1st Fall

sammydragoon

nothing worse than coming out of a bombhole, then you're awful front brake pad sticks, and you go head over handlebars infront of a crowd of 10 year olds with their parents smirking... i laughed it off, why you shouldn't buy a bike from halfords :P

mintedox

My first "off"didnt hurt much at the time but was painful a few hours later. Caught my foot on a rock and came off, snapped my brake lever, tied and taped it back on and was on my way. That night i was nearly in tears with the pain, learnt my lesson there.

Only other painful one was smashing my wrist when a rock got the better of me at Gisburn. I was quite hungover and shouldnt have been there so went back to the van and slept

felix.london

Angry Bird wrote:

Ghostt wrote:

Luckily, most forests provide fairly soft landings

Not if you crash straight into a tree they don't.

felix.london

My first off was on a pretty serious downhill run (my first DH run);

went to hop over a rock, front wheel came, over the bars, landed on my back. Luckily was fine...

...didn't put the front wheel on properly when I took my bike out of the car :oops:

Sort of mistake you only make once...

Northwind

Don't think I've had any proper crashes this year. Did manage a comedy otb at Dalbeattie, 5 minutes into a long weekend on an incredibly easy unmarked XC link, which meant spending the rest of the weekend (Kirrougtree, Dalbeattie and Drumlanrig) with bruised ribs. Took the shine off a little! Still, didn't rebreak them that time so that's OK.

Oh and managed a spectacularily stupid one at Golspie, literally thought "This step looks a bit massive, pretty sure I'm going to land on the bashring and fire over the bars like I've been shot from a catapult... But hey, it's a trail centre! So it'll probably be fine". Turned out I wasn't actually on the trail. All went surprisingly well though til the bike landed on my face.

Daz555

Muttly1981 wrote:

My mates a paramedic and they are told not to put dislocations back because of the legal side of things :roll:

Probably more to do with not wanting to make matters worse by cocking it up and trapping something. Just a matter of letting someone more qualified make the call I guess.

Having said that, paramedics are extremely qualified people.

mintedox

Paramedics popped my mates shoulder back in for him a couple of years back. They folded up a towel and put it under his armpit and made him bring his arm close to his body. Worked a treat

Swebb46

I' ve just had my first xc crash, bit of a biggie, coming down a fast bit went down the wrong track ( going to fast for the section) dont remember how i ended in front of my bike all i do know is the front wheel collapsed and i flue into the ground head first and broke my hand.
Sam

The Rookie

Still recovering from my fall at Cannock when the brake lever went into my left upper arm behind the bicep, went in about 20mm, I now have full movement back, just using weights to get the muscle tone back (big lumpy scar tissue still obvious!) Been on the road bike since but other than finishing the last 6km at Cannock haven't been on the MTB again and won't now (overseas with work) until the 12th. Thank god for the cycling machine in the Gym at the hotel!

Simon

bilalakram123

Yeh i had my 'worst' fall this year. i say worst but it didnt actually feel that bad lol
I was doing red run at ashon court, not that difficult really, and went over a jump waaaaaaaaayyyyyy too fast and then the bike must have turned whilst in midair (my friend said it looked like i was doing a whip and i was like no, i really wasnt trying to lol ) and then i landed and was thrown off somehow and cut my arms and legs up a bit and landed hard on my hands. my wrist felt a bit sore after, nothing that bad. then i did 3-4 more runs of the trail and went home. wrist swelled up like hell later and it turned out i had broken it. The miracles of adrenaline!!!
only recently had the cast off and am back on my bike, annoying i havent got all the movement of my wrist back fully :x
still, rather amusing at the time

Red.Devil.Ghost

When I was a kid, I was riding down the alley behind my house. Had to brake hard as someone came round the corner, only used front brake (for some stupid reason) and straight over the handlebars. Was ok, except for wearing shorts and t-shirt and landing in stinging nettles.

About 7 years ago, I was riding to work, and jumped off the curb outside my house, on a hill. The rear wheel just slid away and I smashed my face on the curb. Didn't realise how much blood there was etc. Got to work and my gf at the time screamed, she though I had been hit by a car or something.

I also convinced my little sister to ride along a wall when she was still very young. She came off and teeth through lip. Not nice, but no lasting damage.

But most recently, I was on some adventure training (in the Army) and one of the lads thought he could do a particular bit (the ground was wet, it was a hard route). He couldn't even start and just fell sideways into a heap. It was hilarious. Instructor's rule was if you fall, you can't get up until he has a picture of it!

Falling off is fun and part of the learning. You don't your limits until you crash. Its the same with anything - car racing, snowboarding, biking etc.

moster

I had my biggest crash (so far) earlier in the year. It was May bank holiday weekend on The Black at Glentress and I had a fairly spectacular OTB somewhere in Deliverance that resulted a very badly bruised hand and huge gash in the bridge of my nose...scared the bejeezus of a guy that found me standing pouring blood everywhere!

Best comedy crash was a few years back when cycling at speed along a farm track, not looking where I was going and crashed into the side of the gamekeepers chocolate Labrador, resulting in an unexpected over the bars dismount landing in a heap at the gamekeepers feet!

SomeIdeaNoGear

having been away from mountain biking for a good decade or so I finally took it up again in April this year... have always been one for pushing the limits and sometimes my bravado outweighs my skill, which means so far I've had 3 pretty big offs so far.

My first one was down a descent far too steep for my v-brakes to handle, resulted in me bouncing off a concrete slab about half way down, lots of scrapes and bruises and carried on with blood trickling down my leg.

The next was going over the tabletops in adel woods near leeds, hit the first jump cleared it but didn't have anything close to a straight landing, went in to a wall of dirt and ended up taking the stem to my knackers at a speed fast enough to flat the rim and leave me with a bloody nutsack.

And then my final one, on a pavement of all places, front wheel washed out on me as I turned into a path, crushed my big toe in between the pedal and a stone wall... laid on the floor for while until the little tweeting birds around my head went away and carried on riding for the next few hours, occasionally taking my shoe off to check to see if the bleeding had stopped (it hadn't). Rode all the way home and then eventually admitted defeat and went to A&E, turned out I'd smashed my toe into 3 pieces and had split all the skin under my toenail. So after 4 weeks in plaster, I'm riding the bike again and all I know is the hardest thing about injuries is the wait to get back out on the trails.

dusk

I've only had one serious fall in my 20 years of cycling, a picture paints a thousand words so here you go



I ended up with a broken left scaphoid which has a screw in it now, dislocated left wrist which led to snapped ligaments. I also did soft tissue damage to my right wrist, broke a rib and my right little finger. The wires in the picture were to stabilise the joint whilst in plaster.
I did that in March and although i'm never going to have proper wrist function back I am back on the bike still got a lot of rehab to go though

Moral of the story- don't dirt jump on an xc bike whilst wearing spd's

Gibbo3771

Been riding my carrera veng for about 2 weeks now, mainly back and forth to work but since I got paid (yay) I got a helmet and appropriate gear and took her out for a good riding today...was great, went via a random track towards the pentlands and ended up climbing a f*cker of a hill but was worth it for the decent at other side, rapid downhill in the muddy rocky path ..got to the bottom and took a sharp left up another hill, had to push as it was marshy as hell and couldn't get the wheel to grip .

After a while it flattened a little and their was some tread marks from previous bikers so hopped on and went for it, about 10 minutes of good paced riding over marshy and rocky flat land I come to this massive puddle and as I was approaching, I was planning lol....was shouting to myself AROUND IT OR THROUGH IT...AROUND OR THROUGH!!!!! I tried to go around but my back wheel got caught on a grass mound as my front passed over it and I basically fell side ways.............into this massive f*cking puddle, literally had to be a puddle there lol, not a single scratch or bruise, just very mucky and wet

Didn't get up laughing at least not straight away lol

S-M

Approx 16 days later and i am only just being able to properly walk again after my last crash, nightmare!

Broken ribs are nearly fixed up, they hurt a lot less, my wrist is fixed, my hip has been a nightmare, i can sit down and feel no pain but walking has been murder, i figured maybe riding a bike would be good for recovery, sitting down but stretching and moving the joint around, i managed 1 lap around my car and put the bike back into the garage.

It was a pretty bad crash, much worse than my previous shoulder dislocation crash 2 months earlier IMHO me and my physio were suprised the shoulder never popped back out.

Really missing being on the bike now as well, maybe next weekend with a bit of luck :evil:

S-M

S-M wrote:

Today has been my first day off the pain killers since i dislocated my shoulder 2 weeks ago, it still hurts, but its improving, managed a ride last night around the coast but it was very tame and slow

I have done nothing today though, just sat in front of the tv and played on the xbox

I see this from the 27th aug and then i see my post above, and i start thinking "WTF am i doing to myself"

Red.Devil.Ghost

I had a near miss this morning.

Just riding a very old borrowed bike at the moment to get to and from work. Approaching a roundabout, road nice and wet, car approaching so adjust speed slightly, allowing it plenty of time to get round, then it stops right as it exits. On goes the rear brake and out comes the rear end. Luckily i saved it and was ok. I hope the accidental drift looked cool.