indyfabz

I haven’t crashed in more than 8 years, and there was nothing I could have done to prevent it. Woman in front of me spit out a stick. It got spun up my my bladed spokes, lodged between the front rim and brake caliper and locked up the front wheel, all while I was powering up to take on a short, steep hill. For a moment I was flying, then gravity won out.

holytrousers

You've had a glimpse of what levitation feels like

NoWhammies

Ok, I'll bite. Why the recommendation to keep your hands on the bars during a crash?

DrIsotope

The goal in a fall is to spread the impact over as large an area as possible-- back, side, hip. Sticking out an arm or leg is pretty much the worst thing you can do. When I fall (which seems to happen too often) I've always ended up with both hands still on the bars, and both feet still clipped to the pedals. Some road rash here, a couple of bruised ribs there, a broken helmet (or two) but I've fared quite well overall. Didn't even cut into my weekly mileage in most cases.

mr_bill

The goal is to NOT fall. Hope this helps.

More generally, I go over each "near miss" and "near fall." My goal is to outsmart the "near miss" and "near fall," so that I don't HIT or FALL.

(And before the cliche of there are two types of cyclists, yes, I've crashed. But if people keep on crashing, over and over again, sorry, I keep thinking they are doing it wrong. Not sorry.)

-mr. bill

moleman123

After seeing a friend go over the handlebars with his hand out in front of him to save himself, and seeing the damage to that hand, I always wear mitts as well as a helmet.

BlazingPedals

LOL There are two kinds of cyclists: ones who will fall in the future and ones that have already fallen. Everyone is in the first group, only the 'lucky' ones are also in the second one. So the only way to not fall is to not ride a bicycle.

My bikes minimize the damage. Falling from 13 inches, hip-first, tends to produce some rug burns but not much else. Yeah, at my age the scabs still last a couple of weeks.

Troul 

oven mitts are soft & can provide grip, but I don't think they're good during a bicycle fall directing the impact into the hand.

cyccommute 

I'll add to DrIsotope's excellent post that the it dissipates the energy of the impact as well. Your bike doesn't have crush zones like a car but the principle is the same. A hand is a very small area attached to two rather small bones. Taking the full impact on the hand translates the energy up the arm and will likely end up breaking those two rather small bones.

The reason that we put out our hands to "catch ourselves" is because bipedalism is a rather awkward method of locomotion and we are prone to falling. At walking speed, this isn't that much of a problem and our arm bones are able to withstand the impact. Put more speed into the system and the bones won't do their job. At running speed, you've likely hit the limit. At bicycle speed, you've far exceeded it.

One thing DrIsotope didn't mention is to relax during a crash. The absolute worst thing you can do is to "brace for impact!" Bracing yourself doesn't do anything except tighten up your whole structure so that the impact is transmitted everywhere. We are bags of mostly water but we have hard bits inside. If you can make the "mostly water" part take much of the impact, the hard bits fair better. The best thing to do when you find yourself in the middle of a crash is to relax and just go with the flow. Yea, it's going to hurt but it will hurt a whole lot less than if you try to fight it. From a bit of a ghoulish sense, the reason drunks fair better in car crashes is because they are relaxed and just let whatever is going to happen, happen.


Sorry but those who don't fall are the ones whose advice is to be avoided. I don't go out and say "I think I'll fall over". It hurts. I don't like it. But it happens. People who have gone 40 years without falling may be stable on a bike but when they do fall, they won't know how to do it because they have no experience. I'm not an unstable rider who can't handle their bike. I just push the edge harder than some.

Training yourself on how to fall while reducing injury takes effort. It takes thought and planning and some "practice", although I'd call it experience. I've crashed more times than I can count or remember. I've seldom ended up with more than scrapes and/or a broken helmet.

Troul 

Basically, my takeaway is; Drunk + Bicycling = Less Injury. SWEET!

mr_bill

So, you've indeed ended up worse? And yet you want to "teach" others.

Sorry, just stop crashing. (Not sorry.)

I used to get tackled all the time playing football (soccer). I got VERY good at landing.

I got much better when I learned how NOT to get tackled.

-mr. bill

FiftySix

I think cycccommute does a lot of active off-road bicycling. Any off roading done at fun speeds is like playing American Football. Crashing and Tackling are part of the game.

genejockey 

My experience with bike crashes was that they were sudden and by the time I knew they were happening, they'd already happened. Before I had a chance to think "Tuck and Roll!" I was already down. My thoughts weren't "I'm having an accident!". More like, "Why a I down here?"

cyccommute 

But before you learned how not to be tackled, you had to lear now to be tackled. It’s part of the game. Crashing is part of bicycling. You may be able to avoid it but when it happens...not “if”...if you haven’t learned (or at least thought) about crashing, you won’t be prepared.

And, yes, I’ve crashed a lot mostly due to mountain biking but not only while mountain biking. Having done it, I’m a better fit for teaching people how to deal with crashes then someone who has never crashed. If you’ve never failed, you’ve never learned anything.

FiftySix

BTW, I played defender for many years. Anyone that didn't pass the ball on their attempt to go around me got a sliding tackle. Sometimes they let me take the ball, other times they hit the earth. As long as I contacted the ball, I never got carded. Back in the day, I tell ya.

mr_bill

You mean similar to the asymmetry of getting run over by a CDL operator?

They almost never get carded either.

p.s. The travesty that didn’t matter, I I took a ball to the byline, crossed it back to a teammate on a far post run, who headed the ball short of the far post and over. (They couldn’t hit the broadside of a barn with their head), but THEY got called for offside. Not possible, but there you have it.

But let’s all learn how to tumble between doubles.

-mr. bill

alcjphil

Really good advice along with your earlier posts. I also have learned the same lessons and guess what? I don't crash as often as I did in my daredevil younger days, and I fear crashes less. My mountain bike crashes were sometimes spectacular. We had a measure "bike sep", how far you landed from your bike when the dust settled. I usually won.

FiftySix

Lol. I'm just poking fun here.

Although, I spent most of my soccer days as a defender I definitely put in a few games as midfielder, forward, and even goalie. I got taken down plenty of times. I still got messed up ankles, knees, and shins from that sport. The old knee injuries affect my bike riding the most.

cyccommute 

I save all my most spectacular crashes for when no one is around

billnuke1 

Then, they didn’t happen...

mr_bill

FWIW, pothole != off road.

But even off road, I’d prefer to learn from the rider who DIDN’T crash into a Saguaro. More than once.

-mr. bill

alcjphil

But they don't count if nobody saw them

drlogik 

I went almost 20 years without a "serious" crash. Then I crashed in 2017 and it was actually a blessing because it revealed a problem in my back...which I got fixed. The I went another three years and crashed this past March, really bad, really jacked my wrist up. Shattered it actually. I'm sporting a plate, screws, pins...it was bad. I am still rehabbing my arm and it may be a year before it gets "back to normal". I yearn to get back on my bike.

Other posters are correct, you don't know when it's going to happen but it will happen. You can only hope that you land softly. In my case, in 2017 I did, sort of, but in March I didn't.


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sovende

I'm pretty sure I must have suffered a few falls as a kid but that was many,many years ago 😉. I can really only remember 3 times in the past 25 years when my bike's wheels were horizontal, not turning and I was still connected to the pedals 😬. First time, brand new custom made Italian bike. Tried to turn too sharply with minimal momentum on gravel patch of a back road. Boom, down I went! Fortunately, going pretty slow, body absorbed most of the insult but my new Campy brake lever did get scratched 🙄. Next time, riding too close to a curb when pedal came down on top of the curb. Instant stop and tip over. Busy road, lots of observers. Pride damaged more than bike 😜. Most recent, less than 2 years ago. Riding hybrid bike on a less traveled trail. Going kinda slow, hit a patch of sand (3-4" deep) couldn't get unclipped from pedals fast enough to keep from tipping over. Again, pride damaged way more than bike 🙄, fortunately, this time no spectators 😉.

cyccommute 

That’s why I said that I’ve had more crashes than I can remember