Originally Posted by
amor fati
Anybody got any opinions on how I could have avoided this accident or mitigated my injuries?
Sorry to hear of your painful incident. The front tire went flat prior to the crash. That's what you felt which caused you to check the back tire. So your big mistake was not checking the front tire too. Why didn't you, out of curiosity? Then when you tried to turn on your flat tire you went down. It's easy to say you could have fallen more athletically and avoided injury but I wasn't there so who knows. I don't agree with people who say it is best to deathgrip the bike in a crash. That's a recipe for head trauma, at least a broken collarbone. OTOH, holding arms out stiffly will cause a broken collarbone as well. I do know it's better to mess up your arms and shoulders than your head. Ideally you use the hand and forearm as spring to break the fall and initiate roll onto shoulder and over. Lastly, there are flat-free tires available, but that's throwing the baby out with the bathwater.