Ok, how often are people falling off their bikes? I seem to go through periods where i don’t fall off for ages, then fall of all the time! Perhaps i just fall off a lot when i try/attempt new things, and then as these become more within my comfort zone i stop falling off, and then i get complacent and fall off on then again 😉

So, Do you fall off less as you get more skilled on an bike, or more? (because you’re trying new stuff)

Depends – I don’t like falling off so rarely do *touch wood* still slowly progressing at the age of 51

Less but when I do they tend to be pretty big falls!

I think it`s all relative. The more skills you have then the more stuff you try and maybe fall off………. 🙄

It’s really more dependent on how far you’re pushing yourself, I think. Learning how to do ’emergency dismounts’ is helpful.

The problem is, as you get better, the crashes get bigger, and hurt waaaaay more.
I stay cr.p cheers 😀

For me the skills part is my brain. I know that if I push it too hard and stack big time breaking bones and stuff that firstly my missus will probably break the rest of my bones for not being able to help out with the kids. Secondly I will likely be unable to do my current job and therefore risk losing the house due to not being able to make the mortgage payments. And I know that at 40 the recovery will take months! and thats just to get back on the bike never mind loss of fitness. Theres a reason you can do crazy stuff when your’e 18, your body, your life and your feeling of invincibility. Saying that though I fell off yesterday, left pedal got stuck on a root concealed in the grass and I slam dunked my left shoulder at about 10mph. Hurts like a b*****d and I can’t reach the middle of my back. Times like that that I think “I’m getting too old for this s**t”

As said by Danny Glover in Lethal Weapon.

I can’t reach the middle of my back when uninjured! That’s Mrs Torques job…….. 😉

I guess to a degree it really depends on the sort of riding you do, but i do get a bit bored by the endless number of videos that pop up on the ‘net with people doing perfect runs across insane terrain without so much as a pedal scuff, and i always wonder “how many times have they cock’d that up before the final edit?”

I know what you mean, clips of stuff ups in recent vids (including the sweary northeners) make me chuckle, but in a way thats more – I know what that feels like!

More

I agree with the above posts that the better you get, the more difficult things you try, leading to more spectacular crashes.

As each year passes, I get more and more averse to bad crashes, so have tempered my riding accordingly. Am now 69 and still ride 2-3 times a week, but have stopped trying stuff I used to try without regard to life and limb. Multple stitches, couple of broken bones over the 20 years of MTB and the fact that it takes longer to heal led to the decision to temper what I am willing to try.
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I rarely fall off, but I don’t feel like I have progressed skills wise significantly in a long time.

Its all speed related imo.

Ride faster, more often, then prepare to crash.

I can blast along at say 90% commitment all day long, but a few minutes keeping up with fastest riding buddy and i’m in the bushes/limping home!

I think another factor that comes into play, leading to crashes, is hesitation. You approach a difficult section and if you do so haltingly and without committment, we all know the usual result.
On one of the local trails, they re-routed a short section and the new route is full of rocks cambered in every direction. First time I approached it, didn’t know what it was like and cleaned it (although nothing very graceful or video-worthy I’m sure). Since that time I have never cleared it again because mentally I know what it’s like and the mental “trail baggage” takes over.

As Chvck says, less often, but usually more catastrophic when I do. Like most riders I tend to get faster and faster, fall off and then re-adjust and then start getting faster again but slightly slower. I always start wonder ing when I haven’t fallen off for a year – luckily in the last few months I’ve had a few small offs which tend to keep me in check 🙂

Generally when I crash it’s either a front wheel blow out (one time the valve failed just as I went into a bend and I wiped out completely making a right mess of my leg on the first day of a 10 day biking holiday), or I just get caught out by a sudden change of surface eg gravel / mud patch. I’ve cracked a collar bine and split my helmet in two crashing into trees at Thetford, both times chasing Andy Cockburn. On both occasions the front wheel washed out at just the wrong moment leaving me heading towards a tree at 20mph. Thinking about it, its always in a group and always trying to either set the pace or trying to keep up with someone much faster than me.

I’ve looked back at all of the offs I’ve had in he past. Nealy every one of them was showing off or trying to prove something.

I simply dont behave that way any longer and so hardly ever fall off. I probably had too much confidence. Now I consider myself to be a competent mountain biker

Competence is the realisation of ones limits, mentally, phisically and the bikes limitations. Once you find where they are and you stop exceeding them, you’ll stop falling off IMO.

However, if you want to develop as a rider, you have to push these limits on occasions. If you are not falling off then, you’re not trying hard enough.

It was weird last weekend at warncliffe I had loads of crashes, so much so that I gave up and went home. The weird thing was that my mates said that I was riding better than ever!!! It was fricken wet and slidey though.

Much more since I have been using spd’s. 5 times at cannok the other day! Lol. Was only my 2nd spd ride

I’m probably tempting fate massively but not had a big one in a long time but I think that’s because I’m more skilled than my head lets me think I am. Stops me breaking bones though so not all bad

What was a decent fall before is now just routine. The proper falls have got bigger and bigger, but less frequent.

Much more since I have been using spd’s. 5 times at cannok the other day! Lol. Was only my 2nd spd ride

That seems to be the universal experience when you switch to SPD. I know I sure took some awkward falls when I made the transition. What is really embarrasing is when you pull up in front of a group and forget about the unclipping process and promptly fall over. The odds of that happening are in direct proportion to the number of good looking girls in the group watching you.

Noisy tunes on ipod = much more likely to crash.

All I’ve seem to do this year is crash. Spend as much time recuperating as on the bike…

You have crash points that you store up as you ride. It’s a karmic thing. I used to spend these points little and often. Now I’m better on a bike, they get spent infrequently but It’s a big spend when I do.