worst crash!

I was riding on the sidewalk as I was headed toward the entrance of a building. The path took me across the parking lot driveway. A pickup truck was heading out of the lot and the driver was looking toward the oncoming traffic. I was coming from the other direction. The truck was speeding up to make a break in the traffic and got me broadside. That threw me across two & 1/2 lanes of a very busy highway causing a double crash as vehicles tried to avoid me and broke my jaw and wrist. It also caused two injuries in the vehicles & totally wrecked my $2K bike. The driver took off and even though two witnesses got the license #, it was out of state and the police were not willing to do the work to find the driver even though there were three injured parties. She got off scott free and I was stuck with another $2K for the co-pay on my medical bills. I’ve learned to be even more defensive and to not expect much help from the police.

i was at the first race of this season and was on the 5th lap outta 10th and was in 4th place
going into a slight turn some douche bag from boston swerved and couldnt keep his line
so then this columbia guy freaked out
and as he fell in front of me he grabbed my handle bars and pulled me down..
then a drexel guy behind me ran over my helmet and his tire exploded on my helmet..
that was LOUD!
the end result was the rear derailleur hanger being bent (fixed!)
and then having both wheels explode (literally like 5 spokes missing on each wheel)
and a broken handlebar...
and not to mention a HUGE bruise all the way down my back and leg..

needless to say i got him back in the race the following week in columbia..
but the right way as i sprinted by him at the end
8)

Took a turn too fast, went down, and slid into a traffic light pole bike first. I was fine except for the usual leg scrapes but the downtube of my Quintana totally separated from the rest of the bike.

On a downhill section of track during an MTB orienteering event I noticed someone had built some jumps. Yeah, I'll have a bit of fun.. unfortunately the fourth jump was just that little bit steeper than the others, and I lost my balance in mid-air .. came down on my left side and helmet, with my bike falling on top of me, and skidded down the dirt for a good couple of metres. Through the magic of logging HRM/computers I could tell my impact speed was 31.5kph

Apart from a big cut on my knee and abrasions down my leg (and a bruise on my right side thigh from my bike's pedal hitting it, I have no idea how my bike's pedal got there) I was fine, and finished the course.

So,
I am riding along this trail in a fairly well ridden, low challenge area. I see a few trees up ahead and what appears to be a person under one. As I get close I see it is a woman squatting, and as I get even closer I see she is (i think) pooping. I am zipping past her and doing this double take, thinking to myself "no, no way"
BUT...
What I should have been doing is looking at the trail because as I am looking backwards to confirm what I saw to be really what I saw >BAMMO< I hit a tree. One bent rim, dislocated shoulder and two shredded knees later I promised myself I would always let people [censored] in peace.

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by ALAN OBRIEN
what was your worst crash? damage to yourself, your bike or caused others to crash? some of you may have seen this thread in the cycling equipment forum, but i thought id try it on this one as well to get a bigger response.

OK, the winner and still champion was when I was about 12 years old-- 30 years ago. I'd been invited over to a friend's house to go swimming, and I was really excited, so I threw my suit and stuff in a dangly bag, jumped on my 10 speed and held the bag over the front handlebars. (You can probably picture what's coming but let me set the scene a little more). The town I grew up in, every summer, "resurfaced" its streets by laying down fresh tar and then sprinkling fresh gravel on top of it. So, when the bag inevitably got caught in the front wheel and I went flying over the handlebars, the road rash to my chin, nose, elbows, forearms, knees and shins was not only covered in blood, but in fresh tar and sharp gravel. So I turn up at my friend's house, covered in this, and her mom (who was manically a disinfection freak, used to put Listerine on her kids cuts, and offered to do it for me, whereupon I declined) said, "Well, just jump in the pool and that will help rinse you off". Of course I should have known that the kind of lady who uses Listerine as a topical disenfectant is the kind of lady who's going to be a little heavy handed with the chlorine in the pool..... YEEEEEEOWWWWWWCCCCCHHH!!!!!!!!!

In the following weeks I would get stopped by people who would see the scab forming on my chin and ask me if I was growing a beard. Very humiliating for a prepubescant girl....

This happened while mtn biking. Got caught in a torrential thunderstorm at 8,500 feet. Rain, lightening and 2-3" of hail. Riding way too fast trying to get back to shelter, did a face plant at 20mph when I hit a drift of hail that had washed across the trail. Shattered my collarbone, broke 3 ribs. Worst part though was that I still had to walk 5 miles back to the car - still raining cats and dogs making the trail nothing but slime, and lightening striking every couple of minutes in the forest around me. After awhile, I didn't care about my injuries, I just wanted to get back alive and not roasted medium well by a bolt of lightening....then when finally on the road got caught in a weekend traffic jam. Took me 6 hrs to get to the hospital and another hour to get thru triage (sp?) before I was finally treated. The guy in admitting wasn't sure if that huge pointy thing practically poking thru my skin was actually a broken bone or not.

At 25mph the guy in front of me hit a small seam in the asphalt and off came his hands and his bike went right into a chain link fence that kept him and his bike out of my path long enough for me to go by. His cervelo was dented,head tube was torn away from top tube and that was it for the frame. He got scraped and minor cut but it was scary. He did use cervelo's crash replacement that took his 02 frame for a 04 super with team colors because thats all they had in a 48.

I have two crashes (i've only crashed twice) that are equal first (for two very different reasons). I intresting that the first was the first time I was on got on a bike and the second was the last time (nearly 40 years between them). The first was a bruised body and the second a bruised ego.

First: My 5th brithday and my first bike. Amazingly I had very good balance (or thought I did) and my dad removed the training wheels after much pleading. I cycled in circles increasing speed with each circuit until I was going fast enough for the bike to slide out from under me. I lost most of the skin from my ankle to my thigh, wrist to elbow and got a nasty lump on the side of my head.

Second: A couple of days ago. The group were waiting for me to turn up so that the ride could start. I cycled up to them and the slowed calling out greetings to my friends...stopped... oh @#$% forgot to clip out (38 years of cycling and you forget to cilp out... I ask you)... you all know the rest.

Was coming up on an interesting intersection.

I was coming from a residential road to an expressway. Just before the intersection, a frontage road came into it. I was looking at the light of the expressway coming to my road for U-Turn people that I might be worried about. Well, I should have been paying more attention to the F-250 coming up to the stop sign 20 yds before the intersection.

My plan was to keep speed and make a right. I wasn't flying, but I was going about 18. I hear an engine roar, yell, then the next thing I know, I am 3 lanes over. Right femur broke my seat tube (Trek 1500 aluminum bike).

Still have the grill mark on my leg and the matching bumper on my ankle.

Thanks helmet. Bike was a total loss.

Less damage, but more pain for me was when I was passing a Porche. I was in the Oakland hills going down hill. A slightly we turn, but nothing worse that I had seen all day. Speedo said 41 and I was closing on the Porche. I was amped, so I pushed it. His brakes came on just after I realized hs blinker aws too.

I went sideways trying to miss him.

Road Rash!!! nothin out of the ordinary for a crash like that... but I had a red-eye flight to the east coast that night. That is the most uncomfortable I've ever been from a bike ride.

Not my worst crash, but certainly a goodie.

Having been out on a MTB training ride for a race we're participating in this weekend, and with almost everyone on the ride suffering from punctures, we had to put the hammer down to get home.

The route was flat, so the pace was hot with us reaching 45km/h often and even at times breaching the 50km/h mark on the straighter bits. (This was all singletrack)

I was sitting at the front and gunning it when we came to a slight downhill with a fast sweeping bend to the right. We knew there was a dangerous hole on the left of the track after the corner and I shouted the warning to my mates and kept well right. We were doing well over 40km/h. I went too far right and off the track and found another big dangerous hole that had been covered with bushes with my front wheel.

Then I played superman for a while coz, according to my friends, I flew for ages, then I slid for a good few meters over loose rocks, branches and general debris. I shredded my shorts, my back tire (tubeless), so it looked like shrek had sneezed all over by bike (slime) and bent the saddle rails on my saddle. Oh, yes, and managed to put my back wheel out of true.

The distance between take-off and landing was over 6 meters, with another 3 meters of sliding. Thank goodness I shave.

I also knocked all the air out of my front tyre while I was busy. Save for a few cuts, alot of scrapes and some bruising, I got off lightly. It just hurts when I move, anything.

Aha! Here's the description of the crash I was looking for, Ratty. That sounds like a doozy! I hope you're feeling better already, once the roadrash dries up a little that will take some of the bite out of it.

So, you basically bit it all by yourself, like a big boy? Oh, the humiliation ;-).

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by less'go
Aha! Here's the description of the crash I was looking for, Ratty. That sounds like a doozy! I hope you're feeling better already, once the roadrash dries up a little that will take some of the bite out of it.

So, you basically bit it all by yourself, like a big boy? Oh, the humiliation ;-).

Yes, I cannot tell a lie. I have no-one but myself to blame. But I did give my friends great entertainment.

Fortunately, they reciprocated. There were 4 high speed crashes on the day, and mine wasn't even the most spectacular. My mate had a blow-out on the launch of a jump. Try landing from a metre and half in the air, nose first with a flat front tyre. KABLAM!!!

Remember, stick to the track. By the way, I found out that I cut the front tyre aswell. Expensive crash. (2 tubelss tyres, 2 tubes of slime and one x rebuilt crossmax wheel.) Thank my stars there were no medical bills.

Forced off the road by a car that blew a stop sign! Planted my knee into the pavement at about 25MPH... 400 (give or take) stitches later I was practically good as new! Back on the bike after about 10 weeks.

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by Cipher
Forced off the road by a car that blew a stop sign! Planted my knee into the pavement at about 25MPH... 400 (give or take) stitches later I was practically good as new! Back on the bike after about 10 weeks.

Aye, carumba! That sounds awful too. I haven't yet had my baptismal accident, I'm sure it's just a matter of time, though.

Rat man .. did any camera men/women/persons come flying out of the bushes for a family snap shot? All you guys are craaaazzzyy I tell ya.

Maybe this mt. biking stuff is for the big boyzzzzz? I fell off a 12%+ going minus 3mph, wheel pointing skyward, butt sliding off into the dust onto my back, legs in the air (not again), bloop .. reverse roll over the wonky shoulder .. bloooop .. saved by the ole camelback, straight upright again ready to rock n roll!

Soooooooooo what was this forum again .. ooh, "worse" crash - well it was worth a couple of laughs from my onlookers, comrades in "newbie" crashing ..

Riding near the sidewalk . I believe I was riding a Univega Mtn Bike. I was looking back at a really hot girl in a tank top and shorts. I always went between the parking lot dividers,except that time, I hit one dead center. Came over the handle bars onto the pavement. Lot of blood , road rash,bruises and hurt ego. Don't think I impressed the girl very much either. *Women are dangerous!

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by jhuskey
Riding near the sidewalk . I believe I was riding a Univega Mtn Bike. I was looking back at a really hot girl in a tank top and shorts. I always went between the parking lot dividers,except that time, I hit one dead center. Came over the handle bars onto the pavement. Lot of blood , road rash,bruises and hurt ego. Don't think I impressed the girl very much either. *Women are dangerous!

Waaahhaaa haaa haaa haaa. I was hoping no-one would bring this subject up. But alas, jhuskey had to be honest. This has happened to me too. Except I was on my road bike and landed in the back seat of a BMW convertible. Ironically, the driver of the Beamer wasn't too upset as he had been eyeing out the blonde that I was looking at before I rode into the back of his car. He got to meet her though when she jumped out the car to see if I was ok, and he asked her out, and she accepted.

I didn't have to pay for damages. 😄 Just a new fork and front wheel for Tessa. (My training bike.) In fact, the guy gave me a lift home.

Out for a training ride with two buddies. Zipping along at 40-45ks and the guy that dropped back from the front said, "I think I've got a flat".

Unfortunately, I turned my head to acknowledge this comment and the last thing I remember is, "I can get outa this li' speed wobble", as I made contact with the rear wheel in front of me.

1/2 hour later I woke up inside a "white box" being asked "what day it is?" I said, " who cares what day it is?". One of them said, "it's Tuesday.

When they asked me the same question a few minutes later I remembered the answer. Various stages of unconsciousness for 30 minutes.

Big bump on head and a few chunks taken out of various parts of the body. And only a scratch or two on a 30 year old 10 speed.

HOWEVER, IF I HADN'T BEEN WEARING MY HELMET I WOULD BE DEAD.