Quote Originally Posted by DeniseGoldberg
Ouch - I'm afraid that based on your question "have you crashed" you are getting stories only from those of us who have crashed. And I think the whole point of the question was to help you get past your fear of falling. It seems that everyone who answered who has crashed has also moved past the crash and continued riding.

A certain amount of fear - or maybe I should say caution - may be good, but I hope that you don't let these stories scare you away from cycling. As I said before, I really believe that if you look at the overall number of crash-free rides vs. the rides where someone has hit the ground - well the crash-free happy rides are much more common.
--- Denise
You're right. I wasn't really looking to hear all those horror stories!! (I may not be able to sleep tonight ;-) ) But it's comforting to know that you can move on after a bad crash. I love speed and I want to take corners fast...it just feels so cool to lean the bike into a curve. But if I see any gravel or sand on the road I turn into a big weenie and brake and cross it going very slowly. And maybe there isn't anything wrong with that.

I was really hoping to find out how painful laying the bike down on a road was...but I guess realistically that would depend on the individual circumstances.