Road riding falls

[Geonz]

Welp, the question was a little scary - "the majority of your falls" - sounds like they happen all the time!!!
My falls generally have a good reason, though not necessarily something I could change. In hmmm... definitely over 20,000 miles of riding:
- moved to sidewalk in a drizle when an ambulance was coming... went over wet RR tracks... does that count as side-slide or side-tip? Graceless splat that owuld have hurt the noggin proper w/o helmet.
- Fall on the ice and snow during the "Illini Chill" - defies category since I'm not sure I was upright anyway :-) WHen you fall into snow it doens't matter, though my keys were in my pocket and left a bruise and a hole in my sweats.
- Tip and splat going 5 mph carrying something and hitting a stick.
-over-the-bars... when the club said "Sue, you *gotta* see how fast you could go on a lighter bike!" and we didn't consider that a higher quality bike would have higher quality brakes... hello, gravel!
... but then, there were the roughly 15 falls that I *caused* in that messy clumpline I didn't realize (newbie thing) I was in, when the bike in front of me lost her light and I hit the brakes jsut hard enough to bring 'em all down behind me... I didn't go down at all, of course, 'cause it's the one in back who bumps wheels who goes down!

[Fredwina]

I think SK has jinxed me!
Today I was in 25mph paceline, crossed wheels, and have pretty new blue sling for my left arm (fractured Humerus)
My previous worst fall (which resulted in a Ambulance ride). Descend at 30 - hit a patch of gravel - slid out. Problem here was I wear clip-on over prescription glasses and the cut me to where I was bleeding bad enough that I could not see out of one eye. Had about 10 stitches (Knee got banged up pretty bad), Broke a finger, and destroyed a helmet.
I've never gone over the bars, and I used to do a lot of mountain biking. I remember think today That maybe should have gone OTB (The tandem couple I was with Can drop pro women(I.e. Amber Nieben) with ease. we had been going 20, but had attracted a few wheel suckers, and I think Tom and Sue upped the pace to shake them

[Jenerator]

With a sample set of only 4 road crashes (that I remember) I voted for every which way...thought I could have gone with variations on slow & high speed slides...

I'm not sure of the first, it may have been over the bars, or it may have been a high-speed slide. I was 5 or 6 at the time, the hill was steep, there was gravel, I hit the coaster brakes hard before trying to take the corner at the bottom. I got a bunch of stiches in my head and a scolding from a neighbor for damaging the curb with my head. (before the new scolding starts, it was the reckless 60's...I don't think they had bike helmets for kids then)

The second and third were variations of the slide, one from my rack coming un-bolted and getting jammed in my spokes, the second cornering on ice.

The 4th was the obligatory slow speed tip when getting used to clipless pedals.

[deedolce]

Yah, hard to count those silly tip over falls, being clipped in. How many have I had?? 4 or 5? And many close calls where a desperate yank of the foot has saved me.

My one fall in motion was my own newbie fault for trying to get as close to the edge as possible instead of asserting my presence on the road, and letting this sedan 'think' it could squeeze it, me, and the giant tomato truck coming the other way with no bike lane on a narrow country road. My tire fell off the edge of the hardstuff and into the soft gravel, and I slid for a while, kissing asphalt. Road rash on my cheek (hey! It erased some wrinkles!) and messed up my hand. I limped the 5 miles back home, shaking. Got a cell phone that week!

[massbikebabe]

Sadie;

Before my stroke I did an awesome fall to the right, rolled onto my back and got my bike over me so it would not get scratched. My son thought it was the best fall he ever saw. Then there was the fall backwards onto my arse trying to do a pop-wheelie fall. These days when I feel strong enough to get on my bike I fall off to the left all the time, (this bein my stroke side). I also drive my bike to the left and go looking for crashes, (not on purpose)
So I am an everywhich way faller, but mostly because life happens!!!!!


karen

[Tater]

Road bike wipe outs? Three. First was the obligatory unclip failure after switching to clipless pedals. Second was a slow-mo tip over in Yellowstone, eighteen miles into a metric. (I think I was looking for my friend, turned the handlebars one way and my body went the other.) Third was dog induced. Avoided one, but the down stroke of my left pedal caught the second one in the head and I went down. Now I have the same problem as Nanci, my knee still bothers me to kneel down on it and that incident happened at the beginning of May!
Mountain bike wipe outs? I lost count a long time ago!

[Kitsune06]

My endos were stupid learning experiences. My first was when I was a kid and wanted to hear the 'pingpingpingping' sound I figured my shoe would make on the spokes of my bike's front wheel

The latest was probably dumber... I was playing at doing trials stuff, and after doing a near-trackstand, I got going a little and tried doing a stoppie. Oh, I stopped alright. The back of the bike came up, I came off the saddle and was promptly straddling the top tube and handlebars with feet not quite reaching the ground. >< OHOHHHWWWOWWWWWW!!!

...uh... yeah. I looked around and made sure no one was there to see, then promptly scooted. Haven't tried THAT since!

[Leonne]

My first fall was a simple, in place and fall over because I clipped in and then put to much weight on that side and just fell over. My boyfriend just laughed. It was pretty funny. But made me sad to see the first scratched on my bike.

[arnaew]

My only claim is the slow topple over sideways. My SO had just fitted a compact crank to my bike, and like a complete tosser, I took it for its first trial up the Gorge Road to Kangaroo Creek Dam, thinking 'hey, a compact crank will get me up these hills that I couldn't get up before!' (Adelaide South Australia is on the plains with the ocean on side and nothin' but hills on the others - if you want to get out of town, you have to climb.) So I'm climbing up an 8% gradient, come to one of those revolting turns around the cliff face that gets even steeper as you turn, change down to my new lowest gear and whack! it slips out of that gear and back to the higher one with an almighty jolt. I'm firmly clipped in and, will admit, am only doing about 6kph (very slooow) - the whack and subsequent jerk of the bike shifts my centre of gravity, my left cleat snaps out of the pedal, the bike is angled to the turn, I can't slide back in so can't pedal, going any slower means I fall over sideways - and of course I do. Wearing 3/4 knicks, so only have bitumen rash on my right calf, but oww! SO was pretty concerned about the new cranks... looked after me too, and adjusted us both beautifully.


Incidentally: massbikebabe, I note you wrote you fell on your "arse". I thought Americans always said/wrote "***". Is this a New England thing or is it just pronunciation vs spelling?

[im4smiley]

I too have had the clipless stumbles, I call them stumbles cause I never really fell, I did ride with some people once that I had never ridden with and one girl was very nervous riding in the road. we had to stop wait for traffic to stopp so we could cross a road and when it was clear we were all bunched up crossing and she just stopped I was in back of her, caught her back wheel and we went down kind of slipping sideways down the little incline. We were ok, her bike ok, my shifter hit the ground...not ok had to replace it.