since this seems to be CRASH day!

[bikerHen'sChick]

Glad you're okay! I thought I had a good audience for my crash, but your's sounds much better. I got my front tire caught in some train tracks and flung into the road in front of two VERY large logging trucks. I don't know who was more scared, me or them! Anyways, as I was sitting on the side of the road at a busy intersection, crying and generally looking pathetic, this motorcycle cop pulls up and is all ready to call an ambulence and fire truck and god knows what else (the fire/ambulence station was right up the road) but I convinced him I was okay. But afterwords, my mom said I should have let him call, in hopes of meeting a hot fireman! It's good you were able to keep going. I was banged up enough to merit stopping the ride, going to the doctor, pain killers and two day of couch rest. Glad your baby wasn't hurt worse. I just got a new one and am dreading ever crashing him.

[annie]

What a story!! So glad you made it out, not unscathed, but not terribly "scathed1" Very scary, knowing you are going down and you can't do a da** thing to prevent it.
I've had numerous crashes, too, in the last 3 1/2 years. Broken pelvis, two concussions, major road rash on my face, bad ankle from a hit-and-run driver. But that last one was ALMOST a year ago and so far, so good! Crash-free and loving it. I rode for 15 years with nary a bad crash till these past years. I intend to ride the rest of my years crash-free. Got to keep a positive attitude. You, too, can be crashless. And then you can get that new bike...

annie

[oph4887]

speaking of mirrors? Does anyone have suggestions if they like the handlebar or helment mirror better? I've got to get better at seeing behind me somehow and my bike goes where my head does.
Hang on in there with the crashes, in the past 2 weeks I've had 2 substancial crashes - bruises, cuts, xrays for the knees, antibiotics for the cuts(so what else would I want to spend money on?)
Remember how brave you are that you get back on and ride again. I know it's tough, you need to pat yourself on the back (not with the injuried hand).
My daughter is a firefighter and a EMT, they like helping people out, it's in their nature.
Take care
Writing from hotter than all get out
Memphis,TN

[SimpleCycle]

Aren't Lunas steel frames? I think it would be a perfect bike for crashing! You can fix steel.

I'm glad you're okay. If you're going to have an audience, at least you got one with medical training!

I've only really crashed once, and fallen over oh, maybe seven times learning to use clipless, so my poor components are pretty scuffed too. The good news is they still work fine with scratches! The brake levers, left pedal, rear derailleur, and right crank are all scuffed. I bent my frame a little too, when I'd only had the bike for three days. Luckily they could bend it back and there was no real damage to my frame. The guys at my local bike shop joked with me that you could tell I actually rode my bike. I told them it would probably be better for me to spend more time on the bike and less on the ground.

[nuthatch]

speaking of mirrors? Does anyone have suggestions if they like the handlebar or helment mirror better?
Memphis,TN

I tried helmet mounted and I knocked it cockeyed every time I ducked into a porta-john during a ride. Within two weeks it was hanging off my helmet at a 90 degree angle...so I switched to a bar end mirror (blackburn) that swivels everywhich way. I can push it completely in against the inside of the bars when I'm loading it into the car and then swing it back out when I ride. I thought I'd hate looking all the way down to the bottom of my road bars to view the mirror but I really LOVE it and adjusted to it right away. I'm just too goofy/dizzy to turn my head backwards and I really want to see what's coming up my backside. Some of those imported cars have such quiet engines, I don't hear them until they are upon me!!

[Jo-n-NY]

Glad to hear you are ok. I am smiling and laughing "a bit" with you also. I have to say in the last couple of weeks I took two very graceful falls myself. Nothing bad, like I said graceful or like gumby and just out of my own stupidity because I really never fall.

Anyway, it is good that you are able to laugh about it now and your husband (mine wouldn't be any different) has a funny story to tell at your expense.

~JoAnn

[emily_in_nc]

speaking of mirrors? Does anyone have suggestions if they like the handlebar or helment mirror better? I've got to get better at seeing behind me somehow and my bike goes where my head does.

I tried a helmet mounted mirror, and it jiggled too much, easily got knocked out of place, and the stickum (which was supposed to last FOREVER) simply didn't. I polled a few folks in my bike club, and all recommended the "Take-a-Look" glasses mounted mirror. I got one and absolutely love it. I believe they're still available right here on Team E! It never moves around and provides a large field of vision. My husband could never get used to it visually, but then, he can look behind himself very nicely without swerving or veering into the road at all. I can't always do that. I am usually the first to see someone coming up behind us, though, because he doesn't look back nearly as often as I do with the mirror. I think it's a wonderful safety device!

Emily

[Grog]

I crashed too!

In no way as spectacular as some of your crashes I have read about here, but a little frightening nonetheless.

On Montreal's Women's Championship course (on road) this morning at 7:30 I was just finishing my warmup and going down at pretty good speed from one side of the hill (Mont-Royal) and preparing to turn right to ride up on the other side. When I entered the curb, already slightly bending toward the inside of the curve, I saw orange cones "announcing" a pile of gravel/small rocks/sand but actually the cones were way too late into the curb for me to slow down or get back to full vertical position. In that split second I had the time to think about Caligurl's crash and probably smiled thinking about the ambulance and firetruck, but there were none behind me, just a guy about 200 feet before me, and there I went, my wheels skid and I was on the gravel pile myself, with the orange cone in my face. I must have braked with the rear brake because I landed on my left side, while I was turning right.

I'm mostly okay, just a pretty good cut on my knee and another smaller one on my elbow, plus a few crash rashes. I cleaned up with water on the spot and then at home with soapy water. I had sand IN my shorts and basically everywhere else. A girlfriend living nearby came to check out the bruise on my elbow as I could not figure it out myself. As for the bike, the left-hand shifter of the bike was displaced, the front wheel seemed a bit false and my handlebar tape is just totally torn. According to the CGBS (I love that Cute-Guy-at-the-Bike-Shop thing), the tape should be the longest thing to fix, the bike will be back tomorrow afternoon. I've dialed the city maintenance "hotline" before I started writing this message but I'm still on hold.

I have had a great fear of crashing ever since I started road biking but frankly it wasn't too bad and almost fun: when, as an adult, do we have a chance to get bruises? Ok my case is not serious so I can smile, but still, it feels childish to get bruises and then to clean them up and say "ouch" and gently blow on them...

Just had to share this.

[trigurl]

I too was going to ask about the mirror! I need one too, thats next on my list.

I have been afraid of going fast down hills on the parkway b/c my DBF mentioned deer running out in front of me, like i needed that picture, but I am now going fast and trying not to think about it, until today, one of my client's girlfriends called and said they were riding a motorcycle and a deer ran right out into the front tire!!!! he is alive but still doesn't know what is going on around him so there goes my carefree flying downhills! I can't imagine what would happen on a bicycle if a deer hit you. We rode last night and after we got back one girl asked if we saw the deer ? I am glad I didn't, i think.

[LBTC]

a deer! yeah, that would be something

one of the local goons was tearing through the bush near my house, on his way to work. he'd already nearly taken out a couple of the guys walking to work on previous rides....
so he whips around a corner and there's a huge buck standing in front of him. the buck really didn't care that he was approaching at mach speed, and the goon apparently didn't have the reflexes to steer around him. Nailed him at full speed! The buck didn't even flinch. The goon was limping and carrying on for a good week or so, and had to ride some decrepit old jalopy of a bike instead of his full on downhill race bike.

I guess it wouldn't be fun at all, but I think it's probably survivable. whew! be careful out there!

Namaste,
~T~

[SimpleCycle]

I often ride over cattleguards and past "Open Range" signs. Obviously they are there for a reason, but I had never seen any cattle until the other day. We ride out to this canyon, and it's a big climb. We cross at least five cattleguards (metal grates that apparently cows don't like to walk across), which probably should have tipped us off that there were cattle in the area.

Screaming down the hill at 30 mph, I spot my first cattle ever. They clearly didn't view us as a threat, and about five of them are crossing the road very slowly. Serious emergency braking ensued. My riding partner and I tried to imagine what a cow vs. bicycle accident would result in, and we concluded the cow would most assuredly come out of it better than we would have.

[julbee]

Great Stories!

Glad everyone is okay!

I have not fallen... yet. (I've just taken up biking again this summer.)
I know it's going to happen... sometime, somewhere!
(I'm likely being extra cautious ever since I've started to use clipleass pedals!)

The area I live in (and ride in) is full of wildlife of all sizes. We have to be extra careful, especially at dusk, as they seem to come out more frequently and in larger numbers then. I was thinking about deer while riding a couple of nights ago. There are so many deer around here! Many people often use those small "whistles" (mounted to the front grates of vehicles and are high-pitched, warning the deer) in this region. I was wondering how fast one must be going for the "whistle" to work and was wondering if they make them for bikes. (Just wonering while riding....)

There are many problems around here, too, with dogs. Some people allow their dogs run around outside without any "restraint." This is , of course, very dangerous to riders! (I have a dog. I love dogs. For the life of me, I don't understand why people let their dogs access the road! Sometimes, for some people, it's a rare mistake...the dog gets away. Others allow their dogs to go wherever, whenever!)

It pays to be as vigilant as possible! Yet, even with vigilance, these animals are too often unpredictable in their movements!

If we are out a little later than we had anticipated and we are in an "isolated" area... just woods on the sides of the roads and little or no traffic, we start to see many animals. We start whistling and/or talking loudly to one another in order to warn them of our presence, as the bikes move along rather quietly. Many have scurried back in to the woods when we have done this.

Cattle? I have found cattle to be of a different nature. They often do not dodge oncoming traffic...even cars!

Have a safe ride!

[poison tumac]

you should convince your husband that if you got a new bike (that fit you better and that you loved more) that you would be less likely to crash!!! LOL Worth a try!