12/31/67 CRASH Caesars Palace fountains
10-25-75 perfection....jumping 14 Greyhound buses at Kings Island
Evel was the world's foremost expert on surviving crashes. Scientists and engineers still study his many noteable crashes.
Despite the fact that Evel rode a Harley and you might be pedal powering your BIANCHI but should you tangle with an Escalade or a F150 just doing the 30 mph speed limit and your crash likely will be as spectacular as that Caesars Fountain jump, and the probability odds of your survival are probably just south of 30%.
*** You should stop worrying about damn crashing techniques as if you were trying to impress olympic judges, trying to earn a gold medal for best style points/freestyle/hang-time/and other ridiculousness. Start to seriously think about changing your riding behavior and routes to lessen the likelihood of you being involved in a potentially fatal crash. Yes, you cannot mitigate all risk, and at some point, you are likely going to go down for whatever reason. Yes, you might have a I've fallen and I can't get up bicycle crash but if it happens with heavy automobile traffic within a few feet of your bicycle, the probability that you will then be in the direct path of oncoming motor vehicle traffic exponentially rises and the chance that you will be killed, run-over by a motor vehicle rises considerably.
Look closely at that 12-31-67 Caesars Palace crash by Evel Knievel and what you see happening with his body as it impacts the pavement is not uncommon even in a low speed collision-crash of a bicycle rider and a motor vehicle. At moderate speed, even within posted 45mph speed limits, the bicycle rider and lightweight bicycle could be sent flying in the air, sort of like an American football being kicked off at the start of the game or half. When that occurs, the chances of the bicycle rider surviving drops south of the 5% range. YOU WANT TO CHOOSE CAREFULLY, EXACTLY WHERE & WHEN YOU RIDE A CERTAIN STREET/ROAD/ROUTE, AND YOU SHOULD SERIOUSLY CONSIDER POTENTIALLY SAFER, ALTERNATE ROUTE(S), EVEN IF THAT MEANS IT WILL BE A LONGER JOURNEY. YOU MUST ALSO MAINTAIN THE HIGHEST SITUATIONAL AWARENESS AT ALL TIMES, KNOWING WHAT IS APPROACHING FROM BEHIND AND FROM AHEAD AND FROM ALL SIDES. It is probably a good idea to affix some type of rearview mirror, either on your helmet or on your handlebars!
IT IS ALSO YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO HAVE HIGHLY VISIBLE ATTIRE, AND REFLECTIVE MATERIAL AND POSSIBLY LIGHTS ON IF NOT IN CLEAR DAYLIGHT CONDITIONS (e.g. fog, dawn, dusk, rain, near darkness, snow, etc)'.
Don't be a dumbass that thinks you can develop successful crashing techiques, JUST STAY ALERT AND AWARE, AND DO YOUR VERY BEST TO LESSEN THE PROBABILITY OF A CRASH OCCURING!! This means keeping your bike maintained properly, especially the tires, the brakes, the steering...
You do not want to impact the pavement for any reason.
Yes, it does happen despite the best plans and intentions. Humans aren't perfect.
You might be on a routine, pre triathlon training run doing the course that you have done four hundred and forty seven times before, and you are within 3 seconds of your best course time and so you're feeling good, super-confident, so your pushing it with everything you've got, cognizant that you can gain some time by taking a steeper angle coming off a downhill to the right turn that winds downhill and again slopes back left......well you are cruising that right turn at 31 mph and you've overcooked it into the pothole and broken asphalt and sand mix.......about three seconds later both you and the bike are airborne......
You are lucky, your helmet does its job,(if you hadn't been wearing a helmet, you'd have died..) and although your left clavicle is broken so badly that you require surgery and a titanium plate and screws to repair it, and you have two broken ribs and a concussion, Sleeping in a chair for a while, and having to keep a finger always on the MUTE button of the tv remote control, because you cannot allow yourself to LAUGH or SNEEZE, or COUGH for any reason because doing that is incredibly painful.
I saw many of those Evel Knievel jumps on ABC Wide World of Sports. I had a pal that we called Jet Streamer, that in the early seventies, really lived in the moment then, he was in his mid twenties and was a rock star with unbelievable wealth from that. Jet Streamer went to the Evel's failed 1974 Snake River Canyon near suicidal rocket thing that the parachute malfunction deploying early saved him, as there was no way Evel would have survived landing such a rocket. Jet Streamer was big on happenings as he'd say and decide that it was the happening to be at. Evel Knievel was a cat with nine lives. No other human lived long enough to provide the crashing techniques that Evel Knievel did. Some folks are lucky and perhaps others are born under a bad sign, so do ya feel lucky?? Crashing ain't cool, no matter what!
Its gonna hurt, if you live through it. It isn't what I would call fun, when you're trying to mend and re-hab after a crash. Do your very best to avoid them!!!