[ito]

I witnessed a pretty bad crash (could have been much worse) while riding today and began wondering how many people here have taken a really bad spill on a road bike (high speed stuff, not falling over at a traffic light).

I went riding this morning with a girl from a shop I used to work at. She threw some road slicks on her CX bike and so she was riding actual road tires for the first time ever. We were pretty much done with the ride, just cruising back home, when we hit this tricky S-turn section on the road.

I went through, cruising pretty fast and realized that with the water on the road and the turn being sharper than I thought I needed to hit the brakes. Hit the brakes and had a short rear wheel skid right next to the yellow line, if I had kept going an oncoming truck would have clipped me. I control the skid and then I hear a crash and squealing brakes. I turned my head and see my riding partner sliding across the apex of the turn, missing going under the rear end of the truck by MAYBE 6 inches. I stop immediately and wave my hand in the air to stop the oncoming traffic. The girl's slide ended up in the middle of the wrong lane.

Damage wasn't bad, she had some decent road rash on the leg and her recently healed wrist got hit, but otherwise she was ok.

I still can't believe how close she came to sliding under the truck! She responded well and wasn't too shaken up, but it was still rather scary to slide out on a road bike at 25mph.

I've had some close calls, but never actually gone down at high speeds *knock on wood*, how many of you monkeys have?

The Ito

 

[LordOpie]

That's some scary stuff! Glad it wasn't worse.

I got 80 stitches in my back when I was 18 yrs old (19 yrs ago) when I got hit by a truck. That wasn't high speed tho. Been down twice on my motorcycle, but it's hard to wear body armor on a road bike.

I was riding with a bunch of monkeys a couple years back and Squeak did what you did with a controlled slide nearly into on-coming traffic. I was right behind him so I got to see the driver's expression as Brian nearly slid into the driver's door. Since no one got hurt, it was quite funny

 

[ito]

That's some scary stuff! Glad it wasn't worse.

I got 80 stitches in my back when I was 18 yrs old (19 yrs ago) when I got hit by a truck.

Ouch! That's a lot of stitches.

I've done the near-crash, I always hate scaring driver's, but the faces are priceless!

The Ito

 

[EricMcFlow]

I went down pretty hard like 10 years ago. I was on a ride with one of my buddies and we both broke into a sprint. According to my computer my max speed I hit in that sprint (only fast part that day) was 33.5. I managed to break my drive side look plastic cleat. So in a full on sprint mode my right leg came free on the up stoke. I was in a pretty good rythem so my leg went back down, hit the pavement and started sliding. The bike was some how still upright at this point, until my foot hit something and I went down hard. Over the bars. I was pretty much covered in road rash and needed a new helmet. Nothing broken, no stitches. Knock on wood that was the last and only time I dropped my roadie. Now my other bikes are a whole other story....

 

[LordOpie]

breaking a cleat has also been my biggest worry.

granted, that 'fear' comes from using Performance's Look-alike pedals and cleats... they'd pop out half the time on a power-upstroke. Piece of crap.

 

[MtnbikeMike]

I was *sort of* witness to a real bad crash.

About a month ago I did a circuit race that basically consisted of an out and back 4-mile race course. Coming into the finish, maybe 1/4 from it, the group was hugging the right curb going about 30mph. I was sitting about 6th or so, and a few bikes behind me I hear a skidding tire, a pop, and a bike hit the pavement.

Turns out a guy superman'd it shoulder-first into a tree on the sidewalk. I never did hear what the extent of his injuries were.

 

[splat]

I've done the high speed slide out on sand. not fun basiclly riding sandpaper across you ass for about 50 feet.

I had to sit very gingerly ( and sleep on my stomac ) for a bout a week to 2 weeks.

and I also did an OTB and busted up my rib cage prety good commuting home at night on city streets and didn't see a pot hole.

 

[Serial Midget]

When I was about 13 or 14 I had a Miyata road bike that was my ticket to anywhere I wanted to go during the summer. I rode without a helmet and in gym shorts & tank top. Coming down a residential hill as fast as I could pedal (speed???) I lost control in the heavy gravel that was left over from winter road maintenance. I slid sideways through the gravel and t-boned the curb with the wheels, the impact flipped me and the bike over on the sidewalk and resulted in a compound fracture to my left arm. I spent the rest of the summer in a cast but at least I did'nt have to teach myself any new tricks. It took about 2 weeks to learn how to ride the bike one handed, not so easy since the cast went from my shoulder to the wrist, getting on the bike and getting started wasn't easy.

A few years back I was involved in a 4 bike pile up - a group of us were drafting into a very heavy wind, pulling 20 was all the line could manage - even though we were not going that fast the damage was pretty severe. I had just finished my pull and was riding the draft when a gust of wind caused the lead rider to lose his line, the second rider was caught off guard and we 3 fell back as the lead didn't realize we'd lost the draft. Our new lead pulled harder to put the line back together but misjudged and clipped the rear wheel of the original puller - he began to wobble and quickly lost control causing a chain reaction. The two guys in front of me wiped out in a pile and I ended up rolling over them and landing in a ditch. Since I didn't hit the ground until I left the pavement I was pretty much just bruised. I remember seeing 16MPH on my spedometer a split second after I jammed the brakes. This was about 3 or 4 miles into a planned 40 mile ride. We trued a couple of wheels and loosened up brake calipers so that we could finish our ride, one guy only made it another mile or so before calling it quits. He ended up with a fractured pelvis that needed pinned. Another guy - Hans Nelson - ended up with a busted jaw and head trauma. I only mention his name because he died awhile ago when he fell through his roof, remembering that kind of makes me sad.

 

[Wumpus]

I had two good ones within a couple of weeks of each other.

First one a buddy and I were doing intervals when I dropped it into the 12 and the chain skipped at a little over 30mph. Did the monkey crawl over the bike before low siding and sliding for about 40 feet with a suburban right on my tail. Got some nice road rash and had to ride across campus with an 8" hole in my shorts.

Second one was a few weeks later. I was leading the line when I decided to try and surprise everyone for the city limit sprint. Dropped it in the 12 and stomped on it and the chain skipped(notice a trend). Guy behind me jumped on it when he saw me shift. I was doing the monkey all over the bike when he T-boned me. Landed on my head w/helmet in the middle of the highway. No major damage. According to the other guy, the look on my face before he nailed me was priceless.


Guess I didn't use the 12 much because all I could figure was it was almost new with an old chain causing the skips.

 

[indieboy]

40mph 800 meters to go, 2nd row of the peleton boxxed in on the white line. someone decides to ride down the white line like an idiot, clips my bar i go sailin. yeah.

 

[-dustin]

19mph, 90deg turn, sand patch, 12am.

that's my worst.

 

[amateur]

I was riding through San Francisco down a hill at speed when a moving van decided it would pul out without signalling. Wouldn't have been that bad except rain+muni tracks+40 pound backpack ended up kicking my ass and I slid on my hip/butt wearing a hole in my tights for a good couple yards. It made the rest of the ride that much more fun.

 

[dhriderII]

well to make a long story short i was doing a training ride with some team mates and there was enought room for a small dog to fit between the guy i was off of and my front tire hit the dog went over the bars broke collar bone and killed the dog, luckly didnt get hit by any of the other riders

 

[Tenchiro]

A long, long time ago I clipped my pedal on a pretty fast corner. My bike basicaly spun around 180 degrees and completely taco'd my rear wheel. I didn't get hurt though.