Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - anatomy of a disaster...

What is your favorite horrific visualization of a crash on your bike?
Or what is your favorite wreck tale.
Most of the real problems you see on bikes happen b/c one has not anticipated what might go wrong.
I though this might be a fun thread.

Visualization #1. Bullhorn bars slipping in stem so that I crash down onto front wheel all while going down 16th st. Hill towards U St. traffic. Thus doing a totally involuntary endo in front of downhill traffic while wheels spin and likely crash back down on top of me.

Visualization #2 Chain breaking. It happens. Just imagine it...Maybe I will run a brake. Allthough you can rest the ball of your foot on the seattube, and applying pressure with your heel use the bottom rear or inside heel of your 200 dollar SIDI's as a brake pad.

Wreck tale #1. Hopping up onto curb on my road bike and having the bar clamp on stem pop open so that I was holding my bars and riding toward a low wall across from the Gandhi Statue on Mass Ave. I tried to brake a little bit with my remote control bars, I would have been able to steer with the remaining stem but a wall was fast approaching. I zoomed by a couple of suprised pedestrians and happily saw that a cushy lawn awaited me on the other side of the low wall. I knew I would be sleeping there in a moment.
Next thing I clearly remember (no head injury just confusion of accident-time) was being asked "are you all right" by an elderly Vietnamese gentleman. I said I was and then proceeded to grab my brutally mistreated crotch with both hands. No politeness here.
1. Crotch ow.
2. Shoulder double ow.
3. front wheel a little bent.
4. Front fork bent in a funny way, so that it was terrifying to ride down hills (always felt like I was too far forward) took me weeks to figure out. But ten minutes to fix with T-tools. love that steel.

this is good. i always think of these when i'm riding! these are my favorite visualizations.

(a) sprinting out of the saddle as fast as i can down the biggest hill in my town. i either hit a pothole or lose control for a second and my front wheel turns, throwing me off the bike at high speeds with no helmet. i am then subsequently run over by a following car trying to pass the hotshot kid on a bike who's outpacing them.
(b) going down the street in heavy traffic crushed against the curb by a passing suv, unseated by pedal strike and thrown into the roadway where i am, again, subsequently run over by a passing vehicle.

i dont visualize crashes, its bad luck. i imagine how I get through them without going down so if something does go wrong ive already got the visual memory of what to do.

i dont visualize crashes, its bad luck. i imagine how I get through them without going down so if something does go wrong ive already got the visual memory of what to do.

Visualization #1. The faceplate of my removable faceplate stem instantaneously rips off while I am sprinting on one of my brakeless bikes. This is basically ReDeMartini's Wreck tale #1.

Visualization #2. I have big feet (size 13 US/48 EU). On some of my bikes that have a wide rear spacing, my heal will catch the bottom of the chainstays as I am pedaling. I constantly worry that a part of my shoe will get snagged by one of the spokes and my shoe/foot will be sucked in the space between the seat stay and the wheel, causing damage to both the bike and my body.

Wreck tale #1. I was riding at night in a poorly lit area. I temporarily went no-handed to adjust my attire. I was going at a good speed, probably close to 15mph. Just as I sat up, a pothole came out of the shadows, causing my wheel/bars to jacknife against the top tube. The bike came to an instant stop. This was on my track bike, which has a very high saddle and very low, deep-drop bars, so there was nothing to impede my trajectory up and over the bars. I did a belly-flop on the pavement and slid about five feet. Results: three stitches to the chin, various scrapes, and a kick'n design on my belt:

http://pictures.sultanik.com/albums/PretzelRideInjury/04_19_06_0026.jpg

While I'm not sure I can tell the tale of the worst crash I've visualized; the worst crash I've ever been in was just last night. I got to an intersection just as it was turning green, so I had open road in front of me and accelerating cars behind me. As the car in the far right lane caught up to me, in the bike lane, he nudged my bars with his sideview mirror. I lost control of the bike, and as I was going down, he ran over my front wheel with his rear, accelerating my plunge. I met the pavement with the back corner of my head, requiring three staples to close, and the back of my right shoulder. The force of the impact exceded the compressile strength and therefore broke my clavicle. So here I am, on my birthday no less, off my bike because of a broken collarbone. Ain't that some ****?

It's worth mentioning that it took me allmost ten minuted to write this post, because I'm doing it exclusively left handed.

Also, anyone ever break their collarbone? How long before I can get back in the saddle?

I've busted both clavicles. It takes about two weeks for it to build a calcium knot around the bones before they really start healing. You'll be able to ride around then. Don't do anything above your head with your arms (or crash a second time). After that it's about 6 weeks before it's healed up proper. If you got a figure 8 harness, I recommend keeping it on and keeping it tight. It'll really help keep your shoulder from sagging in the long run. About 2% of clavicle breaks are non-unions and required advanced measures and/or surgery. Surgery blows, so treat it right for the first two weeks.

my favorite wreck story comes from my childhood -

i grew up on a street with a very steep hill - the street was flat for a bit, and at the end, it rose at a 45* angle, for probably 400m. the neighborhood kids and I used to ride down it, but rarely from the top. one of the neighborhood kids decided to ride down without using his brakes on a bet. he got about halfway until he lost control of his bmx, fell off and proceeded to skid down the rest. i don't know if you could even call it "road rash" as it was pretty stringy. in any event i remember running to get my ma (a nurse) and then watching the neighbor across the street help strip the kid down to his bloody underwear while my ma got him ready for the ambulance. it was gnarly. we gave him props after he got back, even though he cried like a *****.

wreck tale. (http://bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=216071)
just happened. my shorts are pretty ripped up!

my favorite crash visualization is falling in traffic and having my head run over by a septa bus.

I have never had a nasty crash (done about 20,000 miles in a city of two million, so I'm proud:)). The worst was when I was being silly, weaving left and right very sharply on an empty sidewalk for fun. My front tyre had less air than I thought, so at one corner it sorta stuck in place, turned my bars in, and I jumped over the bars. Got 4 stitches in my chin but no other damage to me or the bike at all. I was going pretty slowly.

Visualization #1: my bullhorns catch somehow on a bush at the side of the road, turn my bars 90° and over the bars I go. This is almost completely unrealistic, but it keeps coming up in my mind and scares the **** out of me. I sometimes imagine a loop of rope being stuck or tied to the branches that catches my bars. How crazy is that?

Visualization #2: getting doored

Visualization #3: rear view mirror of a passing car hits my bars, outcome: se #1

worst crash fear: catching a handlebar to the sternum and destroying my interior (ribs, lungs, arteries).
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b162/bldzr/chesty.jpg
...
Fear realized

Holy ****! Did you get a handlebar actually enter your body in between your ribs there? Gross. How was the recovery from that?

no entrance wound. the bar-end broke my sternum and 3 ribs, one of which severed the left mammary artery, dumping blood into the area surrounding my left lung, which then caused my left lung to collapse. 6 hours of surgery, 1 week in the hospital, and 2 1/2 months off the bike. I go back to work a week from today.

Most importantly, now I have a TOTALLY kickass scar!!!

Damn man, glad you are back on.

what kind of bars did you have?

http://www.lisawhiteman.com/pictures/weblog/dogleash.jpg

http://ems.stli.com/create/admin/upload/Bike%20trails.jpg
One, out of many, reasons I dont use bike/ped trails anymore.

http://ems.stli.com/create/admin/upload/Bike%20trails.jpg
One, out of many, reasons I dont use bike/ped trails anymore.
Sure are a lot of curves on that path. I think I might get sick trying to ride on it and stay in my lane.

t-boned someone during the west side invite polo tournament. polo bikes SHOULD have narrow bars. needless to say, this one didn't...