Road riding falls

[Lifesgreat]

As a child, my most memorable fall involved trying to use a jump rope to steer my bike.

As an adult, ALL my falls involved uncooperative clipless pedals.

[DeniseGoldberg]

I'd classify my only really bad crash as a "sometimes **** happens" kind of thing. Unfortunately due to head injuries I'm missing the actual memory of that occurrence, but my suspicion is that I somehow hit a crack in the road wrong (as in my tire got stuck...). I can't really imagine how that happened, but something stopped my bike in her tracks.

--- Denise

[Bad JuJu]

Slow motion tipover grrl here. But mine had to do with getting used to actual toeclips rather than clipless pedals.

I had just started riding with toeclips and straps, learned how to route the straps in the buckles so I could tighten them by pulling up on them after I got moving, and I even got the tension dialed in so the clip/strap/pedal would hold my foot well enough to ride but I could still get it out by wiggling my foot backward, without reaching down to loosen the strap. Well I thought I was the smartest thing on the road and was just having a grand old time.

Then, I slowed for a stop and...simply forgot about the clips entirely. Wham! On the ground and feeling foolish, but nothing bruised other than my pride. So I learned the not-too-hard way to remember to pull my foot out of the clip before stopping.

[maillotpois]

Every which way but loose...?

I've probably had 5 falls, only one of them a low speed tip over and due more to inattention than a clipless issue as I'd been riding cliplesson a MTB for 4 years by then. Here are the other ones I can remember, roughly in order:

1. 2002 - Rode into a pole at the Tahoe century whil so captivated by the singing and poetry of the person I was riding with (a dear friend and TNT honoree) that I failed to notice the ONLY ONE of the darned poles they left in the bike path. Endo'ed and almost landed on my feet.

2. 2002 - Touched a wheel on Silverade at about 24 mph in a tight pack. I've touched wheels a bunch of times, and this is my only fall - due probably to complete exhaustion, dehydration, inability to recover (it was high 90's and we'd sone about 95 miles of a Death Ride training ride. Bent bars, scraped up. Nothing serious.

3. 2005 - Rode into a ditch in the midst of an 85 miler in sideways driving rain on Hwy. 1. Again probably due to exhaustion, inability to recover. Maybe I just wanted a nap. It was nice soft grass!! No injury or bike damage.

4. 2005 - coaching Tucson race (El Tour de Tucson for TNT - the only one I really do as a race). NEVER AGAIN. At mile ONE, Newbie rider crashed right in front of me as he shrieked like a little girl and locked his brakes trying to avoid that SCARY water bottle that rolled across the road. I could have avoided the water bottle but not the 200 pound cylist. I went down, hard and ended up DNF-ing that race after about 40 miles because my back was killing me. That one was the hardest recovery - for months my back hurt on climbs. No bike damage.

I think that's it. My husband jokes that I crash a lot - I really don't - I just crash dramatically. Seems like most are due to pushing myself so hard that I am beyond my ability to recover from silly things.

For 5 years of serious riding (3000 - 6000 miles per year), that pretty good I think.

[Lise]

I'm going to take the risk of jinxing myself here.

If I wipe out in my tri next week, we'll know the real cause, won't we?

OK.

I have not fallen off my bike since high school. I had two falls, both riding whatever cheap, skinny tired bike I had back then. (It was the 70s) One was a wipe out on ice on the way to school. I arrived all scraped up under my jeans. I guess it was probably early spring, with patches of ice still on the streets. I took a corner and .... down! The other was riding to work at a small bookstore, where I'd be the only employee in that day. Again, skinny tired bike. Rutted dirt path. Tire went one way, I went the other. Landed on the left side of my face. Nobody wore helmets back then, come to think of it. I was a mess, and I went to work anyway, tried to clean myself up as best I could. I can't remember how I got home. The bike was OK. Maybe I even rode home. I ended up needing derm treatment for infections on my face from the dirt. I've got three small scars to prove it.

I've had a couple of near misses with the clip ins, but have always gotten out in time.

Sooo...how to vote? That's one sideways slide and one over the bars.

[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.

[light_sabe_r]

The one crash... hit the gutter and Fell off right side... SLID on the road and still have a palm sized scar on my right calf... It's fading to look more like a birthmak

[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?