How to Crash

rustygeorge

I've been cycling about a year, and seem to fairly good at it, I can do my 15 mile commute in about 50 mins now, have conquered most of the big hills around Bath, can do 70 odd mile rides in 5 hrs, so far so good. Recently, however, I seem to be coming off a bit. I went over the handlebars and broke my hand in late May, got back on the bike, and then dropped it in the wet and have sprained a medial ligament in my knee.
The question is, when you realise you are going down, what, if anything, can you do to to minimise injury and avoid long lay offs?

Any tips would be gratefully recieved.

Fatter and slower by the day

White Line

Stay loose and roll.

Also, try to cushion the bike's fall.

mattbass789

Head for a verge!

Dave-M

Nothing you can do about it. As a motocrosser I know all about falling off.....although my worst injust was when I didn't fall off!

What you can do is look at why you fell off...pretty sure there is something you could have done to change the outcome.

teagar

Dave-M wrote:

Nothing you can do about it. As a motocrosser I know all about falling off.....although my worst injust was when I didn't fall off!

What you can do is look at why you fell off...pretty sure there is something you could have done to change the outcome.

There was an article in pro-cycling about a year ago or so where some big shot French cycling coach was bemoaning how people don't know how to fall off their bikes anymore.

He was saying that before when there was a big pile up in a junior race it'd be unfortunate to have a broken collarbone - now it's 3 or 4 every crash.


All i've ever been told is to try and roll on your back.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHAR_4Mwgzc&fmt=18 @ 1.49.

Hushovd sees he's falling off so tries to roll. Lands sort of on his back and can carry on to his third place.

STEFANOS4784

Watch out for trying to tuck and roll, that's how i broke my collar bone

Woodchip

If going over the handlebars do NOT pretend your superman, that's how I done my elbow. Apparently they're not designed to have 270 degrees of movement.

fossyant

Just go floppy - that saved me from more serious injuries when a car hit me at 30mph last Christmas - I just bounced off the car, and bounced along the road..... Just left with some pain and an SIS shoulder now.....

ride_whenever

take up mountainbiking, then you very quickly learn how to crash effectively...

whyamihere

Do a martial art - Judo or Aikido are ideal. There's a whole set of break falls designed to protect you from injury as you're falling, with different breaks for different types of falls.

Dave-M

I'm sure voight (sp) had plenty of time to think about how he was going to hit the tarmac :!:

dennisn

There used to be a sort of rule that said, when crashing, hang onto the handlebars.
As I recall it was a safety issue, as hanging on would help prevent the bars from hurting
you and others. Or so it was said.

Nick6891

ye do some mountain biking and you will learn quick lol

i tend to just left myself role sideways and make sure you unclip from the bike before you have actually fallen so you can kinda kick the bike away from you so at least that can land on you

merlinghnd

I took up judo in my forities and since I have done that falling, whilst not something I try to do, is something I find easier. I have been skiing(many falls) and cycling (a few slips) and got up fine each time, although my pride was hurt on the cycling falls more than anything else.

I think the secret is not to put an arm out to stop the fall, you will break something but relax (if you can) and go with the fall. Do not try to actively roll as you fall, let the fall take you where you are going.

The reality is that there is no fail safe way to fall off a bike and the relax into it is frankly not something you instinctively do unless you are trained to do that. Often things happen too fast for you to think what to do.

STEFANOS4784

I learned a martial art loosely based around ninjutsu and jujitsu but the added speed coupled with the odd angle and rock hard ground rendered my break roll less than useless resulting in, what was probably, worse injuries than i would have sustained would i have simply hit the deck like a sack of spuds!

Dave-M

I'm sorry, but if my face was about to hit the deck first I would put my arm out stop it as would anyone if there was enough time.

These are split second decisions that you would not have time to think about. Maybe if you fell off in the same way every time you could train yourself. But everytime you fall will be different.

Suggesting you can teach yourself to fall off a bike correctly is nuts.

The only thing you can have an impact on is to stop yourself falling off.

Judo is different as the number of throws used are known.........and you are not doing 20 mph on tarmac!

on the road

The important thing is not to put your hand out to try to stop yourself, just accept that your going down and try to keep your head off the ground.

AGNI

on the road wrote:

The important thing is not to put your hand out to try to stop yourself, just accept that your going down and try to keep your head off the ground.

Really? Even when you have gloves on?

Rich Hcp

Yes, stick your arm out you can break your wrist

If you're lucky, it'll be a few broken fingers

I've done that, it only hurts for about six weeks :shock:

on the road

Because you might end up with a shattered coller bone, or a broken hand.

Thankfully I've never had any broken bones. I've had a few crashes in the past but the worst I've suffered is a badly gashed hand, that was probably due to the low speed I was doing at the time.

AGNI

Rich Hcp wrote:

Yes, stick your arm out you can break your wrist

If you're lucky, it'll be a few broken fingers

I've done that, it only hurts for about six weeks :shock:

I see your point

mhuk

If you put your hand down and hit hard enough the shock to your arm/ collarbone is where the damage is done, not to your hand specifically.

Going back to the O/P, is there anything in your riding technqiue that caused the crashes? I've been over the bars a few times on my mountain bike and if you can twist/ roll onto your back it hurts less, a lot less than landing on your front- I fractured a few ribs that way

skyd0g

Only cycle where no one can see you, that way you'll never fall off.
I only ever fall off my bike if there's an audience to watch me make a complete pr*t of myself!

Essex Man

on the road wrote:

The important thing is not to put your hand out to try to stop yourself, just accept that your going down and try to keep your head off the ground.

What should I put out to stop my head hitting the ground?

on the road

Whenever I've fallen, I just make an effort to keep my head of the ground, it's in my best interest seeing as I don't wear a helmet.

dennisn

on the road wrote:

Whenever I've fallen, I just make an effort to keep my head of the ground, it's in my best interest seeing as I don't wear a helmet.

Sort of a combination of good idea(keep head off ground) bad idea(don't wear helmet).

bobpzero

fine you can keep crashing

rustygeorge

Thanks to everybody for their contributions.
No big secrets then. But to sum up I will:-
a) not crash (not very likely)
b) go floppy
c) Be Thor Hushovd and roll
d) Not put my hands out ( I learnt that the hard way already)

To expand the discussion, I'm pretty sure I hurt me knee pulling my leg out of the clips, although I did then land on it. I thought I had the clips quite loose (they are SPDs) but maybe not. Any tips on clip tension?

Mark Alexander

I have mine on tight and my feet always unclip when I come off. Not that i'm a crash-test dummy. but at least I wear a helmet!!

My advice, liam and Noel got it right. "Just Roll with it" don't extend your arm. When you do com off.... and you will...... do it at speed.

Hornetto

I had my first crash this morning, lost the front wheel on wet mud/leaves. I managed to catch it but as a result swerved into another patch of mud and the wheel went the other way.

I think I put my arm out just before I hit the ground, but not extended so no wrist/collarbone issues. Just bloodied elbow and a big patch of road rash all down my left thigh. Kept my head away from the ground though (to protect my new helmet!). Will probably need a new jersey and shorts though as they're a bit holed. To top it all off I ended up in stinging nettles so have an interesting tingly sensation all over my legs...

Unfortunately the bike needs a bit of TLC, handlebars bent and hoods bashed a bit, but nothing more serious. Got me through the remaining 20 miles of my commute with no issues.

Meant that I lost 7 minutes off my PB on my 25 mile commute, damn it!

pst88

Rich Hcp wrote:

Yes, stick your arm out you can break your wrist

If you're lucky, it'll be a few broken fingers

I've done that, it only hurts for about six weeks :shock:

Don't I know it! I'm sitting here with a broken wrist after a crash 3 weeks ago. I know the theory to go limp and not put a hand down but I really didn't have time to think. Rode over a patch of oil, front wheel slip out under me and I went straight down. I don't even remember sticking a hand out to catch myself but I must've done.