DrPete 

One crash was in a turn, so centrifugal force launched me to the outside of the turn--went over my bike to the outside of the turn and actually landed on my feet in the grass. This is good, because it gave me a great vantage point to turn around and watch another rider land right on my Pinarello F4:13 frame pile-driver style and break it.

Runner 1

+1

As long as it was nothing serious, I'd be much more upset about the bike.

kenji666

I crashed in a turn on Saturday during a century ride. Coming down off a fast descent into a turn, and saw someone had already crashed. His teammates were in the corner, and my rear wheel was locked up skidding right for him. By the time I reached him, my velocity was pretty low, so it was very low impact. Me and the bike were okay. He had a broken water bottle cage (not sure if it was me or the initial crash). I think I flipped endo-style over the bars, but I'm not sure. I just kept thinking to myself how stupid it was to attack that descent on an unfamiliar course. The first guy was probably thinking the same thing.

hairnet

I hit a bump (don't ask how I didn't see it) that tossed my front wheel into the air and to the side. Time slowed down, I knew I was going down, and somehow I ejected myself from the bike (I was clipped in). I quickly got up with an adrenaline rush and then the pain overwhelmed my whole body and I had to lie down. A couple minuted later I was able to slowly ride my way back home with some road rash.

Walter

According to my Garmin I went into the traffic circle at 22 and hit the pavement at 18. Truly stupid crash. Cost me a helmet a brake hood and some deep rash on my right knee that took awhile to heal. Not fun and to answer your question: it hurt.

Dean7

I have. It looked a little like this (and I was really lucky... my helmet took most of the impact... split it in two, but I still rolled a few more times). Hope we're all as lucky as me I guess.

Val23708

first crash - ~25 mph wet -4% descent - i locked the rear and went down and slid a good 20-30 ft. Just road rash (landed on my left butt cheek).

second crash - 25-30 mph front tire blew after hitting a bad bump (combination of a concrete lip and 80 psi front tire) , highsided onto my left side - left side helmet impact. apparently (i dont remember this) i got up and inspected my bike and made a comment about its condition. vaugly getting put into a black car and then at the start line, getting strapped to a board and finally was able to start remembering things as I was loaded into the ambulance. I was repeating things to the paramedic. CT scan turned up good and had a good amount of road rash on my left side. Had a dull headache the next day but was fine afterwards.

If you dont stick your arms out, you probably wont break your collerbone. both times i had my hands on the bars when i hit the ground (tore through the back of my gloves)

speed is okay when you crash as long as you have plenty of road to slide or roll on. if theres stuff in the way or a cliff then theres a problem.

thedeadone

Did you do this in the California Classic a few weeks back??

Terror_in_pink

my dude crashed going about 25-30 mph a few weeks ago. A dog ran right into the street out of some bushes and he hit the dog then went flying into the air. A cracked helmet, a ton of road rash and a shredded kit later, he hobbled to all the doors nearby to notify the owner, but no one admitted to being the guardian of the dog. I think he also killed a bird on the same day before the dog. He must have been emitting some ridiculous energy to attract animals into his path. He felt really really really bad. $100 of tegaderm and a few weeks later, all is restored + some scars.

ouchies

Nachoman

Try to fall drive train side up if possible.

mazdatech10

no it was jan 2009

cooleric1234

All this advice about tucking and rolling, holding the handlebars, etc. makes me laugh. I had a crash a few years ago where I didn't extend my arm and landed on my shoulder. Guess what? Got a posterior labral tear in my shoulder, recurrent instability, and I just shelled out a bunch of cash (after insurance) for my shoulder surgery to have it fixed. But hey, in another 6 months I'll feel almost as good before the crash. Better than a broken collarbone?

CPcyclist

Crashing on the road is slightly less painful then off road mostly due to a smoother surface to slide on if your lucky. I have done both and they both hurt but I have only ended up with surgery (knee) after going off a downhill trail and sliding/tumbling 40-50 ft down the side of the "hill" (rocks are not good to roll though). Hitting a construction barrel during a race at ~30mph earning some frequent flyer miles only came home with road rash after finishing the race 10min down though I though it felt more like 30-40 minute at the side of the road, glad it was near the end of the race. One of the other guys cut his hand on my chain ring as the bike was flying in the air. There are many more time the I tried to prove humans can break the Law of Gravity but I am still unsuccessful. Note tegaderm is the best for road rash, and it helps if you are a friend of a doctor who can get you the x-large size.

Reynolds 

Only once crashed at 20+, didn't notice a speedbump at night. No great harm - some road rash, a sore arm for 1 week, 1 tacoed wheel.

thedeadone

hey I just remembered a crash I had(the only one I have had thank goodness) it happened about 25 years a go. I do not think I was going 20mph most likely around 16 or 17 mph. I was rushing home from a friends house. It was my dads birthday that day and we where having a party for him. I almosty made it home but on my last turn(onto my block) i hit the corner fast and much to my surprise they had repaved that part of the road that day, and they had thrown out sand onto the pavement-- well you know what happened - my tires slid out from under me and I hit the the ground still mounted to my bike(this is back in the day with toe clips and leather straps) and my hands still on the bars. Me and my bike slid acroos the width of the whole rode untill my tires impacted with the curb - and I am telling you the truth here. The impact caused me to flip back to the up right position. I pulled a foot out of the straps real fast and there I was- looking like nothing had happened!!!!!! BUT, the road rash on my right fore arm and right leg told a differant story. I remember getting in the shower with a rag and scrubbing the sand and asphault out of my wounds!!!! Man I can tell you that is some pain!!!

KiddSisko

Back in the day, I rode around LA and Hollywood streets on a 27 lb Peugeot 10 speed, sans helmet. I hadn't experienced a bike accident since age 11, and never even hit the ground in all the years riding a road bike. So one winter afternoon I was heading back from a shopping trip on a very busy street. It was mostly wide enough as far as city streets go, but did have a few narrow sections. There was one 50 foot section in particular that always gave me the willies because there was no room for both a bike and a car, truck or bus. It was just after a major intersection with loads of traffic, so whenever I passed through I took the lane and sprinted as fast as I could.

Well, halfway through on that day, both wheels suddenly lost traction and I hit the ground hard. I'll guess I was going close to 30 mph at the time. My head and body hit the concrete and I saw stars. Lots of them. After the bike and I came to a halt, I remember being dazed and confused for a few seconds, then had enough awareness to realize I was laying in the middle of a busy street with approaching cars, got up and pulled the bike to the sidewalk.

I sat for a few minutes trying to figure out what happened, and if I was seriously injured. The bike was fine except for scuffed bar tape, and other than an overall body ache, I wasn't injured. When I looked closely at that section of street, I saw that it was glazed with something wet. Turned out to be a sheen of oil of some sort. I know because some of it had pooled in the gutter. There was a new hotel being built at that intersection, so it could have been diesel fuel or hydraulic fluid from one of the construction vehicles.

I had a scrape on my forehead, and some bruising on my elbow, knee and hip, but other than that I was fine. I was wearing street clothes (and a layer of some sort because it was cold) at the time, so that obviously kept the road rash to a minimum.

canyoneagle

if I can still recall my old physics from 25 years ago, momentum = .5 * m*v (squared) - the damage goes up dramatically with speed.

cooleric1234

I think momentum is mass*velocity but force is mass*acceleration. So the question is how fast do you go from 20+ mph to 0 mph?

canyoneagle

I had a very similar crash last year. First time I've gone down in at least 20 years (well, excepting mountain biking). The impact of the divot in the pavement ripped my left hand off of the bars (I was on the hoods).
Same scenario - I knew I was going down, but time slowed down. I ended up hitting the curb with my hip bone (I still have a small hematoma 8 months later). Not fun.
That was at a pretty slow speed, say 15 MPH.

Elmog

Every sport has some element of risk. The only way to insure an uneventful and safe day is to sit on the couch and watch the boob tube. You can and will get hurt once you get off the couch. This warning should be on every couch sold in the USA.

PS- Please limit you television time to re-runs of "Little House on the Prairie" or "The Waltons" as other shows may contain blood/action/violence which could raise your blood pressure and produce harmful side effects.

mwandaw

Very, very important!

gbiker

Hey, that's great advice! There's no point whatsoever in discussing how to avoid crashes, minimize damage, etc., while still bicycling. Just like how you accept regularly crashing into other cars and things as a fact of life of driving!

foresthill

I endoed on a MTB flying down a hill doing at least that. I lucked out and tumbled into the duff between the trees instead of hitting one of them. Amazingly, I ended up with no significant injuries. Still scared the crap out of me, and i just sat there for a good 5 - 10 minutes.

I never did figure out what caused my front wheel to stop dead.

theextremist04

I've hit the pavement at 35mph or so- tucked and rolled and ended up in the grass. Trashed my shorts, lots of road rash, but I was pretty much okay. I trashed a brand new $200 saddle (first ride) though, and I was pissed about that.

pbd

I crashed at about 17 or 18 last week. I was pretty lucky, just a touch of road rash on left side: ankle, calf, knee, hip, hand, elbow, shoulder. I didn't even notice at the time, but I discovered at home later that I also put a big dent on the left side of my helmet. That was the most impressive thing I think, that I didn't even think I had hit my head at all until I noticed a dollar-bill sized dent in my helmet. But except for the roadrash and a little bruising, no real problems.

My bike was quite lucky too. I went down to the left, but it somehow only had scratches on the right side: scratched brifter, scratched rear derailleur, bent hanger. I suppose it landed on me before flipping over. I had only had the bike for 3 days too, I was pretty upset about that, but everything ended up ok, thank god.

The people behind me praised how "well" I fell. It happened so fast there's no time to think about any of it, but I apparently did a pretty good job with the tuck'n'roll, not extending my arm, etc. I didn't have time to think about anything except "oh ****, this is going to hurt..." and then bam.

I don't recommend trying it. On the whole it wasn't so bad in my case, but I was pretty lucky.