Crashed Yesterday

Had a hard crash yesterday. I went over my handlebars and landed face first in the dirt. EMS said that my helmet probably saved my life as I hit the ground that hard. I had gone down a hill, went into a dip and lost control of the bike when it hit a root. The trail then turned suddenly and I was going too fast to make it.

I'm pretty much out of commission for now with a concussion. Thankfully, the 2nd CT scan said the bleeding they thought I had with the 1st scan was gone and they sent me home with instructions to come back if things change.

Thankfully; my son was with me and was able to call 911. It took the EMS a few minutes to find us as we weren't sure of our location. Turns out we weren't far from the exit.

I lost two cell phones and my glasses. I vaguely remember taking them off..or I think. DH and my son went back to look and found my Android. They couldn't find my glasses or my dump phone. Hopefully Verizon won't give me a hard time about the phone.

I'm going back to bed. I'm stuck wearing my sunglasses until I can see my doc on Wednesday.

Oh man. Rest and heal up quick!

Oh dear! Take care. So good you had your son with you.

So glad you weren't alone, and that you weren't hurt worse. Get better and let us know how things go!

Bummer, Bethany. How's your face?

Sorry to hear. Hope you have a speedy recovery

It's a good job you weren't alone. Good wishes for a quick recovery!

Glad you're okay. Rest up for a few days. Let the family take care of you.

And do you need to go shopping for a new helmet?? Sounds like it took a hit. (I think it earned a spot in the trophy case though.)

Oh no! Take care and get lots of rest!!

Doing better today..sort of. I hate the in/out of everything feeling and it's driving me nuts.

I landed in soft dirt and did more of a "plop" instead of skidding which saved my face. My helmet took most of the fall and then my knees. Grateful there wasn't any poison ivy where I landed either.

I have some bumps on my face and it's sore, but I'm grateful I have all my teeth and didn't break my nose. The crack I heard was the helmet hitting the ground.

My back disc brake is gone. You can press on the brake and the bike moves like there's nothing there.

That's scary stuff. I'm glad you're going to be okay. Wishing you a speedy recovery.

Oh No! Get well soon - I'm glad you are ok.

Yikes! Hope you're doing better soon! Glad you didn't break your face though. :p

Hope you heal up quickly!

Take good care! I'm so sorry this happened to you. Thank goodness for helmets.

Get better soon!

Take care and get better soon. :)

Thank goodness you had your son with you and of course you had your helmet on.

You poor thing, sending you lots of virtual hugs.

Get better very soon. :)

Ouch! Heal up quickly.

OMG...

Rest and heal up quick!

Saw the doc today. Said it would just take time to recover and take it easy as my brain can only process so much and then it needs to rest. I hate the cobwebs in the corner feeling of a concussion. After 4 days, I thought I'd be up and around more, but I'm still slow going. The one thing that is driving me nuts is not having my glasses. I look blind with my sunglasses, but I'm grateful I have them until I get a new pair.

Nice thing about seeing the doc was that I've lost 5 pounds from the last time I was there.

Part of me is scared to get back on a bike let alone go back to the trail. I'm sure that's normal too.

DH said when he went back to find my glasses and phone the back disc brake was gone. You can ride the bike with the brake being used.

When I'm up to it, I'll get up to the LBS to have them look at it.

Is there a trick to stopping on dirt? Regardless of what I did throughout the trail, I wasn't slowing down enough. It wasn't even a controlled slide. By the time I hit the hill and went through the dip, I knew I was done for.

I'm still new..2nd time through the course but if you can't stop on dirt, you are just asking for another accident. I didn't realize DH and I had gone the wrong way on parts of the trail the first time so my memory map was completely confused. The trail isn't marked very well so it's easy to get lost.

Bethany, I'm glad you're OK. Rest up and take care of yourself. Be patient. Concussions can be slow to heal and trying to force things to go faster will only make you recover more slowly.

This is a time to treat yourself gently.

Hope you stick to pavement for awhile when return to cycling. Take an easy. I fell last summer...on flat gravel path. Ridiculous, but it simply me not even thinking about where I was going.

Bethany, maybe ask about stopping techniques in a separate thread in the MTB section so more people will see and answer. I'm strictly a road rider, all I know is that when traction is iffy on two wheels (moto or bici) you need to use more rear brake, just feather the front which is the one that gives you steering and control, and shift your weight backwards to give more traction to the tire you can brake more aggressively with. Hopefully some of the MTBers will have more detailed tips and videos that you can ponder while you're healing and practice when you return.

Bethany, you might find a dirt/gravel road with some hills and practice braking there, feathering the brakes and taking it easy on the front brake, which has more stopping power. Try keeping one finger on your brakes and as others say, and shift your weight back on the downhills. Practice braking just up to but not the point where your front wheel locks. Having you front wheel lock up can flip you off in no time. You had mentioned before having a few near misses and not being totatally comfortable on the 29'er. I think stepping back to working on skills on easy trails and dirt roads can help.

I am not a mountain bike rider. Yet. But I did ride motorcycle dirt bikes for some years.

But take lots of time to heal first!

A couple of good threads about braking:

http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showthread.php?t=1668

http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showthread.php?t=2691

They helped me learn to correctly use my front brake, and I'm much more comfortable on descents and turns as a result.

I know nothing about mountain biking as I'm a terror when on the dirt...but I wanted to wish you a speedy recovery. It sounds like a hell of a spill!

Get better soon!

This may be getting a little too in-depth for this thread, but I also vary the tire pressure depending on trail surfaces for better traction. But I'm not so great at avoiding crashes either :) its tough when you're just good enough to get yourself into major trouble.

Hope your cobwebs are fading!

Bethany, So glad you are alright. Take care of yourself and get some rest. A crash like that really, truly takes it out of you. Sending healing thoughts your way!

Thanks for all the well wishes. Yesterday and today have the been the first two days where I'm doing great. I'm aware of everything, don't have the "birdies" flying around my head anymore and my head has stopped hurting.

When you finally realize your house is a disaster after 6 days, your rose bush you planned on planting is dying out on the porch and you wonder why you didn't call Lenscrafters to get a new pair of glasses the same day, things are sort of back to normal. Kicking myself about not calling Lenscrafters though. My local store has to order them in and it takes a week or so.

Now the problem is that I feel great I want to go ride, clean house, and dig a hole for the rose bush, but I know my brain is still healing. Sitting around the house is killing me but I just need to be patient. I have all the time in the world to ride a bike but I only have one brain so I'll just hang out and home.

Finally got a look at my helmet yesterday. It's got a nice crack in the styrofoam. Dang thing was really expensive too so I can't go out and buy a new one. I have a cheaper Bontrager helmet so I'm not stuck. Regardless of price I'm just grateful it worked.

A lot of helmet companies have crash replacement programs. You won't get one free, but they might give you a hefty discount. Can't hurt to ask. I think they take your crashed helmet back to analyze how it absorbed (or transmitted) the impact.

Reading this thread just made me pull the trigger on ordering a new helmet. I would have bought one at the LBS, but we have road construction going on b/w me and them. I'm positive a package will get here much faster than me trying to drive down there and back!