Mountain Biking - worst crash

hey all
i was just wondering what was every ones worst bike related injury/crash ?

mine is nothing really just jumping badly,landing even worse then finnally coming off the bike when it was going fairley fast.

whats every one elses ?

Various sprained knees, wrists and back spasms. Can't target on one event but just the constant grind of riding and pushing myself higher and faster.

I may have just had one of my worst injuries today. I set up for a ramp with good speed, but then all kinds of stupid stuff happened. I launched, rotated backward and eventually landed flat on by back like a big dork! If it wasn't for a full camelback to cushion my fall, I would have been really hurt. As it is now it only hurts if I breath.

This has been a tough season. I just got the cast off my foot a few weeks back from my last crash.

I broke my collarbone earlier this summer.

nothing serious, just trail rash on my face.

Broken nose, fractured wrist and a fractured tooth not to mention the road rash all in the same accident. That was after 40 years of on and off again riding though. Before that a couple cases of road rash.

Broken left kneecap.

Minor concussion as well as trail(?) rash on my face, shoulder and knee. All this as a result of bombing down a rocky trail after a hard climb on a really hot day. You can picture the rest!

Broken wrist (both bones) May 28th 2003, dislocated pinky September 14th. A nasty summer it has been.

A few years back I rode a trail in Rossland B.C. named the hematoma - I rode a 35+' granite face, the next one was a bit smaller ~ 30', didn’t make it - Helmet was in 3-4 pieces, concussion, 2 chipped teeth, rhino lite completely folded, compression fracture on L1 vertebrae, Jr. T totaled - fortunately I recovered quick with no lasting effects - other than the fact that now I walk every big stunt before I ride it.

The worst I have seen yet was my 8 year old son - about 7 weeks ago we were at Mt. St. Helens camping. He was riding his BMX bike - screwing around, he put both his arms through the center of his bars, steering with his elbows. He hit a tree - two major fractures in each forarm - it took an hour to find a hospital - he just had the casts cut off two days ago. Life is better now.

Knees, hands and all that stuff got scraped, but the worst for me was pulled Achilles' tendon. Took over 2 years for me to move my foot all the way down without pain. I was lucky enough not to have any broken bones as many people here.

The worst I have seen yet was my 8 year old son - about 7 weeks ago we were at Mt. St. Helens camping. He was riding his BMX bike - screwing around, he put both his arms through the center of his bars, steering with his elbows. He hit a tree - two major fractures in each forarm - it took an hour to find a hospital - he just had the casts cut off two days ago. Life is better now.

Yikes! That must have really stunk. :eek:

The bad part was he's a hard charger and didn't want to miss any school (no tutor for him) - my wife and I had to go to his school for the last month and help him do the two things he could not - eat, and the oppisite.

That must explain your avitar

When I was 13, while riding my 8-speed, I was broadsided by a cab. Amazingly, I received only minor bruises. But I think I am crazy today, 36 years later, as a result of that accident.

George

My last ER visit was due to a chain ring coming in contact with my calf muscle and the subsequent flesh being torn open. So bad, I had to wrap my jersey around my leg and had to push my bike scooter style while blood filled my shoe. Was pretty disoriented by the time I got to the trailhead and vehicle. Interestingly enough, no stitches, just several DEEP puncture wounds! Still have the scars to remind me!

That was years ago, I've been pretty blessed lately to only suffer the minor cuts and bruises! My last one was a good deep gash in my knee.

I was coming down a trail along a slow (non) moving river covered in Perma-Green (algae and vegetation on the surface) and came up to a 2x4 bridge. I hit the bridge at an angle while trying to negotiate the turn. As soon as my front tire hit the damp boards, it immediately went out from under me. I hit the bridge and was sliding towards the edge, when my knee came in contact with a head of a lag bolt holding the 2x4 down! That HURT! The really scary part was I thought I was going swimming. I stopped with my head overhanging the edge of the bridge, looking down into the perma-green. Since this is FL, the thought of gators lurking below the slime crossed my mind!

L8R
l8R

So far I have been pretty lucky, only fractured bones. Two years ago I went over the bars on a downhill and managed to fracture 2 ribs and bruise a kidney. So far this year I have had a torn muscle in my calf (for 4 months now, hard to let it heal during race season).

I also went over the bars on one of the easiest trails around, I was riding with a beginner and was looking back to make sure he was ok. That wreck fractured my collar bone and gave me a grade 2 AC seperation. That was in January and it still hurts sometime.

My latest one though is still puzzling me, somehow I managed to sprain my jaw. Apparently I landed wrong during one of my many wrecks this year and screwed it up.

I almost forgot about the time I hit a car! Note: not hit BY a car, I hit a parked car! (Homer voice!) Dooh!

I was test riding a bike, and was making some adjustments to the front derailleur cable. As I was pedaling, I was looking down at the cranks/derailleur, I rode out of my driveway and into the street (No traffic, cul-de-sac road), next thing I know, I'm laying on the road with my bike on top of me. What the heck happened? I rode smack dab into a PARKED van in the street! Broke my nose, busted my lip, cut my eyebrow and I had one heck of a sore jaw!

L8R

I seem to cut and scrape my self up a bit about once every other ride, but my worst was when I hit my knee 2 weeks ago. Didnt seem too bad when I did it, just a slow endo at dusk, I hit my knee on a rock but it seemed fine, when I got home and cleaned it out I noticed it wasnt a scrape, there was a chunk missing. and my knee had swollen and stiffened up to the point I couldnt bend it anymore. Well now 2 weeks later I have most of the movement back in the knee, but there is still a bit of a hole in it, but its healing. I just hope I didnt break a knee cap or anything, since I didnt take it into the shop(doctor) to have it x-rayed or anything.

When I was younger I was doing 30mph+ down a gravel road and crashed after hitting a large pothole, Took all the skin off the entire right side of my body, my right arm was totally embedded with small rocks/dirt etc. Just last week I hooked my pedal on something, got bucked off the bike, fell down a 6ft high embankment, landed on a pile of rocks and sticks in the river on my back, then the bike landed on top my legs. I still have back pains and pain in my legs, my entire lower back is black. I somehow whacked my head on something too, I had a headache for a couple days, my helmet was all dented in.

When I was younger I was doing 30mph+ down a gravel road and crashed after hitting a large pothole, Took all the skin off the entire right side of my body, my right arm was totally embedded with small rocks/dirt etc. Just last week I hooked my pedal on something, got bucked off the bike, fell down a 6ft high embankment, landed on a pile of rocks and sticks in the river on my back, then the bike landed on top my legs. I still have back pains and pain in my legs, my entire lower back is black. I somehow whacked my head on something too, I had a headache for a couple days, my helmet was all dented in.
ouch. hope you heal soon.

Last April, bike fell from under me..Hit hard on my right shoulder and seperated ligaments- that required surgery. Two months in a immobilizing sling.. This week have just again started to ride.

Hit a patch of wet leaves on a downhill stretch of pavement at about 32 mph. Went flying over to the left could not compensate or bunnyhop the 4' retaining wal that came up into my view in a split second. Tried to muscle it up and over. The subsequent move flipped the bike over even though I was flat on my back. My right foot was still strapped in to the pedal when the bike flipped broke my ankle in two.
In a non related bike injury yesterday while skateboarding in the street I hit a 2" rock which slapped my on my face got a 3" cut through my left eyebrow two brusied ribs fron my elbow crashing into them and a bruise on my hip. Real ugly eye scar.

I once knocked myself unconscious for a short while trying to do a wheelie drop. And I broke my collar bone and finger doing an endo at ~25 mph.

Gapped a starset in front of the princeton football stadium, ran out of room after the landing, and smashed my head into a slate planter at like 10 mph, thank god for my helmet, otherwise i'd probably be dead or something...It gave me a bad headache anyway.

Well, the kneecap is not my worst now, it is the torn acl now.

I broke my arm the summer before sixth grade was supposed to start. Then the week after I got my cast off, I strained my patella falling on the cement in a game of touch football. My mom was so mad she refused to help me to the car when we were going to the doctor. I had to walk and struggle to get to the car myself. Talk about mommie dearest! Sheesh!

Koffee

Today, I went on my fourth ride since resuming the sport.I still love and had intensely missed it. Since re-starting my riding, I have now almost 100 miles in..My orthopedist, might wish I take a little more time off, still.
Still very much less confident, however.. Thinking the accident was caused by not seeing an object in the road, my eyes are almost constantly glued to the asphalt. When they are not, I think-what might I have missed.
How long did it take to get back your confidence.? Before, i paid most of my attention to the traffic. I know, the rules should be the same as motorists'; keep your eyes constantly moving and don't miss a thing.
One thing I loved in the past. Noticing the scenery- that is why I like touring. You see upfront objects you miss when driving.. In greater detail.. Now, that is pretty unimportant.

Well I was out on the trails and there came this bit with a see-saw down a steep hill. So i'm like that looks easy/fun. Off I ride on the see-saw.. down it goes and then surely its just an easy ride down the hill. Well no it wasn't.. there was a drop that I couldn't see from the angle I was standing.. saw it too late.. off the bike , landed horribly on head/shoulder. Broke my shoulder and I think i may have passed out momentarily. The worst bit was riding back to the car with a broken shoulder. I to now walk every single stunt I might ride.

I got it all on vid to.. very fun to watch.

can we see the vid?

lol OK but its embarassing... i am NOT crying.. meerly winded. hah.. you can hear me notice the drop just as I get to it.

http://www.bimmersport.co.nz/mtbcrash.wmv Do right click save as.. its around 6 MB.

download underway, I cant wait...

wow you look pretty frickin angry at your giggly friend. I felt the same way after my stairgap incident. I wish we had stunts like that around here, all the fun stuff is like, urban stuff on the PU campus

wasn't really annoyed with my mate. Just with myself really! Felt so stupid. And at the time i didn't realise i was so badly injured.

Dude, you've got to get that video in a format where you can post it, or at least get a link to it!

L8R

I have linked to it.. look at post #32

I had my worst injury this year. Wrecked while going down hill and ended up tearing my leg open to the bone. Required 8 stitches (4 internal, 4 external) . I just finished paying for that visit. Which reminds me, I guess I better get a new brake cable to replace the one that was snapped in half from the endo.

my girlfriend broke her neck. was back on the trails again in 8 weeks. she was taking her first jump ever, way back in the trails, not particularly well thought-out. endoed like a MF and smacked her face right in the mud. hyperextended her neck and cracked two vertabrae in her neck. walked out half a mile to the road. tough girl.

my worst is just sliding down a 20' embankment after hitting some nasty leaves. i was on the ground before i even realized that i was falling. big raspberry all down my left side and some torn ligaments in the shoulder.

ain't mountain biking fun!

Broken collar bone this past Memorial Day weekend. Not fun! It was Saturday. Me and 4 buddies went for an early morning ride, meeting at the trailhead at 6:00AM.

We'd been riding for about a half-hour and were getting warmed up, and moving pretty fast. I'd had some difficulty with a pedal and had gone to the back of the group. Meanwhile, my friend John, with whom I generally end up competing, had gone to the front and was motoring along the trail. Well I passed the other guys at an opportune spot on the trail, and picked up a good amount of speed in an attempt to catch up with John.

I came to a spot where I could see John up ahead just turning to the left up a ridge. It appeared that the trail between he and I was curved slightly to the right, then to the left. The problem was that grass along the trail was about 18" tall and partially hid the trail.

Seeing my target ahead and thinking I had the trail figured out, I hammered on the pedals and spun it up! Just as I'd reached my max spin and speed, the trail darted off to my right and I couldn't make the turn. Normally, when I miss a turn out on these particular trails I can just cross-country it and reconnect with the trail. On this particular day, there was a huge sage brush in my path and it was unavoidable. I plowed right into the sagebrush and was launched over the bars. I must have remained locked into my pedals momentarily because I was body slammed right into that sage brush...hard!!

So I rolled from the other side of the bush and sat there in the dirt on my ass and thought "Ohhh. I don't think that shoulder is right." I moved my arm in a circular motion and with my right hand could feel the two ends of my left collarbone moving and grinding around against each other.

So there I was sitting in the dirt at 6:30 in the morning a mile away from my car with a shattered collarbone and a bad attitude! Man! I thought... why did I get out of bed today??

So I didn't ride MTB for a while, but was riding on the road with "the group" 6 days later! ....and nervous as hell about crashing.

nothing too bad or gruesome... bruised left knee, bruised right ankle, bruised left butt-cheek, bruised tailbone... misjudged a turn and got the two last knuckles on my right hand smashed between my bars and a tree. that’s about it (for now).

i don't think it's actually a crash, but this was my most painful biking accident. it was my second day on my new bike and new clipless pedals. darn things were loosened as much as they could go and they were still tough to get out of.

i was going up a forest service road and a jeep is coming down. i try to clipout, but i couldn't. the handle bars jammed into the road perpendicularly and my sternum went right into the end of the handle bars. i nearly passed out from the pain. knocked the wind out of me for like 5 minutes. i think i cracked my sternum. 5 months later, if my husband hugs me too tight it still hurts.

hit by car

ambulance

hospital

change of school, home, city, and state

Jacob

Fractured T7 vertebrae, 3 herniated disk,broken thumb, dislocated finger, torn ligaments plus 15 stiches. Titanium plate in C4-C5 spine. Out of work 8 weeks. 47 year olds should not do crazy jumps but I still love to ride!!!

Fractured T7 vertebrae, 3 herniated disk,broken thumb, dislocated finger, torn ligaments plus 15 stiches. Titanium plate in C4-C5 spine.

I cracked two vertabrae after landing on my head from a bunny hop gone wrong. I've healed up ok, but I've not ridden on the trails since (almost a year). :(

I ride on the road exclusively now. It ain't that safe either! Hit in the rear by an off duty state trooper and broke two ribs (his fault). Car ran over my bike after I crashed while trying to bunny hop two sets of railroad tracks (my fault). Come to think of it I don't bunny hop much anymore either! :rolleyes:

i don't think it's actually a crash, but this was my most painful biking accident. it was my second day on my new bike and new clipless pedals. darn things were loosened as much as they could go and they were still tough to get out of.

i was going up a forest service road and a jeep is coming down. i try to clipout, but i couldn't. the handle bars jammed into the road perpendicularly and my sternum went right into the end of the handle bars. i nearly passed out from the pain. knocked the wind out of me for like 5 minutes. i think i cracked my sternum. 5 months later, if my husband hugs me too tight it still hurts.

I cracked it or more to the side where ribs join- It was sore under pressure for 'bout a year. :( all better now :) Probably worse for a lady.

I once slid for 15 feet on concrete. This caused me to shave off 90% of the skin on my knee and 10% of my kneecap as well as 50% of the skin on my elbow.

I've been pretty busted up over the years. But this past Sunday was doing a downhill run mis-judged a rock drop did not clear the boulder below....bike is ok..I broke 3 metacarpels.

Worst part this I was going to race the next Sunday. Now I have a cast on :mad:

This girl I rode to school with everyday broke my heart.

I couldnt really tell which one was my worst, but they all happend this year.

My friend and me build this "transportable" 6 ft. drop (a big saw horse and a board less than a foot wide with boarders on it). after a few succesful drops I decided to do it one more time, riding the board my front tire caught on one of the boarders and i came off of it cock-eyed, got bucked off bike went shoulder first into this 3 ft. boulder. got back pains, but other than that was really lucky.

At waterville vally, there was a 3 ft. drop and decided to do it with no shin pads and with just sandels on, foot slipped off, pedal kicked back and the 1/4" studs went into my right leg to the left of the bone making a beutiful 4" long, 2" wide and 1 1/2" deep gash. had to get driven an hour to the nearest hospital, mom wasnt happy about that one.

Prolly the worst of them all was i was going fast down this downhill track that we found in the woods, hit this rock jutting out of the ground and flew and tumbled 20 ft. (measured where hit rock to wher upturned earth was wher i landed" and felt like my left knee cap was gone and had to hike a half mile back up to my house. turns out i did permanant nerve damage to it and it has this forever numb feelin to it now. if i didnt have my 661 shin guards on, i woulda shatterd the knee cap, then who knows what woulda happend.