Road bike crashing - your experiences.. had my 1st one 2day

trickeyja

I had my first road bike crash today, four days in!!

I had decided to ride into the Cotswolds this afternoon to test my new Allez Elite on the steeper hills. I successfully climbed up Aggs Hill and through Whittington, but I was going round a corner when I lost control. I knew the route because I have done it many times before on my mountain bike. However there was a lot of sand/silt on the road today which I think must have caused me to lose traction round the bend.

I was fine (few grazes) but immediately inspected the bike; fortunately there was no functional damage but it had scuffed the right Tiagra shifter lever. Also on the left shifter, the plastic which covers the dial ("name plate") has broken off. Fortunately I have found a website with these in stock for not too much money.

On a more positive note, I completed the ride I intended and I was pleased with my average of 16.7 considering the hills and the accident.

What are your experiences of crashing on a road bike? Should they be a frequent occurrence? How could I have avoided today's crash (apart from going slower)?

helene

I've been riding a road bike for about 6 months, and had my first incident yesterday. Happily returning from my commute (Oxford - Wallingford), I was minding my own business at about 16mph in the cycle lane. Fairly narrow road, white van stopped ahead of me in the cycle lane, I decide to filter through, with a car behind me. Suddenly, a CAT jumps out of nowhere into the road, I panic at the thought of breaking unexpectedly in front of a car, and the kitteh hits my front wheel, head on! Possibly the silliest accident in the whole world, cat unhurt (I think :? - it ran off), my cycle computer sensor knocked out of place a bit and spokes slightly bent. Lucky I didn't come off, really (I was told about a Tour de France incident involving a dog that didn't end so happily...).

I don't think crashes are meant to be a regular occurence, at least insofar as I've experienced cycling in the Oxford area, but it does go to show there are some unavoidable ones. Probably no fool-proof way of avoiding a crash, but keeping aware of road conditions has saved me on a few occasions - pretty much the same as I'd do if I was driving.

redddraggon

End of July/Early August this year I had three "crashes" in the space of two weeks - and a lot of those two weeks I was waiting to receive bits that I'd broken the crash. In the space of two weeks I damaged my:

-Mech hanger
-Ripped a pair of Assos shorts
-Bent my 50T chainring
-Ripped my Campag hoods
-destroyed the bar tape
-ripped a large hole in the side of my Northwave shoes
-gouged a hole in the carbon soles and a gouge out of my clipless pedals
-bad road rash on my arm that I couldn't stop getting infected and took a chunk out of my knee

No-one but myself to blame - all the crashes were caused by a lack of concentration on quietish roads.

Crash 1: Road was wet and slimy (nothing unusual in N. Wales) - I was out of the saddle climbing and got too close to the edge of the road and my front wheel just slipped off the road into the verge - the side of the road sort of crumbles into the verge . Boom - down I went onto the road at slow speed.

Crash 2: About 15miles from the end of a 60mile ride, again going slow climbing but seated this time. I was riding with someone else and they were in front. He was getting tired and slowing slightly - I didn't notice, eventually my front wheel overlapped his rear, either him or me went to one side and I lost my front wheel again. Bent my mech hanger and felt pissed off I'd done it again.

At this point I knew things normally came in threes.....

Crash 3: About 3 from the end of a 60miler, after and a fastest decent I couldn't see the guy I was with behind me, I looked behind me for too long and my front wheel slipped down into the verge again, at 20mph this time though, meaning me and my bike bounced down the road a bit causing all my injuries and destroying my tape and hoods. Bleeding, I finished the ride pissed off again.

My injuries have just healed, they weren't bad but got pretty infected. It was all my fault I guess I'll pay more attention in the future.

This summer hasn't been too good on my kit, along with the stuff listed above I had a brand new ergo fail on me, which I still haven't received. And last week I had a spoke break on me.

Lagavulin

No, not yet. I've gone two years of road cycling without coming off. Makes me wonder that when it does happen it might be a biggie. I just hope I'm not aboard the Wilier when it does happen.

That said, I had an Apollo racing style bike when I was a kid and I came off that often enough so perhaps I'm still in credit.

trickeyja

Helene - well done for avoiding injuring that cat; I'm glad it, you and your bike are all OK.

reddragon - wow, that's a lot of crashes! Hopefully you've had your ration of accidents for the next few years...

Lagavulin - I hope for your sake you're not on the Wilier, it looks an awesome bike! Weird that I also have an Allez, and a Hardrock Pro, and on my road bike I have the same speedo (Strada Wireless?) and the same saddle bag as you... (I looked at your picture links)

Lagavulin

Hmm, I’m not sure. I've got a Cateye V3 on the Izoard but the computers I have on my 3 other bikes just say Cateye Microwireless I believe. Don't think they're Stradas but I could be wrong.

p.s. I did come off one of my mountain bikes last August. Some dick pushing his (1.) child and pushchair into a clearly marked cycle lane without checking behind. I took avoiding action but lost it and went sliding down the road for a a few yards.

1. assumption but they were mackems so it could've been anyones really. :twisted:

biondino

I sort-of-crashed my brand new Focus Cayo Expert after less than 100 miles - I love riding it so I commute on it, and a woman stepped out into the road at a green light, looked at me coming, stepped back onto the kerb, and then stepped back out into the road. I hit her (not hard, she wasn't hurt) and lost my balance, bounced off the railings twice and managed to leap off my bike before we both fell. Luckily I didn't hit anything, and other than a bit of scuffing on the bike's lateral extremities it seems okay (carbon fibre not shattering into 1000 pieces shocker!).

I had quite a bad crash when I was 20 when a sprocket failed while I was standing up to get some speed up after a hill - chipped my elbow, broke a finger and a few quite hardcore flesh wounds. But that's the last, and only, bad one I had (touch wood).

Jez mon

OK, in about 4 years of riding a bike seriously, I have had four incidents

Look I'm riding no hands...very slowly...ah I appear to stopped riding and ended up on the ground, hope no one was looking...oh, they were :oops: no damage to either bike or me

4th cat race (Hillingdon) trying to keep on the coat tails of the bunch, one guy physically pushes another, they both fall, take out a woman, whose bike skids across the road, I end up hitting that bike, go flying over the handlebars at 30+ and shatter my collarbone and cut my face up (and road rash on my back and hand and elbow and a slightly scuffed knee) But, only a flat tyre on my bike and a dented helmet! (although I severely scratched my mothers Oakleys, which were a Xmas present :oops: :oops: )

Stopped at traffic lights...somehow manage to fall over :oops: fortunately no one sees

This winter go round a corner at 20, over a wet manhole cover, tear some Assos winter clothing (now sewn together again THANKS MUM ) and scuff my knee and elbow up, and gouge my hip abit. Unfortunately put a huge dent in my top tube

Three of those accidents were completely my fault, and only one put me off my bike for any length of time.

However, in the last three races i've been in (still 4th cats, because I've been concentrating on school 8) ) I've seen two broken collarbones and one guy completely face plant. Which is begging to put me off.

unclemalc

At the end of my usual ride I join the main road into town. As this bit of dual carriageway ends it almost immediately becomes a 30mph zone.
Nice quiet Sunday morning and I am flying along this bit of road, doing pretty near the 30mph. I know this because the stupid old S-d in his Fiesta is creeping past me at about 2mph faster than me (everyone slows down from whatever sillispeed they were doing on the dual to 30mph because THERE IS A GATSO CAMERA THERE...). He gets past me by about 10 yards then indicates left. :shock:
I have choices: i) try to beat him into the left (no - he'd squash me into the corner);
ii) brake hard (no - fishtailing sideways and or over the bars = under his car);
iii) brake reasonably hard and go into his tailgate WITH MY HEAD and shoulder, so that I could protect the bike. You see I HAVE FAITH IN HELMETS...
The latter choice worked - I bounced off, fell with style and dented his tailgate enough so he would remember me. Trouble was, I didn't get my right foot out of the spud in time so my right leg got twisted up under me. I thought I had done some SERIOUS damage. Long story shortened: ambulances, halted traffic, witness statements, A&E and 2 weeks off work , month off the bike :shock: .
BUT - justice for cyclists everywhere: the silly old s-d got an official warning from the Police.
Hah!

salsarider79

Managed my only crash last year while time trialing back to my parents place.
I was in a real rush, leaving myself 90mins to do a hilly 40mile journey (which is 2hours+ normally). And it's wet. I was going so fast, I was on time to make it back in time. Up a small hill at 25mph, then aero tuck on the drops on the downhill, touched 34mph and looked up just in time to see the roundabout ahead. A touch of brakes and the front wheel went west.
I slid across the roundabout with my right foot still clipped in. Luckly, the only car around wasn't close enough to hit me and even better, offered help.
Bike: Frame bent (built in mech hanger, but did bend back), Ultegra rear mech bent (but was bent back), right hand Ultegra shifter smashed (but still worked - just), seat scuffed badly, decibel helmet smashed to a pulp (but still worked perfectly!), ankle, elbow and shoulder cut and bloody, hip with a bruise the size of tom cruise. Somehow I only ripped one sock and not top or shorts.
Limped the 25miles home to tea and sympathy.
Total cost: £109.99 New 2D helmet, £5.99 New socks, £159.99 New shifters, £64.95 New rear mech, £9.99 Bar tape...

Alex_Simmons/RST

I cannot recall how many crashes I've had over the years. As a road/crit/track racer I've had my fair share, it goes with the sport. Aside from that, in training I've been hit by two cars and had my bad crash in April 07 when I ran into an unsighted boomgate at speed.

mididoctors

crashed untold times in 3 decades of cycling

worst of my life this april

I was riding to work..I then woke up in an ambulance

ongoing investigation.. witnesses say i was rear ended by young lad in a open topped sports car.. I wouldn't know

accident has lead to subscription to this forum..

back on a turbo trainer in the last few weeks

Phekdra

Does a clipless moment count as a crash? :oops: There was actual blood...

Phekdra

Alex_Simmons/RST

mididoctors wrote:

back on a turbo trainer in the last few weeks

Good to hear.
keep at it.

mididoctors

Alex_Simmons/RST wrote:

mididoctors wrote:

back on a turbo trainer in the last few weeks

Good to hear.
keep at it.

the turbo isn't so bad...a bit out of condition

but afterwards I feel as thou i'm plugged into the mains.. I have also developed sciatica as a secondary effect... the attached depression is bad..

pretty low point in my life being this debilitated

got your health ...got everything = true

hope this is as bad as it gets...

99% of my crashes have been at least in some part down to me.. but this one freaks me out in there appears to have been nothing i could have done different to avoid it except not getting out of bed that morning..

the random terminator got me

lucky to be alive i guess


AND another thing.. i was pretty fit after a good winter (we had very little rain this winter) with close to 8k quality miles on the clock and a tour to lands end over the Exmoor lumps.

I was up for kicking ass this summer (in a medium size fish in a tiny pool kind of way)

anyways blah blah etc etc etc.... (continued page 94)



cheers

John C.

Last week , converted my old bike to fixed, 100 yds up the road at 17-18mph I noticed my left shoe lace was loose, next thing I new was I was being picked up off the middle of the road , I'd stopped peddling :oops: When things go wrong they go wrong very quickly.

Previous one has been recorded here before.
I was on the rollers in the garage when the cat walked in front of me, I swerved :oops: :oops: :oops:

northpole

I was on the rollers in the garage when the cat walked in front of me, I swerved

That made me laugh out loud - sorry!!

Especially after reading the previous note about the chap being rear ended - a very scary moment. Keep your chin up and come out the other side smiling.

Peter

pjh

Only had one ... but really trying to avoid another :oops:

Victim of another manhole cover last winter on the apex on a left-hander which I just didn't see.

Front wheel went and a nice face plant followed . Ripped my winter tights, scraped various bits ... pedal, skewers, handlebar, left shifter, gouged left knee +++

Worst bit was a busted thumb which took at least 3 months to get better and even now ... still gives me a bit of pain ocassionally!!

What is it with thumbs and cycling crashes .... loads of people seem to damage thumbs :?

NWLondoner

pjh wrote:

Only had one ... but really trying to avoid another :oops:

Victim of another manhole cover last winter on the apex on a left-hander which I just didn't see.

Front wheel went and a nice face plant followed . Ripped my winter tights, scraped various bits ... pedal, skewers, handlebar, left shifter, gouged left knee +++

Worst bit was a busted thumb which took at least 3 months to get better and even now ... still gives me a bit of pain ocassionally!!

What is it with thumbs and cycling crashes .... loads of people seem to damage thumbs :?

What is it with people loosing their front wheel?

Whenever i have gone over a wet man hole cover it's always been my back wheel that tries to kill me.

NWLondoner

John C. wrote:

Last week , converted my old bike to fixed, 100 yds up the road at 17-18mph I noticed my left shoe lace was loose, next thing I new was I was being picked up off the middle of the road , I'd stopped peddling :oops: When things go wrong they go wrong very quickly.

Previous one has been recorded here before.
I was on the rollers in the garage when the cat walked in front of me, I swerved :oops: :oops: :oops:

LMFAO

redddraggon

NWLondoner wrote:

What is it with people loosing their front wheel?

If you loose your front wheel it's difficult to find again quickly and you normally end up hitting the deck.

If your back wheel goes walkies you can normally recover before it gets nasty.

benvickery

During my first club ride yesterday a couple of minutes from our tea stop, a big fly/bee/wasp flew into my helmet and was buzzing around in the space between my head and the helmet. I panicked, knocked my helmet back off my head and then ran into a tall hedge. There was a bit of blood and everyone was worrying about me whereas I was only worried about the bike. The back wheel had twisted out of line but was OK and the gears had somehow been knocked out. The biggest hurt was my pride though!!

I need to get a hat to stop this happening again!!

blorg

John C. wrote:

Last week , converted my old bike to fixed, 100 yds up the road at 17-18mph I noticed my left shoe lace was loose, next thing I new was I was being picked up off the middle of the road , I'd stopped peddling :oops: When things go wrong they go wrong very quickly.

Previous one has been recorded here before.
I was on the rollers in the garage when the cat walked in front of me, I swerved :oops: :oops: :oops:

Just got a fixed bike recently but have done several hundred km on it already it is such good fun. Off it for a week or so with a lot of hard cycling on my geared bike and then collecting another bike from the bike shop and cycling back with the two of them I _almost_ had the over the handlebars experience from stopping pedalling! It's not so much stopping, you can ease off and let it push your legs around fine but there is a tendency on a geared bike to try to lock your legs into some specific position and this most certainly does not work on a fixie! If you are out of the saddle you have no hope.

As for crashes, too many to mention I'm afraid, still hurting from the most recent a week ago where I touched wheels with the guy in front of me, bike landed on the right shifter while I landed on my right shoulder. Ow. First time I have done that and it really is the guy behind that gets it, he didn't even know I'd touched his wheel, just heard me crash behind him. Thankfully we were well ahead of the main bunch and I was able to pick myself back up and continue without them catching us, it would have been nasty indeed if I had done that with anyone behind me.

Classic story with the rollers and the cat, I also genuinely LOLed.

trickeyja

blorg wrote:

John C. wrote:

Cycling back with the two of them

Wow, skillful - how do you manage that?!!

Must admit the rollers incident also made me laugh! Sounds like this crashing isn't too infrequent from the amount of replies.. though hopefully I may have used up my quota for the next few months

fizz

Worst one I've had was going down a steep descent to fast and over cooked a corner, got tangled up with a 5 bar gate. Big hole in my elbow that was p*ssing out blood and you could see the ligaments etc inside my elbow through the hole. lots and lots of gravel rash. I was 15 at the time and this was before mobile phones so had a 15 mile cycle home after that. Was very stiff and sore for weeks, have a nice big scar on my elbow to remind me not to go to fast down descents I dont know...

I've had a couple of clipless moments and once I lost the bike on gravel when going round a corner.

But *touches wood* not had a monster crash for a long long time now. I've either got less dumb or take less risks or I've learnt to read the road better.

paulorg

Crashed into the back of a Ford Escort that had been stolen and helpfully parked on the exit of a blind bend at the bottom of a hill where no one ever parked, largely thanks to me not having bar mounted shifters or looking at where I was going while changing gear. I went cheek (facial) first through the back screen without a helmet, leaving me with a 1.5 inch bite inside said cheek, various cuts and bruises, both legs dead and enough concussion for me not to be able to remember carrying the bike back home (about a mile) or having a conversation with a neighbour who I bumped into on the way back. Had the car not been that type I would have headbutted the roof and probably killed myself but It ended up with the bike being a write off with a buckled front wheel and bent top and down tubes due to the impact at about 20mph. I then bumped the new bike into the back of a white van when we both set off and it then stopped :oops:

Welcome to the club matey.

jjojjas

I'm nearly 40. I've been on bikes all my life, commuting, XC, D/H racing for 3 years, touring for 2 and now giving road riding a go.
I can could one one hand the times I have fell of........what the hell are you lot doing???
Are you riding back from the pub or something???

mididoctors

jjojjas wrote:

I'm nearly 40. I've been on bikes all my life, commuting, XC, D/H racing for 3 years, touring for 2 and now giving road riding a go.
I can could one one hand the times I have fell of........what the hell are you lot doing???
Are you riding back from the pub or something???

its not the years its the milage

sazzledazzle

Day two of riding my new bike I was faffing about with my Garmin trying to work out why my heart rate appeared to be ridiculously low when I hit the back end of a parked van. Chipped a tooth and dented my helmet. Luckily the bike just got a few scratches - unfortunatley all this happened in front of a group of elderly ladies waiting for a lift to church. I've never had so many offers of a hankie!

I learnt two valuable lessons that day - always look where you are going, and if you're going to fall off try and make sure no one is looking!

jedster

4 offs in 4 years

two were low speed sharp right hand turns in slippery conditions where I lost the back wheel - minimal damage other than to pride.

recent one was losing the front wheel on a diesel spill at over 20 mph. Detailed elsewhere but ouch. Had me off the bike for 3.5 weeks (cracked helmet, cracked rib, snapped glasses, huge haematoma on my hip, roadrash etc). Bike got off lightly. Don't think this one was remotely avoidable (only saw the diesel spill after I had picked myself up and gone back to work out what on earth happened).

Last year, I was overtaking another cyclist in London when he pulled out without shoulder checking (moving very early ahead of a parked car). I swerved to avoid him and went into the side of a black cab which was passing me very close. tumbled down the road at about 18mph. Sprains (wrist/thumb) and road rash - off the bike for 3 weeks. Bike needed new front wheel and new brake lever. I learned a lot from this one. The other cyclists should have looked, the cabby should have given me more space but neither of those errors would have mattered if I had given the other cyclist more space. You can't rely on other people to keep you safe.

jedster

By the way, Redddragon, do you think you may be riding a bit close to the edge of the road? Just a thought, but I'd be aiming for about a metre from the verge, seems unlikely that you would just slip off the edge with this position?