A&E being the obvious answer, I know. Been there, done that. Repeatedly. I’m thinking of the daft ones though

I surpassed myself last night. I won’t go into the detail of how I got there, but I ended up coming to rest properly upside down, down a 45 degree banking, well and truly embedded in a big rhododendron bush, with the bike on top of me, still clipped in

Much hilarity ensued as i was ‘rescued’. If I’d have been on my own, I’d still be there now. I was genuinely stuck. With hindsight, it was a bloody good job the rhododendron bush was there to stop me! 😳

So fess up, you lot. What utterly bloody stupid ahem…. ‘compromising positions’ have you ended up in after slight…erm…. ‘rider errors’

No me, but a chap I’d gone riding with had an over the bars moment, and like you ended up properly upside-down, back agains a tree, all tangled up! Not sure how he would have escaped had I not been there!!

DrP

Flat on my back doing an interesting little dance caused by the electric fence wire running up my spine 😯

I’ve ended up going OTB, flat on my back, bike above me and clipped in before now – usually as a result of a slow motion fall (the ones where you know it’s going to happen, but can’t stop anyway).

I landed in a 2m high copse of foxgloves, in a Greg shaped hole with no exit as I got flung over and down into them. Very pretty. Sadly I am very allergic to them and had to Hulk out to escape and ended up on antihistamines for 3 days looking like a leper 🙁

Went through a period of about two weeks where I always seemed to end up on my back in an overgrown ditch at the side of the trail. Only when riding with others too, which made me look a right numpty.

ended up falling sideways into a massive bank of nettles in shorts and t-shirt. nettles have never really bothered me since!

Wedged headfirst into the base of a tree down a 45deg slope at the side of the trail, after a wet root took my front wheel sideways.

In the process of crashing. The camera is helmet mounted and ends up about 25m away. The bike flying through the air is a Ironhorse Sunday

I once landed in the middle of a patch of ripe wild stawberries in the Alps; it was a while before I carried on…

I also had one where I was quite glad to land in a patch of nettles, given that I’d thought I was going to land face first on some rusty barbed wire; nettles were the soft option on that occasion!

Endoed a tandem (yes it is possible). Mrs aracer got thrown off, but I stayed clipped in and held on, and ended up lying on my back with the tandem above me.

Came off at about 35mph on the Road of Death in Bolivia and came to rest with a dislocated shoulder and broken arm with my legs dangling over the edge of a 70-80m sheer drop looking down at the shell of an old bus that had gone over the cliff, scared the sh**te out of me

No me, but a chap I’d gone riding with had an over the bars moment, and like you ended up properly upside-down, back agains a tree, all tangled up! Not sure how he would have escaped had I not been there!!

I did that at GT, bruised kidney from a sawn off branch & a busted lid

Several OTB moments while riding in Spain that resulted in me wedged in really wiry, thorny bushes unable to get myself out as everything I could grip & push against was covered in thorns.

The most amusing one was down a fairly steep trail with a drop to the left. I disappeared down this drop & ended up upside down in a thorny bush with my bike on top of me. From further up the trail, it was not obvious how much of a drop there was and while I was slowly untangling myself, several mates I was riding with careered into view shouting my name, as they were under the impression that I had just disappeared off a substantial cliff.
I think they were more shook up than I was….

I wear dainese bib leg armour on the DH bike, sometime don’t bother with the bib straps for comfort, so they flap about loose.

At scratchmere scar in filthy weather, front wheel washout to OTB, end up upside down over the edge of a small cliff, hanging by the braces of the bibs caught in a tree. Was hilarious once i’d been pulled up by my ankles mind 🙂

otb still clipped into the bike head first and vertically to mid shoulder depth into a mud/moorland bog. Camelbak stopped deeper entry and I had to be pulled out by fellow riders…Not sure if I could have got out alone and rather scary tbh

I ended up in jail after i came off over a load of ladyboys in a very interesting place and compromising position.

badum-tish, I’m here all week, try the chicken.

Doethie Valley, Nov 2008. A proper dunking!

front wheel washed out (at about 5 mph) and i went head first towards the river, lukily i ended up on a bed of grass/ reeds that i flattened and somehow managed to support my weight!! i could see the water flowing past the other side of the grass platform i was lying on!!

Not me but we were in Spain with Switchbacks, can’t remember the name of the trail but we went along a rocky trail with a couple of switchbacks then a rocky trail with sheer drop to the left, negotiated it all OK then sped off at the end of it. This led us onto a fireroad, as my brother took the corner he overcooked it and went off the edge. When he didn’t follow us we went back and found him hanging off the edge wiht his bike on top of him. Stuck about 5 ft down, wedged in a tree with maybe a 100ft drop straight below. He remained absolutley calm throughout the whole thing whilst we lowered Steve down by his legs to pull the bike then him back up. I would have s**t myself, I almost did anyway trying to get him out of the tree.
He told us not to tell his wife as she would never let him go with us again!

Seem to be a lot of OTB moments still clipped in, maybe you lot need to try flats 😉

ooh, matron

I’d seen a bloke in front of me, a very competent rider, fall of on a downhill rocky track. He forward rolled, jumped up, caught the bike as it passed, and got back on. Neither he nor the bike came to a stop in all this. I was so impressed, so much neater than my usual sack-of-spuds style.

A while later, somewhere near the Pools of Dee I fell off sideways down a slope, forward rolled and sprang to my feet. I stood right on the edge of a steep 12′ drop to the stream, looking down. I decided then and there that sack-of-spuds is more me.

My friend in front did this:
Video Link to Crash
Note to self: Don’t follow so close.

Then about an hour later I ended up here:
Video Link!
Note to self: Don’t wear shows with no grip in mud.

Riding a trail called Drum & Bass in Champery (near the World Cup track for steepness reference) I got a corner all wrong & lost the front over the edge.

Bike stopped but I carried on. I slid/fell a long way down & bounced off quite a lot of trees. Amazingly all I did was hurt my thumb. It took me quite a while to climb back up again after. Looking back, i’m glad there were a lot of trees to stop me!

As teenagers riding along a narrow path we arrive at a gate. At the back of the queue I put my foot down in the long grass to discover it hides a 6′ deep grave shaped trench which I vanish into. They look round to see my bike but nowhere for me to be hiding until I re-emerge out of the ground climbing through front triangle of my frame.

Posted on here after I fell off into the local river. I walk that section of trail these days.

My mate’s fave story of our riding is when I came off on a corner on a descent. Was stuck in thistles and stingers, upside down on top of my bike, hoping someone would see me and stop to help me up. Couldn’t get out! So I hear the sound of his bike coming, as he gets to the corner he sees me… “See you at the bottom!” he shouts and disappears!
Swine.

Seem to be a lot of OTB moments still clipped in, maybe you lot need to try flats

Don’t tell em that! It’ll put an end to so many laughs! 😉

I fell down a waterfall once…
I did one of the hard tracks out of Chatel bike park, the ones where you go far up the fireroad on the left and it starts with a mahoosive drop through a bar-snagging pair of trees…name escapes me.
The track goes down a steep bank and you have to hit a very narrow bit of boardwalk which crosses the top of a stream which then falls steeply down the hill. When I say boardwalk, I mean, a single plank about 2 tyre-widths wide. I got on it ok, halfway across I lost the front wheel I think on the uphill side, fell down the other way and tumbled down this waterfall/stream-drop… Got up at the bottom, amazed I was ok, but very wet…

Knocked a small tree down once at Caersws when I crashed into it. Ha! In your face trees!

Mate of mine tried showing off once by pulling a rolling endo. As he put the back wheel down again he then pulled up the front wheel and started hopping backwards on his rear wheel. It looked very impressive until he hopped of the trail, down an five foot embankment into a shallow stream. ” Help Andy, I can’t move!” he shouted. “That’s because the bikes on top of you, you tit.” Oh how we laughed

Calderdale folk’ll know this one.

First descent towards the wireworks in Copley from Norland Moor edge.

Flying down behind a mate who disappeared over the 6ft wall at the end of the first descent into someones’s drive. Had to open a big gate and let himself out.

Got a mate ended up spreadeagled on a pub roof!

If I can count a motorbike crash then wedged under a hedge lying on my lefthand side with my left foot under my ear..femur looked like a packet of Rolos on the X ray 😀

I don’t know. I’m told I fell off my roadbike near Pool Quay, approached two policemen as I couldn’t remember where I was going or who I was, the nearby lifeboat crew assisted with a neck brace then getting me on a board and into an ambulance. I don’t remember anything until I was in hospital but it sounds kind of exciting.

I did an interesting one at the weekend, ended up doing a handstand on my bars for about 6 seconds after my front wheel cracked the ice and went right into what was underneath a very deep, muddy puddle

Like IHN I had an electric fence moment once that was rather uncomfortable.

In a canal that was minus it’s water (they are quite deep).

Riding alongside the canal, not really concentrating and my front wheel hooked up on a rut. I decided my best course of action was to jump clear of the bike and onto the canal path, unfortunately I was going too fast to stop and continued to run straight into the canal! (90’s spd’s are not very grippy). I kinda wish I hadn’t been drained, I would have been wet but in a lot less pain.
I’m glad no one was around because I must have looked like a right tit.

One minute I’m just riding down a straight, smooth reservoir service track minding my own business, next minute I’m upside down right in the middle of a massive gorse bush with my bike still clipped to my feet. By the time I’d extricated myself I was covered in tiny pinprick scratches and bleeding nicely. Itchy as **** for the next week. Still no idea how that happened.

I usually ride flats now…

best I saw was motorbike trail riding, down track, through stream, duck under trees and out on carttrack, actually quite easy, shame that when my mate ducked under the tree a stub branch went down between his back and rucksack, just as he accelerated ….

*attempted a flight of stairs, bang wallop, landed at the feet of an old lady in the queue at a bus stop, I was bleeding so badly she gave me a tissue…………….

I went over the bars once and managed to roll and end up stood up on my feet.

I felt *really* smug for about half a second before the bike hit me in the back of the head and knocked me over.

I was negotiating some local switchbacks at some speed and lost it on a tightly radiussed bend. The bike washed out and I ended up in Falmouth.

twiglet monster – reckon I came off in exactly the same puddle, except I got a mouthful of liquid sheep shit.