So, I’ve been training on my new Dolan Precursa (I really like it, but it’s nothing to shout about). Building my speed and getting used to road cleats. On the way home there’s a straight section with a questionable road surface but I know it fairly well.

I’m going flat out along this, cadence almost as high as I can manage; then I approach a rut I’d managed to position myself squarely at. Instinctively I interrupt my pedalling 😳 and get bucked right over the bars clipped in. Helmet cracked in 5 places, grazed both shoulders, back, hip and multiple to my right leg. Also shredded my jersey and scuffed my flippin bar tape (I’ve only just put it on!).

Strangers stopped to help and were really concerned; I guess because I’d just nutted the road and landed on my back. One chap picked my bike up out of the road, the people in the car behind seemed really worried. I got home and felt a heady mix of shame, pain, embarrassment, uselessness, “why me?!”, anger etc etc.

But. The bottom line is I don’t have a head or neck injury, didn’t snap my ankles or land on my face and scuffed bar tape with a scratched drop is no big deal. Not to mention not getting run over by the car behind. Despite my stupidity, I’m actually quite lucky!

I made sure my helmet was properly done up before leaving the house, please make sure yours is too! This sounds obvious but the straps creep open and if it’s not sat on your head correctly will swivel and make things worse.

By the way it was a Specialized Align (£25ish) and has held together in one piece, as well as saved my head and neck from a pretty hard impact. Cheers Spesh 😀

I can’t help thinking the issue is less about your helmet “saving” your head, and more about using a track bike on the road.

Claim against the council for damage caused by their road not being inspected or repaired.

Ps youll hurrt today and for the next few days.

Pics?

TJ will be along in a bit to say that if you weren’t wearing a helmet, you’d still be fine but your bar tape wouldn’t have got scratched!!!!!

Claim against the council, or improve your skills

Claim against the council for damage caused by their road not being inspected or repaired.

This -1

How many full rotations did your head and neck do?

Oh – glad you is okay.

Instinctively I interrupt my pedalling

instinct tells me to keep pedalling! i guess you found out the hard way that you were ‘doing it wrong’ 🙄
i’m surprised you got shoved off though as MTB’ers usually coast with pedals level and because your knees are not locked you get dragged round with a bit of a jolt, roadies often coast with a foot down and a knee locked which means you go skywards.

and more about using a track bike on the road.

it’s only a track bike on the road if it’s track legal with no brakes, otherwise it’s just a fixed road bike.

sounds like you got of lightly, heal fast and get back on the bike, you wont make the same mistake twice 🙂

Claim against the council, or improve your skills

The latter. Ride safer, and/or get a bike appropriate for the purpose.

Instinctively I interrupt my pedalling

Unlucky. Don’t give up though. Eventually you will lose this instinct. Higher skills mean that you can sail over speedbumps and pass wind on a fixed (not as easy as it sounds 😉 ).

Hope you get better soon.

It’s a track bike with a road fork, front brake and cross lever, I remove the brake for the track. I was on the drops, so pivoted forward quite nicely. It’s not my first fixed gear which baffles me more, I just reacted oddly to something approaching and the pedal lifted me forwards and back to that sweet sweet tarmac. I guess I was tired and just thought “let’s see how fast I can go”.

Of the many lessons: don’t ride around like a d**k (ducks can’t pedal you see), keep pedalling, don’t get cocky because you’ve been riding for years, keep pedalling, look where you’re going, keep pedalling, learn to bunnyhop while pedalling at speed.

I’m not taking legal action, it wasn’t a huge pothole. It was more how I reacted to deal with it that’s the problem. I probably could have rolled over it, it just would have felt harsh and unstable.

I’ve got my eye on a lovely 80’s Belgian jersey off ebay and it’s off to Evans for a new chapeau.

pics of the helmet?
I’d consider myself extremely lucky to get away from a crash like that without serious injuries. Go buy a lottery ticket and make a donation to a head/spinal injuries charity.

sail over speedbumps and pass wind

If that’s simultaneous, respect is due 😆

Scary shit. A similar thing nearly happened to me when I swapped my road bike to fixed in Sheffield. Nearly threw me off down a hill cos I forgot and stopped pedalling. It gave me the fright of my life, and that was my fixed career over. I’m glad you’re alright, and the helmet saved your bacon.

Thanks for the good wishes, I do feel pretty lucky given the possible outcomes. I’ll take some photos of my helmet tomorrow (fnarr fnarr).

By the way it was a Specialized Align (£25ish) and has held together in one piece, as well as saved my head and neck from a pretty hard impact. Cheers Spesh

Send that back to spesh and they’ll give you like 50-60% off a new one of your choosing. Call up their uk customer services branch for more info.

Specialized do a very good crash replacement deal on their helmets and you can deal direct with Specialized UK.

So yea, wot he said.

You could do worse than learning how to fall.
Hope everything’s OK though.

I guess I was tired

Since you’ve ridden fixed before, I bet it was almost certainly this. One occasionally gets the odd transmission jerk when setting off tired. Actually now, I ride fixed more than free, which means I often forget to coast on sharp corners on the nice road bike. It cuts both ways.

project – Member
Claim against the council for damage caused by their road not being inspected or repaired.

This is very difficult, the law is lax and very much in favour of the councils. Ive tried to claim against the council after very poorly maintained roads wrote off two tyres and a wheel via huge deep pot hole which was full of water and just looked like a puddle.

Get well soon.

Claim against the council for damage caused by their road not being inspected or repaired.

I was sort of hoping this was a joke. Riding a fixed gear bike and making a daft mistake (as the OP concedes) is hardly the fault of the council.

I disagree with the above. A track bike is for the track. You can ride one on the road but if you do then you need to take responsibility if it causes you to crash.

Anyway, hope you heal quickly. Do spesh have a crash replacement policy on helmets? You might get a big discount off another.

You could do worse than learning how to fall.

Seems he’s managing to fall just fine already.

Glad you’re ok dude.

Claim against the council for damage caused by their road not being inspected or repaired.

You can only really do this if you can prove the council were aware of the pothole, not worth the effort IMO. Count your lucky stars you’re OK, learn from it and move on.

don’t get cocky because you’ve been riding for years

Sage words.
When I think back over my crashes … they are virtually all down to this in principle.

Glad you are mostly ok after such a big crash. I have a Specialized Align helmet and have allways wondered how it would cope in a real test. Got to say im happier reading about it than finding out first-hand!

I’ve already bought another (Echelon), but just found the receipt. Maybe I’ll use the replacement for the Missus?

The rut that startled me is not case-worthy, had my wheel ended up in a pothole I would agree. Riding flat out on a track bike and not being in control when sh!t happens is not the council’s fault!

Neck’s a bit tight now 😕

So, here are the pics: