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The 'your riding' thread got me thinking that it's been at least a month since I fell off (although I did come off twice in one day) once over the bars and once accidentally unclipped both feet at speed.
Makes me wonder if i'm more of a wuss than I thought and/or not pushing hard enough. Could be that my new bike is compensating for my lack of skills 😉
how long has it been since you came off? how hard were you pushing? I'm wondering if i need to increase the frequency of my falls 😀
About a week ago when I got a bit cocky on the bmx track and nose cased a step up I clearly wasn't going fast enough for 😆 not much damage, bit of soft tissue damage to something in my shoulder apparently, it's a bit stiff and weak but I can still ride. Before that I hadn't crashed properly for about 2 years despite pushing my limits quite a bit.
i often have an 'off' of some varying degree on most of my rides. Some are comical, stupid and embarassing but rarely result in injury
Last but one ride. Took a frontflip with pike down a 15' ravine, missing all the rocks and trees on the way. Didn't even get wet feet. (proper lucky escape, that one)
Later in the ride I attempted to ride through a fern whilst negotiating a techy descent at walking pace, failing to spot the 12" high tombstone shaped rock hiding in it. Cue slow, graceful, OTB pratfall.
2 week ago in wharnecliffe, hit a root which stopped me dead and threw me over the bars.
and 2 week prior to that, front wheel sank into a puddle at the bottom of a washout b/w and threw me oer the bars.
Long dusty, rocky, steep chute in Les Angles, France a few weeks ago. The end of it had a right turn, punctuated by a tree. I introduced myself to the tree.....at speed.
Worst thing was I thought I had it all on my Gopro but turns out I'd messed up the settings and had it on picture mode..
If I counted the number of involuntary dismounts per hour of riding I do I'd probably be looking at an almost 1:1 ratio 🙁
Most are just stopping awkwardly on an obstacle but I've always got scabs that need picking somewhere about my person.
'Embrace your crapness' is my motto.
2 weeks ago - straight out the front door on a small lane when my bars got snagged on some overgrown foliage and the deck was slippy with moss.
Rode it off of course into the traffic with blood on knees and elbows.
Picked off the scab on the knee last night as it happens. Stingy!
The problem with having more than one bike is I sometimes forget which one I'm riding and start writing cheques the bike can't cash.
Last week I'm on a familiar sketchy descent on my local loop, great build up of speed on the way in I suddenly realise I'm on the 'wrong' bike for the rapidly approaching gnar so I brake and fishtail out of it before heading off into the undergrowth 🙂
Most rides involve me laying on the ground at some point, but these are really just slow clumsy dismounts. I'm afraid I hardly ever attack things fast enough to cause spectacular offs. Actually I'm still not convinced that it's necessary to fall off all the time in order to improve. I know that there is an argument that 'if you are not falling then you are not trying hard enough" and there are certainly some obstacles that are easier if takn at speed. But the people that really impress me are those that can pick their way down highly technical trails at walking pace rather than those who can switch of the part of the brain that deals with consequences and just go for it.
Cheers
Andy
Two weeks ago at Lee Quarry - for some reason the bike decided to have a bit of a lie down on a fairly innocuous corner. It would have been fine apart from my managing to impale my leg on the big ring, causing a nice deep cut, there was quite a bit of blood sloshing about in my shoe by the time I got home, even with a proper bandage on. Annoyingly the cut was really clean and the nurse at the local GPs did a smashing job of taping it up the next day, so it's healed up very well and I won't even get a decent scar out of it, oh well.
Fell off lots riding Snowdon, but the last proper one was the ride before that. Fast, loose rut of singletrack, sunken by about a foot. Panic braked for a corner, front washed out and dug into the edge sending me over the bars at a reasonable speed. Would have been fine, except I landed on my side on the top of the sunken bit, winding me quite comprehensively. I had to sit for a minute after that one!
I've not had a proper crash for quite a while, but three weeks ago, I had a very low speed incident crossing over a bridge. Either side has some metal barriers to prevent motorbikes and the like which you have to snake through (cough, they should be smaller gaps really to prevent bikes too - it's a fp), and at about 1mph, I don't know what happened, but th ebike suddenly stopped dead and I fell sideways into the square section barriers. Smarted the leg and arm a bit... but the longest lasting pain has been in my foot from I guess something stretching a bit too much whilst still clipped in.
Karma I guess for riding fp's...
Sunday. One of the switchbacks on Leithens Door, lost the front but luckily a tree saved me from falling more than 20ft down the hillside... Arm and leg damage.
And then later in Ewok Village, just misjudged a drop and managed to catch my bar on a post, same knee went down.
Still sore - but out tonight 🙂
Fell off as in an unplanned dismount but landing on feet, or actually hitting the ground? I do the former fairly frequently but the last time I did the latter was about six months ago when I caught the end of the bars on a tree and went flying over the top!
Morzine, last month during PPDS.
Nothing broken but was quite a slam, bike landed in tree, still got the chainring scars.
I don't like falling off so probably ride like a wuss most of the time, but was following my mate Ben who's very handy.
Last time out! Almost cleared a tricky run for the first time. Confidence increasing, decided to push things a bit including jumping a set of roots. SPLAT! Cut knee, elbows etc.
Strong correlation between (1) wimping out and hitting brakes - SPLAT, (2) pushing the boundaries of technique - SPLAT. But getting better and frequencies of crashes now falling to almost every time, rather than every time!
Skills course in two weeks!
At Big Dog - 4 times on slippy roots/bars into trees on 1st lap. Then calmed down for the second lap, felt good, and came off on the f88cking tarmac road bridge. 😳
Few weeks ago now in Marple while out with you scaled (et al). Fork rebound was far too low and while going down some large steps managed to get somewhere between fine and OTB; I must have looked like a unicyclist with strong love of bushes.
You guys who have said some thing along the lines of "not in ages"...
Talk about tempting fate... you might as well have run up to lady luck and kicked her in the nutz.
Last thursday- in the middle of a section of tricky switchbacks, relaxed between 2 of them and rode off the edge of the trail for no reason at all 
Sunday.
My bike threw me over the bars in contempt at my inability to ride through a ditch.
very, very rarely fall off. Not because I'm dead good, more because I don't try very hard. Kind of dependent on being able bodied for my self employed income so sub consciously risk averse in that sense too.
Last fall I can think of was the spring before last in a just-riding-along scenario. One moment jollying along on a gentle grassy bit of single track. The next quite a distance from the bike arranged pretty much like a text book illustration of the recovery position. The aches and pains suggest thats exactly how I landed. Nothing hurt a lot but everything hurt a little bit.
There was no sense of anything going wrong, just riding then on the the ground. Walking back up the trail there are the hump of the base of a rotted out fence post in the grass on the inside of a corner, guess my back wheel must have just cut the corner and been flipped up by it.
..and that's how they were damaged...the eggs...you remember...the hard-boiled eggs I was telling you about...they were in a tupperware container, reputedly self-sealing, which fell open upon contact with the tarmacadam surface of the road...the B489...the Dawlish road.....That shouldn't really happen to a self-sealing container, should it? What do you keep your hard-boiled eggs in?
Yesterday. Wheelied off a rock in the CyB car park, looped out and landed on my lower back/camelbak. Properly winded and nicely bruised but no real damage. Mostly embarrassed.
Had a clumsy dismount right near the start at CYB a week and a bit ago, but not really a proper falling off at speed crash.
Last two of those have both been on coaching days! Both down to me not paying 100% attention and not doing as I had been shown.
My usual hang-on-shouldn't-I-still-be-on-the-bike moments are on slow techy stuff where I stall out and go OTB or sideways in that oh so slow but inevitable fashion.
slainte 😳 rob
My last big crash was December!
I think breaking my arm rather painfully put an end to my go faster untill you crash philosphy, now I tend to just ride stuff I know I can do safely, and just try and go faster on that and let progression happen naturaly from that, rather than trying to force it.
Plenty of uncontrolled dissmounts, but nothing I'd call a crash for quite a while.
A out 5 weeks ago, twice on the same ride. OTB on the first and sort of a sideways OTB on the second. Left shoulder still no right. 🙁
Couple of weeks ago at Gisburn, crappy trail edging collapsed under my front wheel. More a tumble than a fall but did my ankle for a couple of days...
Depends what you mean by fall off. I haven't had a big crash in ages but plenty of little incidents. Last one I can remember was some of the off piste stuff at hamsterley. Rooty, muddy, front wheel got stuck and I vaulted the bars. Was a slow speed crash though so I landed on my feet.
Tend to hold back on high speed risky stuff as the consequences are high so most of my falls are slow techy stuff - more technical/unplanned dismounts than falls.
Saturday. First painful crash for a good while, on a fairly innocuous bit of trail. Cut elbow, knee and bruised my calf, which was probably the most painful bit. Bent my front wheel too.
About a month or so at CYB, on False Teeth.
I was, as I believe the yoof of today, pinning it, braw. Hopped out of the saddle to crank a little more power over the rollers and SNAP went the chain.
Body shot forward, using all the power that should have gone through the chain, and I was spat out at speed sideways, down the slope. In front of everyone else.
Ouch.
Real bummer was the bruising I suffered all down the sides, just before flying out to the Caribbean for a beach holiday! Looked like I'd been beaten up!
Ride before last on the 'brown trousers' descent near riber. Trail is that overgrown that there is only one line visible - a rut.
Front wheel jack-knifed in the rut at speed, straight over the bars and into head height ferns. Thank god for the ferns! Only my ego was bruised.
A month ago on that steep-ass rocky descent next to the road into Chatel. One of those horrible back-wheel-overtakes-front on a tight switchback. I did a roley poley into a big ol' boulder. I was really tired from riding all day and making stupid mistakes.
Last "comedy" off was a while ago now. Tried to manual through a stream and looped out and landed flat on my back in the water.
Was riding with two new guys I had not ridden with before and was a mite embarrassed.
Often have little moments. Had one showing off to the kids last week. Caught the bars in a tight little section and had to bale out before I hurt myself. Only the dignity dented this time.
Last Thurs, front wheel tucked under during a fast berm on the infamous 'last run' down the blue at Antur Stiniog, pushing it a bit far, did a graceful (or not) front roll consequently spilling the haribo everywhere In my camelsack 😀
Comedy dismount last week when the I lost traction up front diverting my descent line directly into a tree. Bailed before hitting. Fork crown is now scuffed.
Last proper, in pain for days afterward, off, was on the shore at Glentress. Came to a stop on the top section, but descided to try roll off with no real momentum, looking at what I was trying to avoid, front wheel popped off the side, twisting and pitching me off the bike. Saved a spine/tree stump interface by using a nearby pine as a fireman's pole. Nicely shredded forearms, and gashes across the calf from the bike. No one saw thankfully.
Just over 3 weeks ago in Morzine.
Got it all wrong coming way too hot into a berm, highsided & popped me out over the top minus a bike. I was quite lucky really.
The week before I crashed more in a week than I do all year at the Mega. Last night was the first time I have ridden an MTB since we got back, so it was a bit less frantic pace.
Last Friday - Riding home from Worcester beer festival having consumed 8 pints of super strong cider on a racer with drop handle bars in the dark. tried to hop up a curb in the centre of town - was never going to be successfull - over the handle bars in front of bushwakers night club at throwing out time. Lots of cheering and sore elbos in the morning to go with my hang over. cracking fun though.
12th March. Road bike, both wheels disappeared on a 12mph corner going from flat to uphill.
1 x Broken Femur, 1 x week in hospital, 1 x month off work, still recovering....
the time before was at Mega 🙂
4 weeks ago at national champs Molfre,over the bars at speed collarbone into 4 bits and cracked shoulder torn muscle,cuts to various body parts. I can't work due to the nature of my job, sat at home bored senseless
Last night - too fast into a very dusty corner front wheel hit a bump and washed out. Gravel rash on right arm and hip, blooming sore today glad i was wearing gloves though.
Stanmer Park, Brighton at the weekend. Managed to put together a loop including about 2.5k ft of climbing so I was bit tired, even so I didn't expect to land a jump and have one of Tarzan's old vines hanging from a tree and snag my bars. Instant OTB and landed about 15ft from the bike but no lasting damage and besides, if you're not crashing once in a while you're not trying hard enough.
I fall off most times i go out, as I have no technical skills whatsoever. Luckily I'm also a scaredycat so most are sideways pratfalls. Did go over the handlebars two weeks ago trying to be cocky and go over two logs - cleared first one, only to plant front wheel firmly into base of the second. Doh!
Most embarrasing has to be 15 years ago when I lived in London. Regents Street, Saturday before Xmas, taxi stopped suddenly and clips didn't release. Slo mo tumble, in front of 3 chocka buses plus the thousands on the pavement. My girlfirend was just behind me, but quickly went round edge of taxi and cycled off! (She's now my wife).
Ro5ey - Member
You guys who have said some thing along the lines of "not in ages"...Talk about tempting fate... you might as well have run up to lady luck and kicked her in the nutz.
Scaled is out with us tonight. I feel the technical delights of the Birthday Ride may be in order, in order to see if he can indeed find the boundaries of his "skillz"