Went over the bars on a steep slope Sunday morning, riding alone. Got away with it – but it made me wonder about what I should and shouldn’t try in solo mode. Let’s hear your stories from 1 (me) to 10 (Aaron Rolston).

Ah, went to do the Skyline a few years ago when the wife and bairns were away. Bit to fast, fell off and broke my left side collar bone, however didn’t realise straight away because of prior shoulder injuries and cracked on.
After a small amount of time it became apparent that there was something not right so I gingerly rode to the car park and put the bike in the car and drove to Bridgend A&E.
After the X-ray phoned my mate and he came with his wife and picked me up and drove my car back!
Informed and blamed my wife as I would probably not have been allowed out if she was about due to family duties.
Recovery was a PITA due to my job, lesson learned.

woke up in the dark… i was riding at least an hour of day light to go. no idea what happened. My bike was a bout 30 feet from me.

woke up in the dark… i was riding at least an hour of day light to go. no idea what happened. My bike was a bout 30 feet from me.

Game over, you win 😯

Came to in the dirt with a bloody chin and lip and a very sore jaw after an OTB to faceplant, local evening ride. Must’ve chinned myself pretty good. Someone had added a kiddie-kicker to a small fade-to-slope speed jump that I didn’t see till too late. Only out for a moment but was a weird experience as where I was and why came back to me.

Dunno about a mark out of 10 but CTBM tops that )

my vote is for sharki or dibbs when they turn up to tell their stories…

Riding at the bmx track in my lunch hour. Nose cased the back side of a step up landing and went otb onto my already dodgy shoulder. Smacked my head and couldn’t make myself move for about 10 seconds which was really scary. Went back to work feeling very dazed and with a sore shoulder!

Minor for me, but I had a sideways slip on roots at the weekend, fail to unclip and slow speed sideways topple. Into a stream. Apart from being absolutely **** freezing, it left me thinking ‘what if’ – even a half minute of hit head / stunned blackout could have been severe!

It’s fiction but Samurai’s book has a good story about a solo crash

(I paid for it myself, I’m not connected to Samurai in any way 🙂 )

Overcooked a corner, rode into large hole, otb, landed on my chest on a fallen tree.
3 broken ribs, and seriously winded. Was a fun afternoon. 😯

Several winters ago I went straight down on sheet ice – complete ‘axial load’ to my spine (i.e straight onto my bum) – most agonising low back pain I’d ever had – complete muscle spasm, me lying and whimpering in a soft gorse bush, struggling to breathe for about 20 minutes.
It was cold. Very cold…
Finally MTFU’d and cautiously got to my feet, hobbling like an old man…
Unable to walk up even the slightest incline, what should have been 5 minutes on bike or 20 minutes on foot, took about an hour in the state I was to hobble out of the woods and back home…

I can see why people climbing Everest simply lay down to fall asleep, never to wake again.

The back still plays up to this day…

DrP

Decided to do Ae forest trails after finishing work at 3.30pm one early Feb day, no map, never been before, lots of snow on the ground, half the trail closed for damage/felling.

Needless to say got lost-ish in the dark, lots of things froze on the bike and had to hobby horse most of the flat forest roads. Tried Pi$$ing on the front mech to get the ice and snow off. I was actually picking out log piles to sleep in at one stage.
The joy and excitement I felt on seeing streets lights miles in the distance gave me hope and I pushed on down the forest roads.
Got back to car at 8pm to find temp gauge on car at -5 so what it was at the top of the mountain???

Got back to my digs in Dumfries and lay in the bath for an hour to find my legs and toes come back to life slowly.

Lesson: start early, take map, dont be thick again.

EDIT: Have been thinking back to that and remember trying to run with the bike and singing beatles and rollingstones songs to keep me going as cramp screamed into my thighs and calf muscles 😯

Back in the days of toe clips and when people rode natural trails, I was hauling up a techy first gear climb in the woods when I lost momentum on a root or something, failed to get foot out of clip in time, and fell over sideways, but the trail skirted a small cliff and so off I went down there. Helmet wedged between a tree stump and the rock at the bottom, think I was out for a few seconds. Was a bit silly.

I’ve just done a bot of solo riding for the first time in ages, was feeling all up for it. You lot have put me off now.

I was glad I was riding with buddies on Saturday… went wrong on a steep and ended stood up, bike horizontal, right foot still clipped in, left foot jammed between two fallen trees, leaning heavily on a sapling to stop me falling down a steep slope. I reckon if they hadn’t been there I might have snapped my ankle trying to free myself.

Several years back when riding at Bedgebury we had to stop at a small wooden bridge at the bottom of a short downhill. There was a young lad, bout 16, who had come a cropper on the bridge and gone down face first putting two of his teeth straight through his lower lip 😯

When we got there he had blood all down his chin, neck and the top of his jersey, he was white as a sheet and unsuprisingly going into shock. He was from Holland on the last day of a family holiday and had gone off with his two sisters to do the red route while his parents did the family trail.

We called for an ambulance and the Rangers, I waited with them while my mate rode off to try and find his parents. A few days later we got a text from the dad saying thanks for looking after his son which was nice 🙂

Too many to mention really but I always think the trauma of falling off at night on your own takes some beating. You’re jra with your thermonuclear lights on full and everything’s tickety-boo and then your bike goes cartwheeling off into the woods in a pool of light, your helmet light is pointing up at the trees and then it all goes dark. Really dark.

Winter night ride, some boardwalks in a local nature reserve. Unknown to me, boards had been removed for some repair work. Over the bars headfirst straight into the marsh.

Quite a number of years ago I was in Epping forest on a friend’s bike from my then LBS whilst mine was in for repairs. Lovely sunny day riding lovely dry trails when a chunk of about three minutes has been deleted from my memory banks. Woke up under a blanket with ambulance crew putting the finishing touches of neck brace on me and a few concerned looking walkers. After a night in the local hospital I was released with the all clear nothing broken but I had a nervous journey back to London as the ambulance crew wouldn’t take the bike with them and one of the concerned walkers offered to take it home. Fortunately for me they were the honest type and I was able to pick it up the next day.

Afternoon sneaky ride away from work whilst “making a site visit”. Riding a route I know well I went for a wee north-shore type feature which has a little wooden ramp to ease the transition down from a 10ft vertical rock face… as my front wheel rolled over the top I saw with horror that the transition ramp was gone so this was going to be a 10ft drop to faceplant. I threw the bike to one side and aimed myself for the heathery soft looking bit and tried my best to tuck and roll rather than put the hands out and end up with broken arm or collar bone. Made it back to work but my neck was stiff for a few weeks after… it could have been so much worse.

Lunchtime BMX crash at the skatepark was bad enough that could barely walk home afterwards. RICE was all that was required to fix it.

None of this would ever stop me riding solo.

Riding in an old quarry on my own about 10 years ago, came off on a steep down, fractured by tibia and fibula, no phone reception, dragged myself about a mile to a main road, flagged down a passing motorist who called an ambulance
9 months in plaster , 13 months off work
Made me think twice 🙂

Actually that has reminded of a story about the owner of my current LBS who had a similar accident but a scenario more like Charlie the Bikemonger. It wasn’t until he’d downloaded his polar data that he realised he had flat-lined for a few minutes. 😯

or his HRM strap had come loose in the crash…

OTB to face plant in the FoD. Folded back my lower lip and teeth through my upper lip, also completely separated my septum. Was a bit out of it for a few minutes. Walked to the nearest house which wasn’t too far away and they kindly took me to the local hospital at Lydney whilst I dripped blood over their car. Ambulance from there to Gloucester where I had a couple of hours of facial stitches under local anaesthetic (not an experience I’d recommend) followed by a couple of nights in hospital and a week of liquid food only.

Also some more minor ones. Hit a pothole when night road riding and landed on my head – don’t remember a thing from that point until I got home and managed to call my girlfriend to come and help me. I’ve also had the experience of starting a bit too late on a ride at Afan without any lights, with it getting gradually harder to see until I ended up walking the last bit unable to even see where to put my feet, and eventually cutting down a firebreak over lots of fallen trees rather than try and follow the trail any further.

Possibly my most scary solo experience ever was paddling rather than riding though. Went for a trip around Caldy Island in my surfski (which isn’t the most stable boat ever) in a F5-6. A long, long stretch past the cliffs with the sea coming at me from the side, having to pick my way through where the waves were breaking. I was really unsure of my ability to get back on if I was knocked off by a freak wave, and wondering how long I’d have before I got washed into the rather jagged rocks. I thought about turning back several times, but reckoned that trying to turn around would be worse than just carrying on – was ready to set off my flares and call the CG on my VHF the instant I hit the water if I fell in.

complete ‘axial load’ to my spine (i.e straight onto my bum) – most agonising low back pain I’d ever had – complete muscle spasm, me lying and whimpering in a soft gorse bush, struggling to breathe for about 20 minutes

i know this feeling all too well…as a result of a 6 foot jump 14 years ago that went a bit Pete Tong….scans showed compressed L4 and L5 vertebrae….took 6 months of traction treatment before i could get back on the bike…

The back still plays up to this day…

i’d say its a pain in the arse when this happens but its a few inches further up…

woke up in the dark… i was riding at least an hour of day light to go. no idea what happened. My bike was a bout 30 feet from me.

Game over, you win
I’ll second that!

My last big ‘uh oh’ moment on the bike was a few years ago on a local fast rocky descent that I’d ridden dozens of times (used to ride it two or three times a week on my off-road commute home). The following is really how not to go on a solo ride 🙂

I fancied a quick ride, but my usual bike was in pieces, so I took my old XC race bike – without checking it over first. Dashed out the house with minimal kit and didn’t leave a note to say where I was going.

It was starting to get dark and cold as I got to my fave cheeky ‘off-piste’ descent, so I decided to warm myself up by charging down it in big ring 🙄 Took off from one of the kickers quite fast only to find that my usual landing spot had been washed away 😯 Bit of an ‘oh bo**ox’ moment in the air – tried to save things, but landed so hard that I ripped the front tyre off the rim (er….there’s not checking tyre pressure for ya 😆 ). I remember flying face down through the air for what seemed like ages – and I knew it was gonna hurt when I landed!

Came round and slowly sat up, looked down to see a hole in my elbow, which I though was the worst bit – until I tried to stand. I’d torn a couple of cruciate ligaments in my knee and dislocated my kneecap. I tried walking but couldn’t – so thought I’d phone my wife – and guess what….no phone signal. So, it was getting dark & cold, no phone signal, no spare warm layer or jacket, no first aid kit or food, no whistle, no-one knew where I was, and I was off-piste in a quiet valley – and I could walk. I think it was then that I realised I was in the s**t!

Looking back, I dunno how I did it, but somehow I fixed my bike so that it was rideable and I free wheeled and one leg pedalled my way back to my car, where I was able to get help. (thanks to the guy who patched me up whilst waiting to get to hospital). I had to have an operation and a lot of physio, and it took months to fully recover.

The reason why the path had been washed away is that we’d been away on hols and whilst we’d been overseas, there had been some biblical floods back at home.

It certainly taught me a lesson or two!

ABout my third ever night ride. Whizzing down a simple local track, lost my line (not so simple in the dark!), tried to ride it out, popped the front wheel over a tree stump…… straight into an embedded rock. OTB and landed on something very hard with my elbow dug into my ribs. I took an involuntary breath in, and sucked up a load of dust and leaves (it was in the dry three weeks in April last year). I spent the next five minutes writhing on the floor, coughing cause of the dust and writhing due to the pain.

Managed to get back on bike, trundle the rest of the descent and loop back round to home.

Those few minutes on the ground were VERY worrying.

Had a look in daylight at where I’d gone – I’d either hit a tree mid-air (I don’t think I did) or landed on a tree stump – this is what I think did the damage.

Couple of busted ribs.

I took an awful lot of ibuprofen and paracetomol over the ensuing fortnight.

Broken Hip ‘learning to jump’

Laid there for a bit swearing, got my phone out and found the battery was flat, laid there some more, bloke who spoke no English walked past, convinced him to go for English speakign assistance, 4×4 to the nearest road and then an ambulance to Worthing hospital, doctor asked where it hurt, ‘my hip’, he waved my foot around ‘that’s ok’, flexed my knee ‘that’s ok’, pushed my knee into my chest ‘that’s ok’, Me: ‘but my hip really hurts’, dr (sighing) ‘I’ll get an xray of your pelvis done as a precaution’, half an hour later ‘err, you’ve broken your hip’, Me: ‘I did tell you it hurt’.

[edit] tim – happened at the bmx track near the railway bridge at Shoreham Airport.

Popped off a little lip on a well-known local trail and hit a tree that had fallen across the trail. Broke my fall with my face and pinged the bike way off into the bushes. All in all, I got off very lightly, although one side of my face is now slightly saggier than the other.

While dropping the car in for a couple of tyres, I decided to throw the bike in the back and head out on an impromptu xc run while mr tyre-putter-oner did his thing. All was going great, the sun was shining, the trails were drying nicely and I was homing in on my destination. The local jump spot.

‘I’ll just take it easy’ (first jumpin’ session of the year and all that…) I said to myself. A few runs over the smaller six pack, and I was warming up nicely. The big line was next. It took several attempts to get a smooth run going, but once it clicked, I was a happy bunny. Content with life, I headed towards the trail to collect the car. Then it happened. The Beastie Boys ‘Just a check’ started on the ipod and although I never said it aloud, I thought one last go to myself.- I was aware of not having any protective gear on or water (dry mouth syndrome had set in even before I reached the jumps) but the sun was blazin’, the music was pumpin’ and I was a jumpin’.

One slightly over-nose-dived jump and testicle/wheel interface later and this is the result.

I initially thought i’d squashed one to death, but my balls were fine. The 2+ mile walk to the garage to collect the car was fairly uncomfortable though. Funnily, the next song on my playlist was ‘Hurt’ by Jonny Cash.

Two solo rides ending in broken bones for me, separated by a year.

First one – April 2010, riding from Keswick up and around the routes in Whinlatter. I was feeling great, had ridden up the bridleway, round the blue and started on the north red. Did the first bit of climbing singletrack (with the steep drop to the right). then you get to a short bit of fire road followed by more singletrack climbing, the first bit of which is pretty narrow with a bit of a vertical drop to the right. I’m thinking about the difficult root between two trees just round the corner when the front wheel slips on a wet root and is pointed over the edge of a 2m drop. I go over the bars and break my wrist. No phone reception so back on the bike and ride down to the car park with wrist in an innertube sling. Get reception at car park so phone my Dad (fortunately they are staying with us so my wife does not need to load 1 year old into the car). I was very cold in that car park!

Second time, a year or so later, I decide to grab a quick local ride on a Sunday morning. I wan tot use the hardtail, which has not been used for a while and I’m in a rush as I need to get back to help out with kids. The now 2 year old is in the garage ‘helping’ to fix my bike (picking up lump hammers and swinging it around) so I’m not fully concentrating. Once the bike is sorted I head out, half a mile later my SPD falls off the spindle on the road. no bother I scoot home and put another pair of peddles on. Set off again, this time with a slightly different route, head off down the first (very tame) bridleway, lift the front wheel over a small water rut and watch in amazement as my front wheel falls out and rolls down the hill. This all happens in slow mo, the forks hit the ground followed by my shoulder, which makes a nice crunching sound. I get up, collarbone is crunching and obviously broken and I’m very confused why my wheel has fallen off. Put the wheel back in a freewheel home to be helped out of several layers of painfully tight lycra and go to hospital.

Turns out that in my rush to sort the bike and lack of attention due to hammer swinging toddler I did the QR up on top of the safety tabs on the fork. So a small impact sent the axle into the proper place and the QR was now loose. Now worry about all downhills on the road bike (is hte QR done up) but not on the maxel equipped MTB.

Not so much scary, but certainly a story.

Several years back, i went out late one Sunday afternoon during my brief window of riding Allowance and hit the trails.
And headed over to tame a certain trail on the Quantocks. I’d on’y ridden it in a group before so speed was governed by the group and i wanted to ride it faster then usual. Unhindered by a group, plus i didn’t have long out.

Well, off i charged down the trail, i knew there was a section that needed concentration on, it was an erosion gully that needed crossing followed by a rooty step down, speed would’ve made the step smoother..

As i slipped across the gully at speed, the front wheel washed out on the off camber exit dumping me into the narrow and deepish gully and in a split second a pedal strike, of crank arm snag, stalled the momentum, pitching my weight forward and over i went, sailing through the air.
I came to a halt against an embankment, baked hard by the summer sun(it was back in 2005/06. I impacted right on my shoulder and as i came to rest, the bike cartwheeled over me to rest nearby.

First thoughts were naturally one of shock and pain and i shifted to standing and began to assess the damage.

The gear cable outer had bust and my Oakleys lay undamaged on the floor. Then i assessed myself.

First off i knew i’d slammed my shoulder hard, i could move it with little more than an ache, but the raised lump was a clear injury, but not a major concern.
My breathing however was a concern, short of breath, shallow too. I immediately thought ribs. So i felt around the rib cage for heat, swelling, soreness but nothing appeared to suggest a fractured rib. But i knew it wasn’t good and i’d need medical assistance.

The next problem was how. I could’ve gone deeper into the combe and down to the village and asked for assistance, or back up to the heath were i knew i could get a signal and call for an Ambulance.

I decided up would be quicker and safer, so i collected my stuff and wheezed my way to higher ground. It was hard going, i could barely take on air. I’d check my phone for a signal and after around 30mins i had a signal.

999. I requested an Ambulance and was asked for my postcode. Erm, i’m in the middle of the Quantocks, and haven’t a postcode. But i do have a OS mapped, embedded into my head. So i’ll tell you exactly where i am and where i’ll meet the ambulance and which route i’ll be taking to get there. And i talked her through to my location. Explaining the injury and my suspisions that i’d popped a lung. I went ahead to wait for them to turn up.
A further 20-30mins of wheezing along i reached the side of the road, to the arranged location and sat under a tree. Shivering, in pain and with a borked gear outer(funny how we still worry about the bike). I watched he Ambulance drive on by and disappear down the hill away from me, just as a car turned up. I dialed 999 again and told the operator to tell the driver to come back up the hill and pull into the first carpark, i’ll be there.

Meanwhile the driver of the car had got out and come to see if i was ok. Great, he had a bleedin dog collar on. I was expecting the grim reaper..

Finally the ambulance turned up,a 4×4. I told him to hide the bike in the bracken, (i’d called my mate to come a collect it) and off we went to rendezvous with a proper Ambulance incase my condition required aid during transit. He’d confirmed it was likely to be a Pneumothorax. And off i went the A&E for a chest drain.

I spent a week in hospital with a catheter fitted(that’s a whole different adventure, word of advise, never raise the catheter above your chest!)

The shoulder was fubared for 7 weeks from the resulting shoulder separation, ACJ sprain, graded at 3-5.
6 weeks later i was back down that trail again during a recoup ride.