Mountain Biking - Battle scars

What injuries have you revieved from your bike crashes? I think this is a good way to learn something.
Write down HOW you crashed, WHY you crashed and WHAT injuries. Then others can learn from your mistake... :p

I'll go first..
My worst crash happened on my way to the first school day after new year in 10th grade. (that is 8 years ago... man time flies fast...) I was doing a 90 degree turn onto a sidewalk when my front wheel slipped on a small patch of ice. I landed on my face knocking out three teeth, broke my jaw and teared a 1" piece of skin of my bottom jaw. Conclusion: Even if fat tires provides a lot of traction, they don't help nothing on bare ice... If you ride in winter and there is a chance for ice, use studded tires.

There are also a broken arm and a lot of blood leakage in other crashes.... :p

I have had so many it's not funny. Most of them are from either, going too fast or doing stunts to blind landings and not judging where I want to land too well. Moral of the story, racing involves crashing and if you are doing a stunt too a blind landing, try and find something too aim at so you land on your landing. Oh and land basically both wheels at the same time, don't pull up too hard, my friend had a really bad experience.

He did a road gap and wass too confident, hit it too fast and pulled back way too much. basically did a drop 20ft do flat, landed too much backwheel first and fell on his arse. He had back spasms for a couple of months. I wasn't there when it happened, but one of the spectators was on the phone too someone, here is the convo: "Just hold on a tick, Chris is doing the road gap *harsh thump sound* oh *****, chris just ****ed himself, I gotta go"

Hard to show 1/2 of my current battle scars, especially when my one arm is in a sling, but have these though.

my worst crash was when I was mtbing last summer. I was riding along and BAM I hit a hole I wasn't watching for and flipped completely over the handlebars and proceded to tumble down a small, steep hill until I was halted by a small boulder at the bottom.

Nothing major, I broke my pinky and ring finger but that was about it. Now that I'm into jumps/drops though I'm sure I'll have some worse injuries.

when bailin dont bail into trees. thats how you break bones, i broke my shoulder that way

Haven't had to many injuries, but my worst is when I was doin' a wheelie. My handlebars turned and I flipped over.

A few months ago I was descending a fire road at speed(20ish) and there was a turn. Back then I didn't know the proper way to turn off road, so I leaned in to far and my front tire washed out. Hit hard on my right side, bounced and rolled out of the rest. When I got up my forearm looked like a peace of scrap meat and was beading everywhere; My jersey, shorts, handlebar and controls where all covered in blood. After checking for any thing really bad I gave myself an a-ok to get myself to a fire station asap. Took 20 min to get to one in the middle of nowhere. They got me to a hospital where I got 19 stitches. Now I have a nice scar on arm, and know how to turn correctly.

I have BMX pedals on my bike so they have these huge spikes that screw into them, I have slipped off of them on a few occasions and did some damage tomy legs. the wounds where about 1/4 in deep and very long and wide, the bad thing was I kept reopening them for the dsame reasons for about a month. but now I have shin gaurds and all is good.

20 years of riding as adult, I seem to have at least one good crash every other year or so.
1. Broken collarbone, sperated shoulder, crashed in a pace line on a flat, very fast century, big plie up at about 25mph.
3. 10 stiches above the knee, over the bars, cut it on something, not quite sure.
2. dislocated shoulder, bad planning on a creek jump, nosed into the far bank.
3. dislocated shoulder, just ate it at the bottom of a steep drop, over the bars.
4. Broken right arm, slide out on a corner on the trail, top layer of soil was dry, covering a really wet, muddy spot, slid out and landed on a large rock.
5. scars on both knees, both hips, elbows and shoulders and any other pointy areas from one crash or another.

Didn't happen to me but my mate who I was riding with. He took a Trail wrong, up in the air and landed on his face. We have a rule, if your OK after a tumble you get up quick and we laugh, Well he did not get up. Rode back to him, and asked what happened. All I got were some slurping sounds. When he spoke, all I could see was a perfect row of teeth. He had split his cheek from the mouth to the back of the jaw. He asked me where the blood was from, inside or outside the mouth. Told him both and he might need a stitch or two. Some Ramblers saw the accident and offerred to get him to hospital, I phoned for a car to come and get the bikes home and would meet him at the Hospital. When I got there he nearly killed me. 64 stitches is not just a couple. 32 inside and 32 out. What p^$$"d him off though was that I had not picked up all of his helmet and he could not find his new Oakleys. Helmet was completely smashed, and there was no sign of the Oakleys

I was taking a long sweeping corner pedaling about 20mph and the inside pedal as it went down hit a tree stump hidden in the grass. I flew over the handlebars, landed on my hip and skidded to a halt on my right side. Huge bruise on the hip, very skinned up knee and nice 3 way split in my elbow. That was about 2 miles into a 13 mile ride, finished it out bleeding everywhere. The bruise went away and the knee healed but the elbow just wouldnt clear up. About a month after the crash I was at work and playing with the split when out popped a small rock. The thing completely healed up just a couple days later.

What I learned is to always keep my pedal out of the grass, it might be hiding something solid. And make sure to clean all the rocks out of any injuries.

-broken leg (both bones in lower leg) doing some head high urban drop side ways
-broken leg (one bone lower leg) Big no footer on this step down... I didnt fall ;)

doing a turn on a gravel section while riding fast, leaned too far out and bike slid under me, gravel tattoo on my elbow where it dug in about 1.5cm deep. looked hella worse than it felt, and in fact the wound closed completely within 2 days.

come to think of it - also stuffed my shoulder when i endoed for the first time a month ago, day before i flew for china. was taking a (small for u guys) drop and stupidly leaned forward and landed on wrist, jarring shoulder. still healing.