How come when everyone else falls/crashes

I've had a few crashes, and I've never broken anything, which is weird because I have osteoporosis. Although it's being treated successfully now, I've known I had osteopeinia since I was in my mid forties, but every one of the drugs that came out then made me sicker than hell, so it's only been in the last 3 years that I've made progress in reversing the trend, with meds that i can tolerate. My worst crash, which occurred going downhill on a wet Vermont descent in the fall of 2005 did nothing but cause road rash and a bruise on my hip. I always fall on my left side, and I think that I kind of go limp and I purposely try and not break my fall with my hands. My DH had 2 broken wrists (one really broken and one a hairline fracture) from a fall off of a ladder and after seeing him go through that, I never want to deal with that !
And, I did weight bearing exercise from age 25-45 (high impact aerobics and step class), which did absolutely nothing to stop the progress of my bones deteriorating. In my case, it's genetic, as well as being short, white, thin.
My only regret is that I did stop mountain biking as I sucked at it and I fell all of the time!

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Originally Posted by pll

I ride with a woman who also races and she says the slow crashes are the worst in terms of broken arms and collarbones because generally people have time to try to halt the fall by stretching an arm.

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I also agree with this. High speed crashes you tend to slide, so worse road rash but less bone breakage. Slow speed crashes do seem to result in more bone injuries. Skin is more painful, but bones are more expensive and a pain in the neck, for the most part.

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Originally Posted by pll

I ride with a woman who also races and she says the slow crashes are the worst in terms of broken arms and collarbones because generally people have time to try to halt the fall by stretching an arm.

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I agree with this. I crashed a couple of weeks ago on my MTB at 15 mph, when I tapped a tree with the end of the handlebar. I hit the ground so fast that I couldn't react, just landed on my shoulder and rolled across my back. I got up, straighted the handlebars, and rode on with nothing but a few scrapes and bruises. If I'd had time to think about reaching an arm, I'd have surely broken something.

So the corollary is that we just need to ride fast(er). :D

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Originally Posted by pll

So the corollary is that we just need to ride fast(er). :D

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Or go slow enough that we don't hit trees :D

Hope you're feeling better soon Scrappy!

;)

My wrecks (both bike and snowboard) have been relatively high speed and I always break stuff too. My doctor doesn't think I need a bone density test, he thinks I just do dangerous stuff and I have small bones. But man it gets tiresome waiting for everything to heal!

No broken bones here--I'm a concussion kind of girl.

Feel better everyone!

Scrappy . . . my prayers are with you. I hope you are healing well.
Zoom-Zoom . . . give my prayers to your friends. I hope they all heal soon!
Bike Writer . . . my prayers are with you, too!

Thank You ALL for the love, prayers, and support. It sure helps :-) ((((Group Hug))))

Scrappy

I guess there are exceptions to everything.

Once I did the "Climb the Kaiser" riding event. It wasn't a race but we did get timed. 155mile with about 13,500 feet of climb. Starts in the central valley of California, head east into the high Sierra. Being at the height of summer, the trick was to get to the foothill before the temperature skyrocketed into the 100s. We also had police blocking off intersections so we could blast through the town at race speed.

Well every year it seems, they have a pile up near the front where the guys are jockying for positions. The year I rode, about ten guys went to the hospital with broken bones and what not. They were going close to 30MPH. Halfway through the ride, I caught up with one of the injured road warrior and he threw the towel in at just before the final ascent of Kaiser pass (elev 9200feet). We had a dreaded climb from big creek? to Shavers lake. sections averaging 12-15% grade. Poor guy had one of the biggest raspberries I've ever seen.

The two times I've shattered my collar bones, one on each side, I was doing around 30MPH. Speed definitely did not help with the slide. I just went smoosh-crunch.

The other extreme have been times when I forgot I was doing a track stand at a light, too busy talking with the guys, I fell over. 0 MPH, no scratch or scrapes. Guys forgave me for being a stupid woman. :D

I also know of a gal who broke her hip when she avoided a dog only to crash into a tree. She was going downhill around 30-40MPH. She did slow down considerably before hitting the tree.

Soo it's just matter on your luck and how you fall or crash.

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Originally Posted by smilingcat

Soo it's just matter on your luck and how you fall or crash.

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Very true. I have been lucky thus far.

I guess it is a little bit of luck with perhaps a bit of "falling" skill involved. But I guess you gotta know you are going to fall. Both times I crashed it was a complete surprise. The first time sheer stupidity -- even though it was a surprise. The second time I don't remember crashing. I woke up in the hospital.