Your best crashes

.blitz

OK we've done this before but maybe it's time for an update. I've had a few endos and low-speed wash outs but nothing too serious, apart from when I ran into a group of school kids :shock:

So grab a cuppa and tell us about your most spectacular digger/stack/wipeout... :twisted:

bomberesque

pearost from a month ago only sightly updated (so ignore if you've read it before)....

8 weeks ago doing 40kph at the bottom of a farmtrack descent in the Belgian Ardennes.

The farmtrack was (still is, I'm pretty sure) hardpack gravel and not at all rutted.

My riding companion was a way behind and I was worried that he'd fallen, the top section had been much rootier and he's french so a bit of a wendy on a bike

I look over my shoulder quickly and don't see him.

I look further round preparing to hurl some anti-french abuse at him for being such a poof

then i hear the tell tale sound of side knobs against rut. I realise that they're mine. oh.

I've turned so far around that my shoulders rotated and I've come up against the verge. I also realise that I've gone too far to turn away but to turn into and over the edge would end up in a short and painful meeting with the barbed wire fence that's just the other side of the verge. I have to dump the bike. I look down. The floor looks really hard and not at all inviting and it's wizzing past almost as fast as it seems to be wizzing up. I swear loudly at myself. I hit the ground. This must have been split second stuff, but I remember each thought and decision, including the "oh, you f*&king idiot"

It's the first crash in a long time when my first thought wasn't "is my bike OK?" that was my clue as to how bad it was. After lying on the floor for 5 minutes or so trying not to be sick I finally got up and tested the bones. No breaks (phew) but no pain either and a very meaty knee / calf. Shock then.

10 km ride back to the car then a 100 km drive back to town, the ride probably did some good. A couple of Rochefort 6 (Trappist beer from these parts) definitely helped. the wound wasn't deep but it was extensive (no skin left on the knee or the outside of the shin / calf) and it bled out quite a lot which probably helped clean it further after I'd emptied my camelback on it and given it a good trailside "do it while it still doesn't hurt" scrub

Next day (monday) I put some jeans on to go to work. nope, that's not going to work. Changed those for tracksuit bottoms (nice and loose) and went off. At lunchtime I walked the 500m to the canteen ("it'll help keep the knee moving")

teh knee blew up until the tracksuit was tight around it. I honestly thouht it was just going to keep expanding till it burst, I've never seen anything like it since that interweb kid and the snakebite that made his arm burst. To the doctor then.

Fortunately I work in a refinery so they have their own med staff. Only they said "we can't do anything with that, go to hospital." Bugger. Even more fortunately the refinery is in a large docks area so they have their own hospital. In, stripped and xrayed in 5 minutes, I'll definitely be using them again! Xray was clear but knee now the size of a large haggis and quickly going a similar colour.

All bandaged up I could hardly drive my car, which is a pain as I'm self employed (no med benefits) and work 75 km from where I live. Bah, I'd survive and anyway the doctor didn't say *don't* drive.

I soldier on.

3 days later my leg is purple from ankle to crotch, but only on the inner side ... away from the wound. It was later explained to me that this was because the blood was pooling in the lowest piont of my leg while I slept. Apparantly nuses call it "Cadaver leg" which is lovely I think.

2 weeks later and they finally say I can go without the bandage and they tell me to wear shorts for the next week, to dry the thing out. They've been changing it every 2 days and putting some burn stuff on it to stop it scabbing over, so, aside from having to wash standing up in front of the sink (couldn't get the dressing wet) the wound itself just looks disgusting. By this stage my leg is well on it's way through the spectrum and now shows purple in stripes where the bandage was prolonging the blood pooling. Proper horror show. That weekend we went to London for a party and I wore shorts on the tube. Lets just say I was given plenty of room

The following weekend we were in Scotland for the Heneken cup final and supposed to be ridin Glentress with my cousin. bikes slipped off the agenda as the knee just wouldn't move enough.

3 1/2 weeks later and I could finally bend the knee enough ride my refinery bike to the canteen. CT scan was clear but I'd not yet got enough confidence in the strength to go mountainbiking again so I went off out for a flat road bimble the 4th weekend.

That went well and I found that, so long as I kept riding regularly the knee wouldn't start to tighhten up again.

It's now 2 months later and the hair is beginning to grow back. It's still red and obviously injured but the pain is gone

A erturn trip to Glentress etc has been booked for early August and we're off to Sweden fr 3 weeks road and mountainbiking tomorrow. Yay for Me!

.blitz

Good one!

he's french so a bit of a wendy on a bike

lol

weeksy59

Gorrick race earlier this year.... went over the bars in in a heap on the floor at fairly slow speed.... was a bit of a bump and it all went badly wrong....

Was lying on the deck laughing...

Also a simillar one trying to snap/shatter a tree/stick that had fallen on the path.... "i'll just wheelie onto it and shatter it..."

Over the bars.... LOL

Hercule Q

last week i had a momentary lapse in concetration and rode straight into a bush (right in front of all my mates :oops: )

lawman

had a sam hill worlds style crash about march time.

the front went so i put my foot out to try and stop the slide which caused the back to slide out as well. on wet, muddy grass i slid about 20 feet. luckily the ground was soft so i was unhurt but it was bloody exciting i could even see sam's crash go through my mind as i went down ...... classic

another is about a week ago my mate managed to fall off going up hill ... :roll:

f*** knows how he did it but he landed in a ditch, bust his nose and had to have skin grapths where his skin had of his nose where his glasses and helmet nad sunk in ...... nice

cat_with_no_tail

Not the worst I have ever had, but could have been.
Sunday just gone, came flying down this little bit of singletrack through a plantation I know pretty well, rounded a corner only to be confronted with one of those really thick wooden gates, it wasnt there a couple of weeks ago!
Now this is a VERY steep bit of singletrack, used as part of the Downhillers course. I apply as much brake as I can without losing control of the bike, but it's not enough.
Last thought before I hit was "oh bollox, this is just going to fold the forks over".
Slammed into the gate, no idea how fast, but it was fast enough to leave a really bad bruise on my left arm and another really clear SPD shaped bruise on my left calf.
I had somehow managed to tilt the bike at an angle where it had largely slid under the gate. Far as I can tell, no lasting damage to either myself or the bike.
Wish people would stop puting big fkoff gates in the middle of nowhere with no warning :roll:

RealMan

weeksy59 wrote:

Gorrick race earlier this year.... went over the bars in in a heap on the floor at fairly slow speed.... was a bit of a bump and it all went badly wrong....

Was that the one in mytchett place? Gorrick Saddle Skedaddle Round 5 - 19 April 2009?

If so, I think I saw you either a) fall off, or b) after you had fallen off.

LAW4778

bomberesque wrote:

pearost from a month ago only sightly updated (so ignore if you've read it before)....

8 weeks ago doing 40kph at the bottom of a farmtrack descent in the Belgian Ardennes.

The farmtrack was (still is, I'm pretty sure) hardpack gravel and not at all rutted.

My riding companion was a way behind and I was worried that he'd fallen, the top section had been much rootier and he's french so a bit of a wendy on a bike

I look over my shoulder quickly and don't see him.

I look further round preparing to hurl some anti-french abuse at him for being such a poof

then i hear the tell tale sound of side knobs against rut. I realise that they're mine. oh.

I've turned so far around that my shoulders rotated and I've come up against the verge. I also realise that I've gone too far to turn away but to turn into and over the edge would end up in a short and painful meeting with the barbed wire fence that's just the other side of the verge. I have to dump the bike. I look down. The floor looks really hard and not at all inviting and it's wizzing past almost as fast as it seems to be wizzing up. I swear loudly at myself. I hit the ground. This must have been split second stuff, but I remember each thought and decision, including the "oh, you f*&king idiot"

It's the first crash in a long time when my first thought wasn't "is my bike OK?" that was my clue as to how bad it was. After lying on the floor for 5 minutes or so trying not to be sick I finally got up and tested the bones. No breaks (phew) but no pain either and a very meaty knee / calf. Shock then.

10 km ride back to the car then a 100 km drive back to town, the ride probably did some good. A couple of Rochefort 6 (Trappist beer from these parts) definitely helped. the wound wasn't deep but it was extensive (no skin left on the knee or the outside of the shin / calf) and it bled out quite a lot which probably helped clean it further after I'd emptied my camelback on it and given it a good trailside "do it while it still doesn't hurt" scrub

Next day (monday) I put some jeans on to go to work. nope, that's not going to work. Changed those for tracksuit bottoms (nice and loose) and went off. At lunchtime I walked the 500m to the canteen ("it'll help keep the knee moving")

teh knee blew up until the tracksuit was tight around it. I honestly thouht it was just going to keep expanding till it burst, I've never seen anything like it since that interweb kid and the snakebite that made his arm burst. To the doctor then.

Fortunately I work in a refinery so they have their own med staff. Only they said "we can't do anything with that, go to hospital." Bugger. Even more fortunately the refinery is in a large docks area so they have their own hospital. In, stripped and xrayed in 5 minutes, I'll definitely be using them again! Xray was clear but knee now the size of a large haggis and quickly going a similar colour.

All bandaged up I could hardly drive my car, which is a pain as I'm self employed (no med benefits) and work 75 km from where I live. Bah, I'd survive and anyway the doctor didn't say *don't* drive.

I soldier on.

3 days later my leg is purple from ankle to crotch, but only on the inner side ... away from the wound. It was later explained to me that this was because the blood was pooling in the lowest piont of my leg while I slept. Apparantly nuses call it "Cadaver leg" which is lovely I think.

2 weeks later and they finally say I can go without the bandage and they tell me to wear shorts for the next week, to dry the thing out. They've been changing it every 2 days and putting some burn stuff on it to stop it scabbing over, so, aside from having to wash standing up in front of the sink (couldn't get the dressing wet) the wound itself just looks disgusting. By this stage my leg is well on it's way through the spectrum and now shows purple in stripes where the bandage was prolonging the blood pooling. Proper horror show. That weekend we went to London for a party and I wore shorts on the tube. Lets just say I was given plenty of room

The following weekend we were in Scotland for the Heneken cup final and supposed to be ridin Glentress with my cousin. bikes slipped off the agenda as the knee just wouldn't move enough.

3 1/2 weeks later and I could finally bend the knee enough ride my refinery bike to the canteen. CT scan was clear but I'd not yet got enough confidence in the strength to go mountainbiking again so I went off out for a flat road bimble the 4th weekend.

That went well and I found that, so long as I kept riding regularly the knee wouldn't start to tighhten up again.

It's now 2 months later and the hair is beginning to grow back. It's still red and obviously injured but the pain is gone

A erturn trip to Glentress etc has been booked for early August and we're off to Sweden fr 3 weeks road and mountainbiking tomorrow. Yay for Me!

Pictures would have ace. :twisted:

delcol

not my worse crash or my best crash, but my most recent crash, and i just so happened to be on helmet cam, heres a link...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwNxAa7rQCM

asquithea

Very new to MTB, so nothing spectacular yet, but I got my ass handed to me by a holly bush last week.

Going down a narrow track between said bush and a wire fence, I thought I'd err on the side of the fence to avoid getting slashed. Big mistake -- caught a bar in the wire and got catapulted sideways -- ended up with punctures from ankle to helmet.

bomberesque

LAW4778 wrote:

Pictures would have ace. :twisted:

well .... you asked :oops:


At the time. Doesn't look like much, frankly. looked better in real life. Honest


a week later. Apparantly this is known as Cadaver leg. nice....


after 2 weeks or so. notice how the blood pooling has followed the dressing wraps


after 3 weeks, the dressing is off and the whole thing has dried out. I recommend you travel the london tube if you ever have a leg like this. Good way to get a seat ... or 3

now. 8 weeks after the accident. Still a bit red and hairless but all about better. thanks to the hospital for doing a bang up job on the dressing and treatment so I didn't end up with a leg that looked like it had been roasted on a spit!

geordiefreerider

So the moral of the story is, dont EVER laugh at an xc rider wearing knee/shin/elbow pads

Mickey Eye

Ouch bomber, you get the classiest wounds.

Not my best crash, just my most recent. Yesterday I went with a group of like minded newbies on a guided trail ride to get some tips etc. There is a rocky step down, only a couple of feet but tricky if you're crap like me. Eventually I get around to doing it and some how I roll down it quite easy. Annnd like a complete numpty promptly fall over in the following little (very easy) rock garden. Aggravated my shoulder injury from 6 weeks back, hopefully it'll settle down in a couple of days because right now it is really rather sore.

joshtp

not my worst,but funnie, i was loving the increased steering sharpness of my 15mm axle on the new bike, getting used to the way it handles. So, on the way home from a local ride within 2 days of getting the bike im bombing home along the sean front, for dinner, when i swoop around a old man having a strole, making the most of the stiffnes, i flick the front of the bike, as i had been doing all day, but this time i hit some sand, and ....................boom! im down, my front wheel sliped and i landed on my helmet/kneepads/unprotected arm/unprotected shoulder. Anyawy, wasnt that bad, just some big healthy bruises, and quite alot of blood! :shock:

LAW4778

bomberesque wrote:

LAW4778 wrote:

Pictures would have ace. :twisted:

well .... you asked :oops:


At the time. Doesn't look like much, frankly. looked better in real life. Honest


a week later. Apparantly this is known as Cadaver leg. nice....


after 2 weeks or so. notice how the blood pooling has followed the dressing wraps


after 3 weeks, the dressing is off and the whole thing has dried out. I recommend you travel the london tube if you ever have a leg like this. Good way to get a seat ... or 3

now. 8 weeks after the accident. Still a bit red and hairless but all about better. thanks to the hospital for doing a bang up job on the dressing and treatment so I didn't end up with a leg that looked like it had been roasted on a spit!

Nice mate cheers, as you say doesn't actually look that bad when you did it but the effect it had following on was nasty.

RichMTB

Best crash:

Flying down the final section of red route at glentress, literally 200 yards form the end, carry way to much speed through a left hand flat corner with a drainage ditch on the outside (in reality probably a bad line rather than too much speed).

In the split second I have to decide if I am making the corner I decide I won't and that I'm going to end up clattering into the little ditch, decide if that where I am going I might as well just ride into it with some sort of control, just as I drop into the ditch realise that the tree on the edge of the trail is actually in the ditch and I'm now hurtling towards it. Decide bailing is now the best of my rapidly decreasing options so i neatly side step the bike and land on my backside on the grass verge beside the ditch. The bike carries on along the ditch and instead of clattering into the tree the front wheel wedges itself between a root and the trunk and just ends up looking like it has been neatly place in a stand!

So bike and me end up completely unharmed, looking like I've just stopped for a sanwich or sometihing when a second earlier I though I was going to go headfirst into a tree!

Hercule Q

i'm getting good at this just came off twice in as many minuites, came bombing around the corner into a fast rooty bit and there is my mate floundering about in the middle of the trail so i hit the eject button and go carrering over the bars and then on the next run i get thorn off course into the path of an oncoming tree and broke my brake lever i am a un happy man now