What speed do downhillers get up to?

bentes

Thewaylander wrote:

Shaggy_Dog wrote:

Let's put it like this, if you crash at a given speed on a road bike. it is guaranteed to hurt. Off road, it might not hurt at all, or it could end up far worse.

Yarp because the person on the road is completely idiotic gear in reference the actual danger involved.

you can't say something is worse just because people are to thick to wear appropriate safety gear because it's not aero dynamic :P

And those of us who ride offroad in lycra?!

I'll get my coat... :oops:

Shaggy_Dog

I rarely wear more than a helmet for protection, occasionally I'll don some knee pads but only if I'm doing an uplift day. Sometimes I'll wear lycra off road if I want to smash out a fast lap or if it's really hot.

It sounds to me like you have no actual experience of road riding TheWaylander and that you're trying to justify mountain biking's tough-guy image. I gave up on that when one of my riding buddies took up cage fighting.

Thewaylander

bentes wrote:

Thewaylander wrote:

Shaggy_Dog wrote:

Let's put it like this, if you crash at a given speed on a road bike. it is guaranteed to hurt. Off road, it might not hurt at all, or it could end up far worse.

Yarp because the person on the road is completely idiotic gear in reference the actual danger involved.

you can't say something is worse just because people are to thick to wear appropriate safety gear because it's not aero dynamic :P

And those of us who ride offroad in lycra?!

I'll get my coat... :oops:

Look like a bunch of... lol sorry, I have stated before on other threads, that i think anyone riding off road with out basic knee, hands and head protection is a bit of a monkey mind

Tom BB

Ah the usual suspects in here spouting their usual guff.......if you haven't fallen off both a mountain bike and a road bike then there's very little point you saying one is worse than the other.....everyone on this thread has fallen off both say that usually, a road crash at the same speed as a mtb crash will be worse-it just is....there's nothing to soften the blow.....it isn't down to wearing lycra-I wear lycra on and off road-its due to surface.

Granted bones can get broken on trees etc more frequently in mtbing, but in general its much worse on road. I've had a couple of bad mtb crashes.....most recently at Glentress, and also both at Coedy and Penmac (I'm abit shit in the skillz department) All just resulted in cut and bruises that were treatable by whoever was with me at the time with basic bandages etc. All were around the 22 mph mark. Touch of wheels on a road ride at that speed leaves you in A&E with stitches and the possibilty of skin grafts.

bails87

Shaggy_Dog wrote:

It sounds to me like you have no actual experience of road riding TheWaylander and that you're trying to justify mountain biking's tough-guy image. I gave up on that when one of my riding buddies took up cage fighting.

Can't argue too much with that.

On road I'd say you're less likely to fall, but a typical fall will be at higher speed and guaranteed to land on a hard, abrasive surface.

Off road you're more likely to fall, and as Northwind says, it could be soft mud or it could be face shredding rock, but a typical MTB fall will be slower than a road bike fall would have been, given the same terrain/gradients, but different surface.

Your perception of it obviously varies based on your experiences and where you ride. Most of my MTBing is on soft, loamy ground with lots of vegetation, so no big deal if I come off, if all my rides where through Jaggedrockington then I'd probably feel different. I've come off my road bike once in 1500 miles (and that was due to being hit by a car) and I can still feel the injuries from that, and it happened almost 6 months ago It wasn't being hit by the car that hurt, it was hitting the road as I fell off the bonnet!

NatoED

Jen voight had a massive off 3 years ago in the alps . he woke up getting his face , arms and legs sown up. He was knocked out for a while . I think road riders are some of the hardest guys out there .

NatoED

ps watch the guy at 2:00 mins on this tdf video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIkqSQXcirM&feature=related

Anonymous

Well, hoe's abotu the guy that crashed at the world cup Dh round in the Sates, who caused the rest of the race to be delayed then?
He wasn't even going at road-race speeds, yet he apparently broke several bones and was stretchered off. This was despite being in full DH race gear.

Would you rather gravel rash, or broken bones?

Like Bails, I've had an accident a long time ago, that is still showing it's effects now, years later - but that was of-road.
I've also fallen off at a slate quarry and that left me immobilized for quite some time - the surface is similar to a cheese grater, and consists of razor-edged slabs of slate stacked up on each other, and crushed and shattered over the years.

There is no clear cut "X is worse than Y" - there's lots of variables, and speed is a big factor.

Thewaylander

To be honest guys it sounds like you ride awful trails off road at slow speeds.

Because yes i have crashed plenty on both, and come out good and bad. Worst crashes being when i used to ride street mind.

Most of my off road crashes are at speed due to washing out in stoney rocky corners adn this hurts much much more in my veiw instead of scrapes deep gashes are normally had.
it could be that i'm fortunate to live somewhere with enough steepness to lend off road trail some speed but i'm fully with Yee here.

And have you met me? tough guy image shaggy dog? don't make me laugh im 6foot2 and like a rake no one would believe me putting up a tough guy image lol stop trying to make wearing lycra sound manly because you can't it just looks rediculous

NatoED

Road accidents can be bad even at slow speeds last month my front wheel washed out going over Oil / Diesel on the road . took the tops of my fingers off and broke my tail bone . I wasn't going quick .

Off road crashes i've been lucky . split open my leg , shredded up my back DJ , pushed my knee cap out and various other cuts .

I would certainly say falling off on road is less desirable than bailing off road. just because of the potability of being run over or hitting a big metal lamp post. (don't even want to think about the cheese grater road barriers out there)

Anonymous

Tom BB wrote:

Ah the usual suspects in here spouting their usual guff.......if you haven't fallen off both a mountain bike and a road bike then there's very little point you saying one is worse than the other.....everyone on this thread has fallen off both say that usually, a road crash at the same speed as a mtb crash will be worse-it just is....there's nothing to soften the blow.....it isn't down to wearing lycra-I wear lycra on and off road-its due to surface.

Granted bones can get broken on trees etc more frequently in mtbing, but in general its much worse on road. I've had a couple of bad mtb crashes.....most recently at Glentress, and also both at Coedy and Penmac (I'm abit shoot in the skillz department) All just resulted in cut and bruises that were treatable by whoever was with me at the time with basic bandages etc. All were around the 22 mph mark. Touch of wheels on a road ride at that speed leaves you in A&E with stitches and the possibilty of skin grafts.

No one here can say one is worse than the other just based on their own crash experiences unless they've had enough of them to gather statistics on it or have recreated the same conditions on and off road except for the ground they land on, right down to the speed, angles of the bike, body, what part hits where, the whole exact nature of the tumble down to every inch.

Even then such a test would only be one type of fall. There are so many different factors that can make a difference in the injury.

As I found, just a slow speed drop onto my head on a mountain bike landed me with serious injuries, spell in ICU, bust back and potential to have been permanent spinal damage (turned out I was just lucky). In fact it could have easily been just from walking, tripping up and landing on my head.

I'm not sure if there's enough research with statistics showing the risks, but a lot of the spinal injury groups quote mountain biking as one of the common causes, but less so with road bikes. That's down to the nature of the ride and crash rather than how hard the surface is.

There is this on some stats on spinal injuries with MTB - http://www.pinkbike.com/news/neck-injur ... -2010.html

Photo there is possibly my injury though he's sliding down, and think I went right on the head and maybe flipped over almost snapping the back

Shaggy_Dog

deadkenny wrote:

No one here can say one is worse than the other just based on their own crash experiences

So to post on a forum you need statistics and stuff from university studies. See, I though the point of forums was to get advice from people based on their own experiences or just to discuss our experiences and opinions with others.

Anonymous

Are you now having a bit of a hissy fit because nobody is actually saying what you want them to say?

njee20

Few people die mountain biking, lots die on the roads, mainly because you add cars to the equation, but even so, Wouter Weylandt, Andrei Kivilev and Fabio Casertelli killed themselves just fine without any other intervention. Juan Mauricio Soler was in a coma for a long time. When did the last pro mountain biker die in competition? Tara Llanes was obviously badly injured, but I'm struggling to think of fatalities.

I don't really care which is more dangerous, as this proves it's impossible to quantify, but to my mind if you crash off road the odds are that you'll get up, dust yourself off and ride on. On the road this is very unlikely. There will of course be serious exceptions to this.

No ones pretending lycra looks good or that it offers protection, but personally I feel it's the most practical material to ride in. Ditto I don't feel the need for armour, but then I usually ride where it's loamy and soft to land.

CustomC

Last summer i fell of jumping some steps on my MTB and my elbow still bears an ugly scar and hurts like fuuuuuuuuuuu! A year later....

i jumped at an angle MIssed some kids then landed but the wheel was at an an angle and span the handlebards out of my hands and i went flying over the bike