StrayCompass

What is your worst crash? Do you have photos?

I started a new blog called Quickdirt.com and I'm working on an article about mountain bike injuries. Looking for a few interesting tales to talk about besides my own.

Here is a sample article called "Why Do We Race Our Mountain Bikes?"
https://quickdirt.com/2013/12/06/why-...ountain-bikes/

Look forward to hearing your tales!

dminor 

For my worst, it's probably a toss-up between two: OTB in a local DH race that fractured the orbit in my right eye or the crash the same year in a BMX race that landed me in the hospital with three cracked ribs and pneumothorax. I've also broken my collarbone on both sides but those were less wierd or painful crashes.


. . . and yeah, I still race - - downhill, XC and branching out into enduro. It's a sickness .

thehammerdog

for me it was pre suspension as I was pounding down a trail hit rut lost control crashed, smacked nutz on stem almost puked. slid face first for about 10 feet. Shoulder has not been same ...15 yrs ago. Pre digital video..so no pictures....

Daspydyr 

This hurt and kept me off the bike for 9 months. I was practicing jumps from lot to lot in a housing development, about a 4' drop. Nothing heroic, just landed front heavy and did a lawn dart. Broke C1, C2 and T6. That was in 2010.

The most glorious wreak moment was missing a left corner, sliding through the desert, getting 11 stitches in my left knee, severely sprained left ankle and almost tore the end of my right pinky finger off. I didn't have a plug in a bar end and the finger caught in the bar end hole and ripped the finger up.

floating dutchy

Four weeks ago, broke a rib or two (not sure, mum who is a nurse thinks I probably broke ribs) getting hit by a log while riding, Laughing is O.K. now but sneezing still makes me want to cry.
I was riding up hill behind a slower rider, got to close so slowed to get the gap back, front wheel went over a rock, well a stone all of 1 1/4", enough to make me lose balance, put my foot down on the grass on the edge of the track, and found that the grass was 18" tall, bugger!
Looked down the bank and saw for-mentioned log, then, For-mentioned log came up and hit me in the back, off to one side.
That is what I saw, and that is the story I'm sticking to, Naughty log!
When I came to a stop I still had one pedal clipped in, two hands on the bars and brakes firmly ON, So no, I did not fall off my bike, I just got hit by a log, Honestly.
So I just got of my bike, or was that got the bike off me?
I knew that the log had hit me hard but at the time I honestly didn’t think anything was broken, took a few days for the pain to really start.

Ahh, fun times mountain biking.

Gezman

Got hit by a ford f 150 , drug me a few feet ,my legs were under the front of the truck my cheapo bike was bent all to heck , I got up managed to walk away threw my bike in a dumpster and walked home with lots of road rash . thank goodness I'm alive.

Papa Wheelie

Was going far too fast for trail conditions, and got into a "head-on" collision. I bounced off my noggin, and went to the e-room because something in my back did not feel right.

Ended up with a 25% compression fracture of a vertebrae.

davoon

Did fall a couple of time but my worst was caused by a pedestrian. Was approaching a local trail on a cycle path (parallel to a heavy traffic main road). So yeah i saw 3 chicks walking towards me, i was riding at a pretty high speed. They were on the pedestrian path side of the road. So one just looses her balance for a sec and suddenly she was right in front of me and despite heavy braking our shoulders met and bang i was OTB. For some reason I realized if i dont get hold on something i will end up falling into the traffic which made me grab a small tree on the side of the path. I still beleive that to be the right move but the bark of the tree cut my arms so badly ambulance had to be called. They cleaned the wounds and git stitches.. People to this day think im suicidal because of the scabs.

And this was the lesson that taught me, just because a pedestrian looks like to be turning right, doesnt necesserily mean he/she is in fact turning left.

bikeme

Trying to ride a 1990 hardtail like it was a modern full-suspension bike, I went OTB and slammed onto my right forearm and elbow. I got a deep gouge they couldn't close. The worse was contracting an infection in the wound that sent my back to the hospital for 3 courses of IV antibiotics. They wanted to admit me for fear of it going systemic. The wound healed ok except the deep spot which keeps peeling off. It doesn't look like normal skin either. I also had trail rash run from the elbow, under my armpit and down my right side and leg.

Carloswithac

Bruised kidney from going over the bars in a tiny rock garden (barely qualified as a rock garden.) Pedal snagged on a rock and down I went. I've also hit a patch a sand during a turn, flew off the bike and down the side of the mountain. A bush stopped my fall. Knee was banged up, but nothing major.

Simon Cowbell

I've broken ribs going over the bars, but by far the most lasting damage came from washing-out of a left-hand sweeper and smashing into an oak tree, funny bone first. The nerve pinch, or whatever that funny bone sensation is, didn't go away for a week and left me with a hyper-sensitized elbow area. For years after the slightest graze would cause that shooting pain from the elbow to the shoulder. No big whip compared to many folks worst wrecks, but that's been mine to date.

dminor 

Daspydyr 

This collision always gets me!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2oymHHyV1M

StrayCompass

That would make me not want to do any more drops. Do you still ride with the same panache?

bwilli88 

I was bombing down a dirt road and was brushed by a small truck and forced to the edge of the road, hit a whoopedeedo, buried the front wheel, and as I went over the bars they turned left and the left brake lever stabbed 2" into the front of my left thigh. looked like a bullet entry.

hairnet

That almost happened to me going down on of the popular ridge top singletacks.

Skelleyfixie

Was attempting to go off a ledge and land on a drop ramp, when I got into the air my feet came off the pedals. Once I landed my butt hit the saddle causing it to point up which caused my scrotum to cling on for dear life as the rest of my body tried to fall off. Still technically on the bike, I ran into a tree. Got checked out and had (after finishing my ride of course): a torn scrotum, swollen balls, gash from pedal in my lower left calf, bruised crotch and groins, right brow was cut, and a bruised shoulder..Bought clip pedals later that same day.

plustax

OTB into a 3' deep gully. I was new to this trail. Suprisingly both the bike and myself were fine.

Looigi

Lots of bumps, bruises and some major trail-rash, but worst I guess was a broken rib when I tumbled downhill and landed on the end of my bars. No pics.

Road bike crashes/mayhem are another story.

Cyclist01012

August 18 2013 Clipped a sapling with my handle bars during a race over corrected and launched myself over the bars face first into a bigger tree. or so they tell me, I have to take their word for it as I have no memory of the actual crash.

Broken nose broken zygoid (sp) hair line fracture to cheek bone hair line fracture to lower jaw, stitches to the inside of left cheek to sew it back together again. Between 35 and 40 stitches to sew my upper and lower lips back together again . and last but not least 4 cracked vertebrate in my upper back 4,5,6,and 7. 3 1/2 days in a trauma center 8 weeks off work 10 1/2 weeks without being permitted to touch a bike. 20 sessions with a physical therapist . Still not back to riding single track yet.

But still planning on racing come spring!

The picture of the tree is not a deer rub, its body impact damage

konasd

mine was from stupidity, when i was younger learning to trial ride i was at a building site hopping onto a stack of bricks, i feel off the side a 1/2'' steel dial rod that was sticking out of concret went through my cab beside my shin and out the back,removing it sucked.

roccobike

Tried clearing a log. Not, that big a log, so I thought. The third chainwheel didn't clear, grabbed the log, the bike stopped, I didn't. Took flyiing lessons over the bars, landed on gravel, not dirt, hit the ground on my rib cage and head. Apparently broke a rib. I didn't know it was broken till I had a bone scan several years later.

cogdriven 

Was trying too hard to be careful riding by myself at 6:30 a.m. on a trail along the river. I hit an arm-sized root going uphill and didn't have enough momentum to get over it. The bike rolled backwards, the rear wheel slid off the trail and dragged the rest of the bike down a 45 degree bank and off into thin air. I dropped 6 feet into the river. The bike and I were horizontal when we hit the water. Fortunately, it was a little over knee deep. My head bounced off the rock ledge bottom. Yea, helmets! Discovered that 29ers float. Was very lucky to be not too banged up, but didn't even notice that I'd lost my glasses until I dragged the bike 40 feet upriver and climbed the bank. Sometimes being too cautious has a down side.