Unusual crashes

[LegendRider]

Let's hear some stories of bizarre bike crashes. I'm not talking about turn 4 in the local crit or a distracted driver hitting a rider...

Here's mine: Last year a friend and I were riding in North Georgia over some of the climbs used in the Tour de GA. In addition to being a popular route with cyclists, motorcyclists love it too.

We were stopped at the top of Woody Gap to refuel. As my friend crossed the road, I motorcycle came flying over the crest of the hill and t-boned him. However, the impact was to the rear wheel behind the hub and my friend stayed upright. The wheel was taco'd badly, but there was no other damage. And, no one was hurt.

So, there he was straddling his bike in the middle of the road with a completely collapsed rear wheel wondering what had just happened...

[Polyglot]

Speaking of motorcycles and funny accidents. I was on the Isle of Wight while bicycle touring in Britain in 1982. I stopped at a stop sign to check out my map. As I stood there, a fellow drove up on beautiful new motorcycle. As he came to a stop, he keeled over and broke out laughing.

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He then told me that it was the first time in decades that he had driven a motorcycle without a side-car... It was funny.

[Steve in SLO]

#1: I was riding in the mountains here and came across a creek crossing in the road that was paved with concrets. I saw the concrete had moss growing on it, so I slowed down to slower-than-walking speed. As my back wheel hit the moss, WHAM! down I went onto my left hip. That hurt more than any other crash I've had. The worst part was having to climb out the mile of 10-18% grade to get back to the main road.

#2 and #3: Sprinting uphill during my college days feeling good, then BAM! down on the ground before I knew it. I had broken a Campy pedal spindle. I did that on two occasions. I guess being strong brings its own kind of pain.

[Ti Designs]

I gotcha beat. I was riding home from the ride one morning, just a couple blocks from my house, past a 2 story house under construction. They were gutting the bathroom, there was a dumpster at the side of the house, and they were throwing things out the window. As I'm riding I see this toilet fly out the window, land on the grass below and start rolling down the hill. I'm still riding up the road, watching in amazement as this toilet keeps rolling down their front lawn - it's just not something you see every day. The idea that I was about to get taken out by a rolling toilet never crossed my mind until it happened. One of the construction guys laughed so hard he almost fell out the window too.

[Tom]

I fell trying to ride my bike across a frozen pond. After I fell trying to ride my bike across that same frozen pond not a minute before.

It's not at all unusual for me to do something stupid a second time thinking that I just need a second try to get it right. That's why it's a thread drift.

[Kervin]

Back in the day, I was riding with a very high engery junior. He tried to do a bunny hop, but somehow, he let go of the handlebars! It looked like a one man crowd wave. He was a bit scraped up and to his credit, finished the ride.

[TAW]

Not all that unusual, but...

A friend and I were warming up before a crit. He's on my left and we're chatting. We come to an intersection where we're going to go straight through, and I'm looking right to see if there are any cars, and he's (I'm supposing) looking left. When I look back straight, I see him crossing in front of me, as he thinks we're turning right at the intersection, and I go down.

Pretty embarrassing to be getting medical attention before the race even starts. :rolleyes:

[xjoex]

I was riding at Heil Ranch in Boulder, CO an amazing trail, built specifically by the county for riding.

After a few years most of the dirt washed away and the trail was loose rocks. like this:
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h85/boulderjoe/riding/laura4-1.jpg

I was riding down hill at a decent clip and just launched over the handle bars... having no idea what happened I looked at my wheel and it was fine, save for a bent spoke, that lined up with a scratch on the fork.

A rock bounced up got caught in my spokes, jammed against the fork and threw me over the bars.

That freaked me out a bit...

-Joe

[konstantkarma]

The most embarrassing crash I've had was when I was cooped up in my office on a beautiful day grading exams for the 2nd year med students at the U. Colorado. When I finally finished I grabbed my commuter/mountain bike and headed outside. I was feeling frisky so I started weaving and hopping in the parking lot. I saw a coke can spinning across the parking lot and made a bee line for it to run it over. It latched on to my front wheel like a vise, got stuck in the crown of my fork and launched me over the handlebars and onto my chin. I woke up with 2 of my med students standing over me asking if I was OK. I said I was, and I rode home, but I think I had a concussion :crap: , since I didn't feel quite right for about 3 days. How embarrassing!!

[dogdriver]

I seem to remember laying on my back (bike pointed to the sky) on the road in the middle of one of my town's busier intersections in the early days of clipless pedals...

[Kevan]

but risking your boredom, I had a large enthusiastic crowd look on as I sped into my mother-in-law's apartment complex, dressed to the nines in brilliant spandex, applied the bike's brakes adeptly, whilst in a tight turnaround, all this done in front of and in full view of the community pool, failed to unclip from my pedals in time, and was sent sprawling across the lot with splendid panache. The applause hurt more than any road rash.

[Louis]

I gotcha beat.

That was just two bodies meeting at one point.

I can beat that with three: link to story (http://forums.thepaceline.net/showthread.php?t=48199)

[ejh]

do ing the last mountain bike race of the year and made it through all of the tecnical trail and on an easy down hill the front wheel slid out. Crack and this is what it looks like after sergury

[kaze]

There's a hill that typically becomes a race to the top during training rides. I'm sprinting up it with a few buddies, the lead guy is smoking the rest of us when his REAR wheel comes completely off and rolls back down the hill. So there he is lying on the ground, still holding onto a one-wheeled bike, with this look on his face that I'll never forget. Took us a while to find the wheel as it rolled into someone's yard and got nestled in some bushes. He only hurt his pride, hilarious.

[Ti Designs]

That was just two bodies meeting at one point.

I can beat that with three: link to story (http://forums.thepaceline.net/showthread.php?t=48199)


Yeh, but one of those bodies was a toilet!!!

If we're talking about embarrassing times, my vote would be on BBDave every time he goes out in full zebra stripes.

[giordana93]

seems like every group has that ONE guy who is a disaster on the bike, so from the annals of the same guy who said "I had everything under control (during a high speed bunny hop) until my rear wheel collapsed" (from his fat a** landing) comes this one:
overcooks a corner outside of Ithaca, luckily a soft landing, over the ditch and flipped over the fence into a pasture. right in the middle of a cow patty, parts of which get lodged in his helmet holes. says, "I'm alright" until he grabs his bike which gave him electric shock (that he immediately attributes to nerve damage). of course, it was leaning against the electric fence. needless to say, he had to ride at the back of the group all the way home, cause it stunk something feirce. true story

[Bud_E]

I was stopped at a red light on San Vicente in Brentwood with my right shoe clipped in to the pedal. A stunning blond who was standing there asked me how to get to a local street. As I was giving her the directions I lost my balance and keeled over to my right onto the curb. The funniest thing about it was that she just pretended that nothing happened.

[Samster]

the best mishap thread (http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=514470) ever. atmo.

[peanutgallery]

A fawn stepped out into the road in front of me, then saw/heard me and did a Bambi on ice. I then crashed into the deer, then it ran away leaving me in a heap

[dnades]

Kind of embarrassing but here goes: I am about 11 or so and some girls in the neighborhood got it into their heads to put together a bike out of extra parts. They've got it all put together and I come along on my bike and see their bike which looks really cool. Much cooler than mine. It is all kind of rusted and has a slick type tire on the back with those short fenders. So I storm the gates, drop my bike, yell 'trade ya', hop on their bike, and take off down the hill behind their house. Meanwhile they are screaming at me to get off the bike because they hadn't tightened anything down(no tools, just parts). But it was together enough to get going. As I am going down the hill(the really big hill that leads into the woods) the first thing to come loose are the handlebars, then it quickly disintegrates into a pile of parts with me on top of it all. All I got was a bloody lip(and deservedly) but it also freaked me enough never to mess with those girls again.

[jimp1234]

Late 70's doing early season fixed gear ride with two of my buddies also on fixies. Early morning so no traffic, one of my buds stops at a stop light, doing a nice track stand, I come up and grab his stem, and we're both doing track stands leaning against one another. My third friend grabs my stem, but leans too hard against my shoulder.. and you guessed it,, all three of us on the ground laughing our a**es off..... :beer:

[Charles M]

Every time a group of Pro's shows up on a ride someone here crashes... Everyone gets that little bit of extra distraction / need to prove themselves and Boingo... Every time.

[dnades]

A more current crash: Buddy of mine is riding to the greenmarket last Saturday with his 2 year old daughter on the back in a seat. He is carrying milk bottles in a bag on his handlebars. Bottles and bags get tangled in front wheel he goes over the bars, slams into the ground on his shoulder and knee and manages to catch his daughter in her seat before she and the bike hits the ground. He says it happened in slow motion. His only concern as everything was flipping ass over teakettle was his daughter and he managed to rotate enough to actually catch her in her seat. After that he was set to go back into the apartment(they had just started out) but his daughter wanted to get back on the bike(as she thought it was fun) and go to the market. So they did. He came in Monday with a torn up knee and a very badly bruised shoulder but it could've been a lot worse.

[Peter P.]

Four of us were on our mountain bikes on the road riding to the trail head. We're in a residential section and I'm riding behind two of them who are side by side. Those two start screwing around and lock handlebars. I've got nowhere to go and become the filling in the sandwich as all three of of us topple over in a pile on the pavement. Over 300k miles of experience between us and we couldn't even keep our bikes upright...

I was on Block Island, RI with a friend who had his son in a baby seat. One of the beaches is at the base of a cliff with a long flight of stairs down to the sand. Mike removes his son from the baby seat, removes the seat from the bike and we head down to the beach.

After some beach time we climb the stairs, Mike reattaches the baby seat to the bike and straps his son in. I'm behind Mike and his son and we travel no more than 50ft. when the baby seat, with the toddler in it, is jettisoned from the bike like being pushed out the back of a C-130. It landed on the pavement with a THUD! but his son didn't emit a peep...

[TAW]

the best mishap thread (http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=514470) ever. atmo.

This is my favorite mishap thread. I think of it everytime I see a napkin.

http://forums.thepaceline.net/showthread.php?t=2974&highlight=napkin+rear+derailleur

[snah]

While looking off to the right at the pit bull that's chasing, I run over the 8 inch spectating pup standing in the middle of the road.

[konstantkarma]

the best mishap thread (http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=514470) ever. atmo.

+1 Those are great. Sad, but great.

I love this thread. I feel sorry for everyone's injuries, but I'm snickering a lot! :)

[BumbleBeeDave]

. . . and no matter what crashes I read about since, this one still gets my vote as the all time favorite! . . .

BBD

This is my favorite mishap thread. I think of it everytime I see a napkin.

http://forums.thepaceline.net/showthread.php?t=2974&highlight=napkin+rear+derailleur

[BumbleBeeDave]

[QUOTE=Ti DesignsIf we're talking about embarrassing times, my vote would be on BBDave every time he goes out in full zebra stripes.[/QUOTE]

Next time we go riding together I'm wearing my outfit that's covered with pictures of rolling toilets! ;)

BBD

[jamesau]

We used to live on a hill. My son, 10 at the time, was cruising around with his pals on his crappy BMXer; one weak rear caliper provided what little braking was available. I take a phonecall from some little girl; he takes the handset from me with his right hand and coasts away. Before you know it, he’s flying down the road with the phone clutched in his brake hand while I look on in horror. He bails into the neighbor’s driveway, somersaults over the bars and lands on his keister in the grass. He sat there unscathed and continued his phone conversation as if nothing happened!

[Samster]

This is my favorite mishap thread. I think of it everytime I see a napkin.

http://forums.thepaceline.net/showthread.php?t=2974&highlight=napkin+rear+derailleurwoah.

[jmeloy]

Busy road that I usually have to ride to do my favorite route. Coming home, new to clipless and trying to time the light so I don't have to "get out". Keep coasting up along curb and there is a truck with a flat bed second at the light. Light changes, I turn the cranks twice but the truck driver isn't moving yet. Now I'm getting squeezed between the flatbed and the curb. So, smart guy I am, I reach out and put my left hand ON the flat bed. THAT's when he starts to pull away. I am immobile and as he goes forward I fall on my left side, still clipped in. There were about 20 cars in sight and everyone of them saw it. All I could do was get up and smile.

[Steve in SLO]

#1:
2 fellow medical students and I are out riding in Pasadena. We approach a light, it turns yellow and we brake for a stop. Unfortunately #2 man saw the light, thought #1 would accelerate thru it, so he put his head down (He's not so smart for a med student) and tried to sprint thru the intersection. He crashed into #1 man's rear wheel and went sprawling. No injuries, but a he earned a new nickname. 20 years later, "Crash" still answers to it.

#2:
A friend of mine was leaving Palo Alto Bikes with his brand new Gios Torino and was holding a new skinsuit in his hand. After no more than 50 feet, THUD, then he's getting back to his feet trying to extricate the skinsuit from the front brake.
That still stands as the fastest 'christening' of a bike I've heard of.

[BBB]

I was 16 going on 17 and going for a ride on my mountain bike after school during day light savings. I was about 3kms from home and going downhill on a four wheel drive track and nudging 40kmph. A number of kangaroos were hopping through a paddock to my right and were crossing the four wheel drive track in front of me and going into the bush. One intrepid roo barrelled into me from the right hand side, it went down, my bike went down and fortunately I landed on the bike and not on the trashing kangaroo. I jumped up and moved away quickly, it disentangled itself with my bike and hopped off. The end result - a wrecked front wheel, a 3km walk home and a trip to the doctor to get a shoulder checked out/tetnas injection as I could not work out if the graze on my shoulder was from the crash or from the kangaroo scratching me.

[Jawn P]

I was out at some awesome single in the area yesterday. Was cruising along at a pretty slow clip looking ahead to pick a my line for a creek crossing.

What do you know, there's a basketball sized rock right in front of me, nowhere near where I'm looking. I hit it and go into a low-speed endo over the bars.

[FL_MarkD]

I am not sure this trumps the 'roo' collision but ..

Saturday morning club ride. Pack of 10 or so pull away from the second pack of 35 or so riders. We were on a four lane road with a large grassy and bush filled median. We were all quite surprised when the first deer crossed the road in between the two groups. Everybody's eyes followed the deer as it jumped the small handrail between the sidewalk and woods. Then the second deer slammed directly into the pack. Took down three riders with a T-bone into the one guy riding his brand new (first ride) carbon bike.

Luckily nobody needed a ride to the hospital. The bike suffered some damage that made it unrideable. The deer got up, shook it's head, and followed the other into the woods. This is a highly populated area that is near a preserve. There are a lot of deer in the area, but not normally at 9:00am dodging traffic.

Mark

[capybaras]

Riding my Murray around campus with a U-lock over handlebars. I turned left, the lock hooked onto the fork crown, and before I knew I rode right into the side of a parked car. A guy on the sidewalk was so nice I had to tell him it was OK to laugh.

[Ray]

First century I ever rode, back in '97. I'd gotten through all of the hard stuff and was in Manyunk (just a couple of blocks from the base of the famous 'Wall') heading for the last few miles down Kelly drive to the finish. I'm at a red light, behind one car, with a big old SEPTA bus behind me, feeling REALLY proud of myself. Light turns green, I *THINK* I see the car in front pulling out, I start off and am just getting my right foot clipped in when I realize, rather immediately, that the car was making a left and had only pulled forward a few feet before stopping. I couldn't get a foot out in time and went down right in the middle of a very busy urban intersection, laying under my bike, looking up at the bus driver and the passengers in the front row who were having a great laugh. The car had pulled through and completed the turn, so I'm just laying out there like a fool for all to see. No real harm, got up, twisted my handlebars back to center, and finished the ride with a nice little stream of blood on my calf from where the chainring got me.

More generally, when I'd first started mountain biking, I was reasonably fit but had ZERO technical skills. So I'd be riding along with some friends and, being fitter than they were, was often at the front. But I'd come to a log ramp or a stream crossing or just some technical section that I didn't know what to do with and I'd do what any sane person would do - I'd stop (so as to adequately assess the situation before proceeding). The first few times I did this I caused some pretty massive pile-ups behind me. Guys would be getting up, untangling themselves, asking "what the fruck HAPPENED"? "Ray stopped again". I got over it within a few rides (and everyone made damn sure to stay ahead of me heading into anything even remotely technical). But I justifiably took a lot of **** for that for a few weeks. Most of these folks were co-workers so the office was just full of "Ray stopped" stories until I learned to ride.

-Ray

[fiamme red]

One warm spring night, a couple of teenage hoodlums "jumped" me from behind a parked truck next to the projects. One of them ran in front of me to get me to swerve, which I did, and then the other punched me in the face, destroying my glasses. I lost control of the bike and ran into the back of a double-parked van. When I got up, the punks had run away. The fork was bent back so much that the bike couldn't be wheeled along. I had to carry it on my shoulder to the nearest train station.

Edited to add: I should note that the fork was already visibly bent before the accident (this was my "beater" bike). I doubt that an undamaged fork would have bent so far back without a much greater impact.

[dnades]

A friend of mine borrows my bike to run home really quick as we are going to go play golf (he's going to teach me the finer points). My bike is too big for him so he can't sit on the seat and he's never ridden a bike with gears. So he's looking down at he crankset / cassette to see what's happening with the chain when he runs into the bumper of a parked car. Bike was totaled. Really sad looking. Fork bent back and the top tube and down tube crunched....He was fine though (He slid up to the back window/roof) and we did go golfing. I still miss that bike but it was a good way for it to go.

It's raining. It is starting to get dark. The roads are wet and the traffic in front of me is moving at a good clip so I keep up my cadence cause I want to get home. Big mistake. Cars have much better brakes than we do. Don't know if it is because they have hydraulics or maybe four large tires on the road or what. Long story short- I go into a skid, dump the bike and go under the car in front of me. It was an old 60's behemoth driven by someone who actually realized I was under her car. There was actually room for me and my bike under there. I got out of there pronto totally pumped up with adrenaline. No real harm done to me or my bike or her car. Kind of amazing when I look back at it.

Oh there's a red light. But here is a parking lot I can turn into to avoid the light. Boy, the front of that cadillac is looking really big... Managed to hit my neighbors cadillac, (who is an insurance agent, luckily), did two somersaults over his car and landed on my feet for about 1 second before sitting down hard on my tailbone. Had to carry around a donut for about two weeks. In my defense I was 16 at the time and my brain was not fully formed. Bike was fixed by my neighbor cause he was a really nice guy and it didn't cost him anything being an agent and all.

[kipjac]

Not really a crash, but once years ago when I was approaching the registration table for a local race I couldn't clip ou. Rode right up to the registrars and fell onto the table, scattering their papers and coffee all over the place.

[LesMiner]

It was the first ride on my new Gary Fisher. The bike was bright red and really caught people's attention. I rushed home from work. Jumped on my brand new ride and headed out. It was late May, sunny, temperature in the 70's, and a perfect day. I came up to a stop light and just as the light went green I saw another rider ahead of me. So of course I sprited across the intersection to chase down the rider ahead. I caught up to him and passed him. I then made a hard right turn at over 20 mph. Suddenly I am about to run head on into another rider, a young girl on old cruiser bike. So I made a emergency manuever but turned too sharply. The front wheel locked and I went over the handlebars airborne. I came down hard head first. I hit the pavement more on my shoulder. I then skidded on my shoulder and head. I could see the curb coming at me fast. My first thought was "man is this going to hurt" my second thought was "I am sure glad I got a helmet on". I hit the curb head first. I then just crumpled up on the grass. It happened so fast at one moment I see the girl coming head on and then I am skidding into the curb. Passers by stopped to help. I suppose it was a bit spectacular seeing me flip over going airborne and skidding into the curb like I was standing on my head. The bike flew 10 - 12 feet in the air I am told. The bright red brand new Gary Fisher landed on the rear wheel and it was totally trashed. I was taken to the ER in an ambulance. A passer by called my wife and she had the bike shop come and pick up my bike. I had a bruise that went the width of shoulder down to the small of my back. I could not ride for 6 weeks and of course it was during some of the best weather that Summer. A new rear wheel brought the bike back to new.

As a bit of an epilog, after 6 weeks I went on a very casual ride with my wife on a paved bike trail. Someone had their dog out for walk but no leash! The dog rushed at me leaping. I was already going a slow walking speed but the dog got under my front wheel. I went down again on the same injured shoulder! My wife went ballistic! She ran down the dog owner and cussed him out! I was not able to ride for another 2 weeks.

[capybaras]

Not really a crash, but once years ago when I was approaching the registration table for a local race I couldn't clip ou. Rode right up to the registrars and fell onto the table, scattering their papers and coffee all over the place.

I would pay to have seen that! :beer:

[Ti Designs]

These crash stories would be far better if y'all weren't so afraid to do stupid things on yer bikes. I fear no stupid acts, thus I find myself on the ground a lot, laughing mostly. A few examples:

I was riding off road on my fixed gear, which I do a little too often. It was October 31st, and somebody had dug a grave where there wasn't one the day before. The bike went in, I did a double gainer to land on the other side.

Another time I was with friends, mountain biking on the power lines in Lexington. The trail comes down this hill, the brush grows in kinda thick so you have to keep your mouth shut. What I didn't know is that they were putting in a driveway ahead, and it cut across the trail but was a few feet lower. It startled me that the bike just dropped a few feet - I thought I knew this trail pretty well. I was focused on the ground below me after that little drop, still moving along pretty well when the I slammed into the other side. Again, bike stops, I keep going...

I have three good race stories:

The first was when UMass was hosting easterns in the 80's, Harvard had one guy in the two man break, one guy in the two man chase. As the two man chase rounded the corner to go up the hill, the Havrard guy gets out of the saddle to follow an acceleration from the other rider, but his chain skips and he launches himself over the bars and makes a perfect football tackle on the guy in front of him. In his defense, he was told to sit on any chasers.

The second was a local training race. There was a break off the front looking like they were going to get caught right at the line. The two guys in the break had nothing left, so they were out of the saddle, side by side, giving it all they had, which was nothing. Some guy in the field in a mighty charge for the line slammed right into the back wheel of one of the guys in the break, just at the line, sending him flying across the line in first place.

The third wasn't a crash, but it's my own sad story. It was at New England Velodrome (it's not really a track, but it's what we got) in the points race for the A field. From the gun the fast guy takes off, dragging the 14 year old kid with $4000 wheels with him. I look around, nobody is willing to chase. 3 laps before the big points sprint I go after them, putting everything into the chase. Bell lap, I'm still closing - I'm not going to take fast guy, but I think I can take 3 points for second. Then my chest starts to burn. I can't take a breath, my lungs are on fire, I'm going 30 MPH and I'm on a fixed gear. I inhaled a bee.

[bironi]

do ing the last mountain bike race of the year and made it through all of the tecnical trail and on an easy down hill the front wheel slid out. Crack and this is what it looks like after sergury

Not trying to hijack, but explain what changed in the 2 x-rays.

Thanks.

[bironi]

Not really a crash, but once years ago when I was approaching the registration table for a local race I couldn't clip ou. Rode right up to the registrars and fell onto the table, scattering their papers and coffee all over the place.

Bet you got some space around you during the race. :beer: That's classic.