Getting over crashes

keydates said:

Probably been discussed before, but doing a search using "crash" didn't turn up much (I looked through the 13 pages).

Anyway, today I crashed. It wasn't the first time or the worst, but it was the first on this bike (bike looks fine, but I'll take it in so a more experienced person can look at it).

My question is, how long does it take you to get over a crash psychologically? I'm not sure how long it will take to have the confidence to corner downhill like I did pre-crash, or if it will just be limited to that place.

For those who actually care what happened, I was going downhill, realized that I wasn't going to make the corner (I went into the corner to close, and looked like I was going to overshoot it, if that makes any sense), and did the dumb thing of locking up my rear brake. Needless to say, I lost control and went down.

It will depend on how quickly you get back in the saddle and master the downhill & corner you previously crashed on. You know what they say, if you fall off a horse you got to get right back on.

Dan.

BanditManDan said:

It will depend on how quickly you get back in the saddle and master the downhill & corner you previously crashed on. You know what they say, if you fall off a horse you got to get right back on.

Dan.

i crashed badly earlier this season and rode easy that week and raced harder next week....you have to get out and ride...if you sit inside you get scared and then never take the turn at the speeds you used to..
my .2

From my experience crashing motorcycles (which might not translate perfectly) it helps a lot knowing what you did wrong. It's the ones where you don't know why that sit at the back of your mind making steel-on-pavement sounds every time you corner.

The only bicycle crash I've had since starting again last year (knock on wood!) was the obligatory "Help! I've stopped and can't clip out!" tip-over when new to clipless pedals :o

Had some biggies when I was a kid, but never slowed me down really but that was in my invincable phase...

Well, at least I know what I did wrong. And I did get back on the bike and ride home, although that may not have been the best of ideas.

danch said:

The only bicycle crash I've had since starting again last year (knock on wood!) was the obligatory "Help! I've stopped and can't clip out!" tip-over when new to clipless pedals :o

I did that a few times this season...once at a stoplight next to a car...my weight shifted and i started to go over on my clipped-in side...there was nothing i could do about it, i just looked next to me at a driver as he watched me go down...it probably took me about 8sec to fall, it was that slow.
Laughed my ass of afterwards though!!

Aaron

Well, I crashed in a team time trial race this past weekend. Cracked my helmet in three places, pretty scary...someone behind me crashed over me. I got too close to the person in front of me.....don't know if it was my fault, their fault, doesn't really matter. All that matters is I went down hard, and got hurt. I've ridden in pacelines hundreds of times with no problems. I am still aching big time in the head. Lucky no broken bones, but some good rash.
Doc says no riding for awhile, I'm just in limbo til I totally hear back from my catscan. I'm female if that makes any difference.

Well, that would depend on your age. I landed myself in hospital quite a few times and hurt myself badly enough to keep myself out of action for weeks. Car, lorry, crash with other bikes, I had it all. But like I said, it depends on your age. Most of the time, I recovered from the crash rather fast, like almost few hours or a day or two at most. Perhaps the privilege of youth?

I work the ambulance crew for the Houston - Austin MS150 (11,000 riders), and I find most of the people crashing are female. Why do you think that is the case?

readyami said:

I'm female if that makes any difference.

Well, after I collided with a dog and was out for 8 weeks, things haven't been the same since when I ride my mountain bike. (That's the bike the accident happened on). I feel great on my road bike, but when I ride my mountain bike, I am extremely reserved.

But overtime, I'll overcome it

readyami said:

Doc says no riding for awhile, I'm just in limbo til I totally hear back from my catscan. I'm female if that makes any difference.

Well, a male would probably ignore the doctor 😉

Actually, our local biking community has had several crashes in the past few months, and the majority have been males. They are the ones who have broken bones and cracked up their bikes, and us females have generally escaped "serious" injury.

keydates said:

(I went into the corner to close, and looked like I was going to overshoot it, if that makes any sense), and did the dumb thing of locking up my rear brake. Needless to say, I lost control and went down.

You apexed too early. I don't know a damn thing about riding a bike fast, but I've been an avid autocrosser for 3 years. I ought to rummage around on the internet and see if I can find a performance driving primer to post here; i wonder how much of the cornering technique applies. I mean, physics is physics; the fundamentals are probably similar...... hmmmm.... 😕

Hey keydates! Time it took me to return to the crash site? 2 minutes, I realized my sunglasses had flown off in the impact and had to cycle back to retrieve them. 🙂 My first crash on this bike was reasonably lame but I managed to whack the back of my head fairly hard as I was sliding down the incline behind my bike. I locked my rear brake too - but the stupid thing that I was guilty of was as simple as not concentrating - I was biking way too fast, thinking about yeast genes (I'm a scientist) and didn't notice a really big rock. You can guess the rest. I learnt my lesson.

But recently I had another crash, this time more complicated, going downhill. Unlike the first time, I had a loss of confidence so I actually hunted around for posts on 'getting over crashes' too, so thanks for starting this thread!!

Stay safe! Jess

danch said:

From my experience crashing motorcycles (which might not translate perfectly) it helps a lot knowing what you did wrong. It's the ones where you don't know why that sit at the back of your mind making steel-on-pavement sounds every time you corner.

* The only bicycle crash I've had since starting again last year (knock on wood!) was the obligatory "Help! I've stopped and can't clip out!" tip-over when new to clipless pedals :o

Had some biggies when I was a kid, but never slowed me down really but that was in my invincable phase...

* been there , been scared to death - mind you , broke a wrist after hooking up on a toe strap , go figure .

re the motorcycle crash : too true , it´s the one where you can´t say " well yes , I did this , the bike did that and .... " on a scooter I had it kept sliding wide on some corners - turned out that the front tyre had " cured out " and gone hard , but it didn´t always happen so it was tricky to figure out : caused some gray hairs though . 🙄

For some weird reason I felt like reviving a stale and moldy thread about crashes as I had my first in a couple years yesterday...

Yep, went down yesterday during the Ace Ride - informal group ride composing a good contingent of racers from around the lower mainland of BC.
Because the weather was so nice yesterday, the group was probably twice the normal size - probably 50-60 strong.

For some silly reason I was on the very back of the bus; and it had nothing to do with me being the only black person[IMG]/img/vbsmilies/smilies/biggrin.gif[/IMG] in the group. Usually I ride up near the front so as to get some work by getting in some pulls. Eerily, moments before I went down I was thinking this group is just too large to wind its way around Richmond and Steveston (on roadway streets shared with vehicles) without there being some 'incident'.

Wouldn't you know it we were rolling down a straight stretch along a rural road where there was some road construction. For some reason there was a large steel plate covering part of the lane (it was there the week before during the same ride - of course, I didn't fall then). Apparently most of the group made it past without incident, but for whatever reason there was sudden and quick braking just in front of me. I don't brake as hard as the folks in front of me and I touch a wheel and lose my balance at about 40kph.

Ouch! Not as bad as it could've been, but bad enough. Nice strawberry on the left hip and a good left shoulder 'tweak' from where I braced my fall. Tweaked the ligament in there as it constantly aches. Nothing major to the bike - something's going on with the front brake that I haven't fully diagnosed, but I couldn't continue the ride as the brake will no longer stay centered and one pad rubs the rim.

Tore some brand spankin' new overshoes and put a few rips in my club long sleeve jersey - especially hate it when the clothing gets damaged! Gotta love road cycling though...[IMG]/img/vbsmilies/smilies/smile.gif[/IMG]

I'm sorry to hear you wrecked, but I'm glad to hear the damage was mostly cosmetic.

Hope you get over your scrapes and bruises quickly!

Thankfully your OK. At least you have your trainer to work out on if your ligament keeps you off the road for a while.

Thanks for the kind words, Gents. Yesterday got on the trainer for a couple hours during Monday Night Football, and an hour and half during the Yankees - Rangers game tonight. Shoulder's not so bad today...

I hate crashes - being in them, reading about others, seeing them...nothing good ever comes of them. As long as I'm still breathin' afterwards, my thoughts immediately go to - "it coulda been worse"...

Quoted post said:

Originally Posted by tonyzackery [IMG]/img/forum/go_quote.gif[/IMG]

Yesterday got on the trainer for a couple hours

It could be worse.....

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