DnvrFox

How Safe are 50+ Riders?

Any accidents in the past 3 years?

Any your fault? Involve a motor vehicle?

Tell us about it. You get to define mild, moderate, serious and critical in your own way. Nope, I'm not going to do it for you. Sorry if that leaves you dangling a bit.

Answer as many as you like. Multiple responses encouraged.

maddmaxx 

I ride a mountain bike. The occasional inability of the trails to absorb the application of my skills results in various bruises, contusions and the spilling of blood. At the age of 63, I try to avoid mistakes that may result in broken bones. So far I've been lucky.

Nerdanel 

Does "while riding my bicycle" include 0 mph Club Tombay episodes?

DnvrFox

Always someone wanting a clarification!

Sure, if you were injured.

DnvrFox

Well, I voted for option 1, no accidents, but it registered as option 7, something else.

Pretty much typical of my day so far!

t4mv

I had a crash ~3 years ago, when I was a 40+, so I should not be dragging down the safety record of this fine forum. I pedaled through a high speed downhill turn where poor road patching had added some height to the crown of the lane, caught a pedal and went down. I think replacing an attic fan later that afternoon was more painful than the crash itself.

doctor j

One mild-moderate. My fault. I was making a 180-degree corner, on concrete, too fast. Knot on the head, knot on the elbow, knot on the right hip, two black eyes, road rash, no broken bones. Good news is that the bike was fine, and I learned that I need to wear a helmet, which I have done since.

Barrettscv 

I still ride like I'm 12.

BluesDawg

I can't recall my last crash on the road, but I'm pretty sure it was more than 3 years ago. I hit the ground about once every couple of weeks while MTBiking. Mostly minor scrapes and scratches if anything, but once in a while I come away with some impressive scrapes and bruises.

rubic

In my 20+ years I rode like a fighter pilot with wild abandon and on the edge. This behavior moderated over the years and now at 60 I try to ride like a commercial airline pilot, smooth, predictable and careful. The last 3 years have been accident / injury free. Knock on wood.

JanMM

I don't remember any accidents/falls in many years but my memory isn't what it used to be, is it?

gash44

I wish I could remember my accident (September 28, 2008) but have no memory of it. The only thing I remember is waking up in the hospital and my wife, boss, and son being there and that was after being there for week. What my wife got from the police report is they were called for a man on the side of the road with a bike, bleeding and not moving.

The woman in the house the accident was in front of call the police. From what a witness told the police, I was riding and went over the handle bars and hit the grant curbing head first. My wife was told I got up brushed myself off got back on the bike (I must have been in shock at that point) and went over again and never got back up. I remember none of it.

My helmet was broken on the right side and stuck together from the blood. I had a fractured cheek bone, black eye, fractured right arm with damage to the nerves, screwed up right leg, bruised front lob of the brain and was bleeding inside the brain, and screwed up speech (the only thing that saved my sorry ass was my helmet). Thank god for the helmet.

I went through physical and speech therapy in fact still going to speech therapy for memory and just to help me cope with everything that happened, plus I have to take medication for the brain injury. But hey I am riding again (have been since April) doing all kinds of miles when I am not working. I even bought another road bike. My boss was great gave me all the time I needed to get going again. Oh the only thing that happened to the bike I was on was a messed up front wheel.

Thanks all for listening.

John E

Wow. That's a hard post to follow.

I think I am a safer cyclist now than 40 years ago, because I have learned a great deal about riding safely in traffic. I have never been a risk taker, and because of my lifelong physical coordination challenges, I have never been tempted to ride to the "edge" on tight curves or fast descents. (On group rides, I am typically one of the first up and one of the last down.)

I sustained a concussion and a double fracture of the left clavicle when I was left-crossed by a motor vehicle 33 years ago. Today I wear brighter-colored clothing, ride more visibly by getting farther out into the roadway, wear a better helmet, and have better brake pads. I think today I could avoid or lessen the impact under the same scenario, but I do not feel like proving this assertion.

Metric Man

Two Club Tombay...skinned knee.

Red Baron

I start physical therapy tomorrow, from injury jul 18th, US, sorry no pictures - I was not seen by coming driver who turned into sub in front of me. story posted

Other injury I was training for TT, feb 20, rear wheel slid out around a curve @ 24mph, nurse picked out most road rash grit but small pieces of road grit was coming out on my road rash for 2 months.

Its been a ahard year but as i said in my posts, life is good and i will continue to ride.

Yen

If accidents include clipless falls at 0 mph, I had a mild knee sprain this summer when my bike went over at a complete stop. I was clipped out on the left (as usual) but my bike inexplicably went to the right while that foot was still clipped in. I lost control of the bike and as it went down, it twisted my knee. That was near the start of the ride (around 9:30 AM) and I didn't arrive back home until late afternoon -- 6+ hours post-injury. It took at least a month for the pain and swelling to go away, yet the injury itself was minor.

roccobike

Define serious. I define it as requiring medical attention. Others might say breaking a leg. I've had two fall on road bikes. One required stitches, the other just banged up a bit.
I won't count the number of times I've fallen on a MTB because that is the nature of that sport.

bobbycorno

In 47 years of riding, I've had exactly ONE injury accident, entirely the fault of the driver who changed his mind halfway through a left turn (he was TURNING, not just signalling left), and turned right instead, directly into my path. At 30+ mph, I didn't have much opportunity to avoid him. And I was riding in a designated bike lane at the time. Oh, and did I mention he had passed me not 30 seconds before?

This happened 8 years ago, on April 1, of all days...

SP
Bend, OR

Red Rider

Aside from being doored (Apr. '07) and a downhill tandem crash (Aug. '07), both of which resulted in bruising of body and ego and road rash and, thought I was a fairly safe rider.

Until March when I crashed and broke my wrist -- now Levi's gone and copycatted me.

Since June 15th I've been back on the road and my heightened vigilance is almost scary. I want to know what and who are around me all the time. I'm definitely more wary of riding in a group than I used to be; not that I'm riding sketchy, just choosy about whose wheel to follow and how close to follow it.

Live and learn...I'm happy to be able to do that daily.

gcottay

My two accidents have been well deserved, taking turns too fast for conditions.

DnvrFox

I am amazed that, so far, not one accident has involved a motor vehicle!!

cranky old dude

I often tip over but I haven't gotten hurt (excluding ego). It's all part of riding through all four seasons. If you're afraid to fall, don't ride on wet leaves or snow.

Except........Back in '91, a 72 year old lady pushed me and my seven day old bike off the side of the road and into a light pole with her Oldsmobile. That one I didn't get up from (I tried like hell but I couldn't even sit up). Broken helmet, broken bike, tons of road-rash and a nasty bruise by my left kidney. Her insurance company bought me a replacement bike, replacement helmet, paid for the ambulance ride and paid the emergency room bills.

Beverly

I had a close call with a vehicle this year but managed to avoid contact

A lady pulled out of a side road and just missed me and a friend. She apologized and said she didn't see us. We both had neon yellow jackets so my guess is she wasn't looking very hard

kr32

I have only been riding less than a year and I had one so....
I was just starting out with clipless pedals and I had no issues on road bike but MTB was a different story. I was riding the MTB on a new railtrail that was asphalt and tried a wheelie and flipped over backwards! I was upside down clipped in and thinking this is going to hurt when I hit. Well I went down hard on my tailbone and elbow. I hurt like heck too. Elbow was bloody and smashed pretty good. Tailbone was so sore for at least a week after too.
Helment saved my head from getting smashed as well.
Platform peddals went back on the MTB too!

stapfam

Been road riding just on 3 years and NO incidents at all. Couple of near tombay's but MTB skills have taught me to track stand while I sort myself out. Nearest I have got to a Tombay was when I unclipped- put pressure on the pedal and slipped off. Gentle roll over on to grass.

But those MTB's- The trails are lethal for me. Trees keep jumping out into the middle of the trail, The rock that you look at (Fatal I know) so that you will miss it moves- and sometimes I have exceeded my skills on trails that need it most.

But by far the best has been the Tandem. That thing keeps trying to get the riders in close company with the soil. Why is it that the pilot always gets away by falling in front of the mud/puddle/pile of manure-? while I always fall straight in it. Think his skills are exceeding mine at present.

And I thought that mountain biking would be safer with no cars or trucks to hit.