c0urt

it burns

and that ears come off

copswithguns

Mine was 9/7/13. Went for a night ride (I work until 11pm) down an unfamiliar road. Grade was 12%, I was doing about 35mph. I realized that I had too much speed approaching a T-intersection and dumped my bike on the non-drive side. The hematoma in my left thigh is still healing. Road rash is gone now. Shoulder may never been normal again. Thankfully I didn't break anything.

Lesson learned: No more night rides in unfamiliar places for me.

Number400

06/08/13 Taking a pleasure ride and just as I was pulling up to a stop sign, I was hit head on by a Harley. I remember it all; hearing the skid, seeing the rider panicking and then the impacts. He launched me into the air then I was whipped around by a sign or guide wire mid-air, and then had a long fall, landing head first into the ground.

What I learned was that you cannot move very well/quickly on a bicycle with one foot clipped in and one tiptoeing on the ground. You cannot pedal, you cannot run, it's a tricky situation.

copswithguns: I have your avatar but in yellow riding on the top of my monitor. Nice one!

jerrycan42

Stay the hell away from everyone in a CAT5/4 sprint...

Hiro11

Crash on a descent during a Cat 4 race when I was 15. Broke both collarbones, lost the entire back of my skinsuit sliding across the ground, four cuts needing stitches. Bike totaled. The doctors in the ER tought I had been in a motorcycle crash, we were probably doing ~45 MPH.

The worst part was nurses scrubbing the gravel out of my back and the subsequent second skin bandage. The bandage proceeded to puff up with pus and need to be drained a couple of times a day. Gross. Showers were excruciating for a couple of weeks.

HAMMER MAN

i have been riding since 1977 and though i have had some crashes through the years my worst 2 both involved going downhill.

2010, i was going down a hill at about 25-28 mph, and shifted into my 11th tooth cog from the brake hood. As i was moving my hand down to the drop i hit a large dried concrete pile type bump which caused the
front wheel and bike to start wobbling and then i missed the drop bar with my hand my shoulder went down onto the drop bar and i went over the bike. All i could think about was to tuck my head in and try to roll. I hit right on my back and fractured my t-7 vertabrae. out of cycling for about 4 weeks then i started back slowly.

September 12-2013
going down another hill almost the same area, again. i had just shifted into my 11 tooth cog, again. After i shifted and started descending i got stung by a wasp on my lower right leg above the ankle then at the knee. I went to swat the wasp, again hit a bump in the road and i hit the back brake and went in to a slide. I hit the asphalt on my right hip which seemed to cause me to bounce, more of a roll as i was still with the bike. i tucked and fell on top of the bike on my right shoulder and right ribs. i had to go to the ER and god what a lot of pain this time. i was pretty lucky, road rash on my hip right arm elbow to wrist and I seperated my right shoulder and brusied all of the ribs on my right side. this was more painful than the fractured vertabrae fracture. i just started cycling again last week. helemt was thrashed.

The hardest part is now @ 62 years of age recovery is so much longer and you have to start realizing you are not as young as you use to be
Lesson learned: hopefully, keep both hands on your drop bars, tight and don't ever swat at a wasp.

SethAZ 

Mine was in around June or so of 1990, in Germany. I was riding along on a European bike (touring style? not sure, it had gears in front and rear and drop-style bars, but was decidedly not American) that used drum brakes. While tooling along at around 15 mph or so on a dirt road, straight and level, no obstacles on the road, no other people, one other guy I was riding with was behind me and to the side a little, when suddenly my bike did an endo and I sailed over the handlebars and nearly face-planted in the road. I'd been working out regularly, including lots of pushups, so my arms and hands saved my face, but my hands were all bloody, my knees got bloody (through a set of pants), and I had to carry my bike home about five miles on my shoulder.

The cause was kind of bizarre. There was a metal clip that held the end of the brake cable tube to position the brake cable in front of a brake lever arm thing on the wierd drum brake. The metal clip broke, and the brake cable proceeded to wrap itself around the rear axle. This had the effect of simultaneously jerking the handlebar 90 degrees to the right as the slack in the brake cable was violently taken up by it wrapping itself around the axle, and it also instantly locked up the rear brake.

At least the front wheel, pulled 90 degrees in an instant, didn't taco.

My 2nd worst bike accident was in Switzerland, and I was riding down a steeply descending, curved road that merged in at an intersection with another road at the bottom of the hill. Since it was a merge, and I had great visibility of the traffic status of the road I was merging onto, I deemed it safe to go flying around the curve and do the merge without slowing down. I leaned hard into the fast turn and lost my rear wheel contact and laid the bike down hard, rolling halfway across the street I was merging onto.

There was a bus stop right there at the corner, and a good four or five people were there and watched it happen. Other than a ripped pair of pants, only my pride was seriously hurt. I wish I had this on video, though. It had to look funny as hell from a 3rd party perspective.

werwer2012

My wife said that if that happened to her she would never get on a bike again.

buffalowings

Remember, remember what?

Looigi

I'd respond to this thread but I'm still in a coma.

crank_addict

I was 7 or 8, riding off-road trails with a gaspipe frame single speed coaster brake bike. Chain popped off on a good downhill, should have bailed but gravity was faster than my thinking. At the bottom of the hill, I careened across a creek into a barbed wire fence. Nice bloody gash to an arm. Learned how crappy coaster brake bikes are.

WC89

Final sprint of the last Cat 4 race (Turkey Day Race, November 1990)of the season. I was up in about 6th or 7th place and we were WIDE OPEN, 53 x 13 with about 150 meters to go, bikes going left and right, everybody out of the saddle in an all out sprint. i had enough to win or at least get a top 3 placing. Anyway, not sure, must have been a touch of wheels in all the final sprint chaos and mayhem. Went down hard at high speed. Broken left clavicle and scapula, lots of road rash on left side. I'm glad I was only 29 yrs old b/c I'm certain I healed well due to youth. Would not want to experience that now at 52. After the next 2 yrs out of racing, I raced 5 more yrs, but no longer as a fearless sprinter.

treal512

I've been riding since 2009 and have crashed once.

Early 2012, I was going down a steep hill (Comanche St) on the Texas State campus that comes to a leveled out 4-way stop. Straight goes downhill again, right goes downhill, and my turn, which was left, remained flat like the intersection. It was a beautiful day and I was feeling peppy and confident on the bike. No one was quite at the intersection yet, so I thought to myself if I kept my speed up, I'd have enough time to barely slow and roll through the stop without impeding any traffic. Well, I didn't slow very much and made the turn like I was on a track motorcycle (without my knee out) and the bike tires went out from under me straight up in the air so fast that both top portions of my wrist got nasty road rashes from dragging the pavement. I also got a nice road rash on the lower medial side of my left knee. My bicycle was fine besides a few scuffs on the bar tape and a missing bar plug. Luckily that was all the damage that was done. I have no idea how my head didn't hit the pavement though. I'm definitely lucky in that regard, but I'm also pretty sure that had to do with me keeping my head up as best I could. Still, I attribute most of that to luck.

After the wipe out, I sat up in the middle of the intersection and looked at the driver in the car in front of me at the stop sign. I shook myself off, stood up, went back to get my bicycle, and inspected myself on the side of the road. So what did I learn? Well, I always stop at that stop sign now, no matter how fun that downhill descent is. I also don't corner like I used to anymore. I'm still hoping I get some of that confidence back because almost every corner I take now that's even remotely sharp I'm extremely hesitant with. I don't think I'll ever corner like I tried to again, but I'd really like to be able to hit the corners a little quicker. Oh, I also learned using a triple anti-biotic ointment (Neosporin and Bacitracin) for prolonged use with the wet healing technique will cause inflammation of an open wound and impede the healing process. It took me a while to figure out that my skin was actually inflamed. I'll never make that mistake again. Good old petroleum jelly let the wound heal up pretty quickly. That first-aid knowledge is worth it's weight in gold.

oujeep1

Wish I had a copy of my xray to post, you'd appreciate the 3 inch arc of my right anterior iliac crest no longer attached to the rest of the pelvis. Interestingly that healed fine, without surgery. My collarbone is still an issue, apparently in a 58 yr old thats not that unusual. Went recently to see an orthopod friend of mine(not the original surgeon) about options, main issues being pain with lifting and what I call Mini-me, the large lump over my collar bone caused by the plate inserted. He basically said I could live with it, or operate. Operative options would be remove the plate, if the distal piece is stable(fracture is about 3/4 of the way to lateral end of clavicle) just leave it alone, but if still loose, would remove it and reconstruct the AC joint leading to 6 weeks in a sling. Yikes. A one handed urologist doesn't function very well, so I guess for now I'm putting up with it

stilltooslow

I was hit by an idiot driving a car. Knocked out cold, lotsa road rash, concussion, one trashed wheel, but luckily nothing broken. I learned to assume that all drivers will do the unpredictable.....it keeps me aware and safer.

RIRview

September 15, 2012. To this day, I have no memory of hitting the bump that took me down. I was about a mile from home, relaxing at the end of a 50-mile club ride. I had my hands placed loosely on top of the handlebars. It was the same route I'd ridden a hundred times. What I do recall is a weird, dreamlike sequence where I'm out of control and crashing, but I can't understand why. I also remember hitting the deck really, REALLY hard.

After that, I'm sitting on the curb. My right shoulder hurts like hell. I touch it, and I feel the bone sticking up. I instantly know I've fractured my clavicle. It hurts like hell to breath, and I also figure I've cracked a couple of ribs. A guy comes running over and calls 911. I get my cellphone out of my jersey pocket, call my wife and tell her she needs to get here right away because "I crashed and broke my collarbone." The paramedics arrive, transport me to the ER....that starts six days of doctor visits, tests and procedures, culminating with surgery the following Thursday. The inventory, top to bottom:

* Concussion
* Fractured right clavicle
* Pneumothorax (partially collapsed right lung)
* Fractured and bruised ribs.

By Thanksgiving Day, I was back on the bike. Lesson learned? I never, EVER again ride without having at least a few fingers wrapped around the handlebars--which has since saved my butt on many occasions when I hit unseen bumps, but kept a grip on the bars and didn't lose control.

profjmb

Last November 1, I was riding north on Sheridan Road (Chicago north shore suburbs). 9am. Little old lady (80) driving south didn't see me and turned left in front of me at last second. Broke my right tibia, lost 4 teeth, and cracked a vertebra. (Just got a nice settlement.)

learned:

1. Ride with front and back blinkers in the daytime--could have made a difference.
2. Lawyer up if you get hit--you won't negotiate anything close to what you'll get with a specialist. (And in chicago there are several bike lawyers)

kraftwerk 

"Your worst bike crash ever. What do you remember and/or learned from it?"

Ambulances smell funny

cellery

Tour de Mesa this last 2013 - it's a fun-ride more properly described as a cat 6 fred race similar to a gran fondo. 70mi police controlled course up until about the last 8 miles when they start to open up the road to traffic again. In the last 6 miles, I am in with a decently fast group and we are cruising around 30mph. I am second to last on the right side of a doubled up group. Since there is now traffic on the road, we are filtered into a bike lane and I have barely enough room just to not hit the curb. Anyway I'm just having a merry time when I go over a door hinge - yes like a hinge on the doors in your house - that was just lying in the lane; there was no way I could avoid it with how close we were. I had enough speed at that point that a low profile piece of metal like that caused my rear tire to catastrophically blow out, causing a wobble and I end up going down hard rolling a half dozen times into traffic, still clipped into the bike. The guy behind me of course crashes into me, rolls over my head and my ear, crushing my helmet. I was badly beaten up in the middle of the road but luckily nothing broken. The other guy was cussing up a storm about how we were ''going to get gold" etc. I was holding out trying not to punch his face because I'm sitting there bleeding with a swollen hip, bib and jersey torn up while he's complaining about his time and doesn't even ask me if I'm ok. Anyhoo, I ended up with what is called an internal degloving injury on my left hip; it means the skin and subcutaneous fat layers detached from the muscle and formed a massive hematoma - this is apparently a common injury in the racing world. So I had this big old alien baby bump thing sticking out of my left hip for a couple months - it took about 4 months for that to heal up completely. Amazingly the bike was fine except for some cosmetic damage to the shifters and an out of true rear wheel.

What I learned from this experience: Either don't do big fun rides anymore or be prepared for some serious injuries when racing.

This has to be tied with the time some young thing gunned it out of a side-street and hit me with her car breaking my collarbone. The silver lining with getting hit by someone's car is that you generally can get a settlement out of it. But that is a story for another day.

gridplan

Having recently run over my second groundhog, I've learned to treat them like the furry speed bumps they are. Don't seize up the brakes. Roll over them if you can. I didn't do that with the first one I hit in 2011 and it sent me to the hospital with a broken clavicle, 4 broken ribs and a collapsed lung.

upup

All have happened in 3rd world countries. Head-on with a drunk on a scooter on a steep descent going 40 mph. I broke some toes and collar bone. He lived but doubt he ever fully recovered ( brain swelling).

A couple months later a truck hit me head-on. I was probably going 20 and he was waving to his kids across the road while thankfully not going fast. I shattered the windshield and my scapula, broke nearly all my ribs, punctured lungs.... I don't think he had safety class because my upper body looked like I had been shot with a glass fragment scatter gun. They ran out of morphine during stitching me up. I'm not tough but nothing seemed to hurt. just thrilled to be breathing I guess. The thrill ended though when breathing became nearly impossible and I was rushed into surgery to drain my lungs.

Both were during a part of my life where damage was measured by how much it cost. Both all in cost was under $2k(3rd world medical) - not a big deal!. Great docs and good advice. My scapula was a mess and would have been pinned together in America. Doc told me if I laid down for a month it would probably come back together and it did. It looks the same as my non-broken scapula and is almost 100%.

Gave up cycling after the last one and became a runner. After 12 yrs, back biking because my feet don't allow me to run . Also back living in the country of my last accident. Not as young and dumb so hopefully this time around ends well.

IWK

I just had my first major crash. Head-on with a car that turned left into me. The driver was an 83 year-old man. Somehow I walked away with road-rash and bruises but no broken bones. My bike is shattered, helmet is cracked through, and the vehicle hood is smashed. I'm counting it a miracle.

noodle soup

I'm glad you are mostly okay. Bikes are replaceable.


Welcome to the club.

IWK

Thanks man. Have you ever seen a bike shatter in multiple pieces?

noodle soup

.

I've been rear ended by a truck that was traveling at about 50mph, but I cannot clearly remember the moment of impact.