Good thing I had reduced my speed as I approached the intersection or it would have been much worse.

In any case, my bike came to a dead stop and I went sailing over the top of my bike, feet still clipped to my pedals. My hands and arm bore the brunt of the crash. I shredded my gloves (better them than my hands) and scraped my arm from my wrist to the elbow. It was really deep near my elbow and I kept bumping it and re-opening it as it healed. I also got some road rash on my leg and busted open my knee, but not as bad as the elbow.

Some nice man helped to change my tire. I had to go to work, so I cleaned up best I could and road home about 10 miles. The wind really hurt going into the raw parts and the blood was dripping down my leg. I must have looked like such a site.

So, what's your story? What good is the pain if you can't brag about it later. :-)

[pmbryant]

1. Yikes!

I got no stories anywhere close to that, fortunately. One advantage of our 'dawdling' riding style is fall-avoidance.

About the worst (actually, only) falls I've had in recent years came when I was starting with clip-in pedals a year ago. One day, the cleats on my shoes were lose and I failed to check them. I fell over twice before I realized what the problem was. :dunce:


--Peter

[BiggJawn]

2. Learning curve on SPD pedals...

First time riding with them. Came up to a stop, forgot to unclip, couldn't get unclipped, fell over, and laid the outside of my right calf open 6 inches. Took 1/2 a dozen butterflies to get it closed, and it took forever to heal (downside of diabetes).

Previous bad wreck was one morning back in High School. I was heading to my radio station job about 10 miles away on Saturday morning before daybreak, and it had been raining, and I'm pedalling my Schwinn Deluxe Racer 3-speed up 8th street when I hit the angled RR tracks. Went skidding, banged the 'nads on the top tube and spent the next 10 minutes puking and holding my crotch while sitting on the curb. Think I barked my knee and palms too, but that was over 30 years ago and the only thing I remember was the great gouts of pain rolling through my lower 1/2...

[flvegan]

3. Mine was when I was just a youngster

I was about 13. I was really into bmx. Like most kids in the 80's, I had an obvious death wish when it came to building ramps. My friends and I built one that was 8 feet long (or so) and the launch lip was probably 5 feet off the ground. So, pedalling my chubby butt off, I hit the end and flew off the ramp...and off the seat of the bike. I held the grips and pedals, but the landing had my butt sitting on the back tire, which was still turning fwd. I let go of the bike JUST before the back tire conveyor belted my crotch between it and the frame, making me the future flveganette.

My most recent bad wreck involves a sweeping corner in the woods and a 6 foot alligator, but it's a memory I'm trying to suppress.

[Kashka-Kat]

6. oh come on I wanna hear the gator story!

Maybe you could tell it just this once, and then take it to your grave never ever speaking of it again?

[newyorican]

4. Choose...

1) between wiping out on a fix at about 35 mph, luckily I wiped out on a curb and tumbled head over heels through the grass for quite a distance.

2) Riding a new bike for the first time and forgetting which side the front brake was on. Wiped out when a car pulled out of a side street in front of me. Cracked my head but good and the bike landed on me for good measure.

I was a teenager for 1 and in my 40s for 2, so 2 hurt more.

[Kashka-Kat]

5. On a bike trail, on a long distance bike trip...

a very poorly designed bike trail I might add... coming down hill, around a curve and up a little bump in the road --- my whole bike flipped up into the air and I came crashing down into a swamp. There is that moment when you are airborne, time slows down, you know you are going to hit and you're just helplessly wondering how bad it's going to be. LUckily the swamp was very SOFT, so I didn't get hurt, but I was covered with thick clingy mud from head to toe. And I had about another 50 or 60 miles to go. People think you're weird enough just riding a bike, let alone looking like a creature from the black lagoon! But miraculously, literally just around the next bend there was one of those bike trail pit stops where you can buy the trail passes & sodas or whatever. Complete with restrooms, and... SHOWERS! There were a couple of other strangely serendiptious things that happened on that trip, like getting a flat tire and within say 3 or 4 miles finding a campground with bike repair shop (being on bike trail it was logical- & profitable- for them to cater to bikers).

Speaking of poorly designed bike trails, one of the first ones in our town had a trail which took you around a curve and then suddenly there was this freaking TREE right in the middle of the trail! People did get hurt, before they corrected it.

[Fovea]

7. Nine years old.

riding my schwinn down Manchester road in Ballwin Mo.
It was around Ballas Rd. I think, where someone coming from the right onto the road from an entrance hit the rear tire and slammed me into the pavement.

No helmets in those days, so the total damage was a concussion and a cracked collarbone. But it wiped out my favorite bike, at least until I got a Follis at 16.

I still have the Follis, but I ride a bent now.

[Kolesar]

8. Took a spin on a little wheel bike

I had had a conversation about folding bikes with a buddy of mine who is a "former wrench". He said he had a folder that he recovered before it went to the dump. "Take it" he said. It is a Raleigh Twenty with a Sturmey-Archer three speed planetary gear hub. Trigger shifter on the handlebar. "Twenty" means 20x1.75" tyres. Platform pedals. Original with some question about the aluminum handlebars. Built in Nottingham, England in the 1970s. Mucho mojo. (Do the Brits do "mojo"?)

I was taking it for a spin and decided to get off the pavement to ride the sidewalk under the freeway overpass. I was going fast with the transmission in third gear. I tried to jump the curb at a seventy five degree angle, lost control, and was thrown onto the concrete sidewalk. Good thing I have some training in how to tumble and land: I spun around and landed on my back so I did not land on my wrist or my elbow. I still ended up with abrasions on both palms and abrasions through my clothes on my elbow and hip pointer.

Helmet scuffed--it must have taken the impact for my cranium. That's why The Boreal Avenger has not started up with freerepublic.com.

The pain got a bit worse through the day and it hurt when I coughed, so I spent the evening googling "broken rib". Went for xrays the next day and they found two.

Have a month to while away. Ask me anything.

[peacebird]

9. Old Town Alexandria, cruising along at just over 20mph when an SUV lumbered out of

a parking lot directly in front of me cutting me off AND accelerating so slowly that I had to drop my bike to avoid slamming ito the back of it... Slid into the curb and my chain ring lacerated my achilles tendon.

The SUV driver was clueless and drove off, but the car behind me stopped to help out, amazed by the stupidity of the SUV.

I got 4 stitches in the tendon - hurt worse than having my son did!

[mopinko]

10. i should probably not even ride

i can barely walk sometimes, i get so wrapped up in what i am thinking.
i had a beauty the other day. i rode to get my son's report card. i was dreading it. he is one of those- genius but will never make it in school kids, and i had a lot to ruminate about.
i was having a nice, long ride, down a quiet street with a striped bike lane. i got to an intersection, came back to the real world, and realized i was too far east. i made a split second decision to turn, and was instantly sorry. i never, ever ride on really busy streets. even if it means riding on the sidewalk for a while (strictly forbidden, especially in those places where is it the only sane option.) the sidewalk was full of pedestrians, and the very busy street was narrowing for a train bridge. i tried to tuck myself as tight as i could to parked car line. CRACK- my handlebar caught the side view mirror on a car. front wheel takes a sharp turn, bike flips, i flip, thank ja the car right behind me was driven by a cautious fellow who managed to stop quickly, and not run right over me.
i immediately think- it's a good thing i started taking that fosamax.
got about a dozen bruises, from a small one on my lip where i kissed my handlebar, to the string of 6 on the thigh where i hit the ground.

really, only stubborn refusal to act my age keeps me riding. ya gotta die from something.

[Gregorian]

11. I haven't had many, in forty years of biking.

This sounds nearly impossible. But,

I used to commute by bike. So I had fenders. Every day I would ride over Mount Madonna in San Luis Obispo. It was evening, and the sun was just going down. I was flying downhill. And of course, all in slow motion, I noticed my front fender mount break. The fender moved along with the wheel until it came back up to the fork where it and the wheel both stopped. This was when we still had toeclips. I came out of the clips, thank goodness, and over the bars. The way the sun was, as I was doing a mid air somersault, I could see the shadow of both me and the bike, in air, upside down. I actually did a complete 360, scraping only the tip of my elbow on the dirt, while inverted, and landing ON MY FEET! I literally landed standing up, running.

I still see that shadow of the upside down bike.

[nosferaustin]

12. Mine wasn't bad

I've only been commuting here in Salt Lake for a year or so, so I haven't had any bad tumbles yet. I did have one day a couple of weeks back when I was involved in not one, but two accidents with motorized vehicles. One on the way to work (in the dark, I leave the house at about 6:15) leaving a red light the guy in the work truck stopped right in front of me and I wasn't paying as close attention as I should have been, I managed to avoid rear-ending him but I caught the ladder hanging on the side of his truck with my shoulder.

On the way home from work, again in the dark (gets dark here now around 5-ish) some idiot in a white pickup backed out of his driveway directly into my path and I slammed the back of his bed pretty hard. I wasn't even really knocked off my bike, it was more of a glancing blow but more than anything it pissed me off. Prompted a letter to the editor from me. Here's the link:

http://www.sltrib.com/search/ci_4701550

and the text (in case that doesn't work):

We're out there

Public Forum Letter

Salt Lake Tribune

To the gentleman in the white pickup on South Temple Wednesday evening, I apologize for hitting the side of your pickup when you backed out in front of me on my bike, and I thank you for asking me if I was OK after asking if I'd hit your truck on purpose.
I realize that you probably just didn't see me. After all, I only had a headlight and reflectors, two tail lights, fluorescent yellow shirt, bright orange backpack, reflective seams on my pants and the right of way. So again, I'm sorry.
I guess I should have yelled louder before impact, since Utah law forbids me from carrying a horn you might be able to hear. Your vehicle is bigger than mine and more powerful so obviously it's my responsibility to stay out of your way. Far be it from me to expect everyone else to be aware of my rights and their responsibilities under Utah traffic laws.
The bruise on my arm will remind me of the errors of my ways. I hope I didn't scratch your paint. To everyone else - it may be dark and cold, but we're out there. Pay attention.

Steven Bean
Salt Lake City

[Little Wing]

13. I was being a teenager

and hauling ass down the main strip of the town in which I lived, and swooped in from the road to the sidewalk but also last-minute decided to make a jump of the curb start, at a very bad angle. I ended up crashing, and sliding a lot. I got up, and felt fine. Then people started pointing and holding their hands to their mouths and doing the typical "OMG" routine. I was like "What?".

Then my friend caught up and started freaking out. I'd lost just about all the skin on my right forearm. That's when I looked, and everything about my arm feeling wet made sense. Blood everywhere, instant "oh shit oh shit oh shit" mode. A store owner came out, a Jeweler, took me in, cleaned the wound, got me all bandaged up, and sent me on my way. I should go back and thank him.

[happyslug]

14. I have two new ones, night time near misses when I had a my lights on.

First last week I was riding with my lights on and a pedestrian walked right in front of me, I hit him head on. We both landed on the asphalt, I am still aching. It was at an intersection he was standing next to the light pole and I did not see him on the Sidewalk. When I hit the intersection he step right in front of me. Can't say who was at fault, when I stood up I saw the walk sign on, so it might have been my fault, but I believe the light to go straight was green when I hit that intersection (the Light may have changed and I did not see it). I still have aches in my thigh where I must have pulled something. I should be more careful when going through intersections where they are crosswalks and hidden places for pedestrians to hide behind (The person I hit, picked himself up and continued on his way not even saying anything to me, he was walking with someone else who stepped out of both of our ways, and she asked if I was OK, I said yes, and she then left with her friend).

Than a few days ago, again at night, and again with my lights on (I use a generator light and I always leave it on daylight or night time and I can see if it is on from my seat, the lights has a lip that lights up when the light is on, so I can see it is working even if I can NOT see the front of the headlight). Anyway this time a big Chevy sedan cut right in front of me to go into a store. This time the light was clearly green, he just wanted to cut in front of me so he would not have to wait. Anyway he pulled in front of me I hit my brakes and barely missed hitting him. There is NO way he could have missed me, my front light was on, it was bright, I could see the light on the roadway.

Old men in Cars are dangerous, it reminds me of my Father's old stories about the drunks who were to drunk to walk so they drove instead. About ten years ago I had another incident with a old man driving his can, and making a turn right where I was biking. It was broad daylights and I was biking up a nice grade. As I was biking this old man coming the other direction stooped and then started to turn where I would be when he arrived at the same stop on the road. I stopped peddling. Right behind him was another old man in a car going to the Same Veteran's club. He made eye contact with me and shook his head in disbelief of the first driver. I just shook my head and continued onward. People who can not walk do to age, should not drive.