[BikeRider]

Mine was back in the mid 80's. I was coming down a hill and hit 40mph. At the bottom of the hill was a stop light which I didn't see change to red. There was a car waiting at the intersection on the right side of the road and he pulled out in front of me. There was no way to avoid hitting him and when he saw me coming he panicked and stopped. I hit the brakes and probably skidded for 15 feet before slamming into the side of the car where I then flew across the hood, rolled over and got back up. I only managed to get a small fracture in my thumb but the bike was totally destroyed, The seat stays had broken off, the top tube & down tubes were bent and just about every component was damaged, even the saddle rails were bent. I was just lucky it was a low profile foreign car and not a big truck or van or the outcome could have been much worse.

 

[Andy69]

I fell over once when I couldn't get unclipped

no wait scratch that, in grad school I got hit by a woman making a right turn. I though she saw me as she looked right at me but evidently not. I hopped off the bike as she ran over the front wheel. It was an old Schwinn I got at the Dane County bike auction and the only thing tha happened was the wheel was tacoed and the handlebars cracked.

But for injury to my person, the first one was the worst.

I suspect it's coming though

 

[Morris Buttermaker]

While mtn biking, I fell off a rock ledge into a bush, a sharp stick ripped through my lower lip and into the roof of my mouth. I had to get a portion of my lip re attached and the inside of my mouth stitched back together.

Thankfully it wasn't up and over a few inches! :O

 

[rubbersoul]

I'm sad to say my most dramatic wreck occured this year, about 7 weeks ago. My steel steerer tube broke and I landed face first, knocking me unconscious. I spent four weeks in hospital, with a broken forehead, nose, both cheekbones, upper and lower jaw and two fractured vertebrae. Had an eight hour operation to pin the bones back together. Luckly to be alive and still in pain.

Be careful out there folks!

 

[Dinosaur]

Back in 2000 I was descending and my front tire blew. All I remember is my wife leaning over me and saying "honey, you've been involved in an accident while riding your bike". After my tire blew, I went down, sustained a concussion and fractured 4 ribs. I have no recollection of the accident. Skip forward to 2005. I went down while ascending my own driveway and fractured my hip. That one I remember. Near misses are more dramatic. Like the time I pulled directly in front of a car when turing left from a stop sign, no clue why I never saw it. Or the numerous times large trucks have passed me so close I can feel the heat from their exhaust pipe. Of course, near misses don't count.

 

[ringroadwarrior]

Hit a dog descanding a hill at 35mph. Heard someone behind me yell, then I remember being in the middle of the road with a lady over me saying try not to move. Massive damage to bike and person.

 

[peter.hardie]

I got hit by a <a href="http://www.lawyersandsettlements.com/features/bicycle-accident-injury-bike-5.html">drunk driver</a>. The article gets a few details wrong, mainly that the driver stopped. He actually fled, accelerating away from the scene.

In April of the year after the above accident I hit the deck, totally my fault, and cracked my elbow and had soft tissue damage in both wrists. The wrists took way longer to heal than the elbow.

 

[mohair_chair]

I've posted this before, but this is my best crash story.

I've only crashed once on my road bike, and there was nothing funny about it. But I've had uncountable crashes on my mountain bike. My most memorable was on the Porcupine Rim trail in Moab. Off the rim there's a section where you ride on dry river rock (smallish flat, slippery stones), and we were bombing it, barely on the edge of control, flirting with disaster, and having a great time. We passed a group of guys who had pulled off the trail for some reason. I still remember their expressions as we passed them: They were actually stunned, wide-eyed and mouths agape, as we came flying by.

Anyway, the trail section ends at a dropoff that can best be described as a cliff, where someone pushed a pile of of rocks over the edge. The rocks act as a staircase that you can ride, if you dare. This isn't a problem for experienced riders like we were, but it does present some challenges. Balance is crucial, and you also need to keep a certain amount of speed, because you can't really pedal. My buddy went down first, and I followed. I was doing fine, but I could tell that I was running out of speed. These were big steps, maybe a foot wide, but 1 to 2 foot drops from one to the next. I knew the game was up when I dropped my front wheel down one deep step and didn't have enough speed to carry it forward. I was effectively doing a nose wheelie, and it didn't take long for the back wheel to rotate over and I was crashing down on the rocks. The funny part was that I was unhurt, so I immediately got up, and could see that the guys who we had passed earlier were at the top of the stairs, again with the stunned looks on their faces. I shouted up to them, "Did my feet get over my head?" They looked at each other, then one guy said, "What????" I asked again, did my feet get over my head. One of them muttered "Yeah," and I threw up my arms in a victory sign and shouted "YES!" My buddy also joined the celebration. The guys at the top of the stairs were completely baffled. See, we had a sort of rule at the time that the only crashes you could brag about were the ones where your feet got above your head. Nobody cares if you slid out or ran into a tree. But if your feet get over your head, that's something to talk about.

 

[kerob]

"Best" crash thusfar

I have been very futunate with my RB'n so far but I have had a few spills on the MTB. One that stands out the most was a very stupid occasion that if taped could have maybe won me $100,000 on AFV. I was trying to climb over a log that fell in the trail(a little too high to hop over) with one foot still cliped in and I started to lose my balance and somehow tried to put my other foot down and magically clipped right in to the other pedal and rolling down the hill I went with my buddies laughing in the distance. It happened so slow but I couldnt do anything at the time. Luckily nothing broke on the bike or me but a little sore the next day.

:mad2:

 

[WaynefromOrlando]

The worst I have experienced is back in 1979 when I was riding back from a volunteer assignment at a local elementary school, heading back to my regular class. I was a little late, so I was cranking it hard at the time. When I rounded a corner near the elementary school, I hit some gravel and washed out both wheels in less time than it took to say "what the *&%$!!"

The rest was a rather deep gash in my right elbow area, which the elementary kids thought was cool when I went back there to report the injury. The school sent me to a clinic and got to watch the Dr. put in 2 separate layers of stiches, which I thought was cool.

The scar has faded over time, but I still get wigged out when I am riding over gravel to this day.

 

[desmond88]

He actually fled, accelerating away from the scene.

aah, i hate those bastards who hit and run. no ethics at all. you hurt someone, you should at least go down and look after them a bit.

 

[Love Commander]

Riding home from a party. I ran out of steam/balance/sobriety right at the top of my driveway and fell over. I broke my phone.

 

[JustTooBig]

1985: hammering through town, a blue-hair coming from the opposite direction in her land yacht starts to turn left in front of me. I'm going too fast to stop or even to evade; I hit right on the passengers side headlight, leave part of my patella at the point of initial impact, then go through her windshield and land in her lap.

The intersection was right in front of a hospital, so after gathering the remnants of my bike, giving statement to the police and getting info from the driver, I walked into the hospital to get examined and sutured up. Nothing broken besides a bit off the patella, and a couple dozen stitches got me out the door.

 

[brucew]

I was t-boned by a Pontiac last year.

Amazingly, the guy stopped, took his ticket, and even had insurance!

 

[been200mph]

Piled up an old mtb on a trail I'd ridden many times before, lol. Rode down a steep drop with a turn at the bottom. Next thing I knew I was lying on the ground trying to catch my breath. Got up and first checked the bike for damage. It was fine. I wasn't. Two cracked ribs, cracked bone in my hip, and a nice rash on the knee. Less harmful but more dramatic... went to a nice place to ride with a few friends late in the fall. Descending down a trail covered with wet leaves... could not make the narrow plank stream crossing so I ate it and went into some thorn bushes off to the left, much to the howling delight of the riding partners. To top off that trip I came unclipped on a steep climb and the pedal came around and took a nice gouge out of my shin. Had a nice bloody sock by the time the ride was over, and a huge bruise besides the cut, lol.

 

[oily666]

1975 Descending on a tight, curvy road in a forest....almost like switchbacks. The guy in front of me went down and I was on a line to ride over his face. I was in a corner and there was no time to shift my weight so, when grabbed both brakes, I summersaulted over him ala Jan Ulrich. Problem was, unlike Jan, I was on pavement and helmets didn't exist.

This part was told to me by another rider. I missed the downed rider as I summersaulted over him. It looked good, so I was told, until my head hit, then "I went everywhere".

I broke my right wrist and got road rash on my spine. Luckily, no head trama. My jersey had three diagonal marks from the chain, all neatly spaced across the back between my shoulders. I guess I bounced a few times while the rubber side was up.

 

[jsedlak]

I didn't fall, but the guy behind me did.

I was dragging the group along a flat road at a good clip for awhile, and a right turn was approaching (that we all knew was coming) so I decided to drift wide to the double yellow so I could apex correctly and maintain a good amount of speed.

I am not sure how the guy behind me hit the turn, but he hit a lip in the road that I missed and went down. Apparently came within CMs of taking me out.

Nobody got hurt or anything and his bike is fine. But definitely was a scary moment.



-------


The only time I have fallen on the bike is when I was riding an old steel bike before I got my bike and broke the pedal at 12mph. Wasn't too bad.

 

[steve_e_f]

I had a great crash in the San Dimas stage race road stage (cat 4) a couple years ago. Right at the finish in the final sprint the pack exploded in a pretty big crash. I saw guys going down in front of me but there was no going around it and I new I was going to hit. when the guy in front of me went down I instinctively pulled up as hard as I could and completely bunny-hopped him. I was so busy celebrating my awesome maneuver that I didn't anticipate that the guy in front of him had also crash. I promptly hit him full force and went down. I didn't get hurt and it was within 1k so I didn't even get a time penalty.

After the race people who saw it came up and said the whole thing was pretty hilarious to watch (nobody was seriously hurt).

 

[frmrench]

Getting hit by a car. I was knocked out and had a concussion, seperated shoulder, and messed up rear wheel, with the only consulation being a deep and massive scratch all along the side of the a-hole's new white car! That almost made it worthwhile........almost.

 

[wetzk]

8 years ago riding back roads in my neighborhood. I come to the 4 way stop and actually waited then proceeded to go across . All of a sudden kids in a older white Nissan pickup shoot through and suddenly decide to turn left which puts them right into my path. I'm slamming on the brakes and he hit the front of the bike taking me down suddenly. I see them slow for a second and then speed off. They had no clue if if I was injured , dead or anything. Too bad my glasses were thrown as I could not give more than a general description of the truck. . 1 smashed Raleigh c40 and a busted ankle and patella and collar bone and lots of road rash were the damages.
Then 3 weeks ago, I'm at a light waiting for the walk light to change. It does and I start to ride across. All of a sudden I hear screeching and a kid who was running the red light slams into the rear of the bike. I lucked out this time, another bike is toast but I only needed stitches in my ankle, But the bad thing was he and his passenger and his friend in the car behind them swore that they had a green light and I pulled out in front of them. So I got the ticket and had to pay to replace their radiator as it was damaged. . Only good that came out of it was the cop told me privately to go to court as he would not show up. He said my asking if there were red light cameras hinted I was telling the truth. But he had the witness and I didn't. So court dates and no officer so the case was dropped and I'm very much in favor of red light cameras.
Side note to this is funny. While at a friends rating about the jerks I mention the one guys names and he is suddenly interested. He wants to see the accident report and calls the number had gets an older women and sweet talks her into giving him her address. So later that evening he goes and collects the car that the kid had been hiding at Grandmas where he has been staying. So at least Mr witness got burned too. Nice to have a friend that sidelines as a repo man for a couple of shady car lots.