Crashed And No Idea How!

[r04DiE]

Hi,

I'm a fairly new road cyclist, only been cycling about 12 months during which I've only covered around 500 miles....

Very sorry to hear of your off, they're not nice. As others have said, it could be any number of things, so try not to fret about it too much, think of all the miles you did without incident.

10th of Jan this year saw my first off for a number of years. I was on my way home from work on my usual commuting route when all of a sudden the front went, I knew I was headed toward the kerb and I knew I was going down by the angle of the bike, it was unrecoverable, so I went with it. I came down on the pavement and lost a good bit of skin off my leg and elbow, its taken until now to heal.

Now, I have been riding this road regularly for about 18 years, I know it like the back of my hand, all the bumps, all the ruts, all the potholes, everything. Every time since I've been past there in the car, I've had a good look to see what made me lose control, and more recently, I've looked when on the bike. Nothing, I have no idea why it happened.

So the point to all this is, as others have said, sometimes it just happens for a reason that you'll never find - thankfully, its very rare. Maybe that's your first and last in your whole cycling life (I hope so).

Get well soon

 

[mjr]

I hit the desk instantly as I sped across rain-wet right-angled railway tracks and

What the blazes was a desk doing by a level crossing anyway? Lying in wait?

 

[Shaun]

What the blazes was a desk doing by a level crossing anyway? Lying in wait?

oopss ... nips back to edit.

 

[mjr]

oopss ... nips back to edit.

Sorry - it was a lovely image of a very strange collision, though!

 

[Milkfloat]

I have had numerous 'offs' over the years, many involving time spent with the NHS. However, one I had last month has knocked my confidence more than any other because it was as slip on ice when I was doing all the right things (apart from not going out). All the other crashes have been my own fault and there was a clear chain of events where I could have made better decisions. This time round - bam! I am on the deck after losing the front wheel on ice. My last few trips out have had me tensing up when going too fast and over braking before corners, just in case it is slippery again. I guess over time I will relax a lot more and get back into my kamikaze riding style (until the next crash).

 

[MichaelW2]

"tuck your head down and keep hold of the bars"
I am doing something wrong here straightaway then as I have never held onto the bars on my numerous offs !!

I know that in 2 of my worst offs i kept hold of the bars and tucked my head and elbows in. The first point of impact with the road is your upper arm and shoulder which is like a shoulder barge. If you stick your hand out to break the fall you break your shoulder and possibly more.

In one of the offs I skitterred along down the road for quite a distance taking 1mm of leather off my gloves. In the other I banged up my elbow a bit. No serious injuries fortunately.

There is no surefire way to prevent injury but sticking your hand out will almost certainly give you one.

 

[Pat "5mph"]

Sorry about your off @Red23.
First of all, how's the poor bike?
Like others, I had an unexplained off a few years ago, landed safely in a hedge
Best is to get back on the bike as soon as you can, it will probably never happen again.
The family is probably worried, but hopefully they will get round it.
Good luck!

 

[Truth]

I'll take that on board mate . Cheers !

 

[martint235]

By coincidence I've just got in from my commute home. Nearly lost the rear wheel heading on to the Yorkshire Grey roundabout on the South Circular. No idea what happened but managed to get it back into line thankfully

 

[mjr]

There is no surefire way to prevent injury but sticking your hand out will almost certainly give you one.

It depends. Sticking your hand out in some sort of attempt to push the ground away is usually a bad idea, but sticking your hand out to try to maximise the impact area and thereby spread the force out is what I think is the basic concept of breakfalls. Still not sure I'd do it on the tarmac from choice like this guy:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQrk192dkRI

 

[MichaelW2]

Yes that is quite a different concept but takes lots of practice and muscle or fat to pad the bony bits. In a bike off you are carrying more horizontal speed than most judokas cope with and it also happens suddenly with no advance warning.

 

[vickster]

Yes that is quite a different concept but takes lots of practice and muscle or fat to pad the bony bits. In a bike off you are carrying more horizontal speed than most judokas cope with and it also happens suddenly with no advance warning.

Precisely as the OP states, he had no idea what happened or why

Any more than I chose to shoulder barge the road and land with my shin on the bike frame when I was knocked off (well I think that's what happened, I don't know for sure). Fine if you are a stuntman planning to come off, a parachutist or a martial artist

 

[mjr]

In a bike off you are carrying more horizontal speed than most judokas cope with and it also happens suddenly with no advance warning.

You don't exactly get a lot of warning when thrown - if you see a throw coming then you brace yourself to prevent it - and if you can deal with the vertical impact, that's usually more than half the problem unless you find a wall.

 

[growingvegetables]

Hmmm - let me speak for the tens of thousands who haven't had similar offs ..........

Seriously - some of us have had such offs, and are (thankfully) posting good advice. But thousands of us haven't ... and that's part of the equation too. You've had bad luck this time. The upside? Statistically, you have many, many thousands of miles safe cycling in front of you.

It'll take a bit to heal your confidence - but worth doing, and enjoying from now on.

 

[jefmcg]

New member: I have had a crash and now I am afraid to get back on my cycle.
Entire of CycleChat: Here are all the details of other horrible crashes.