Crashing techniques and styles
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...I dropped a front wheel into a wrong way space separation in the rubber decking for the light rail tracks here a few years ago. Fortunately I was just getting going, so I did a slow motion endo.
The light rail guys, when I contacted them to report it, were so delighted I wasn't engaging in a wrongful injury lawsuit, that they paid for the new rims and spokes to re-lace my wheels. They had it on video.
I guess I could have just done the front wheel, but I took advantage of the situation. Like any older person would.
...I dropped a front wheel into a wrong way space separation in the rubber decking for the light rail tracks here a few years ago. Fortunately I was just getting going, so I did a slow motion endo.
The light rail guys, when I contacted them to report it, were so delighted I wasn't engaging in a wrongful injury lawsuit, that they paid for the new rims and spokes to re-lace my wheels. They had it on video.
I guess I could have just done the front wheel, but I took advantage of the situation. Like any older person would.
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...I would have felt badly about it. The public transportation system here is hugely underfunded, and I think it a worthy endeavor. It did piss me off that a year later they still hadn't fixed the decking, though.
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Last edited by LarrySellerz; 06-09-22 at 10:09 AM.
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I have mentally prepared myself that if a pedestrian on the path walks out in front of me, I'll try to keep them between me and the ground when I fall.
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" Only ride as fast as you are willing to crash "
.
" Only ride as fast as you are willing to crash "
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I have to work on my "judgement" as-in, riding over ice thinking to myself, this may end badly, & yet I continue ... WTH man, did you not just hear that conversation you just had w/ yourself?
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broke a leg peeing once. honest to God. passed out during & twisted it. woke up, on the ground, all zipped up & dry, but in pain. heck might as well ride a bike! (& no more grappa!)
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Falling the right way is why more people don't come away from Judo with more serious injuries. Which is not to say you can't still hurt yourself. Dislocations of fingers and toes is not uncommon. You see a lot of people taped for this reason.
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This. 100%.
...the practice (and it does take a lot of repeat practice,) encourages the bracing of your arm and the shoulder tuck until it becomes your natural reaction to being thrown forward head first. And you practice it on mats, which are not foolproof, but hurt less than on hard floors or pavement. We probably did fifty or sixty right and left side rollouts as a warmup in every class I took. Alternating sides, down the length of the room, then back. I don't understand people who say you can't train muscle memory, because IME, you can.
Falling the right way is why more people don't come away from Judo with more serious injuries. Which is not to say you can't still hurt yourself. Dislocations of fingers and toes is not uncommon. You see a lot of people taped for this reason.
Falling the right way is why more people don't come away from Judo with more serious injuries. Which is not to say you can't still hurt yourself. Dislocations of fingers and toes is not uncommon. You see a lot of people taped for this reason.
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Wanna learn how to manage a crash? Take up mountain biking.
I am in my 50s and “crash” (as in in go down) at least a dozen times a year. It is so common I don’t even count.
But most falls are at lower speeds, and speed is what kills. And dirt and leaves are not as bad to fall on as pavement.
Anyway, at this point I know pretty well how to manage a fall.
I don’t think I ever could have learned this without mountain biking. Falling on a road bike is rare, and generally a lot more serious when it does happen. It is something just to be avoided, IMO.
There is a big between crashing on the trail and the road, and I do not fool myself into thinking I can practice to muscle memory how to manage a 30 mph fall on pavement.
I am in my 50s and “crash” (as in in go down) at least a dozen times a year. It is so common I don’t even count.
But most falls are at lower speeds, and speed is what kills. And dirt and leaves are not as bad to fall on as pavement.
Anyway, at this point I know pretty well how to manage a fall.
I don’t think I ever could have learned this without mountain biking. Falling on a road bike is rare, and generally a lot more serious when it does happen. It is something just to be avoided, IMO.
There is a big between crashing on the trail and the road, and I do not fool myself into thinking I can practice to muscle memory how to manage a 30 mph fall on pavement.
About 99% of my bike crashes were on the mountain bike - although since I've "retired" from full-on DH I haven't had a crash in a very long time.
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My last bad crash the last thing I recall is hearing gravel under my tire under hard cornering, and recognizing this was going to be bad. There was a heck of a lot I did wrong that put me in that position. I woke up at the bottom of a ravine with what ended up being a broken neck and shredded thigh from the guardrail. I have no idea how I behaved in-between. Perhaps I crashed with great skill, allowing me to come away with no permanent injuries. Perhaps I crashed badly, resulting in a broken neck. I think I'm far better served learning and behaving differently to avoid putting myself in that situation, than practicing how to fly down a ravine without breaking my neck. I realize that's not a strictly either/or proposition, but I think avoidance is an order of magnitude easier to accomplish.
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[QUOTE=rumrunn6;22536091] he's obviously in very good condition, athletically. /QUOTE]
he won a national crit race, so im sure he's had his fair share of crashes
he won a national crit race, so im sure he's had his fair share of crashes
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Wow, a lot of great advice in this thread. I think topping the list of good practices is first don't ride over your head, second take Judo, and third ride a mountain-bike as much as you ride on the road, all of which will build up confidence. I am sure those who played hard when they were young are ahead of the game. Every day people are maimed and killed getting into a bathtub, walking on ice, getting in car crashes, or shot by a scorned spouse etc.. Sooner or later you are going to end up dead or in a wheelchair, I would rather not end up there because I sat on my butt watching TV and drinking Pepsi until my spleen explodes.
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Bar tape is the most effective way to prevent crashes.
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My last bad crash the last thing I recall is hearing gravel under my tire under hard cornering, and recognizing this was going to be bad. There was a heck of a lot I did wrong that put me in that position. I woke up at the bottom of a ravine with what ended up being a broken neck and shredded thigh from the guardrail. I have no idea how I behaved in-between. Perhaps I crashed with great skill, allowing me to come away with no permanent injuries. Perhaps I crashed badly, resulting in a broken neck. I think I'm far better served learning and behaving differently to avoid putting myself in that situation, than practicing how to fly down a ravine without breaking my neck. I realize that's not a strictly either/or proposition, but I think avoidance is an order of magnitude easier to accomplish.
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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!!!
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!!!
#45
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A wise man once said, ‘if you’re going to crash, aim for the green bits’.
Last edited by JohnMorgan; 06-12-22 at 05:05 AM.
#46
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If you ride often and long enough, crashing is inevitable. Over the bars is easy. Being hit by a deer? The only rolling will be in a hospital bed recovering. Snapped steerer tube? Or my personal favorite, a broken seatpost taking you straight down onto your tailbone. Deer, school buses and USPS drivers are my biggest fears. I saw at least 100 deer on yesterday's ride (187 miles). I know two riders taken out by deer. I had an elk jump across the road within inches of me on a descent, 40 years later my mind's eye can still see the antlers or are they called horns.....that would have been some crash. Nowadays, I try to avoid riding just before and after sunrise and sunset.
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I don't ride with people who think crashing is part of cycling. One guy scared me so much we split up mid-ride. (In the few years since then I've heard he's had several falls.) I ride with safe cyclists. Yes, we've all taken a tumble or two, and now we do our best to avoid doing that again. Much of that is a result of, somehow, surviving to senior citizenship.
#49
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I wear elbow and MTB knee pads on commutes and recreational rides on the road. Modern pads can be discreet enough to look like ordinary sun sleeves so it's not embarassing to wear them.
Thankfully, I never crashed on them yet and even with extra protection, I don't intend to crash. I have helmet mirror and don't even dare to explore the maximum speeds I can reach on descents
Thankfully, I never crashed on them yet and even with extra protection, I don't intend to crash. I have helmet mirror and don't even dare to explore the maximum speeds I can reach on descents
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this baseball safety suit doubles as a bicycle safety suit
the elite version includes hookup for camelbak hydration systems and pamper storage to enable cross country rides without dismounts
.
Last edited by t2p; 06-12-22 at 10:41 AM.