A bit of self-counselling here, apologies. I need to get this out of my head.

Yesterday I had a pretty bad crash and managed to “walk away from it” in relatively good shape, but feel somewhat traumatised by the crash itself and the what-ifs.

I’ve been on holiday in Aviemore with the family, halfway through a 2 week stay. On the middle weekend some neighbours were also staying up in their van so we’d met up for dinner and agreed an early ride the next morning up the Burmah Road, something I’d never managed to do so good opportunity. With dinner came a few beers which, added to the heat, didn’t make for a great night’s sleep but come the 630 alarm figured might as well get on with it. On the forecasted hottest day of the year, it was already warm and sunny, the Cairngorms feel already baked and crispy. On the climb up, apropos of nothing, we talk about the helmets with detachable chin guard (but partly with an upcoming trip to Ard Rock Enduro in mind). From the top, we’re taking a wee singletrack back down – Al has eyed it up before but never done it so another opportunity with company. Setting off, I’m immediately thinking the trail reminds me of Moon Trail above Ladybower reservoir – it’s gritty singletrack interspersed with protruding low-level rocks. It’s nice, it’s flowy, only a minute in and I’m enjoying it and WHAM.

To say I don’t remember what happened isn’t because I was knocked out or anything, it just happened so quick. Sitting on the trail, looking where I am, I’m assuming I went to flick the front wheel around a rucksack-sized rock, found zero traction on the dry, loose grit, the bike has folded below me, my weight has carried on with momentum and my chin takes the full impact on the rock. I’ve never been punched, but imagine it can’t be as bad as this. It happened so fast, I didn’t see anything coming, one second I’m up, in the same second I just feel a massive impact and I’m tumbling.

So I’m sitting on the trail. Al’s close behind (fortunately) and arrives with a “****!”. My response to his response is “whats so bad?”. Blood’s dripping from somewhere. My face doesn’t feel smashed up, but putting 2+2 together, my chin… I can only assume it’s split, so pinch it together and try to take stock. I can move my jaw, my neck, everything seems “ok”.

So what now. Call 999? Seems overkill. Sit for a minute and wait for delayed effects? I need to sort my chin. By 50% chance I have a first aid kit, something that usually is in my bag, but sometimes gives way for extra clothing, food, water, sometimes is left in another bag. I’ve no idea what’s in it, but some scrambling around and there’s a couple of bandage dressings. Al is admitting to being useless in these situations but really wasn’t, and I’m mighty grateful this wasn’t a solo ride. Some fumbling and a team effort to press on the dressing and wrap the bandage round my head and it seems ok.

All the time, though, I’m just thinking about that impact. Nothing short of brutal but with some capital F’s, and I can’t help thinking there’s some after effects in the post.

Another consideration of calling for help, and a quick Google for hospitals in Aviemore – expecting the closest to be in Ft William, a community hospital in Aviemore seems promising. I still seem to be “OK” so we roll back down the fireroad in hope of medical attention.

The new hospital is a welcome sight, no complaints at having to wait for near a couple of hours, feeling very guilty at using up time meant for locals’ appointments with the nurse (who was anyway meant to be there for Casualty purposes, but gets booked anyway). Obligatory but very worthy shout for the amazing NHS – checked out, stitched up, doctor’s attention for apparent bleeding from my ear (unexplained, but not coming from a “bad place”), and a follow-up panic return visit when it’s still bleeding after an hour (still no medical concern).

So what do I take away from all this?

For years and years, the crash I’ve always feared with wearing open face helmets has been exactly this – a face shot. Memory of the impact will always live with me, as will the “what if it had been a few inches higher?”. Mangled teeth, nose, face, eyes…. With a split chin and some bruising, I feel I’ve been extremely lucky. Also amazed how resilient the human body is. My jaw is sore but again, that impact… I’m really struggling to reconcile that I’m not a lot worse off. Sitting here testing my bite, trying to match my upper and lower jaw together, trying to work out the mechanics of what happened at the time and wonder how my front teeth aren’t splayed or pushed through my gums (the nurse checked for this). These thoughts could be classed as over-thinking, but they’re not voluntary just now.

So do I invest in a full face helmet with detachable chin guard? Seems mad not to. They might not be so cool, might be a pain carrying it around, but I can’t really justify not buying one right now. I can’t think of much else to say on this.

Also, first aid kits. While waiting in the hospital, there was a post on here about what to carry with differing opinions from nothing, to minimal, to comprehensive kit. After this, I will always make sure I have a first aid kit of some sort. I could have made do wrapping a spare base layer round my head, but the bandage I used did a proper job and is the size and weight of, say, a gel.

There’re more factors in my head. Beers the night before, poor sleep – was I in a state to be riding an unknown trail? To be rational, it wasn’t steep, or particularly technical compared to what I’m used to. The conditions were the main factor – baked dry, grit like marbles. But again, nothing not ridden before. There’s nothing really that rang alarm bells before the crash, all just possible factors in hindsight. Other than wearing more protection for the “just in case” there’s not really much to call out as poor decision making.

I ride quite a lot solo, and have come a cropper before, years ago, breaking my collarbone. That was close to home, a friend nearby, quite lucky. Without Al on this occasion, I think my first response would have been 999 and I’m not sure how I feel about that. Needs must? Waste of resources? It wasn’t exactly a helicopter situation, although a ride in a chopper always appeals.

Today, the day after, I’m in reflection mode (hence the post). Nothing like a knee-jerk and selling all my bikes, but I’ve been wanting to do more running, climbing and munro-bagging so now feels like a good time. But time heals, my shite memory will dampen the trauma, I’ll no doubt ride again.

Keen to hear of similar experiences and personal responses to them.

A (not really) disappointing lack of blood and gore.

It’s a shit trail anyway…

TBH I thought you’d just adopted the aero snood thing.

As for full face helmets, my thoughts have always been that (a) I don’t ride enough gnarl to justify the cost and (b) risk compensation might make me feel more “immune” and I’d end up hurting myself.

Repair and then get riding again. Possibly going too fast for an un-known trail ?

Try getting your spine broken badly by a driver – slow 13 mph impact, but split my spine in two – 7 months off work. I got back cycling, but off road within 4 months. I’m now back road riding too. I was very nearly paralysed – just take time. I spent 6 1/2 weeks lying on my back – we opted for conservative treatment as surgery could have paralysed me.

You’ll melt with a full face for most riding. You can’t guard against everything. Hadn’t expected to be split in two from a slow speed accident, but there you go.

So take time to recover, maybe slow down on unknown stuff.

I’ve got a helmet with removable chin bar, I find I wear it more often than not now.

I “tested” it once about 1/2 a second after going OTB in Italy, I was very glad I had it on. I was very aware that I was sliding down on my face but apart from a mouth full of dust, I just got up and carried on riding.

They keep your face warm in winter too.

You’ll melt with a full face for most riding.

That’s where removable chin bars are useful.

If Gregory Porter rode bikes…

Tbh I think most people have an incident like this that makes them realise that their “fun” can have consequences. You can either wrap yourself in cotton wool and Ppe or just rein things in a tiny bit so you leave a bit more margin for error. Riding a bike off road carries an inherent risk of falling off, all you can do is manage that risk so its acceptable to you.

So long as I can identify what I did wrong and could do differently again, I typically treat (my very infrequent) crashes as useful learning experiences. And so long as I feel I’m not repeating the same mistakes, I generally feel fine to get straight back on a bike and do the same route again without any trepidation.
The last big crash I had was on my first time on a trail and going OTB on a jump, caused by me showing off to the riders with me. The time before that was clipping a tree at speed trying to get a KOM, so basically showing off again. Clearly I’m a slow learner but I don’t show off at all these days!

Don’t over think it, that’s my suggestion.

I have had some big crashes over the years and never over analyse them, it’s part of the risk reward that comes with riding fast,

I’m pretty bad for riding flat out on unknown trails hoping my ability will get me through, 9/10 it does.

I managed to spend a week in hospital after hitting a blind crest absolutely pinned, not knowing there was a 10 ft drop the other side with big concrete steps, not evenly spaced.

Last thing I remember was being in the air and seeing my front wheel about to hit one of the steps! Knocked me clean out and have no memory of much from that week!

Suffered an intraventricular hemorrhage, which resulted in the aforementioned week in hospital and losing my driving licence for 8 months.

As soon as I got back on the bike I never had any lingering doubts, although I don’t hit anything flat out without having a rough idea what’s the other side these days!

Same after I broke my wrist, was a stupid crash on grass but at high speed, as soon as I went down, the distance I travelled made me realise how hard I went down. Smashed my brand new helmet aswell! Carried on riding for a further 4hrs in absolute agony, just resting my wrist on the bar as I couldn’t grip or lift anything.

As said above crashing is part of riding, obviously you can mitigate it to some extent, but you will never totally eliminate it

I had a crash on day 2 of my current Scotland trip, going fairly quick down a trail that was mostly within my abilities, and BAM I’m on the ground, face sliding across the dirt. Pick myself up to find my bike about 20ft further down the trail, and I’ve got a cut on my nose, eyebrow, and whacked/grazed my cheekbone and side of my face. Oh and took the skin of the top of my shoulder.

Had no idea what happened until I looked up the trail, big rock on the right side jutting out, I’d struck my pedal on it, so hard in fact that I bent the threads in the crank arm (XT M8100, so not some lightweight carbon cranks!). Burgtec pedal just shrugged it off, of course!

My helmet was untouched, but my jawbreakers probably saved my eye – wrecked the lens but easily replaced. I also had a nice black eye and looked like I’d been in a losing fight for a week or so!

I ordered a MET Parachute MCR a couple of days after, and apart from the bit of time it takes to attach the chin guard (about a minute, max) it’s no different to a standard open face. Highly recommended, carrying the chin guard is no big deal if you’ve got a pack on, just tuck it into the waist belt or hang it from a loop.

I’ll be wearing it when doing anything enduro’y or on mountain descents.

i have had a few horrible ones, usually down to my own ineptitude. Been knocked out a couple of times, and some ambulance trips, various surgeries and a metal shoulder.

I try not focus on what happened, it’s one of those things and if you get back out and are over cautious you may have another nervous crash.

I guess you mean the singletrack off to the left from the first cairn on the way up ? If so i agree with scotroutes, not a great trail, to me it is like a messy boulder field in parts and overall too awkward for the effort to get up to it. Last time I rode it was with sanny, he was on a rigid fatbike and it was all rather amusing 🙂

My scariest crash was rather ironically a pootle along a country lane. A piece of fence wire caught my pedal and lassoed me into the middle of the road on a blind corner, car skidded missing me by a few meters. After composing myself I walked back and realised the wire was 10ft. I guess my point is the small innocent objects can catch us out at any given moment – and you can’t really prepare for that. But, after a few tumbles on rocks over the years has made me think about a detachable chin guard style helmet, doesn’t hurt to pop it on for descents, especially on new trails. Heal up well, mentally and physically.

Just watch out from ear ache from your better half ! That hurts more.

I’ve bashed myself up way more on my road bikes than I have on the MTB.

You’re thinking a lot about it and tbh you’ve gotten away with that… Just get back out on the bike

Don’t over think it.
I managed a noob not unclip while on forest track on holiday the other week – slammed down taking chunk of my palm and big hip bruise. While. Bloody. Stationary.

Happens to us all.

I too agree that too much armour and helmet leads to me pushing boundaries more – and therefore crashing more.

I would examine the “fitness to ride” point a bit more maybe, beers the night before plus a heatwave perhaps you weren’t as sharp as you could have been? Sometimes extra caution really is required. Most of my most memorable spills have been on a “one last run” when I knew I was getting tired but thought I had sufficient energy/concentration…

Dare I say it there are worse things than just mincing a bit more than normal or simply crying off some things because you know your not in prime condition that day.

I think you need to accept that it was a bit of a “Swiss cheese” moment where issues aligned along with you and a Rock to create a near miss, it happens and there’s little you could have done to prevent it.

So would I look at a chin-bar lid?
Why not, at least research what’s on the market, and find out if it would actually have helped in your crash.

Back when I bothered with a FF lid it definitely saved my beautiful mug from scrapes a few times, but the chin bar did also catch on things a couple of times wrenching my head/neck which again bordered on more serious injuries, and the heat build up contributed to tiredness a few times, modern Enduroey removable chinbar lids should be cooler though (right?), just consider the alternative set of risks you might be trading up to.

No type of PPE is a panacea, but if you think you’re likely to encounter a similar incident in the future that behaviour/experience/judgement couldn’t prevent, there’s no harm considering that extra bit of PPE.

I had a stone slip out from under my wheel when I was using the Cwmcarn XC to warm up – it set the wheel at a weird angle and pitched me over the bars and down the hill which I slammed my head into, pinging my peak off and giving a solid enoguh whack that I felt very dazed. Very different from geting a corner a bit wrong and sliding out, or misjudging something because it came completely out the blue on a bit of trail I’ve ridden loads.

The freak ones where a change in behaviour, technique or attitude can’t fix the problem are the worst because they’re so unexpected, because bikes put us in positions where we are vulnerable and because we can’t easily mitigate the risk.

Everyones got their own perception of these things, so do what works for you

The mistake I made after a nasty OTB recently was watching loads of bike crash videos while I recovered. Id been eager to get back on the bike until I did that, but every crash I watched made me feel sicker and scareder. Took me a while to buld my confidence back up.

I renovated a Sunn BMiX (26″ BMX) took it for a spin ’round the block’ and took a simple but off camber sharp left far too quick on brand new tyres and lost the front, slid in jeans under the middle of tipper truck waiting at the junction. Thankfully the driver watched all this happen and didn’t set off. Squashed and scraped an iPhone in my pocket. Could have been worse!

I was off the bike for a while then got a new bike and went on a ride with a couple of mates, who are far fitter and far more hardcore than me. They hit me up on 56km and 3000 of elevation. it pretty much killed me and I was on a jumping course the next day.

On the course, I did a couple of drops and small table tops to warm up and then was warming up on a gap, and for some reason totally stacked it.

Bike went one way and I went the other, totally over jumped it and went down. Face cut up, right arm cut up and my had seriously in pain. I had the chin bar and elbow pads in the car…. should add I totalled the helmet and had I had the bar, it would have definitely been broken.

Finished the course had a great time, but a week later I was in a really bad way. I would not have been half as badly injured had I worn my other kit.

But this really got to me. I lost my nerve on a lot of trails, especially with the new bike. I was struggling to get through trails on it, but was much better on the hard tail.

I think getting back on with the right riding partner really helped. I didn’t go straight back on with the hardcore guys, but got back in with gentle XC. I’m back on trails where some wear full armour, I’m in my half shell and Dainese light armour, but anything more that my local trails, I either go chin bar or full face, and elbows. I also went with bigger kneed pads.

For me the biggest issue is fitness, where all the guys will just ride off an leave me trailing when I’m on a “recovery ride”. I was super on it recently, great back to bike ride, then I wrote my ankle off with mini-golf…. been off 8 weeks now.. ankle is still swollen.