Near misses or full on crash?

Fully-sprung

So, do you have any stories to tell of your terrifying adventures? Or are you one of the few people that actually rides safely and never puts a foot out of place? I happen to be the first of these (you never would have guessed it though would you?) I have had a few near misses. The first one was at a road junction where if I didn't put both brakes on and end up with the back wheel in the air I would have hit a post van coming out of a junction. If I didn't stop in time once I would have ended up in front of a car that was coming out of a junction, I stopped about 6 inches from the white line. And the best time was when I was speeding down the cycle path and there are a few junctions that you have to go past which force the path to curve, there is also another one that curves tighter than the others which is the one in question, there was a woman walking a dog and I thought (rather stupidly(thinking it was one or the less curvy ones)) that I'd get over the road and then on the grass to go past the dog and woman, couldn't have been more wrong. I went over the road, saw where the woman was and put the brakes on, hard! I eventually came to a stop in the wire fence and with half my tread left behind me, the woman was shocked and nobody got hurt, but the fence is still in the shape of my tyre. I stood no chance of avoiding her otherwise.

butcher of bakersfield

I'm a pretty cautious rider I'd say. Though still end up on my face/arse/back when riding with mates.

I suppose the only conclusion that can be gained from that, is that I'm not a very good rider...

Fully-sprung

butcher of bakersfield wrote:

I'm a pretty cautious rider I'd say. Though still end up on my face/ars*/back when riding with mates.

I suppose the only conclusion that can be gained from that, is that my mates are total idiots that keep distracting me all the time and make me crash more than I should, I really should push them down a big hill one day.

Fixed it for you.

RevellRider

I had a near miss this morning on the way to work. I had a car try and cut me up on a roundabout. Nothing gets a car drivers attention like kicking his door.

I do also (according to my mates and my girlfriend) crash a lot. I don't think I actually do, it's just when I do it usually a fairly big one.

getonyourbike

When out with the club, I don't crash but the riding is too tame, so i never push my limits. When I take myself out, I go looking for the proper riding and really push myself. I then crash... a lot!

butcher of bakersfield

Fully-sprung wrote:

butcher of bakersfield wrote:

I'm a pretty cautious rider I'd say. Though still end up on my face/ars*/back when riding with mates.

I suppose the only conclusion that can be gained from that, is that my mates are total idiots that keep distracting me all the time and make me crash more than I should, I really should push them down a big hill one day.

Fixed it for you.

It's generally the calls of howayy! It's easy!! that do it.

The amount of times I've heard that said, shortly before I'm lying on the ground checking that all of my limbs are still intact..

jonnyc2420

I'm usually lucky, however if i do crash, its usually 'cause i've pushed beyond my limit, then its bad.....very bad last one was june last year, 2 months off with tendon and muscle damage.

Briggo

RevellRider wrote:

I had a near miss this morning on the way to work. I had a car try and cut me up on a roundabout. Nothing gets a car drivers attention like kicking his door.

You deserved to be cut up, what do you think you were doing riding on the road in the first place.

Secondly if you kicked my door, I'd get out flex my muscles and slap you silly with my handbag, then I'd kick your bike and see how you like it.

nicklouse

Whats a near miss?

I crash or dont.

joshtp

I tend to think of myself as a generally pretty good rider, but fairly cautious. so I don't crash very often... but when I do, its spectacular

lol

El Capitano

If there was a crash test dummy for cycling, it would be me.

welshkev

i crash, just ask northern monkey

i think his exact words were - i've never seen anyone that far off the trail before

.blitz

Before the Monkey trail opened in April this year, it was very rare for me to fall off.

Since then I fall off/hit something at least once in every two rides. Cannock has a lot of trees and tree stumps on the apexes of the corners and I seem magnetically attracted towards them :?

El Capitano

.blitz wrote:

Cannock has a lot of trees and tree stumps on the apexes of the corners and I seem magnetically attracted towards them :?

It's not you, it's the trees, they jump out at you when you least expect it!

.blitz

submityournentries

see ive been known to go straight on into very large bushes, but i still stay upright so i dont count that as a proper crash. havent been launched clean of the bike in a while tbh, but thats also cause i havent done any riding thats good in ages. so easter holidays i will prob both ride properly and bin it

Kaise

i learnt a very valuable lesson last night

never ever ever follow someones line in the forest at night when;
a) they are better than you
b) you dont know the forest
and most importantly
c) your front light battery is dead so can see only the glow from their rear light!

as this will all end up with you ever the bars and sliding down a hill!

idiot!

fungus_the_muffin_man

I fall off my bike on every occasion I go MTBing
My special skill is going over the handlebars onto large rocks.

Fully-sprung

Briggo wrote:

RevellRider wrote:

I had a near miss this morning on the way to work. I had a car try and cut me up on a roundabout. Nothing gets a car drivers attention like kicking his door.

You deserved to be cut up, what do you think you were doing riding on the road in the first place.

Secondly if you kicked my door, I'd get out flex my muscles and slap you silly with my handbag, then I'd kick your bike and see how you like it.

And what I would have done would have seen you in A&E, open the door really fast, then you fall off and land on your face, now that would have been funny. The poll results are looking interesting as well.

lawman

i rarely crash tbh, but boy oh boy when i do its usually a big one

Briggo

Fully-sprung wrote:

And what I would have done would have seen you in A&E, open the door really fast, then you fall off and land on your face, now that would have been funny.

What would have been funny, that doesnt even make sense.

Fully-sprung

Briggo wrote:

Fully-sprung wrote:

And what I would have done would have seen you in A&E, open the door really fast, then you fall off and land on your face, now that would have been funny.

What would have been funny, that doesnt even make sense.

He kicks the car door, so I open the car door and the door hits him making him fall to the ground and bleed allot. (Presuming I'm old enough to drive that is)

Fully-sprung

Briggo wrote:

Fully-sprung wrote:

And what I would have done would have seen you in A&E, open the door really fast, then you fall off and land on your face, now that would have been funny.

What would have been funny, that doesnt even make sense.

He kicks the car door, so I open the car door and the door hits him making him fall to the ground and bleed allot. (Presuming I'm old enough to drive that is)

thel33ter

I seem to randomly alternate between unbelievably amazing, and constantly bouncing off things...

RevellRider

Fully-sprung wrote:

Briggo wrote:

Fully-sprung wrote:

And what I would have done would have seen you in A&E, open the door really fast, then you fall off and land on your face, now that would have been funny.

What would have been funny, that doesnt even make sense.

He kicks the car door, so I open the car door and the door hits him making him fall to the ground and bleed allot. (Presuming I'm old enough to drive that is)

That's of course if you could reach across to the passenger door. Saying that you were a) old enough to drive, 2) quick enough to think about it without think 'oh sh*t, did I just hit him?' and iii) able to do it with out losing control, crashing and dying in a ball of flames, I would see you in court for dangerous driving and assault.

Then of course the big mean nasty judge would take away all your toys :P

Anonymous

I don't tend to crash often, I've been riding too long and have learnt from all the beginner's mistakes years ago.
When I do crash, it's mostly just small scrapes, although they usually involve spectacular cartwheeling.
But sometimes, I end up in monumental action hero crashes. Luckily, I've survived pretty much unscathed apart from bruised/fractured ribs, concussion, huge gouges, and a dislocated knee.

shx8000

I seem to fall off regularly, but usually cause my bars are quite wide, but the gaps between some of the trees up Cannock aren't. No matter how hard I knee them or shoulder barge them, they just won't get out of my way

welshkev

yeehaamcgee wrote:

I don't tend to crash often, I've been riding too long and have learnt from all the beginner's mistakes years ago.
When I do crash, it's mostly just small scrapes, although they usually involve spectacular cartwheeling.
But sometimes, I end up in monumental action hero crashes. Luckily, I've survived pretty much unscathed apart from bruised/fractured ribs, concussion, huge gouges, and a dislocated knee.

OW!!!!

badly bruised ribs, been knocked out twice (with a helmet on) and a few cuts and bruises for me. funnily enough the one that hurt the most was when i went over the handlebars with no gloves on and took most of the skin off the palms of my hands!!!

BennyB

I cant remember the last time i went out and didnt crash! I ride way too fast for my ability, I keep saying its coz im pushing myself but I think its really coz im crap lol

Arkady001

We used to have a saying: if you don't crash occasionally, you're not riding hard/fast enough.

I used to get into all sorts of bother on my road-bikes: probably because I spent so much time on the road - eventually you'll meet all the idiots out there.
I've been forced to bunny-hop onto the pavement to avoid being crushed by white-van man; knocked off on a corner by someone who thought they'd already passed me (motorists seem constantly amazed by the fact that it's quite easy for a cyclist to travel at or near the speed-limit in town); rammed off the road by someone who just couldn't care less (fist-fight in the middle of the road after I chucked my bike through his windscreen at the next junction after I caught up with him); dived into a hedge to avoid being crushed by someone overtaking on a single lane backroad (lots of swearing after which he chased me and my mate down the road having waited round the corner for us: he then tried to force me into oncoming traffic then put himself into a ditch as he failed to negotiate a corner); lots of other stuff...practically every day on the road, you'll have some form of incident or other that could kill or maim you...

Off-road: practically every ride I'd come back with blood on the shins from something or other... usually slow-motion comedy rolls into the nettles as we tried to negotiate some tricky singletrack, or slipping off on wet chalk which has all the grip of oil-coated glass...
My worst one was in the Forest of Dean in '93 - misjudged a jump and endo'd onto a hard rock, breaking my spine in six places: all of my lumbar vertebrae were fractured and the transverse processes off L3 and L4 were snapped clean off - took a year to recover from that one. After three months I walked into the bike shop and ordered a new bike while I was still in a body-cast.

During my last ride on Thursday: slipped on snow-covered ice on a fast downhill fire-road and went upside-down into the weeds, then later on got tripped up by a frozen rut and did some comedy rolling and swearing as I scuffed my legs and snapped all the fingers back on my left hand...

Anonymous

Arkady001 wrote:

I used to get into all sorts of bother on my road-bikes: probably because I spent so much time on the road - eventually you'll meet all the idiots out there.
I've been forced to bunny-hop onto the pavement to avoid being crushed by white-van man; knocked off on a corner by someone who thought they'd already passed me (motorists seem constantly amazed by the fact that it's quite easy for a cyclist to travel at or near the speed-limit in town); rammed off the road by someone who just couldn't care less (fist-fight in the middle of the road after I chucked my bike through his windscreen at the next junction after I caught up with him); dived into a hedge to avoid being crushed by someone overtaking on a single lane backroad (lots of swearing after which he chased me and my mate down the road having waited round the corner for us: he then tried to force me into oncoming traffic then put himself into a ditch as he failed to negotiate a corner); lots of other stuff...practically every day on the road, you'll have some form of incident or other that could kill or maim you...

Sounds like you are a monumentally bad road rider. You need to keep an eye around you as well, you know. Don't expect others to do everything for you.