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riding down a road this morning, that I have ridden down many times.
road is blocked midway with a raised island with a barrier, to stop cars using it as a rat run.
on the pavement on both sides there is a dropped kerb for pushchairs/wheelchairs/bikes.
so I rode towards the dropped kerb that I know is there. but is covered in leaves. front wheel slides on the leaves and sends me falling to my right into the metal fence on the over side of the pavement.
I land very heavily on my right knee and forearm. and once I manage to get up I may have cracked a rib on my left side.
sat in a fair bit of pain now.
you crashed and burned recently
OTB on the steepest trail I've ever "ridden" at Grizedale a month or so ago, just scrapes and bruises luckily - as it was quite a dramatic ragdoll with the bike flying into the branches.
Healing vibes Ton.
Last weekend, I had stopped for some reason and setting off again I clipped in with the opposite foot to the one I would normally (not sure why) and then lost my balance and fell sideways all before even trying to set off. Luckily no-one was around to see it.
In my early thirties, at Downtowns in Elgin.
I was chatting to a girl, who, when she found out I worked in the RAF and on a particular Squadron, did an about face and walked off, much to the amusement of my mates.
One night in May on the way to a bivvy. End of handlebar caught the unseen end of a sawn off branch, flew off into the undergrowth and landed on some stones and gashed my leg and cracked a rib. It made me shout in pain quite a bit. Carried on and bivvied, but felt the rib for a few weeks after. Crashing isn't fun.
CyB, a few weeks ago, on the Western side, near the end. I just messed up going around a corner, and somehow managed to cycle into the undergrowth, going slowly and gracefully OTB in the process. But fortunately there was some exceptionally soft and comfortable moss, and if it hadn't been for the mocking from my "friends", it would have been really rather nice.
Not for a while, but i've had a gew close calls recently on the canal tow path into Leeds from Woodlesford. I love Schwalbe g-ones but i think i've found their limit in the slop. As long as I'm next to the water when they go....
Went OTB in a timetrial this year - misjudged a bend and it's hard to correct a TT bike once things start to go pear-shaped. Landed in a flower bed but walloped the side of my head, ears were ringing. Can't remember too many times were a helmet has served its purpose over decades of riding, but that was one of them.
Obv did the sensible thing and climbed back on and finished the test 🙂
Last week, black pig in Hebden, over the bars on a drop, dithered about rolling it or popping it and opted for falling off it. While i was picking myself up my buddy showed me the popping technique that finished into a tree. Much crashing. Just cuts and bruises.
Healing vibes everyone.
5 years ago at Bike Park Wales, over the bars, knee ****ed, surgery to repair cartilage followed by another to replace the acl I had ripped off the bone.
Glastonbury 2011
New Years Eve, wet wooden bridge, moss and leaves with 33mm tyres and too much speed. Head first into a metal fence pole, luckily the helmet took the brunt. Lots of road rash down my side as well.
Early spring in a fast chain gang, rider in front went down, I had no where to go and followed him down. Face first into his cassette, had a nice shiner for a few weeks. I have frozen shoulder and neck injuries, that crash took months to recover from.
And one to die from embarrassment with, took a very slow bend last week, with a very steep uphill coming up, dropped into the little ring, chain suck, immediately lodged stuck, going so slow uphill I didn’t have time to unclip, fell like a loser with the bike upside down and still clipped into my shoes. Loads of people in cars there to watch!
Following (obviously too closely) a pal when out on our gravel bikes on a steep wet road, when he suddenly realised he had missed a right hand turn, so slammed on and turned right into my path - nowhere to go except into him, then hit the deck hard. I think he apologised, but I probably missed it with the ringing in my ears.... Big hole in my jacket, baselayer and elbow and plenty of bruises - falling off on tarmac is a lot more unforgiving than off road - who said MTB's are dangerous? 😉
I wipe out in winter a lot more than summer. I do a lot of "pubcross" which is gravel / cross nightrides around Delamere which end in the pub.
45c WTB Riddlers hold a lot of mud, thus rendering zero grip, zero steering and zero braking capability. Long protracted slidey wipeouts happen every week. I could change the tyres to something narrower and more knobbly but i actually like the random fun element of the crashes.
I may live to regret this.
Cooper Falls at Swinley*. Just got it wrong hit a root and went OTB. Took the full force of my body on the top of my head, and down my spine. Back is only just getting back to normal 8 weeks later...
* This makes it sound more gnar than it really is. It's, at most, a big kerb.
I've had two big ones lately, one in September and one in October. That's odd as I normally have one really big one every couple of years. The first was really big - very fast down Ho Chi Min at Glentress, fully pinned and then came out of a hairpin and the front wheel broke traction. I went down front first, cut my chest, put a huge gash in my hand and up my arms and did something to my shoulder that was really sore.
Then a month later I stacked it on a black run at Glentress, tried a funky line through a corner and went down on the same shoulder. It still hurts a bit now.
Both relatively easy trails and I was just trying to push too hard.
On my CDF last year having not ridden drop bars on the road for 35 odd years. Stupid fall going round a gate I’ve ridden a hundred times. Rib damage sucks and hurts get well soon.
Couple of years ago at the Twentyfour12 I was slowly catching a bloke up but really didn't want to be ahead of him going into Cottage Return.
He slowed on the approach and called me past, I shouted it was fine & he should just carry on, but he insisted and slowed by such an amount meaning I had no choice but to go past him.
I then decided that I really needed to put some distance between him & myself, so flew off much faster than I normally would down that particular stretch of trail.
I then clipped a rock awkwardly, went wide & my pedal clipped a massive rock hidden in the undergrowth which sent me flying off into the undergrowth.
Apart from my damaged pride, I was fine apart from finding it extremely hard to extricate myself & my bike from my landing site.
The bloke I'd overtaken rode past, called out to check I was OK & I imagine uttered something like '****' which would have been entirely deserved.... :o)
A couple of weeks ago, changing from a canal tow path to a parallel path.
"There's a gap in the bushes. I can easily bunny hop that little drainage ditch"
... I couldn't.
summer 2018, went for a ride instead of watching England/Croatia semi final. Stacked my bike on a bit of local trail that I've probably ridden more than any other. Went off line going round some steps and ended up going diagonally across the trail to crash into a tree stump on the other side which sent me over the bars. It was one of those ones that seems to happen in slow motion, oh dear I've ****ed it up, if I land over there I'm going to... I'm crashing... and then the ground comes towards you really fast. Cracked a rib or something, finished the ride but was out of action for about 8-10weeks afterwards.
This September...cheeky mid-week day off to ride BPW as a birthday treat. 2nd run of the day on Terry's Belly and lost the front wheel on a berm.
****ted my head off the ground, scraped my shoulder up, bruised lots of ribs and broke a bone in my hand.
I wasn't concentrating or wearing my lucky shirt.
Tomorrow is Antur Stiniog and my first uplift since BPW...I'll be on the brakes, concentrating and wearing my shirt!
Riding home from the Christmas night out a year or two back. Icy canal towpath, no big problem as I wasn't too drunk (for reasons other than cycling home safely I'd limited my booze levels) and I had spiked tyres on.
Headed down a hill that goes under a tunnel to get onto the right bit of towpath at a junction in the canal, didn't brake until quite near the bottom, started to skid, braked harder (doh) and slid more, fell off, slid much faster now I had no spikes digging in, straight into a gate thanks to the camber. Slightly difficult to stand up, had to bum shuffle around the gate. Mental note - studs make sheet ice rideable, but not infinitely grippy.
Scraped fork stanchions and sore shins from the gatepost, possibly sore ribs too.
Bike Park Wales a couple of years ago, washed out on a berm and went down hard, full face chin guard took the brunt of it but was seeing stars for a while and had ringing in my ears.
Riding a wide but steep and rutted local trail, as I reached the bottom and was about to turn left my front wheel sort of bounced out of the rut and onto a little patch of grass, washed out and dumped me over the bars, slid along the ground om my face, saved from a lot of scrapes by a few weeks of beard growth.
I clipped the bars on a road restriction barrier on my commuter whilst going to the hairdressers a couple of years ago. Hurt my elbow. No further damage luckily. Only other fall since was a stationary fall coming home from the pub. Bruised my arm and shoulder.
January 5th this year. Pins coming out from a ruined shoulder next week 🙏
STW says it was 2 years ago
https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/bored-in-a-e-so-start-thread/
Similar thing, stupid sideways skid in the wet, with a frickin hard landing.
Nearly every ride recently, but the last one trying to chase fellow Hk STW'er BigD, happens at the 4.50 mark.
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OTB in Morzine in July, Was off piste in the middle of no where. Thankfully just a gashed elbow. Didnt fancy being airlifted off a mountain in France!
Twice a couple of weekends ago, crazy muddy trails and it was always likely on the terrain i was riding, slippy sloppy mud, no grip at all... Went down, fell into nettles/brambles... no major issue but stung like hell for 3-4 days.
Two weeks ago, riding some offpiste at the trail centre, not paying attention, take a diversion and end up on the ground in a lot of pain, must have landed on something hard as managed to crack my shoulder blade!
9 weeks ago...
rode a really high consequence and steep chute.. got to the bottom with no issues..
Was coming to a stop afterwards on a flat piece of ground.. weird comedy slow speed tumble.. got up and my fingers where somehow pointing in the wrong direction!
^^^
Yikes!
tuesday night, multiple somersaults off a thin track to the bottom of steep little valley. Certainly two. Quite impressive apparently with helmet and bar lights burning circles. I blame first ride in ages on my no suspension bike, and being clipped in. Once I'd lost the front wheel only one thing was going to happen and after the initial slow motion it happened quite fast. Will have covered 3-4m vertically, over bouncy heather.
Lots of laughing before the 'are you okay?' which I was, no scrapes or bruises even so on with the ride.
Tried snuggling up with MrsMC when the alarm went off this morning.
Got an elbow in the ribs and told to "F off to work"
Was this not what you meant?
A couple of years ago we had a one year old baby and I had just been laid off. Things were stressful in the Wee household. I was planning on going to the pub that night to watch the rugby. My girlfriend and I were having an argument, I can't remember what it was about.
There was a full on storm going on outside. I was planning on taking the bus. We were still arguing as I was putting my shoes on and my girlfriend said, 'Don't cycle into town, just take the bus.'
'Well, actually', said I, 'I am going to cycle into town.'
So there I was, riding the four miles into town in the face of a fearsome headwind, cursing my girlfriend for telling me to take the bus meaning that I had to take the bike even though I really wanted to take the bus.
Got to the pub, rugby was watched, around 10 pints were drunk.
Closing time came and I fell over trying to unlock the bike. It doesn't matter, I'm always more stable on a bike than I am walking, I said to myself.
Riding home was a joy. The storm was still blowing but this time at my back. I barely had to turn the pedals.
What I didn't take into account, as I rounded the final bend leading into my street, was that if you turn 90 degrees a tail wind becomes a side wind. I was pushed to the edge of the road where an inconveniently placed traffic cone sent me over the bars and into a ditch.
4 stitches in my forehead and 5 to re-attach what was left of my ear.
My girlfriend, to this day, has still not apologised.
Last crash, tried to ride the cross bike through a drainage tunnle (one of those spiral corrugated ones, about 8ft diameter.
It was wet and slimy, it had a friction coefficient about 100x lower than greased teflon, I went down like a sack of proverbial potatoes and then struggled to even get up and walk the bike length back out again!
Also still have a deep unhealed gash on my knee from riding the fat bike up a flight of stairs, reaching the top, and missjudging the corner leading to the shifter digging a hole in my knee as I tried to hop and turn up the last step.
^ Wow Bruce that's quite a story. What level of sympathy did you receive on your return? I would have probably made up a story about being attacked for my beer money by some bigger boys.
Hit a rope strung across the trail in June. Left with a wonky finger and ongoing problems with a trapped nerve in my shoulder.
Started the C25K run thing while off the bike, which I've enjoyed. Now got a torn calf and can barely walk....
Its the ones you don't see coming that really hurt.
Couple of years ago riding along Pie Run at Glentress, didn't see a root sticking out from the bank I was riding past. It caught the bike just above the front hub, it was like a really strong wooden hand had just grabbed my forks and stopped the bike dead.
I went pinging over the bars and landed about 6 feet away, completely oblivious as to why I'd taken flight and then used my face and chest as landing gear. As I picked myself up and gathered up the bike, which had flopped peacefully over onto the dirt bank like it was having a little rest, i spotted the root and pieced it together.
Nothing broken but was pretty bruised
^ Wow Bruce that’s quite a story. What level of sympathy did you receive on your return?
Not much, to be honest. If you asked her you'd think it was 100% my own fault.
Dalbeattie a few weeks ago. Had avoided most of the rock slab sections since, after a quick lap of the little skills loop, it became apparent that they were wet and greasy as hell. Got to one of the 'roll along the top of a series of rock slabs' sections and thought, "it's out in the open, looks a bit drier, it's downhill slightly, 12-15 metres so fairly short, the alternative is a nasty rut down the grass. It'll be fine..."
...It wasn't fine.
3/4 of the way down my front wheel washed out to the right, and I got launched - fortunately I was on flats rather than clips so just got ejected. No major injury but I have existing neck problems anyway and it jarred and sent me cross-eyed for a couple of minutes.
September-
On canal towpath, overtaking people, on the grass near the water, riding too fast, looking at phone, thinking about dinner .... hit a mooring post.
OTB towards water and hit a moored barge head first. Not quite on the rear deck and slump into the water. Luckily the boat owner came to pull me out as I was pretty dazed.
Helmet smashed. Fractured rib(s?). Knee swelled so much I couldn't bend it more than 20 degrees or so. Usual random bloody scrapes. Phone and pump lost to the water.
I hope it was amusing to the people that witnessed it 🙂 they were nice about it though.
Basically, crashing into the canal might not be fun even if it is a hot day and you like swimming!
Ton.
Get well quick big man.
Its the ones you don’t see coming that really hurt.
Tru Dat
Came off 3 weeks ago on a turn that I do most mornings.
There had been a public event in the park the day before and they hadn't been round to clear up ,so I suspect there had been some food/beer/bodyfluid left on the path (slabs).
Came down quick but got away with just a chunk off an elbow as I slid into the flowerbeds.
Felt a complete muppet doing it in front of all the regular commuters 🙂