The Sun was setting and in the trees it got a touch hard to see the little tree stump in the middle of the trail. I managed to hop over it but didn't really check out the landing first and went *crunch* into a tree 😳 No damage done and no one to see me make an arse of myself.
What daft crashes have you had recently?
clipped sapling somewhere near my armpit, endo'd for about 20ft then went out the front door. Counted teeth and checked out the rest. Amazed I didn't need an ambulance.
I rode into a sign in a car park at a race at about 0.5mph and fell off. Hurt quite a lot, went down like a sack of spuds!
Undergrowth grabbing bar and brake lever throwing me off. Luckily said undergrowth broke my fall.
Setting off on a ride as a kid. Got to the bottom of the drive and hit a stone and OTH I went and knocked myself out.
Various poor judgements on handlebar width/gap size resulting in painful tree punching.
Last night not paying attention and thought a pile of leaves was a berm. Ankle not feeling to good this morning as the pedal tried to remove my foot, bad pedal!
I was just riding along the other day and went OTB, knackered my leg and shoulder and broke the rail on my saddle. Don't have a clue how it happened.
Released my grip on the bars in order to operate the dropper lever, bars spun round and nearly skewered myself, this was at Cannock on the fireroad leading back to the carpark. 😳
Also managed to smash myself up [s]practising[/s] attempting manuals.
I only do daft!
Most of mine come from still getting used to riding clipped in.
pulled up to the bike rack at work and couldn't get foot out - fell over still clutching bike.
turning around on a narrow path and couldn't get foot out - fell over still clutching bike.
going along a track in some vehicle ruts and clipped the sides - over the bars (not clipped in that time 🙂
all low speed so only pride hurt
Head down, snorkel jacket hood fully zipped up to protect me from the rain on the way back to school. Bang! Straight into the back of a parked car. My front wheel was touching the downtube 🙁
My most recent injury was a badly twisted ankle...a class it as a bike injury as it was at the start of a ride but I didn't even make it on to the bike, just fell back as I lifted my bike off the top of my highish car resulting in scratched car, bruised backside and aforementioned twisted ankle 🙄
Wow what a bonfire.....bang.....wow a parked car. (I was 13)
Daydreaming during a race - hitting a tree woke me up.(I was 43)
As a kid, I rode home from my summer job one day holding something in my hand. I thought it a good idea to therefore use my right hand to change my left shifter. That ended quite abruptly face down in the road. Oops.
Daydreaming during a race
LOL, same thing, D2D, was day dreaming about how good it wood be to have a tail and didn't notice the corner. That woke me up.
Didn't see the drop, long rolling endo, thought I'd caught it, hadn't.
Bar end caught in wire link fence at reasonable speed = smashed helmet and buggered elbow 🙁
Pretty much all my crashes are silly:
Slipped on a tree root, which pointed my bike off a small (2m) cliff. I broke my wrist.
Didn't put front wheel in properly, pulled wheel up over a rut, wheel fell off and rolled down the hill. I went down hard on my shoulder and broke my collarbone.
both within the last 3 years. When younger:
Over bars at as the lights went green - I stamped on my SPD, foot slipped off, toes hit the floor and heal was still on the peddle. The bike stopped dead.
Trying to ride with left hand on right grip and right hand on left grip - don't try it.
Group of us on bikes and my brother pulls out to overtake a mate but doesn't look to see me behind him so we both go down.
Riding next to a friend and my OnZa bars end goes under his OnZa Ules grip at 20mph. He rode out of it I lost a lot of skin on my arm.
Riding too close to friend on overgrown single track, don't see a hole, go over bars and smash in teeth, fortunately I had glue on braces at the time which the dentist says held my teeth in but they made a right mess of my lips. I wondered why people in cars were staring at me on the 10mile ride home.
I didnt crash into the tree, I was falling off well before then, I just hit the tree before I hit the ground.
Dislocated shoulder and fractured it in two places. 😥
I didnt even have anything to show for it until the MRI
Last year - tight singletrack, overgrown thick grass / heather to the side. Trees near but not too near.
LHS pedal hits a sump in the grassy singletrack verge, capatpulkts me towards tree on RHS, one of those daft stump branches at head height goes into my right ear, oooyaa and lots of blood, thankfully no major or long standing damage done, very nice junior doc at A&E sliced off skin flap and stitched the rest up..
still smart when go past that bit...
On Saturday, went out for a quick spin between (or so I thought) torrential rain.
Caught right end of bar on a tree in a quick bit of singletrack so bike immediately went down, somehow ejected both feet from pedals but momentum meant I kept going. Doing a weird hunched over run for a few steps, barged a tree on the other side of the trail with my left shoulder. Worst bit was that it shook all the water out of the tree right onto me.
Would have made a great gif.
Rode into a tree too (monday). On way home stopped into supermarket, got chatting with the lass on the till who commented that her boyfriend had taken her out on a bike and she had crashed into a tree. Dangerous things are trees.
Had many, but think the most stupid was many years ago, final weeks of uni life and decided to take the downhill bike out for a play.
Drove to track, unloaded the bike, got kitted up, pulled my full face helmet on and slung my goggles over the bars, mounted up and started to pedel off, unfortuantly I was looking down at my pedals as a clipped in, looked up and promptly got a branch from a tree in the eye/face.
I was within 2 meters of my car.
After having various stiches, eye washes and my eyelid sewn back on I was good to go.
Unfortuantly it does mean all the photos from my last week at uni (and the final black tie ball) are with me with two black eyes, yellow antiseptic smeared over stiches on my face and an eye patch. For some reason I didn't pull at the ball?
It's like a mtb version of 'the happening' in here.
But more interesting.
On the final descent on the Verderers. From the drop off, weave through the trees and then the short down to the fire road. 100m climb up to the next section, down first straight, left hairpin, 50m there's a tree on the left. Bang, I'm in the ferns and brambles on the right.
Every time since that first off, must miss the tree, must miss the tree......,
Three times now I've done the same thing. What hurts more is the piss taking from my mates.
As a kid, cycling way too fast for the corner I was about to take, I caught the front wheel and went over the handlebars into a huge patch of nettles. Wearing shorts. And a T-shirt. I was pain.
As an adult, on the dual course at Chicksands. Got just a little too much air off one jump and put the front wheel the wrong side of the lane. Another trip over then handlebars and a bent set of forks.
I was warming up for race a few months back, it was very muddy so I had stuck the mud tyres on the night before and had pressures right up to make sure seated and sealed. After a short decent there was a small (very) jump with an off camber muddy corner after it. I flew over the jump way to fast and dabbed the brakes realising how little grip I had, doing this caused me to front flip, taking a chunk out of my knee down to the bone, and damaging my top tube (I assessed the damage and thought it hold up as it was only a small hole) so it snapped half way round lap 1 of the race.
Looking on the bright side of the situation almost everyone who continued racing and drank from their bottles went down with a stomach bug for the next week!
Over the bars , two separate occasions, both whilst riding up very steep hills .
Stupidest was at BBB last year. While in the lead of the Pint to pint race I rode straight into the Start/Finish inflatable.
On the road from Grasmere over Red Bank I saw an owl in the woods illuminated by my helmet torch and marvelled at the glory of nature too long and rode into the drystone wall at the side of the road..
Not me, but a friend riding back to the car park was standing on the pedals when he elected to take both hands off the bars...took a lot of skin off his backside 😆
On Saturday I decided [u]not[/u] to do something as I was riding alone. In not doing something, I instead dropped my front wheel into a sizable hole, went OTB and dropped straight onto my head from around 4ft (plus OTB amplitude 😉 ). 4 days later I'm still getting headaches (helmet ruined), and I've knackered my back and neck such that I can't get a proper nights sleep.
Go big or go home indeed!
Same as chambord, riding along, then just went flying...
My mate has somehow managed to break his big toe when riding. Just managed to kick a tree stump, smashed his big toe. Kudos though, he carried on the ride (another 8 mile ish), AND drove the 40 miles home, and didn't complain too much till the morning after when it was swollen and hurt a considerable amount more.
Hit a tree recently with my left shoulder, didn't fall off just stuttered to a halt with a very sore shoulder. I moved my front wheel not realising it had trapped a sapling under it and TWANG! it bats me right in the face.
Cheeky trail up on the Hamble, wiggle wiggle, twist and turn single track through the shoreline of the river, holly bushes, wet decking, holly bushes, wet decking, face plant into the reeds into knee deep mud 😆
On Saturday I decided not to do something as I was riding alone. In not doing something, I instead dropped my front wheel into a sizable hole, went OTB and dropped straight onto my head from around 4ft (plus OTB amplitude ). 4 days later I'm still getting headaches (helmet ruined), and I've knackered my back and neck such that I can't get a proper nights sleep.Go big or go home indeed!
Also decide to play it easy yesterday on the dh track as I was lone, woke up face in dirt with bike on top of me, smashed helmet and a very wobbly walk out, thumping head now
Work are very understanding ( "what have you done now")
After a long afternoon riding it like I stole it all over everything Woodbury Common had to throw at me, I came hooning sideways down the farm track at Dalditch, thoroughly pleased with my day's work..
Bunnyhopping the little wooden curb at the bottom, I hit flat level ground for the first time in hours and sat up and took a hand off the bars to take a well earned breather.. I then hit a tiny golfball sized pebble, my hand slipped off the bars, both feet slipped off the pedals and I ended up sat on the cross bar coasting wildly out of control at about 20 miles an hour til the front wheel tucked under and I departed gracelessly over the bars..
A pedestrian that I'd passed moments before on the farm track said that I was out cold for a couple of minutes, and having witnessed the whole event, his first instinct was that I had been shot from the way the crash happened..
Only a bruised ego and a couple of scrapes and bumps though thankfully
Not recently but the silliest. Doing a Polaris Challenge in Kielder, late as usual & heshing down a fire road. I was trying to look at the map on my bars & suddenly realised my mate had just about locked his brakes up, I looked ahead & thought, 'I wonder why Steve's braking.....ah yes, GATE!' One of those single bar ones they use, that get weathered & are the colour of fire roads
Couldn't decide whether to hop it, drop it or hit it, so I tried to go under it. Arse over the back wheel, brakes locked & BAM! Smashed me lid & ripped the map board off. Arms went under the gate & I couldn't ride over bumpy stuff for a month.
A while ago I hit a stump hidden in some long grass and want otb and landed bent double of a barbed wire fence. That wasnt great.
Recently I had borrowed a mates DH bike to compare to my own, and did a fairly small table top on it. Saddle was a fair bit higher then my own, which then hit me and I landed on the front wheel and hit a tree. No injuries thankfully.
Drunken bmx racing in the garden ended up in a collision and a sprained wrist (though its been a month and still hurts, so perhaps time to get it checked out)
Few weeks back I was on the crosser heading up a very very steep lane, on the steepest part on the bend it's 30% +. Bang, chain goes while I'm gurning over the hoods, I'm on the deck in in a split second. Broken scaphoid. Worse still, my daughters friends were walking down the lane at that exact moment. They did check I was ok after having a good laugh at me.
One for the Marple lot...
Hit zig at about 30mph and was pumping everything as hard as I could, landed pretty well but used all the travel on the mega.
One of those loose, large stones had got knocked in to a perfect little booster after the tree, on the only corner, I ended up on top of the bush on the right, about 5 feet in the air.
Perfectly wedged, upright and still clipped in
Daydreaming on a narrow & fast bit of bridleway, handlebar catches something solid in the hedge to my right, ended up on the floor narrowly missing a steaming pile of horse cr@p.
it's ok to say crap.
Riding Fowlmeade near Deal: it's pretty windy and slow most of the way round, I took a left a little too fast and wide, the front wheel went through some loose soil and I slumped pathetically to the ground. Embarrassing.
Three spring to mind..
Years ago lost my racer at speed on a sharp downhill left in the rain. Bike slew across the oncoming traffic and the handlebar clipped the far headlight of the VW camper heading up the hill. I was thrown off the bike and onto the bonnet of a parked car. Combination of my handlebar/saddle and other bits of my bike did for the headlight and half the grille. I don't know who was more shocked, me or the German tourist driving. Being 17 at the time I made my excuses and left on my miraculously relatively unscathed bike.
Last year was riding a relatively gentle transitional stage on the Edale loop. Whilst scoping my line choices ahead I forgot all things to do with correct position and stood on the pedals with my weight forward. When the front wheel skittered over an innocuous stone I had no chance and supermanned OTB. Bruising and roadrash down pretty much the whole left side of my body. Pointless crash. Lesson learned.
Coasting bike down at speed from Lee Quarry to carpark with no chain. Reached final little bit of singletrack leading to carpark. Immediate gentle right-hander with maybe 6 foot drop on left to stream. Forgot about lack of chain and went to pedal. Lost balance and veered straight over edge. Fortunately there was a tree right there and I was able to grab a branch and hang on whilst the bike hurtled from under me into the drop. My mate thought it was hilarious 😉
And finally. Chain snapped whilst I was crossing the road in front of a line of waiting cars. Was in a high gear and OTB'ed in front of them all whilst in full MTB kit 🙄
Chose to go on a really long ride on one of those freezing cold days in-between Christmas and new year a couple of years ago.
Coming back towards home, couldn't feel my hands or feet and wondering why I had punished myself so much in such weather.
Went to shift to middle chainring on front, fingers were so numb I couldn't move the shifter. Thought to myself I know I'll use both hands, that should do it. Took right hand off right grip and attempted to use both thumbs to move shifter on left grip. Bars instantly swung round 90 degrees and I went over them into a bush.
I had a the biggest muddiest puddle jump out in front of me once.. As i wasnt expecting it my line through it wasn't pre planned.
Sudden stand still and over sideways clipped in...all to the amusement of my mate.
When first learning to ride I tried to smash up a short steep bit, but didn't do anything about my weight distribution. I was also only just getting used to clips. Full loop out with the bike disappearing over the top of me back down as I watched star fished on my back.
Always brings a smile to my face when I think about it.
Glentress POC King / Queen of the Hill Enduro 2012.
Stage 4 I think (the one that was basically Spooky Wood plus Super G).
Start of the stage was slightly downhill narrow singletrack across the heather moor above Spooky Wood. Pedalling hard (its a race after all!) Pick up quite a lot of speed. Notice a couple of big muddy ruts on the main line. Not a problem with the speed I'm going I'll just need to unweight the front wheel, nothing fancy required, I'll just skim right throu....
Instant superman, I must have went twenty feet. Hit the deck... Ooof... At least the ground was soft... Then the bike hit me.
back in the early 90's i used to go to trowbridge college. i had recently bought a helmet (remember this is early 90's none of your modern aero stealth man).
well i was cycling back home and thought i spotted some kids i knew from secondary school.
wearing this helmet i felt like a right burk 😳
so i looked the other way when cycling towards them...
not spotted the car trailer i was indirectly cycling towards 😳
cue me going over the bars and rolling off said trailer onto the road (and amply demonstrating why the helmet was a good idea 😉
got up to see said kids doubled over laughing riotously 😳
felt like a right tool 😳 as i straightened my stem and rode off 🙁
After dropping my son at daycare one day I got back to the bike, turned it round, helmet on, and started to roll down the sloping garden to the path that I'm about to join. I'm freewheeling down the slope, dragging the brake and going very, very slowly, maybe 1-2km/h as a) I've only just set off, b) I've only got one foot clipped in, c) in about five yards I have to make a very sharp left, where going wide around the corner will result in a dip in the estuary, and d) I've got my head down, checking what gear I'm in.
As I looked up, a low branch on a nearby tree leaped out and hooked itself under the front of my helmet. The deliberate upward movement of me lifting my head segued smoothly into an unintended look up into the tree, chinstrap tightening, hands pulled off the bars, and me being very, very slowly dragged off the bike backwards... At this point I managed to get one foot down, the bike stopped with me still vaguely upright (but leaning backwards, still hooked on the branch). I then managed to undo my helmet strap and extricate myself.
Luckily no-one was around to have seen it, but when I got to work I found that the branch, prior to hooking under the helmet, had jabbed me in the forehead, breaking the skin and leaving a big cut/scrape/welt combo slap-bang in the middle. I still have a slight scar, six months later 😳
Ha, enjoying this thread. I sit here with a broken collar bone. I rode off a 3 foot structure and have subsequently realised that I really don't know much about riding big drop offs that you can't roll.
Bit late to realise that now. Itching to get back on the bike.
Recent Sunday morning ride going downhill along a track when noticed a group of about 8 riders coming up the hill towards me so decided to do the right think and move over to the less clear part of the track so that they had the clear track to climb up. Didnt clear the centre of the track withthe front wheel and caught a ridge. Front end twisted, bike disappeared and ended up doing a superman impression into the undergrowth...
They stopped to check I was ok & Laugh had by one and all - though I did forget to ask what the score was for Artisitic Impression and Technical Dismount!
When in my young teens I was riding along Worthing seafront prom, and rather than look forward, I was looking at my shiny new saddle...
The next thing I was looking at was the ground as I face planted over a bollard into the grass the other side...
Much visual field disturbance, vomiting, and (another) head ct scan later, I was recovering on the hospital ward with a. Drip in my arm....
Hmmm, daft.
DrP
On my commute home a few years ago I hit a femur, half a cows femur that had probably fallen from an offal wagon, pushed me left, finished up against the kerb, couldn't get away from the kerb, overbalanced an ended up in a heap on the grass verge. Pure comedy, jumped up quickly laughing hoping I hadn't been seen.
Quite a few years ago I was following a guide on a trail in mid-Wales when he stopped and I didn't, basically I head butted him up the arse!
I remember on a ride with three mates, we were just starting up a featureless, smooth, car width, gentle climb. One guy leading, two following, me last. The two in the middle somehow contrive to get tangled, de-tangle too forcefully and fall over/interface with bushes. This made me laugh, but the laugh collided with my need for oxygen and my throat closed making me ride up the side of a tree and collapse. Guy in the lead looks over his shoulder and stops in disbelief at the sight of all three mates down at 3mph on a smooth surface and apparently writhing in agony - though actually laughter.
Had two stupid ones last night, mainly because I was being a bit of a wuss as I've still not got my confidence fully back after my big crash last year.
First one was following my mate down a bit of trail and over cooked it going into a corner so hard on the brakes, ass over the back wheel a bit since it was going down the hill and tried to push my weight down into the corner when suddenly the front hits a clump of grass and stops me dead throwing me OTBs only to get back on and immediately go OTBs again on a straight bit of the trail for no reason.
Second one was not paying attention down a steep rooty through the trees section that I've ridden dozens of times but not on the new bike and I totally misjudged how narrow the gap was between the trees my bars get stuck between the trees and I'm immediately eating dirt with bike in hot pursuit.
On a night ride,(not recently ,including for humour reasons),hammering along a fell road about 30mph,forgot about the metal fell gate. Rode into it without braking,ooof!,sort of bounced back not a mark on me or bike. Gate still there,err still sorta V-shaped!. Glad I was on me own!.(And it was dark......)
Not recently.
I was commuting through London from my job to my evening classes and my mind was absolutely miles away thinking about impending exams. Filtered through the middle of traffic queuing for lights, and was probably going a bit too quick....... and then went straight into the back of a stationary double decker bus 😯 .
Honestly didn't see it, or at least it didn't register with my exam-addled brain that it might cause a problem. Didn't brake either - just straight into the back! Luckily no breaks - just bruises, scuffs and many gobsmacked looks from all the queuing drivers.
Slow speed into the back of a bus, coming down the Otley Road in Leeds. He was slowing down and indicating, I started looking over my shoulder to spot a gap in the traffic to go round him, next thing I know he'd stopped and I'd walloped the arse end of a double decker. No damage to me or the bike (or the bus), but a good giggle between me and the driver as I dusted myself off and rode past him sheepishly.
One time, riding the long way home I was going over a bridge. It's a rail bridge, maybe half a mile long, with a clip-on cycle and pedestrian path on one side. The path was maybe four feet wide, but every fifteen out so feet there was a massive iron girder, part of the bridge structure, sticking out and causing pinch points. With the bars on my commuter there was maybe an inch of clearance on either side... as the weeks went by, I got faster and faster along the bridge, until one day, doing about 15 mph I clipped a girder. Bars spun 90 degrees in an instant, over I went.
Just after I'd picked myself up another cyclist came along, so I leaned on the railing all casual and pretended I was taking in the view...
Had several crashes where I have been concentrating 100% on the trail and getting the bike along it forgetting about minor matters like will my shoulders/body/head go with the bike. Anything above about 3 feet I tend not to notice so have clipped several trees with shoulders etc, pretty bad off in spain where I only noticed the brambles (proper vicious spanish ones) completely covering the trail at head height last minute (bench cut kinda trail, went off the side dropped about 4')
Oh and not a crash but a few weeks ago I managed to cut my chin open when I ducked under a branch just as the front wheel hit a rock, chin/stem interface, that smarted a bit.
(oh and I rode a brand new bike into a parked car coz I was looking down at my gears, but I was young and stoopid)
Daft crashes are my speciality
Last night: swerved to avoid a single chest-height bramble branch & went off-piste into a bramble bush
Last weekend: a bit higher than usual on a favourite berm sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeetfarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrkoooooooooooooooooooooooff
Last week: showing matey how the bike makes absolutely no difference where obstacles are concerned. Wrong.
Last month: I can lean over a bit on damp woodwork. Wrong again.
Not keeping both hands on the bars and snagging baggies on the gear levers are recurring themes
On the way to the shops with my 2 and a bit year old in the trailer. Just stalled pulling the trailer up onto the kerb. I'd forgotten that the spds on that bike were adjusted particularly tight as it's my fast road bike so I'll "never" want to unclip in a hurry.
I fell sideways (painlessly) in front of the shops, then lay on the floor struggling to get my feet out of the pedals.
It's my first SPD related low speed fall in 15 years + since I actually got used to them.
Oh and my daughter still points at the bike I was riding, a month on from the incident, and says "You fell off that bike, daddy! Silly daddy!".
Few years ago I was out for a ride with Offspring #1. Using the old retro thing with canti brakes. Had to undo the rear brake as one of the blocks slipped and was rubbing the tyre. Not an issue when riding with a 5 yo.
On the way home was wheeleing up the road and went to feather the rear brake. Went down hard. Really hard. Laid on the floor for ages trying not to move in case of permanent damage. Last time I forewent a helmet. Eventually had to get up as Offspring was getting worried. Was sorely embarrassed.
Recent spill was trying to scoop under a branch of a fallen tree, which was slightly lower than expected and caught me by my camelback cue being ejected from bike which ghosted down the trail and me being spat into the undergrowth with a large branch for company... mates thought it was hilarious and slightly spectacular.
Last saturday at bike park wales, me and a mate are slip sliding down Halfcut, not entirely in control it has to be said. I take a little lie down on a wet root, and in his attempt to not run over me, my mate, who can't brake because of the steepness of the track, opts to try to grab a tree. Well, it works, and rather better than he expected because one of the belt loops on his shorts gets hooked around a short stumpy bit of branch sticking out from the tree, and he wedgies himself quite effectively, and is left hanging, without his bike from said tree, unable to get free! Needless to say, i laughed quite a bit 😉
A while ago now, on the last day of another fine week in verbier with bike verbier, we had just ridden down a cracking trail at pace to avoid the incoming storm, the trail was technical and fast and in places a bit tricky, all successfully negotiated. Whilst riding along a flat path back to a small village Phil rides gently over a small bridge followed by a very good riding mate who makes a meal of the little bridge. Bravado over takes skill as i wheelie onto the planked bridge, my back wheel splits the planks and it is then i notice the big drop to the side where despite my flapping arms is where i am heading....i proceed to do a swallow dive into a small ravine onto alot of pointy rocks (about 4 metres drop) que alot of funny noises from me some white looking faces from my mates and a trip to the hospital and 6 months off the bike! still could have been worse the ledge i landed on led to an even bigger drop!
Most embarrassing recently - Bristol Bikefest, fast fire road decent, into gentle right hander and boggy section, which is the start of the Red Bull timed section. Dab a bit of front and rear to control speed, front immediately starts to slide out, and I'm a passenger as I veer hard right and slam straight into the Red Bull sign / pallet, with inevitable OTB consequences. Fortunate for the soft landing, and bike in one piece.
Late for one of the brass monkeys starts. Pedal up, slow down, cross rutand fall off in front of the entire field......