First crash since I started cycling again
 

After about 7 months riding I had my first accident. I figured eventually it would probably happen but hoped it wouldn’t!

So I was riding last Sunday and it was super windy but I wanted to ride anyhow. I was riding my normal route through South Torrance/Palos Verdes/Redondo Beach. After going along Esplanade (parallels the beach) I get down to the pier and turn around coming back along Catalina where I usually relax and sit up, hands off the bars and drink some water before dropping back down to Esplanade. Wind was at my back and I’m thinking everything is good. A #^*+! cross wind hits me out of no where, sending me sideways and as I tried to grab the bars to save myself, bam, I am on the street.

Bloody knee, hip and shoulder, nothing broken besides my pride, pissed off so I throw my water bottle at the curb and let out some choice words. Bars were a little crooked and the chain was off and one of my previously perfect Universal brake levers which made it nearly 50 years with nothing more than a few scratches was badly scratched up. Brushed off the grit, put the chain back on and rode home with blood running down my shin.

I had it in my head that if/when I crashed at this age it was going to really suck but other than a sore collarbone and a couple uncomfortable nights sleep it really wasn’t that bad and the scabs are already nearly gone.

Lesson learned, don’t ride hands free when the winds are 15/20mph like they are right now. I do wish it wasn’t so windy here but I’m not moving just because it’s always windy here.


https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...82bece8eb.jpeg

You only been riding seven months.... you got a lot of catching up to do. Though you don't have to catch up on accidents, just mileage.

If you were able to ride last Sunday, you are out doing me right now. Glad to see you are somewhat okay.

Glad it wasn’t any worse.

That's enough of that! Hope you feel better fast.

Hope you were wearing a helmet. Sorry for the crash!

And why did you ride without hands in the wind?
I should have peed against the wind.

Sorry about the crash. Crosswinds can be a bear as you have found out, The good thing is that you were not injured worse and now have been reminded that you don't ride no hands on the windy days, or for me, ever. I have been surprised here and not in a good way so I keep one hand on the bars always. Glad your healing and hope it doesn't keep you from getting out there again.
Frank,

The outcome could have been much worse. Good thing you're able to share with us your lessons learned.
Personally, I never ride with both hands off but thats my personal self preservation strategy when riding.......

I once rode a bicycle without my hands, so that I could talk to the girls, and I spread my arms out to the sides, as if I had caught a big fish.
From the car next to me, I was called obscenities.
But to ride without hands in the wind-it is necessary to be completely crazy.

The wind has been brutal lately. Yesterday, I was returning from my ride heading north on the Esplanade and turned right at Ave. C because I hate how the gusts kick up helter skelter in front of The Delphi.

(The Delphi is a very tall apartment building facing the beach and when it is windy 20+ the gusts can blow every which way in front of it.)

😂 I felt like it was at my back and it was all good. Didn’t expect it to come across like it did.

I was wearing a helmet as I do 100% of the time when riding.

I have a bunch of retro kit and it scuffed up my St Raphael Geminani jersey but thankfully not my Falcon Cycles one! Amazingly did not tear though, just a scuffed area on the shoulder.

Went for a ride today it was downright gorgeous out, unlike yesterday which was a windy repeat of last Sunday.

Thanks for all the concern I am good, the shoulder scab came off today just the one on my knee left.

Could have been much worse. Look what happened to Chris Froome in 2019 when he took his hands off the bars durning a reconnaissance ride for the Critérium du Dauphiné while it was windy.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...8ddc329ba0.png

That some good road rash what doesn’t kills ya makes ya stronger. Almost got blown off my bike out in the west Texas mountains Big Bend NP. Turned around back to camp and listen to football on satellite radio. And a few beers... Next day winds subsided continued bicycle adventures.

You betcha that "That some good road rash... " 'cause it sure ain't "Some BAD road rash." After a crash during a triathlon my Dr. had to put some 3M Tegaderm Transparent Film Dressing (2nd skin) on the RR after massive de-gritting the area AND while it didn't "Kill Me" it sure as well didn't make me any stronger.

It sucks but we do have to ratchet some things down as we get older. We're lucky when the reminders are minor incidents. I'm 60, and typically ride gravel bikes off-road (I hate riding in traffic - I'm over here in Glendale - the sh*#*ty driver capital of SoCal). I went over the bars recently on some rocky singletrack, due to a bad braking move on my part (I should know better, been riding the same trails for years). Last time that happened was mtb'ing almost 10 years ago. Very lucky to have somehow performed a nice aikido-style roll over my shoulder and came up squatting looking at my bike. Totally subconscious. Only real damage was my busted brifter and I had to walk out. Kinda dodged a bullet, at 60.

Glad you’re ok, could have been worse with traffic. I hit a wet transition that put me down 5yrs ago and fractured (mild) a wrist. Glad to have been wearing jeans being it was a spring day. The jeans rubbed a patch of skin off my knee and the bleeding stuck the jean to the wound by time I got home. And yes, the skin was on the inside of the pant leg.

I never ride no-hands. Ever.

Had my first drop in a long time earlier this week. About 10 miles into a gravel ride, slowing and turning at an intersection. Hit a patch of frozen snow about the size of my hat and went down. Bit of rash on one knee, no damage to the bike. Happened really quickly. Riding the local MUPs is tricky as 99% of surface is dry, 1% patch ice at underpasses or shady areas. Stay alert!

Cycling teaches us lots of lessons. The cost of the lesson may vary, as will the method of payment.

Any crash you can ride away from is just a learning experience. :)
It's the ones you have to walk away from...or be driven away from in that noisy truck with the flashing lights...that really suck.

btw, when I was a kid I could ride my bike hands-free for miles at a time. And even as recently as ~10 or 15 years ago, I could (and would) do so regularly. Somewhere around here I have a photo from the 2007 Harlem Valley Rail Ride of me charging up a hill no-hands, pumping my arms doing the Running Man dance!

But in 2013 I had a very serious crash (noisy truck with flashing lights involved, first and only time in my life I've ever had to spend the night in a hospital) which broke a whole mess of ribs and the scapula on one side, and ever since then I've felt like my body is a bit imbalanced, no longer symmetrical...and I feel it most when I try to ride no-hands: The bike instantly pulls to the left, and is very difficult to control, I can barely hold a straight line.

So I figure 60 years old is a good time to just stop riding no-hands. If I need to take off my vest mid-ride I'll just stop for 30 seconds.

Just don't take that literally. I rode home thinking "if I can ride it back, I'm probably OK" and it turned out I had broken ribs and collarbone and a punctured lung. Better to say if you "should" rather than "can", though granted it loses something that way.

Don't throw the water bottle. Use it to wash off the grit immediately before it dries up and you have to scrub it... and it really starts to hurt.

There, see? It was a learning experience, ^^^that was the lesson you learned!
:::dancingbanana:::

I'd like to think so, but I'm pretty hard-headed so I'd probably do it again. Learning that you're not unbreakable any more, that one's hard to ignore.

Yesterday I crashed out in my man cave when my training bike parted ways with the trainer after not securely mounting it. I did a quick test at first to make sure it was secure (I trade my wife and my bike on the same trainer) and started my workout and then I started falling to my left. My cat like reflexes allowed me to unclip while falling and safely roll. It made on helluva noise with everything crashing over.

Now I will triple check the all the fittings when switching bikes. It would been just a bit embarrassing if I actually got hurt, that it happened in the house.