LarrySellerz

How many crashes did you have before you had to call someone because you were too injured to get yourself home? Its never happened to me, knock on wood. Id wager that descents are the main culprit for the truly bad crashes… or is it cars?

Kai Winters

I've been hit by 5 cars in over 35 years of riding and racing. I've crashed in races maybe the same but not bad for nearly 50 races per season. The last car that hit me was the first that saw me carried to the hospital in an ambulance. Hit head on by a careless driver in a mini van. Broke both arms, fractured my L1 and assorted bruises, etc. as well as a bad case of PTSD that reared its ugly head when I was able to get back on my bike. I think I had to call my wife twice to come get me after a car hit me...once was to bring me a spare front wheel...she was not pleased but did as I asked...what a woman !.
It happens when riding on the same roads as vehicles...just not often if we are lucky.
I'm still riding and at 66 still manage near 7000 miles plus this year...won a race in my age division this year and have placed well with the whipper snappers in open divisions lol.

mstateglfr 

I can't remember crashing and having to get a ride home. Maybe when I was 10 or 11?...but back then I would not want to call because I didn't want to get in trouble for riding stupidly.

rsbob 

How many crashes before calling for help? Are we talking about in one ride or cumulatively?

Haven’t crashed on the road bike in 30 years and the last time I was taken out by a fellow rider whose rear tire slipped out from under him on wet RXR tracks and took out my front wheel. All I got was a nasty case of road rash and tore the crap out of a new Gortex jacket.

Crashed dozens of times on my mountain bike. Never called for help, but one wreck was so bad, I had PT on a shoulder for 8 months but was still able to ride away - albeit slowly.

Maelochs

Never called for help, but got a ride from a fellow rider once when my bike was way too broken to ride, and got a ride in an ambulance once when both bike and body were too broken to ride. Got a ride from a guy who wiped me out at a 4-way stop sign---he gave me some whiskey and pain pills too, which went well with my separated shoulder.

And I have carried home the pieces of my bike ......

How many crashes before calling for help? If you crash badly repeatedly in one ride, you probably need some kind of help. I pretty much only crash once in a ride, whether i can ride or have to walk or be carried away.

If what the question was supposed to be, "How badly do you or does your bike have to be damaged before you call for help," the answer is, when I and/or my bike are so damaged we need help.

Iride01 

Technically I've never had to call for help. However once I re-gained my senses in a hospital room. So someone else must have called!

mawn

I try to go slow to avoid crashes. our health service is bad enough to remember them!

DonkeyShow

I had my first "crash" this morning. Was on some flats doing a quick shakedown and my handlebars came out the stem and I went ass over end. Thankfully only got a small scrape and was a quarter mile from the house. Had to walk my bike back.

79pmooney

I've been riding forever, winter road, raced, commuted in the dark before any decent lights. Also gifted (?) with being clumsy. I cannot count my crashed or broken bones. But most crashes I[ve ridden home from. Exceptions: my fork failure and TBI. 5 day coma. Wrecked my shoulder on a car door plus concussion and wrecked bike. Hit by a car running a light I was an inch from clearing ahead of. (The car was running the light, not me.) The flip into the air broke my collarbone and a couple of ribs. Got up, walked to the curb, sat down and asked a bystander to call 911and ambulance.

Crashes without cars, I lost my front wheel twice. First time I still don't know why. Campy NR skewer. Yes, the old, poorly designed cam but still ... (First car by was a marine of the nuclear carrier Enterprise; home ported a mile from my apartment.) Second time long story re: my failing marriage. That crash wrecked my other shoulder, broke ribs, chipped a vertebra, collapsed my lung. I got to see pain at 10. (And asked the first bystander to call for an ambulance.) Had an old tire blow, come off the rim and jam in the seatstays. Got up, walked into the adjacent park, was questioned n detail by the cyclist following 50' behind to evaluate any head injuries (I slammed my helmet hard but passed his test nicely) Asked him to call for a taxi to take me to urgent care as I knew I broke my collarbone (and ribs but I kept my mouth shut about the ribs. One word and it would coast me $200 out of pocket, 4 more chest X-rays and the words "there's not much we can do. Ribs heal up nicely by themselves. They will hurt for a while."

Then there were the crashes where I broke bones but rode or walked home. Broken thumb, cracked wrist.

War stories. I ride. I get back on the bike as soon as I can. The bike is part of my spiritual journey and has been formally for 45 years. (After that big TBI, the hugemental breakthroughs were getting on the miserable exercise machine at PT and in 5 minutes, I was spinning the pedals at race speed and simply in a place I knew and loved. First moment since I emerged from the coma that I wasn't barraged by everything being brand new. Two months later, a bike friend lent me his Raleigh DL-1 Tourister to ride home on Boston's streets many inches deep in snow (Feb 1978 blizzard). Again, the ride! Doing what I love and knew how. (I had to learn to walk straight, button my shirt, hold a fork, tie my shoe laces, write

Now I am putting the finishing touches on the Peter Mooney I had my clubmate build a year after that accident to be my link to sanity. In a week I'll be riding it fix gear, my real love, in the Painted Hills of Oregon with Cycle Oregon. Bike has a brand new paint job and brand new wheels. 35 year old Mavic tubulars. Yes the sewups I rode for years, that were the Mooney's rubber until the mid '90s. (Age has caught up to me. I will be riding fixed, but not always in the same ratio. Bike is set up to have 2 or three ratios with nothing more than a wheel flip and I can carry a chainwhip - full shop tool that only weighs 20 oz - so I will have access to gears from 46-12 to 36-24. And every one of those combos fixed with a perfect chainline. No messing with either chainrings or chain length. 2 minutes to flip the wheel, 5 to change cogs.)

10 Wheels

I don't remember the 16 mph Crash or the Next Three Days in the hospital.

Jack Tone 

I would speak to my mechanic about that.

DonkeyShow

It's a 40 year old bike, the bad maintenance is on me. Really should put more effort into pre ride inspections.

Tbh I was <1 minute from a downhill section where I'd be doing 35mph soo kinda lucky I crashed when I did.

datlas 

79pmooney

Good bike. It was looking after you.

BkSaGo

I’ve ridden away from both of my adult crashes. Both were low speed.

The first, I was doing a “reverse ride” where I loaded the bike on the car and drove to one of my typical turnaround points then rode almost home, then back to the car. With about a mile left, I crashed coming off a bike/pedestrian bridge. Not sure what caused it - slick painted line, pedal strike, brain fart. I was scraped up a little, but was able to ride back to the car.

The second time, rode to breakfast with a couple friends. Continuing the ride after breakfast I tangled with a slow rider on a MUP - my fault, should have more careful making the pass. I decided to ride home instead of continuing the ride. Turned out I had broken the tip of my little finger - about the least significant break you could have.

OK, sort of had a third one. Tombayed in the driveway when I was a little slow unclipping after a ride. Didn’t really have to ride home since I was already there.

Maelochs

That would indeed be a "donkey show."

Maelochs

Cool stories, bro .....

No I mean it. I really enjoyed your stories. Thank you foe sharing.

The blizzard of '78 .... you Rode a Bike? I was out on cross-country skis.

Again, thanks for the stories.

bampilot06

Second bike ride on my brand new 2022 madone Sl7 I crashed. 5 am, dark, going down a bike lane that I ride everyday. I hit a road work sign stand going about 25 mph. The stand had no sign, and it was laid right across the bike path. It was not there the day before nor was there any road work being performed or planned on being performed. I never saw it. One second I am enjoying the new bike the next second I’m slidding across the middle of a road, very aware of my head hitting the ground.

Tired went flat instantly, thought I bent the rim. I had pretty bad road rash, and a really bad hematoba on my shin. I was more pissed about my new bike than my injuries. Had to call the wife to get me but she didn’t wake up for another 2 hours so, I was stuck on the side of the road in the dark with a broken bike and bleeding all over the place.

Bike ended up being ok, after some XRays, I ended up being okay. I actually went riding again the same day on a different bike. My wife calls it stubbornness, I call it addiction.

bikecrate

I broke my arm while riding in the third grade. I made it home on my own.

As an adult I have had three major crashes. On the first one the frame was cracked by a left hooking car. The second I was hit by a wrong way cyclist and the back wheel and chain ring were taco'd. The third was an encounter with a street person and I lost control of bike and back wheel also taco'd. It might have hurt, but I believe I could have rode home. The bikes, however, were too badly damaged.

Reflector Guy

Absolutely! I would have had my bike taken away if I crashed so badly I needed to be driven home. 100% certainty.

Symox

Happened to me nine days ago. Good thing i didn't try riding/walking away as I had broken ribs and clavicle - I would have made things worse.

GhostRider62

A year ago tomorrow, I double flatted and went down. 10 broken bones. After untangling the left arm going 90 degrees the wrong way with the bone sticking out a little, I called my wife. She did not even say hello, instead she said, "What's wrong?" and I asked her why she said that...... "Because in all the years, you have never called me while on your bike, are you ok?' No, I am not ok. She gets me to the ER and I tell the Doc, I have a broken humerus, elbow, clavicle, 4 or 5 ribs and my hip hurts but not sure if it is broken. They sent me to the top dog trauma center, that was really interesting and fun to see a huge professional team in action like in the movies. Turned out I also fractured the scapula and they had to chop off the top of the ulna to get at the elbow and then reconstruct the ulna with two surgeries.

The question was how many years? 63 if my math is correct.

My first ride was 29 days post accident (bonus response)

OldTryGuy

6 weeks ago TODAY July 26, at 3:04AM at mile 30.4 of planned 100 miles WILD HOG #2 T-boned me in left leg fracturing Tibia. X-rays last Monday showing no bridging yet. Police officer drove by then turned around and eventually called ambulance when I started to become weird. He called wife and got no answer so I called wife and got no answer so another officer was sent to the house. Wife woke up, went to the front door, opened and saw officer and said What Hospital??? Too much for this 72yo p.s. - wife got me a Knee Walker and I all ready dumped it 2 times being stupid.

Happened April 27, 2020 @ 1:25AM, mile 34 of planned overnight 100 miles-- WILD HOG #1 ran into me resulting in 2 cracked ribs, punctured lung, cracked SCAPULA, left shoulder trauma and some other stuff. Riding buddy picked up my bike and held it as I mounted then rode 4+ miles home, showered, dressed and wife drove me to ER then an AMBULANCE ride to a TRAUMA Hospital for 3 days. Was BACK RIDING in 18 days.

p.s. Was able to complete my *double my age* -- 70th Birthday ride in July

https://www.strava.com/activities/3741404995

p.p.s. APRIL 2011 E.R. visit via ambulance when a CRASH resulted in a minor Broken Neck and Clavicle plus a LTN -Long Thoracic Nerve injury. Was in a 24/7 neck collar for 16 weeks then finally able to get back on bike.

GhostRider62

I worry much, much more about wild animals than cars although a donkey charged me the other day at the top of a climb. Scared me. I try not to ride when the deer are moving. One of the nice things about touring in europe is the relative lack of wild animals, I asked a colleague why there are so few. He said they ate them all centuries ago, so Florida get eating

Maelochs

Seems to me the more effective course would be to start eating tourists.

I hear snowbird tastes just like chicken.