Crashes

[JamR]

So what's your best crash so far.........ie: best hang time, best distance, best landing, etc....

Last night I had a great full flip over the bars; great hang time and paced off +/- 7' downhill from where the bike was laying.

Best flip I've had in a long time.........it felt like I was in a Steven Segal movie.

[Von-Diggity]

So far the best crash I had was down Telonics a few years ago. Missed a really large gap in the trail (about 3') which I could have bunny hopped. Instead I hit it at high speed, went over the handle bars, and flew about 15-20'. My riding partners assumed I was hurt really hurt, but I ended up coming out of it with only a broken finger. Let it be known that I finished the runs, broken finger and all.

[RC]

my best crash so far. acouple years ago,san juan trail. i'm going down hill.had some speed too. the center of the trail was a little rutted which i'm tring to avoid but my front tire just drifted right into it.it gets locked.next thing i'm flying over the bars.landed on the side of my left leg,so i'm sliding, like stealing 2nd base!with the corner of my right eye i saw my bike following. ten feet or so later i stoped against a bush. my face is in it. by now i'm tensing my body bracing for the impac of my bike against my back. but nothing! so i get up, dusting my self i'm thinking how lucky i was that i didn't get hurt, other than a few scratches on my face.i was wearing leg protection that day so my leg was ok. now is time to get my bike. is nowhere in sight. a couple minutes and perhaps 30 or 40 feet later i found it in some bushes. i was stoked the rest of the ride.

[pshloss]

Maybe six years ago on Fullerton Loop. *The section I ate it on is now closed. *It dumped into the (used to be National Sports Grill) parking lot next to the driving range. *Came around a steep hairpin turn, front tire went into a new, deep rut from recent rains. *Insta-pinchflat. *180 over the bars, landing about 20 feet downhill. *Crawled to the phone at the NSG and called a friend. *Nothing broken, but got a bruise covering my whole lower back. *Painful Lesson: if you haven't been on a trail lately (especially after rains) don't assume it is unchanged. *Then there's SJT...seems like I get at least a ding every time. *One time I hit a rock in the middle of the trail that made me fall. *As I'm getting up I see shifter indicator pieces. *Bummer. *Then I look at my shifter. No damage. *Made me feel good: someone else crashed at the same spot with more damage. Isn't human nature sick?

p.s. Wearing a Camelback seems to save a lot of damage on these 180s.

[Pho'dUp]

Wish I could say my best was doing something knarly with technical drops.

It was El Morro going down Mach 1. This was early in the summer a few years ago when there were huge ruts on the left and right banks of the trail. I just politely passed some hikers thinking to myself "Suckers" why do all that walking when you can ride a bike. Well after gradually picking up a good amount of speed I rolled right into one of those ruts. Tapped the brake just a bit out of panic-reflex and flipped the bike. Somewhere in midair I managed to tuck my head down. When the dust settled, the front wheel was taco'd, the front quick release had opened, the bike helmet visor was nowhere to be seen and I had 5 hikers charging down the trail to see if I was okay. The contusion I got on my calf from my knee to my ankle was great!

Nice people on the trail that day.

P'dUp

[dstepper]

I wish I could tell you, but on most of my OTB's I just end up in the dirt not knowing how it happened.

I have cranked ribs and seperated a shoulder in the last three years. I walk some of the stuff I used to ride, being 54 years old I just want to ride again tomorrow and not spend months healing.

I am a little strange as I love to climb, in fact a like it better than going downhill.

[Jawbreaker]

On mountain bike: my worst crash was probably on an unknown singletrack at Chino Hills that used to lead down from Southridge to Fairmont (its now covered in track housing). Nothing too spectactular, I just turned a corner going way too fast, hit a rock in the trail that turned my wheel to the right, and went flying over the bars close to 10' into some bushes. I was ok except for a few scrapes; my helmet saved me since my head smacked a branch pretty hard. My front wheel tacoed and I had to hoof it all the way back to my car at Carbon Canyon. My most painful crash was an endo at Car Wreck that sprained my knee. My knee has never been the same.

On regular bike: As a kid I lived in a condo complex in Laguna Hills that was built on some steep hills. At age 9 I tried beating my sister home down one of the hills on a p.o.s. Target bike that I hadn't been on in a while and didn't realize the brakes didn't work. Well, I ended up flying past my sister laughing, then trying to brake, then screaming down the hill in fear. The street came to a dead end at the bottom... I tried to turn to the right, both tires blew, and I did a superman face first into a community mail box made of metal. I cried all the way home with my face dripping blood all over. I remember going to school and one kid thinking I had chocolate all over my face; I had to explain to him they were scabs. No scars, thank god, my modeling career wouldve been ruined. heh

[LBmtb]

Worst crash: moro canyon a year ago on my first ever mountain bike ride. Not sure what the trail is called but it's the singletrack downhill with all the steps in it. Went down that somehow bouncing all over the place but couldnt slow down to make the right turn on the bottom. Bike wiped out and slid into the bush. The seat hitting my stomach stopped my slide. Cut my knees and elbows pretty bad an dhad a nice bruise on my stomach.

Funniest crash: Turnbull going down the singletrack in worsham canyon that leads to the college. Singletrack is sloped on the left side. It was on a night ride with Alan. Alan was ahead of me and as I was going down I paid too much attention to avoiding the big ruts and not looking ahead. I got caught in one that came up on me and slightly went over the bars (kinda to the side). Thumped on the ground and looked up (towards the slope) and saw Alan on the side of it looking back up at me. Apparently he had gone over too and to the side.

Worst non-crash event: Turnbull two weeks ago. Got poison oak and lots of thorns in Sycamore Canyon. Still have good sized rashes on my arms and left leg. Left leg is still swelled up pretty good even though I had an IV with antibiotics on Monday (and antibiotic pills prescribed since Monday). I'm guessing there's some thorns in my left leg since I took out three more yesterday.

George, that one crash at turnbull was too funny!

[Ciaran]

Worst Crash:

Crashed at Snow Summit going downhill. As I was crashing my leg struck a rock. Oh yeah, I rode the rest of the way down.

Funniest crash: Any time I do the SPD Shuffle and slowly tip over like a sleeping cow.

[LBmtb]

Originally Posted by Ciaran

Worst Crash:

Crashed at Snow Summit going downhill. As I was crashing my leg struck a rock. Oh yeah, I rode the rest of the way down.

Funniest crash: Any time I do the SPD Shuffle and slowly tip over like a sleeping cow.

Holy shit
Now I dont feel so bad about this poison oak infection!

[Schecky]

Originally Posted by LBmtb

Holy shit
Now I dont feel so bad about this poison oak infection!

No kidding. That's a lot of hardware.


My worst crash was embarrassing.
My brother always complained that I took him to parks with 'too many hills', so I took him to Fairview park in Costa Mesa.
This is a fun flat park on a mesa that has lots of dips and jumps.
We had been riding for a while and I was getting bored with all this 'easy' stuff, so I started playing on the jumps.
I took off on one that I had rode before, but the weather had changed things. The 2 foot drop had turned into a four foot one that I wasn't set for.
I went down hard on my left shoulder, lost my breath and experienced some seriously intense pain. It was in front of many people and they all came running to ask how I was. At first I couldn't get enough breath to answer them.
My brother had missed the whole thing and came up to find me sitting on the dirt and gasping.
I slowly walked the bike back to the truck, and made the painful trip home.
I skipped the ER that night (with the help of some big pills), but finally made it to the Dr. the next day when it was obvious that I was seriously F'd up.
I could barely take a breath and I was talking in a whisper.
Diagnosis was a separated shoulder and my lung was detached from it's lining. A week on Vicodin and a month and a half off the bike.
My shoulder is still tweaked. I love biking!

[Big Guy]

I was going down Stair steps, on one of the drops, I tried to lift my front wheel but missed, the wheel dropped, I went flying directly head first.
My buddy told me that the ground shook


Result, a broken helmet and a 1 week headache. Just got lucky.

But the worst crash is this one:

http://www.mountainbikebill.com/MilesCrash.htm

read the article, then download the video.

When I go on an expose trail, I repeat to myself: "unclip away from the cliff" over and over.
watch it, you'll know why...

Knock on wood, I haven't eaten sh*t too hard, but my scariest crash was on San Juan when going down that rooted/rutted/shadowy section after Cocktail Rock and before the meadow section. I was carrying a bit of speed down the section and before I realized what happened I remembered doing a frontwards 180 over the bars and landing off to the left side of the trail with my bike pointing uphill. My front wheel got caught in a rut and the next thing I knew I was airborne. I'm not sure how far I flew, maybe only a few feet, but I walked away with only minor scratches.

[dstepper]

DINO

Couple of years ago, sounds like I did nearly the same thing near the same spot om SJT. Except I was tore up; legs, arm and shoulders bleeding, major bruise on my ribs from the end of the handle bar, and tore my axle drop out off a Fox Vanilla 125, had to walk 6 miles to the bottom. One of the major reasons I went to a Maverick Fork, to get a through axle. Fox has since beefed up that area of their forks. Could not believe that my Mavic 521 rim did not show any signs of damage…did not even tweak it.

[TURNERob]

My worst crash happened up at the top "play" area at Santiago Oaks. I had only been mtn biking for a little over a year or so and really had never experienced a crash that made me cautious about riding these technical trails. I had just climbed the 3 b's and was at the top getting ready to go down towards Zips/Chutes. This guy in full armor/full face helmet on a downhill bike comes charging off this drop that I had never seen before. I scoped it out and said, "hey, I can do that". So I get up a little speed and didn't lift up the front end enough and am going over the bars off this drop. I honestly don't remember hitting the ground and I think I blacked out. I was by myself (which was why trying this drop was stupid to begin with) and I just remember getting up and my wrist hurt like a MO-FO!!!! It looked like a bone was sticking up a big higher and I could hardly move it. I assess the rest of my body, blood/scrapes on the side of my face, broken sun glasses, cracked helmet and scrapes on both legs. My arms were fine since I was wearing a long sleeve jersey. I gain my composure and go over to my Foes, just some scratches on the brake lever on the right side, everything else is fine. So I can barely hold onto the bar with my left hand so I decide the best way to get back to the Alberton's where my car is would be to go back down the 3 b's. Somehow I make it back to my car passing a few riders on there way in who asked, "hey man are you ok?" I get back to my car finally and I can't even lift my bike onto my bike rack because the pain in my wrist is so brutal. I had to call my wife and have her come put my bike in her car. I'm glad it was my left wrist or I would have never been able to shift gears in my car. So we go home drop off my bike and car and off to the ER. Broken wrist, lot of scrapes/cuts, black eye from my sunglasses breaking on my face....but other than that I'm fine. A few pain pills, 2 months on disability (I'm an auto mechanic) and a lesson learned. Now I've got much more practice on drops and stuff so hopefully no more crashes anytime soon.