Falling off

Jonesinamilion

Fell off for the first time since getting back into biking today.

Coming down a muddy path with cobbled steps to the right & vegetation to the left. I Tried to avoid a face height bramble, turned onto the steps and the bike just slid away.

Only damage was pride & a scraped derailleur as me & the horizontal bike descended several steps at pace.

Best advice for falling of? I tried to get the bike away form me & keep my face off the floor basically!

fat daddy

I have always let the bike do it's own thing and just try to not let any arms and legs flail about and get broken.

One of my best crashes was in a freeride park in whistler and I was tentatively on a ladder, came to the down ramp, panicked so applied the rear brake .... but this is Canada, the front brake is where the rear should be. And I went straight over the handle bars, then the bike went straight over me .... felt like I did 2 rollypollys ... hit the floor, hands still on bars and feet still in the clips ... awesome !!!!

tlw1

just go with the flow

FishFish

I was on BA31 - the Hong Kong flight and doing some exercises by cycling along the wing. Got the port and starboard wings mixed up and fell 40000 feet. Fortunately was wearing helmet and kneepads but had to cycle from Russia to HK. Was only 20 mins late though.

wilberforce

FishFish wrote:

I was on BA31 - the Hong Kong flight and doing some exercises by cycling along the wing. Got the port and starboard wings mixed up and fell 40000 feet. Fortunately was wearing helmet and kneepads but had to cycle from Russia to HK. Was only 20 mins late though.

The inclusion of a correct flight number makes this so believeable

snowster

My advice is protect your bike at all costs broken bones heal in time but damage to your pride and joy gives me nightmares any many a sleepless night

cycleclinic

Dont fall iff but easier said than done. in last weeks cx race i fell several times. last wednesday i hit a deer at 18 mph. That ended in a painful crash.

Best advice pick your self up and carry on riding.

Tyre choice make a huge difference to how frequently you fall. if your bike has the stock tyres thatnot came with then these moght be a bit rubbish. Also if you are still using knner tubes you might have the pressure to high to have much grip. This is where going tubeless will help alot. Good rubber run at low pressure mean lots of grip.

Jonesinamilion

Hutchinson Python 2 running at v high pressures (35psi) so no suprise really!

Most of my riding is done along canal paths etc... So I like the efficiency; but not so much the falling off!

rockmonkeysc

Get used to it, you'll fall off a lot. Just stay relaxed, don't tense up or worry about what the bike is doing.
It rarely actually hurts much when you fall off.
The worst accidents usually happen to beginners when they panic and grab brakes at the wrong times. Controlled braking, looking well ahead and keeping a cool head will prevent most crashes.

schmako

Practice makes perfect..

welshkev

there's no best advice to falling off. the worst crashes I've had have come at the most unexpected times and the only thing I had time to do was think "oh crap, this is gonna hurt"

The Rookie

welshkev wrote:

there's no best advice to falling off. the worst crashes I've had have come at the most unexpected times and the only thing I had time to do was think "oh crap, this is gonna hurt"

This.....it's rare I come off and have time to worry about it, one moment I'm on the bike, the next I'm not.

Usually its more "Oh cr.....damn that hurts", the times I fall off slowly are the times I'm going slowly, the result is usually a much larger injury to what remains of my pride and a small injury to my body.

rockmonkeysc

I've had one accident on a jump at a downhill race. I heard the commentator say "that's not gone well, he'll never land that" before I actually hit the ground. At least the medics were with me quickly.
When I broke my back in a rock climbing accident, I knew it was coming for a few minutes

cycleclinic

And your user name is rockmonkeysc.... i like the irony.

cooldad

Irony? He climbs rocks. Things go wrong sometimes.

TriathleteIain

Let go of the bike and roll.

rockmonkeysc

Rolling is how arms get broken.
Let go of the bike and relax.

larkim

I think there's definitely something in the "practice (falling) makes perfect". You just have to watch the latest Danny MacAskill video outtakes at the end to see how many falls / bail outs he makes that I'd be terrified of (and which would probably break something on me) which he just walks happily away from because he knows how to get away from his bike.

Personally I get very, very tense just before I fall and I'm sure that doesn't help. If I could relax into it I'm sure it would hurt less.

Not entirely sure how you practice falling off though.

fat daddy

larkim wrote:

Not entirely sure how you practice falling off though.

easy ..... hire 4 really pretty women (or men) you want to impress, fit a pair of really tight spds, take everyone to a technical section and announce "hey girls (guys) watch me nail this section" ........... and then repeatedly fall on your face

LimitedGarry

larkim wrote:

Not entirely sure how you practice falling off though.

Well, getting into BMX might do the trick.

rockmonkeysc

fat daddy wrote:

larkim wrote:

Not entirely sure how you practice falling off though.

easy ..... hire 4 really pretty women (or men) you want to impress, fit a pair of really tight spds, take everyone to a technical section and announce "hey girls (guys) watch me nail this section" ........... and then repeatedly fall on your face

What's wrong with really tight SPD's? I can't ride any other way.

LimitedGarry

RockmonkeySC wrote:

What's wrong with really tight SPD's? I can't ride any other way.

Nothing wrong with them, really. As long as you can manage the technical part of the riding you do

rockmonkeysc

LimitedGarry wrote:

RockmonkeySC wrote:

What's wrong with really tight SPD's? I can't ride any other way.

Nothing wrong with them, really. As long as you can manage the technical part of the riding you do

Putting a foot down is poor technique. Keep your feet on the pedals and your more in control.
I had a coaching session with a WC downhill racer, he kept telling me to stop putting a foot out in a loose corner. His last resort was to crank the spd tension up really tight to stop me doing it and it worked. I was so much quicker and more controlled with feet up.

doomanic

That's fiziks for ya! Hanging a leg out moves the CofG away from the contact patch, increasing the likelyhood of the tyre letting go.

rockmonkeysc

Exactly. Plus you can't weight the pedals properly if your feet aren't on them.

LimitedGarry

RockmonkeySC wrote:

Putting a foot down is poor technique. Keep your feet on the pedals and your more in control.
I had a coaching session with a WC downhill racer, he kept telling me to stop putting a foot out in a loose corner. His last resort was to crank the spd tension up really tight to stop me doing it and it worked. I was so much quicker and more controlled with feet up.

I don't mean that. What I mean is that when you come to the point of no return and start falling, any kind of attachment to the pedal reduces your reaction capabilities. A really tight SPD may in such a case result in you falling with the bike still stuck to your legs, increasing the incoming pain even further.
For instance, I frequently end up riding completely off trails or paths, in high and dense grass, which is one of the reason's I'll never go clipless. If the bike slips on a BBC size branch or a ninja rock, it's down to split second reaction, no matter how fast or slow you're going - if you don't get your leg on the ground soon enough, you're going to unwillingly inspect the faulty terrain from a few inches away.

The only time I stick my leg out is on slow turns and straight sections that are extremely loose or muddy, where I'm pretty much expecting to lose either of my wheels at any point, simply because the terrain will give in to my weight alone. The leg will put me into a standing position before my bike or me end up in the dirt. Sure, it means I'm going to stop, but at least I'm not on the ground, thinking "wish I had my leg off the pedal".

And yes, sticking your leg out is a poor cornering technique. There's the physics, then there's the need to put your leg back on the pedal after the turn. The only time it may have some benefit is when you're riding a 29er at 35km/h and are struggling to force it into submission, but then again, if you're not fit enough, you probably shouldn't be riding a 29er at 35km/h

kinioo

TLW1 wrote:

just go with the flow

I Second this !

rockmonkeysc

LimitedGarry wrote:

I don't mean that. What I mean is that when you come to the point of no return and start falling, any kind of attachment to the pedal reduces your reaction capabilities. A really tight SPD may in such a case result in you falling with the bike still stuck to your legs, increasing the incoming pain even further.

I've fallen off many, many times and that's never happened. Every time I've fallen off I've come out of my clips. It only takes a little bit of twist of the foot and you're out of the clip.

LimitedGarry

RockmonkeySC wrote:

I've fallen off many, many times and that's never happened. Every time I've fallen off I've come out of my clips. It only takes a little bit of twist of the foot and you're out of the clip.

As I said, it is only a possible outcome with a tight SPD and I've seen it happen. Actually, I've seen people fall at 0-speed because their pedals got stuck - and in that kind of situation, you have perhaps two or three seconds to react.

larkim

There's a "thing" in skiing that most knee injuries such as torn ACL etc tend to happen in slow speed accidents where the forces in play simply aren't enough to release the ski from its binding to the boot, and the soft joint that comes a cropper is the knee. I would have a similar fear with tight SPDs on a bike - but is that fear justified?

YellaBelly

I wouldn't like to say that it couldn't happen Larkim, but skiing is really quite different to mountain biking in so much as your feet are attached to two skis but only one bike. Two skis can go opposite directions whilst your legs are still attached, and if the ski's edge bites into the snow in a fall, it will begin to "carve" a turn and you won't be able to go with it.