[Westy]

After more than 10000+ road miles I finally had my first real road crash. Riding solo on a smooth road, wasn't paying enough attention and found my front wheel in a giant pot-hole. Noticed it too late to do anything more than hang on. Impact ripped my hands off of the bars. Chest hit the stem and the resulting tankslapper put me on the ground hard. At first I was relieved as the impact was minor until I realized I was laying on the ground still doing 20mph.

I was lucky that despite huge pot-holes the road was smooth, not like the regular 4-grit surface I am normally on. Left knee and elbow are pretty tore up but I am impressed how well the shorts and jersey protected me. Despite losing a little flesh I am happy that the worst of my woes are two sprained thumbs though not looking forward to going to bed. Will always prefer a good crash in the dirt.

What has been your worst road wreck?

 

[MtnbikeMike]

My least favorite parts of crashing on the road are the showers. Hope you heal up quick.

I crashed at about mile 2 of the first road stage of Redlands this year, doing about 30 mph. It was at the point in the race when everyone was trying to be near the front in hopes of getting into the day's breakaway. The dude in front of me changed lines very quickly, and I had guys on either side of me, so I watched as my front wheel was taken out from under me in slow motion. Right butt cheek hit the pavement first, then shoulder, etc etc. I tucked my head down as I slid, and someone hit my helmet as there was a huge dent on the very top of it (maybe a shoe or pedal?). Went to the ER, got cleaned up, then I passed out as they were discharging me, so I was kept longer to get a CT scan. CT scan fortunately came back negative, so all I had to deal with was the road rash that made life miserable for the next week.

 

[gonefirefightin]

welcome to the club!

I crash all the time but the worst was crit finals 07 in vegas, 18 bike pile up in the 90degree turn on sand, we were all clipping along at 34 mph and were shoulder to shoulder. man that hurt, everybody hit the gates and half went over them.

 

[Bicyclist]

The only crash I've had so far on the road has been at about 2 miles an hour luckily. Going into a turnaround at the UC Davis road race this year, I was 2nd wheel. Guy in front of me slammed the brakes, I slowed down (but not enough), and crossed wheels with him. The guy behind me ran into me and just kinda pushed me over so I couldn't keep it up.

I did crash pretty good riding gravel on my road bike the other week. There was a bootleg alleycat race that I was in that involved some off-roading. Came into a corner way too hot, got pretty scraped up but made it up OK and finished well. I am not looking forward to taking a real digger on the road, I know it's more or less inevitable but I do my best to avoid bad situations and get out of the way of trouble.

 

[alexrex20]

A roadie blew through a stop sign and crashed into the side of my truck. Does that count?

 

[sanjuro]

welcome welcome.

 

[Nick]

westy; how is the bike?

 

[opiecunningham]

make sure you put some kind of ointment on your fresh well earned rash. as a veteran of dirt rash( pretty sure road rash is the same) i know the worst part is when the scabage dries and gets stiff. Congrats bro wear the scars with pride

 

[Heisenberg]

Toss up on worst...in terms of sheer volume of flesh missing, either coming out of a pedal in an intersection at 40mph, or overcooking a crit corner at similar speeds a couple years back (first crit. ha.). In terms of worst injury, either the wreck last fall in the Tour of Utah amateur crit where my pedal dug a half-cm deep 3cm wide canyon up my shin (still finished with a win), or getting my hand demolished by a car messengering.

My legs are a bit of a road map. The patches of skin on my hips and elbows are pretty much permanent scars.

 

[johnbryanpeters]

Summer 1991: Riding from auto dealer to work on secondary road. Hit a pavement irregularity less than an inch deep. Riding on flats at 15 or 20. Wheel comes off. Fork jams pavement. Pivot around bars, forehead hits pavement. No helmet. On knees beside road with giant headache trying to fish bike parts out of road. Somebody says I ought to sit down. Broken blood vessel inside skull is doing its work, pushes eyeballs out of sockets, breaking stuff. Shoveled into meat wagon, still conscious. Hole drilled in temple to scoop out clots and whatnot. A week on a neurological ward. Spent a lot of it walking laps in the halls. Dizzier than a coot for years. First time back on bike was scary.

 

[KavuRider]

I've had a few good ones.

My last one was hanging a turn, hit a patch of sand, started to lose it, over-corrected and down I went - broken rib, lots of bruises, surprisingly not much road rash.

My legs and elbows are like a patchwork quilt.

 

[Westy]

When I was about 3 years old my father had a similar accident riding to work. Pothole snapped the fork off of his cheap 10-speed. Resulting impact put him in a coma for a few days. As a young'in all I remember was my dad's faced all ****ed up and looking like a monster. I couldn't look at him for weeks without running in terror. Yet again my helmet has saved me from a similar fate.

All in all I am feeling just dandy but showering has been excruciating. I have shocked myself not only with the volume but with the creativity of epithets that have emerged from my mouth when the water hits my tore up left side. I can only imagine what my neighbors thought when they heard such screams from my bathroom.

 

[Rip]

Ran off the road by some jackass in a raised blue dodge ram.

Nearly got right hooked by a dingbat in an explorer while I was cornering and the dolt tries to beat me through the turn only to stop right in my path to talk on the cellphone.(Pennsylvania plate)

 

[JRogers]

I've had about 500 mountain bike crashes and only 3 on pavement. One was 5mph (gravel in a turn)l, one about 15mph in a wet parking lot on the mtb and one about 35 mph on a sidewalk on the mtb. Last one was the only serious one- road rash on the shoulder, knees and arms, broken helmet, trashed jersey. I'd rather have 10 random mtb crashes and have bruises and scrapes rather than one wreck on pavement with road rash.

 

[ire]

I've been fortunate that I've never had a crash at really high speed on pavement. The only road rashes I can recall off hand involve cross or mountain bike racing. The last two years at the local STXC races in the final race I've crashed in the same corner doing about 20 mph. My knees and lower legs have a fair amount of scaring from crashing the last couple of years in STXC/CX races.

 

[Serial Midget]

I was involved in a 4 bike pace line pile up. I was 3rd in line and rode over the top of the first two and landed in a nice soft ditch so no injury to me. The guy that caused the wreck was also unhurt. The other two where pretty beat up - one was hospitalized with a sever concussion, the last guy went to the doctor after his pain wouldn't let up and was told he had fractured his pelvis -that took almost a year to heal.

 

[Serial Midget]

Doh!

I broke my arm riding my first real road bike the summer between the 5th and 6th grade - I was bombing down a hill at high speed, caught a patch of gravel, slid into a curb and broke my arm. The shock caused me to forget who I was so the neighbor that found me gave me a shot a whiskey which helped me remember where my dad worked.

This was back in the day when you didn't call 911 or an ambulance foranything... my dad drove me to the hospital in a 1974 MB - that was way worse than the accident.

 

[TreeSaw]

Last June a car backed out right in front of me at about 10mph. I grabbed two hands full of brake, realized I couldn't stop and tossed the bike to the curb as I did my best "tuck n' roll" on to the trunk of the car. Scary ****! Thankfully, I had a couple of bruises and my bike was fine. I am much more confident in taking the lane when I should now too!

 

[spam16v]

Flying up a rise after a downhill trying to maintain momentum grinding hard out of the saddle and flew like superman b/c of a broken chain on mtn bike, '98. Epic shoulder impact, epic separation, pulled both feet out of my shoes, two "dancer's fractures" in the sides of my feet from impacts, broken elbow and a ton of rash. Friend's mother saw the pile of meat on the side of the road that was myself, took me home and my mother told me to walk it off. :facepalm: