Worst Crash?

flywheel88

I was just reading this blog: http://quickdirt.com/2013/12/06/why-do- ... ain-bikes/, it got me curious to know about injuries. Did you ever get any major ones biking? What was your worst? And best of all, what got you to get back on the bike again? Thanks for indulging me.

roger_merriman

Recently riding to work, I came off this much I know, I woke up in hospital with a fractured skull.

No idea what happened no memory and no cars etc involved. Getting better though be a while till I'm back on a bike.

tarbot18

I recently took to flying down a mountain in the alps after my front wheel collapsed while going dowhill ,apparently people behind watching thought i was dead i did too for a while , the reason i got up was someone had to push my bike back to the lifts but i was back on it the next day suitably dosed up on wondeful wonderful drugs .
Two months later im still having trouble with my shoulder and have limited arm movement ....... ill be back next year !

The Rookie

Brake lever went into the side of my bicep and nearly severed a small muscle there, minor off though, and a washout on a wet wooden bridge left me with 2 cracked ribs.

Roger, get well soon.......

cat_with_no_tail

I've had a number of pretty epic crashes and have fortunately managed to walk away relatively unscathed from them.

My worst crash in terms of injury was a very low speed topple over uphill resulted in a broken tib/fib, and completely torn ACL, LCL and PCL which required a complete knee rebuild and grafts from my (non-broken) leg to fix.

They were initially recommending no more MTB, but I followed my surgeons advice, recruited an excellent physio and worked my ass off. 2 years on, I'm now not only back on the MTB, but I'm racing again, and fitter than I've ever been.
Still can't kneel down through.

rockmonkeysc

I have been fairly lucky with injuries although I have had some spectacular crashes.
My worst injuries from one crash were three broken ribs (bottom 2 left & lowest right) broken collar bone, dislocated shoulder and broken arm.
I thought it would be a faster line in to a turn. It was but I couldn't hold it in the berm, hit a tree and fell several feet to the fire road.
Two months off the bike to recover enough to get back on a bike plus another three months to get back to full strength.
The bike was fortunately undamaged.

Lewis A

Once I went straight into a road crash barrier at 35mph (according to computer). My tyre slipped on gravel. Somehow all I god were cuts, bruises, a few sprains, and a technical t-shirt melted into my skin, which hurt. A lot.

stubs

Worst MTB crash lost it on a steep slippy rock step and landed ribcage first on the saddle nose. Bent some ribs and was in agony couldnt breathe for what felt like hours. Eventually managed to drag myself upright get on bike and start pedalling slowly/walking back to car. I had no choice I was about 5 miles away from civilisation, had to stop several times to puke and/or let the world stop rocking from side to side. Got to car and bugger how do I get bike over tailgate luckily a walker was parked next to my car and was putting his boots on, he got bike in back for me. Drove to Wrexham hospital to be told I had collapsed a lung. Missed 2 1/2 months of fantastic weather got back on bike Nov just in time for Biblical floods for 4 months.

97th choice

Fractured elbow, which hurts like buggery. Still have a bit of floating bone and occasional pins and needles as a reminder

wilberforce

OTB moment braking to avoid my daughter and landing onto tarmac. Fractured elbow made worse by A&E initially saying only badly bruised. It was not diagnosed as broken until four months after when I went back to complain as I still could not straighten my arm. Surgery to remodel joint followed plus a total of about nine months of physio. Still can't straighten my arm fully even now.

Clank

Commuting home, tipped into a corner at about 25mph, hit a lump of building detritus and came out on my front.
Two broken ribs, broken wrist, partially dislocated right knee, dislocated sternum and fractures of C4 and C5.

Compared to some of those above, I got away lightly. The only real lasting damage was an inability to ride the tiny frames I used to prefer.

......and the ability to ache like b*****d when the weather changes!

Oddly, aside from the odd minor bump and bruise, I've not hurt myself mountain biking

What got me back was eventually realising just how much I missed it. I crave the exercise, and gym etc just didn't do it for me. Took a while to get much of my confidence back, and I'm still not as ballsy as I was.

.....probably for the better, mind you!

mcnultycop

About 20 years ago on my Orange Clockwork at Tandle Hill near me. I had toe clips on (not sure why, we all did it though) and I was descending off trails through the woods. I missed a branch that caught me across the throat and stopped me dead, the bike carried on and twisted round and I had one foot still strapped to the pedal. Ankle snap. 3 mile hobble home.

rgliniany

lost my tooth.... in a face / post interface

scottneilson24

About 2 years ago, i started to cycle up a steep hill in a low gear, crank arm snapped, foot slipped off pedal and sharp pins ripped 3 tears into the front of my knee/shin. Bled so much that my partially white shoes turned red completely and had a mile walk back home. Not the idea way to finish off a Sunday afternoon

paul.skibum

Hit a tree at about 20mph split my face, pushed in one tooth, broke a wrist and a couple of ribs, damaged my hip (still gives me issues) and had a bruise that ran from my knee (which swelled up to size of a football) up to my arm pit - handlebar end missed my privates by few inches and left a particularly vivid mark. I was riding about 6 weeks later once wrist was out of cast, had some back pain (disc bulge) which took around 6 months to clear fully.

Aside from that just cuts and bruises from any other spills and a monster haematoma on my shin from falling on a root.

P-Jay

Silly little crash at Afan in 2009, going too fast, right hand bend, drifted wide off the trail, front wheel hit a BFR hidden in the grass.

Usually it would have been no more than a sharp low-side and maybe a bent rim but the riding gods decided I'd been cocky riding too quickly and leaving my elbow pads* in the van because it was a hot day so the front wheel grabbed the rock and span the bars so hard I got a really nasty rotational fracture of the left wrist and went OTB, landed on my head and onto my right elbow - a 1/1m chance of a the tip of my ulnar landing on a small but sharp rock destroying it and leaving me with no ulnar tip and a huge wound - well as huge as you can fit on an elbow.

About half an hour of blinding pain whilst my mate sprinted to the centre for some phone reception / help, about the same again for paramedics to arrive and hike down to me from the fire road, no access for Helicopter, and finally get some gas/air and morphine into me so I could be walked out.

6 hours surgery, 1 week in trauma ward, anther 6 hours surgery, 10 days on a normal ward. 6 months off work and physio, another 3 before I could sit on a bike and hold the bars another 6 months of wobbling around desperately trying not to fall off and whack the metal work which made my skin bulge under my elbow and another quick surgery to remove it.

I think I'm actually quicker now than before, but my left wrist still has 16 screws and a plate in it, my right elbow doesn't actually have any bone on one half and I've got about 60% range of movement, it's also a funny shape. throbs a bit on cold mornings and needs 20 mins in a hot shower to stop.

The whole "I'm never riding again" thing lasted about 2 days from the accident, I could fill a page on the hassle I had getting it all fixed. Some of my friends and family asked me how I 'did it' meaning the recovery, it's not a case of 'doing it' you have no choice, you can't sit down and give up, it's a process rather than a job to do, it's mostly just waiting for shit to heal enough to get the next fix.

*there's little chance even the best elbow pads in the world would have saved me from a broken elbow, but they might have made it less of a break and avoided the open wound, the wound and associated cleaning out in surgey and infection from the Forrest floor added about 9 months to my recovery, without that it would have been 2 months or so.

Maro

Compared to a lot of you guys I've been super lucky. I've had a few spills of course, but only one which was kinda bad and probably looked worse/funny.

I completely overshot a double and landed in a heap on gravelly dirt, the brakes would have been useless at 7 foot up but by the time I had gone over the bars my face slowed me to a stop. I was left with no skin on knees, elbows and right hip, blood was running down my arms enough that others were checking I was ok as I carried on riding. My shoulder ached a bit but not much. The next morning I went to A&E because I couldn't lift my arm above shoulder height and trying was painful, 2 days off work plus weekend and a quick visit to physio and all was fine. Still feel the odd tweak in my shoulder but nothing to complain about.

I'm quite amazed by the extent of some of the unjuries I have just read, some crashes don't sound too bad but the damage certainly does.

step83

Fantastically stupid one yesterday. Forgot i didnt have my goggles on went barreling down a trail which has lots of overhanging branches and got smacked in the eyes by a branch and promptly fell off while clipped in. Queue flapping around like a wind up walking toy of its side trying to release my feet and get out of the holy bush i fell into.

.blitz

Have not really had too many serious injuries other than broken both scaphoids and a torn rotator cuff. One of the scaphoids was mis-diagnosed and I had to have it re-broken and pinned which was a major PITA it was 19 weeks before the plaster came off and probably 18 months-2 years before I could bend it back it still doesn't go as far as the other one.

Bruised a rib when I rode a little jump one-handed while adjusting my sunglasses because a couple of girls were watching. Landed crossed-up not so cool now eh

Also skittled a group of schoolchildren on a field trip who just happened to be walking along the fireroad while I was crossing over it :oops:

bennett_346

I'm young enough to bounce. I've had epic crashes where i've walked away relatively unscathed.

Worst one was probably during a race where i came out a corner on a dirt track and drifted onto a patch of tarmac, wheel gripped and i highsided. All the weight and impact landed on my right shoulder and I had to have an X-ray. Nothing broken but there was ligament damage and two years on i still can't always lift that arm straight to the ceiling without some extra effort. No pain though.

schmako

Was thinking about this thread last night, and end up washing out on ice during this mornings commute, damn my hip is farking sore, its probably been my worst! All those times MTB'ing and nothing, but go on the road and ice gets me

Clank

Schmako wrote:

Was thinking about this thread last night, and end up washing out on ice during this mornings commute, damn my hip is farking sore, its probably been my worst! All those times MTB'ing and nothing, but go on the road and ice gets me

Yeah, I did that on the way to work last winter. Fractured the 'capitate' in my wrist, apparently. Did even know I had one!

Time off the bike: approx. 9 hours. Rode home at the end of the day.

Two weeks later the Doc says 'it's not healing as quickly as I would expect - have you been resting it properly?'

A lap of Cannock counts as rest, right?

gt-arrowhead

I havent had a crash while actually MTBing. Well thats mostly down to the crap trails in London and the fact that ive been riding them for only a year. Ive been on roads more before then.

The crashes that i have had though are just mucking about, and trying to do silly things.

The worst crash i had was in school as it happens... :oops: The car park is right next to the playground, but the car park is about 1-2 feet higher than the playground, with a direct drop. And right on the edge of the drop there is a bit of a curb.

I said to my mates "watch this yeah, im gonna jump onto the playground". I took a long run up and pedaled like mad, and when i got to the edge where the curb is, i lifted the front wheel in the air, and as soon as my back wheel touched that curb, it slammed my front wheel down. I was going so fast that i actually did go onto the playground. Unfortunately, the angle at which my front wheel hit the playground was too much so the suspension didnt actually compress. So i was basically doing a super fast endo, with the rear wheel above head height. I went about 4-5 feet, then smashed onto the ground and went a further couple of feet scraping my arms and hands across the tarmac. Ripped a dozen holes in my shirt, and ended up with huge cuts on my elbow shoulder and both hands. As well as a sprained wrist.

It was a great laugh though, i was cracking up with laughter along with my mates...until about 2-3 minutes later when i started to feel the pain on my wrist.

Nothing anywhere near the crashes on here...but im sure my time will come!

gt-arrowhead

I also had one trying to jump of a drop curb on the way home. I went of the rising bit of the drop curb, but my rear wheel landed on the road while my front wheel stayed. I ended up with the rear end of the bike underneath a Ford KA and i happily just bounced off the bonnet.

ilovedirt

Had my worst crash racing the student downhill champs this april just gone at Combe Sydenham. Nose-dived a big jump on a fast, open straight. Went straight over the bars, took the full weight of the crash on my face. Completely wrote off my helmet (thank god i was wearing a full face, a bloody sturdy one too!), bent my bars. Aside from some grazes, I was absolutely fine! I had to walk over to the medics to make sure there wasn't something horribly wrong that I hadn't noticed yet! Hands down, I would have ended up in hospital with serious injuries if I had been wearing an open face lid. I got off seriously lucky.

Instead, I managed to get a new lid from a local bike shop a couple of hours later, got some spare bars and carried on racing! I kept riding that jump like a little girl though...
Two days later, at FOD on the way home, I crashed into a tree stump, ripped my kneepad to shreds and properly gashed my knee open. It was an expensive/painful weekend...

fyldesmurf

ilovedirt wrote:

Had my worst crash racing the student downhill champs this april just gone. Nose-dived a big jump on a fast, open straight. Went straight over the bars, took the full weight of the crash on my face. Completely wrote off my helmet (thank god i was wearing a full face, a bloody sturdy one too!), bent my bars. Aside from some grazes, I was absolutely fine! I had to walk over to the medics to make sure there wasn't something horribly wrong that I hadn't noticed yet! Hands down, I would have ended up in hospital with serious injuries if I had been wearing an open face lid. I got off seriously lucky.

Instead, I managed to get a new lid from a local bike shop a couple of hours later, got some spare bars and carried on racing! I kept riding that jump like a little girl though...
Two days later, at FOD on the way home, I crashed into a tree stump, ripped my kneepad to shreds and properly gashed my knee open. It was an expensive/painful weekend...

Haha Coombe Syd claimed so many victims last year, it was great watching in the middle field. You going to Inners this year?

ilovedirt

fyldesmurf wrote:

ilovedirt wrote:

Had my worst crash racing the student downhill champs this april just gone. Nose-dived a big jump on a fast, open straight. Went straight over the bars, took the full weight of the crash on my face. Completely wrote off my helmet (thank god i was wearing a full face, a bloody sturdy one too!), bent my bars. Aside from some grazes, I was absolutely fine! I had to walk over to the medics to make sure there wasn't something horribly wrong that I hadn't noticed yet! Hands down, I would have ended up in hospital with serious injuries if I had been wearing an open face lid. I got off seriously lucky.

Instead, I managed to get a new lid from a local bike shop a couple of hours later, got some spare bars and carried on racing! I kept riding that jump like a little girl though...
Two days later, at FOD on the way home, I crashed into a tree stump, ripped my kneepad to shreds and properly gashed my knee open. It was an expensive/painful weekend...

Haha Coombe Syd claimed so many victims last year, it was great watching in the middle field. You going to Inners this year?

Yep, this crash was my first run of practice on the first day... oops...
Do you remember seeing Bangor university heckling on the middle field? I was the one with the stupidly loud rim and handlebar combo

I plan on going, however BUCS are useless and it's now not being held at inners and the venue is up in the air again. I intend to go though, either way.

fyldesmurf

Bangor are always unmissable, although I miss the wife beaters from Rheola! Do they pass BC regulations?

Ah, well, works out better for me, I'm down in Exeter so it's be a mission up to Scotland

ilovedirt

Haha, we decided we should probably step up our game a little. Shame the riding didn't follow... Wait til you see our jerseys this year though

buddy_club

In about two years of riding Cannock/FOD/Llandegla/small local trails the worst crash i've had was at Cannock chase on one of the rock gardens, turned into it and the front wheel washed out on some standing water, rolled down the rest of it and dislocated my knee. Rode the remaining two thirds with a dislocated knee, only realising i had dislocated it when i got back to the car park and the teacher our group was with noticed the swelling, nowhere near as bad as most on here though...

spongtastic

Apart from the usual stupid slips on ice, over balancing, being a muppet etc I've had two pretty epic crashes.

First was aged 10, on the road round the local estate, which was basically a big loop with a series of Closes, alleyways and garages. I leant into a corner, probably about 45 degrees on the drops, front wheel washed out, don't remember anything else until an old lady walked past and her dog started licking the blood off the floor. She wandered off and about a minute later a woman came out of her house because she thought the dog had left a number two on the pavement, saw me ran off and called an ambulance. Fractured skull and lost a lot of blood.

Second is 2 years ago now, riding solo above on a trail above Cropton, went up a logging road of 1:4 came back down the other side too fast, front tyre blew out, bike washed out, went over the side of the road down the slope where the road winds back on itself. I'm still attached because I didn't have time to unclip. Land with one hell of a bump with the bike on top of me. Totally f*cks my shoulder and breaks a couple of bones in my foot. No phone reception, so I had to walk very slowly back to what I hoped would be a house I'd seen half an hour earlier rather than a wreck. Luckily it was a holiday home and the people renting it were in. This was an ultimate dumb ar*e thing to do and could have been a lot worse.