How often do you fall?

Mickey Eye

Usually 1 or 2 falls a ride if I'm pushing myself like I should. Trick is to get back up and try again straight away. My last trail riding fall was pretty funny in that the pain of it came from actually managing to punch myself smartly on the chin. Made my head spin for a minute.

junglist_matty

I fall off pretty much evertime I come across a new section that excites me... I tend to get over excited and go too fast then come a cropper on a more technical bit because I can't slow down fast enough (not knowing that there's a technical bit coming up) end up totally loosing control and hitting the dirt... Its all good fun though, if you don't fall off your not trying hard enough.

Airienteer

Every two months maybe?? They're usually not too bad but a week later I'll have made it sound like I've just recovered from major nerve damage

cat_with_no_tail

I had a really nice one the other week. Just on my way home coming down a rather steep Fire Road at rather high speed in the rain. Didn't see the drainage channel cut across the road until it was too late. Queue my superman impression. Very badly winded but otherwise unscathed.
Mate of mine came off at the weekend, landed a jump badly, folded up his forks and came VERY close to removing his left Knee. I will see if he can send me the pic we took of it, but docs said another 1mm or so deeper and it would have been a very different story as the gash would have entered the cavity behind the knee and more than likely, would have just removed the kneecap.

beardytwo

Regularly once a month for me..May's was yesterday afternoon on a test bike! cyclesuk had organised a day with Marin, Whyte and Cube bikes and I gave the Marin Mount Vision 5.8 a go. Lovely bike but it did feel very light at the front for me. Long top tube and I felt my weight was a long way out the back. Very skittish especially climbing. washed the front out on a downhill gravel bend. Cue large embaressment, weeping grazes and picking grit out of my wounds. Tried the Cube ams 125 after that felt much more like my hardtail. The Reaction was v nice aswell..Grazes are a bit bloody and sticky this morning! :oops:

Can I say thanks to cyclesuk for organising. Very enjoyable afternoon..and yes my mate will be buying a bike...

SDK2007

I don't fall often but when I do it's a big off.

I'm currently out of action with a broken collar bone after my bike washed out on a tight berm @ Cannock DH

imfirsttodie

i went out on wendsday night and fell off 4 times (bloody wet limestone) :oops:

marinman1

recently all the time, always pretty nice crashes too, i currently have big grazes on my face from when my chain came off sending me face first onto the road. but i went through a really long spell of not falling at all for ages just before my recent bad luck.

konanige

just came of today! made it down the downhill course in the mendip woods without incident, then on the way back to the car theres a nice little concrete step about 18 inches high with a nice rocky landing...... didnt pull up hard enough faceplanted it big styleee. no harm done though still handsome as f--k under the blood and mud.

blablablacksheep

fell of twice yesterday...

there was this little dried out river bed, i come in but forgot to lift my front tire up when you drop off..... so went over the handlebars:(

brownix

i fell off at dalby today
it was a kind of slushy mud that i didnt think of avoiding,went round a corner and the front wheel slid out
luckily there was a bank to the side of me that i landed on otherwise it would have hurt!

joshtp

fell today acually, on the way home from my most local trails , when.... i swerved around a man on the cycle path, hit a patch of unseen sand, and BAM, hit the deck, im ok, bar a few cuts and bruises, to both me and my sweeeeet new bike. tis anoying though, means no sleaping on my left side for a night of two!

plasticflower

Good to see other people fall off regularly, thought I was just rubbish!

I took the quick way down Hidden Valley at Afan on Sunday! Got a bit too close to the edge and went straight down. Buckled my rear wheel pretty bad. As someone passing me said, it's 'pringled'! Wasn't happy that I'd bust my wheel. Friend managed to straighten it enough to finish ride by pushing it against a tree.

Later that day ached really bad from the bruising that came out! Is pretty impressive bruising! Wish I'd seen the crash, must have looked good!

Still waiting to hear from bike shop about wheel!

joshtp

plasticflower wrote:

Good to see other people fall off regularly, thought I was just rubbish!

I took the quick way down Hidden Valley at Afan on Sunday! Got a bit too close to the edge and went straight down. Buckled my rear wheel pretty bad. As someone passing me said, it's 'pringled'! Wasn't happy that I'd bust my wheel. Friend managed to straighten it enough to finish ride by pushing it against a tree.

Later that day ached really bad from the bruising that came out! Is pretty impressive bruising! Wish I'd seen the crash, must have looked good!

Still waiting to hear from bike shop about wheel!

ouch! "you really wouldnt want to fall down there" is always my thought when i ride that section. Hope you recover soon, and hope the bike is OK!

SpinningJenny

My first fall was into a bed of old rose bushes, with wicked thorns on them. I cut open my legs big-style - it was a bloodbath...

... did I mention that I was 7 years old, in my grandparents' back garden and the stabilisers had only just come off my bike.... a beloved Budgie?



Since then, it's been the usual stuff - arguments with kerbs, potholes and gutters. I expect more now that I am in the world of MTB Bring it on!

Mickey Eye

That's awesome Jenny. The first fall I can remember was me going over the handlebars into a lamp post on my brothers old Chopper.

Would it be cool to buy a Chopper off of fleebay or would I just look like an ageing hipster wannabe...

SpinningJenny

Thanks Mickey

Cool v Not question - depends how old you are.....

birchy

Normally when my mind starts to wander i'll bin it then i just tell myself to concentrate on what i'm doing :roll:

Northwind

SpinningJenny wrote:

... did I mention that I was 7 years old, in my grandparents' back garden and the stabilisers had only just come off my bike.... a beloved Budgie?

Awesome, I had one of those in blue. What a horrible piece of **** it was

SpinningJenny

Funny thing was, it got kept by my parents and inflicted on my younger brother and sister. Not so bad until you realise my brother (the youngest of us!) is 19 years younger than me.....

ariteofpassage

I try NOT to fall off much nowadays.........fell off last night tho in thrunton woods, landed on my right hip.....and now it really hurts! I seem to do the most damage at slow speed , when im not concentrating. About 4 years ago I was on tarmac, just about to head off road when I noticed a wasp on my leg, I reached down to flick it off.........and promptly went straight over the handlebars landing heavily on my right shoulder, breaking my collarbone in two! Bones never healed back together properly, meaning there is now a gap, however I do have full use of my arm/ shoulder. Thats why I try not to fall off! Lost a lot of bottle since then, bit scared to do a lot of tricky technical stuff now. :-(

az-man123

cgarossi wrote:

I don't fall off too often. Its usually because the person in front of me has stopped dead and im in my SPDs.

But saw a nice advertisement for wearing a helment a few months ago. I was sat at the bottom of some steps in town taking a breather. Some guy came down on his supermarket special with 'disc' brakes. Tried to ride down the steps (which are shallow and long, easy to ride), pulled on the front brake and went straight over the handle bars and planted his head into the concrete. I thought he had broken his neck but five seconds later heard him moan in agony with a nice trickle of blood from his forhead. Called an ambulance and gave him a lecture on helmets.

By the sounds this should really of been a lecture on pulling the back brake before the front?

I fall off too often, usually just silly stuff slip of the feet or bad lines... Until recently took a 3/4ft jump to get a nice bit of air.. Came from say 5ft up onto my nose, left me with permanent scarring on mi nose ad under my lip which I very nearly tore right off.
.

bomberesque

I don't think I'm too cautious in my trail riding, but I probably only fall off properly (that is; ending in serious bruising or possibly a fracture) about once a year or so and it's always *always* because I've had an attention lapse.

That said I don't do jump park style jumping, just the odd flick off a natural ramp in the trail to get 2 or 3" of sweet sweet air and I'm not counting "slipping off" (eg on a technical climb) which I probably do every ride at least once :roll:

Banned!

sometimes, but not as much or as badly as I used to a decade ago. my mates loft is filled with my walking sticks and crutches and parts of my body are made almost entirely of scar tissue.

I have broken so many little bones in my hands and feet that I feel like i have arthritis and my knees are absolutely fakked.

last off was about 3 weeks ago, but i have a brilliant excuse for that. my new cheapo shades had a slight magnification and the trail looked a lot steeper than it actually was and my perspective kept changing when I looked up or down. dropped off a rock that looked as though it was abou 5ft up on a bank but was in reality more like 3ft on to flat. dropped the nose bmx style and planted the wheel into a ditch.

oh yeah, F**K the forestry commision for messing with my fireroad trails and leaving what used to be a 40mph switchback/drift in such a bad state that I drifted right off the edge and into a big muddy crater , 8ft down a muddy bank.

Klein XC

I never fall. Falling is for amateurs.

Just kidding

I once rode head first and at speed into a brick wall (in town, not on the trail, and not part of some Jackass video), because I was mucking around trying to put my water bottle back in the cage and wasn't looking ahead. It was at the bottom of a steep hill and I ended up splatted across the wall, a bit like in the cartoons, over the handlebars and the rear of the bike flicked up and hit me in the back of the head. I turned around to see my mates p*ssing themselves, as you would.

I'd agree that most falls happen when you lose concentration. When I'm focussed I don't usually fall, unless I'm going too fast, get caught out and mess up a particular section. At least it provides good entertainment for the onlookers, if there are any.

shaun23

Az-Man123 wrote:

I fall off too often, usually just silly stuff slip of the feet or bad lines... Until recently took a 3/4ft jump to get a nice bit of air.. Came from say 5ft up onto my nose, left me with permanent scarring on mi nose ad under my lip which I very nearly tore right off.
.

aaron, you didnt nearly tear your lip off. you had a nice gash under it like. second your feet slip cos ur a numpty in the head and now dont have enough confidence on ur crappy hardtail. and third....before that jump what did I say..."Watch him fall off" so what did you do, yes you fell off clever boy and then cycled through the village topless while the village fait was going on only then to cover my sink and flanels in blood for us to take you to the waspital!!! phew..lecture over, oh no where you cried when you had your shoulder scrubbed. and no, dont blame it on the gas and air, your gran was in with you and she said you were totally crying!!!!!!!!!!!!!!HA. learn to ride sucker. no harsh feelings there lol & hope i didnt embarass you too much!

your so called friend,
Shaun

ps: i think we need a new category which is below MTB beginners just so Az-Man123 can be the best of his kind. at sucking to MTB lol

Randgris

I sometimes fall on my bike whenever I get cocky and try to make my bike jump a little higher than I am used to. It's a very embarrassing act but a very challenging one.

handful

Just had my first proper off this morning on the Mendips. Only been riding a few months (a late starter at 46) and have been gaining confidence lately which is why it happened. I have learned to just let the bike go as much as possible but was surprised by a section which was much steeper and rougher than I thought it was going to be, picked a bad line and in a desperate effort to change lines caught a rock which knocked me sideways. I now have a massive bruise on my hip and very painful grazes to my shoulder elbow/ forearm, knee and lowe leg. I'm going to be limited to wearing shorts for a few days as a trouser/jean rub would kill.

No damage to the bike though which is far more important, they make those GT's very solid thsnk god.

Banned!

welcome to mountain biking Handful.

Soul Boy

Would usually say not a lot, but after 2 x tumbles the other week and 2 x bleeding elbows, I'd now say more than I like.

If you have pads, they won't do you much good strapped to your ruc-sac!