AchiLLe..s

What was your first fall like did it hurt. Well mine happened after i tried to clip in. I got one foot in at the start without rolling well then i had to get the other in so i started to go down the driveway to slow so i couldnt get the other shoe in and well i finally went so slow that i just toppled over blooded my knee, and my bike was scratched not to bad and my handlebar tape was ripped and my seat was a bit deteriorated, and my pedals messed up pretty bad . I was so mad b/c i had loved the bike nice and shiny not a scratch, but when it came to ride here i messed her up. ! question while im at it. What can i use to clean white handeblar tape? Thanks and share your stories of misary.

mirona

My first fall wasn't too bad. I was going 30 mph down a hill and started to slow down a bit to make a left turn onto a road at the bottom where a sharp curve was. The road rose up and then down sharply on the turn. I hit that going way too fast and the speed, combined with a bit of sand on the road (early spring after snow), sent me on my side. Slid for about 40 ft until I hit the curb and rolled a few times to a stop. Road rash from my knee to my ankle, torn knuckles, road rash down forearm to elbow. Washed it out with my water bottle and road the 3 miles home. Cleaning it out when I got home was where the pain came into play.

ovoleg

|\/|y fir57 f4ll \/\/45 \/\/h3n I \/\/45 riDin6 n34r 4 l0c4l p4rk. I \/\/45 riDin6 0n 7h3 57r337 \/\/h3n I 54\/\/ 4 r0ll3rbl4D3r c0|\/|i|\|6 in the 0pp05i73 Dir3c7i0n. I7 \/\/45 D4rk 50 I DiD |\|07 533 h3r |_||\|7ill 7h3 l457 |\/|0|\/|3|\|7. 5h3 5\/\/3r\/3D 70 7h3 l3f7 4|\|D s0 DiD I. I 7ri3D 70 r3c0v3r, |-|0\/\/3\/3r I \/\/45 |\|07 Q|_|icK 3|\|0|_|6|-|.

7h47 \/\/45 |\/|y f4ll.

kingsfan4life

I got the first part and the last part but you lost me somewhere in the middle.
I haven't fallen yet, I've only been cycling for a few months

Nick Gapen

My first fall was 10 years ago when I was going around a sharp corner on a paved bike path in Aurora, Colorado. I went down at about 20 MPH, and I scraped up the right side of my body. It didn't hurt to bad at the time, and I rode 5 miles back to my house. the next day, I was sore and did not ride for a week.

The last time I fell was about a two year ago, when I got clipless peddles, and forgot to unclipcoming to a stop sign. How embarrassing to fall over at 0 MPH! I have never forgot to unclip since then.

AchiLLe..s

am i the only one who has crashed first trying to clip in? i fell like a newb

Machka 

None of my falls have hurt .........


......... for the first 15 minutes or so. I must get a rush of adrenaline or something, because the impact and initial reaction are painless.

About 15 minute later, however, when I'm assessing the damage ... that's when the pain starts up!!!

Injury list from all the falls:
-- road rash from knees to ankles, on a couple occasions - quite a bit of scarring
-- gouge in right elbow - large scar
-- bruised head - helmet too loose and on impact, it hit the ground, bounced up and hit my head, then my head landed
-- bruised hips, several times
-- ruptured bursa in left knee - looked like my entire leg was very badly bruised for about a month, but fortunately that all gets reabsorbed by the body and bursas regrow eventually
-- sprained wrists and fingers on a number of occasions
-- cracked ribs

Mr_Super_Socks

my first "fall" was a major crash going over 35mph. I hit a grate in the road that had 4ft long slots running parallel to the road. I was right on the wheel of the guy in front of me who barely saw it himself. he swerved, I bunny-hopped up off the ground but my rear wheel landed right in the grate. i hit the deck and slid almost into the intersection (about 60 feet) my bike was fine except that my rear wheel was shattered into pieces.
no broken bones, but yeah, it hurt.

oboeguy

I'm supposed to remember my first fall? Does this count falls of the bike as a little kid? All kidding aside, I'm pretty certain I remember falling as a teenager when I first tried clips and straps. No major damage to me or the old 10-speed, IIRC.

SuperSocks, amazing you survived that relatively intact. Those grates are the devil's work for sure!

Az B

My first fall was when I was 12. I was riding down the road the wrong way down a big hill with a tailwind. I was doing about 30mph when a guy turning right out of a driveway t-boned me. I woke up in the middle of the road with a bunch of people standing around me. This was long before helmets, and back when people would actually stop and help.

The bike fared poorly. It was old department store Murray. The crank arm on the left hand side was bent all the way around and into the rear wheel. The wheel was destroyed, and the crank arm smacked the chainstay and bent it pretty good. There was also a lot of general road rash from tumbling down the road.

That was back in the 60s. I've had a few more since then, but they weren't nearly as bad. I quit riding on the wrong side of the road after that.

Az

ovoleg

My first fall was when I was riding near the local park. I was riding onthe street when I saw a rollerblader coming in the opposite directoin. It was dark so I did not see her until the last moment. She swerved to the left and so did I. I tried to recover, however I was not quick enough

That was my fall..

"|\/|y fir57 f4ll \/\/45 \/\/h3n I \/\/45 riDin6 n34r 4 l0c4l p4rk. I \/\/45 riDin6 0n 7h3 57r337 \/\/h3n I 54\/\/ 4 r0ll3rbl4D3r c0|\/|i|\|6 in the 0pp05i73 Dir3c7i0n. I7 \/\/45 D4rk 50 I DiD |\|07 533 h3r |_||\|7ill 7h3 l457 |\/|0|\/|3|\|7. 5h3 5\/\/3r\/3D 70 7h3 l3f7 4|\|D s0 DiD I. I 7ri3D 70 r3c0v3r, |-|0\/\/3\/3r I \/\/45 |\|07 Q|_|icK 3|\|0|_|6|-|.

7h47 \/\/45 |\/|y f4ll. "

Warblade

my very first fall was when i was 4 years old and learning to ride a bike. I ran into the local mailbox! My dad was histerical.

roadfix

Aside from many serious spills I took while I was a kid....

My first serious fall was on a mountain bike was up in the local mountain trail about 15 years ago.....missed a sharp downhill turn.
My first serious fall on a road bike was about 12 years ago on GMR....again, couldn't make the sharp turn.

snoboard2

with all these horror stories about clipless, i thought it would be really hard. took my first ride today and nothing. 100% improvement over running shoes and toe clips. almost forgot to unclip but i wasn't even below 10mph before i remembered what i needed to do

CPcyclist

As a kid I remember several falls going around sandy corners and on where my brother sadistically grabbed the handle bar as I was racing a cousin down my grandparents driveway. I was going fast enough to road rash my ribs on the right side that was some thick scabs.

I don't really remember any bad falls do to going clipless but I have jumped on someone else's SPD like pedals and not been able to clip out at a stop when trying there bike boy I felt bad about that good thing was he was laughing at my when he saw me hit the deck. his bike came out fine

Reynolds 

I don´t remember my first fall as it was about 40 years ago. My last was about 6 months ago. New pedals too tight, car coming suddenly, braked hard, failed to unclip, no harm done as my speed was 0.

macca123

I haven't crashed but I have fallen due to clipless many a time. I have crashed as a kid on my bmx a few times, I remember once I was racing my neighbour down my court when it came to doing the loop at the end of the court I took it too sharp and slid about 5 metres on the ashphalt. I think I still have the scars and those socks I was wearing turned to red from white.

EventServices

I remember every little thing as if it happened only yesterday.

I was 14. Riding home from school.
Racing the school busses through town.
Down a hill.
30mph.
In front of all the townies walking home from school.
Chain locked up.
Over I went.
Tumbling for several yards.
Stood up covered in blood.
Still have the scars.

There have been a few since then, but that one set the bar pretty high. Or low. Whatever.

cheg

My first fall was on the day I rode without training wheels for the first time, in 1967. Does that count? Other memorable falls were an endo caused by chasing some kid while waving a stick and putting the stick through my front wheel circa 1970 and dropping the front wheel out of my fork while riding through a shopping center parking lot in about 1972.

Pink_Ninja

I will atempt to translate that into english, ok, here we go

my first fall was when I was riding near a local park. I was riding on the streer when I saw a rollerblader coming in the opposite direction. It was dark so I did not see her untill the last moment. she swerved to the left and so did I. I tried to recover, however I was not quick enough

that was my first fall.

Did I do \/\/3ll? lol

pecos

Your question reminds me of how I stuck with cycling as an adult, whereas a more astute fellow would have called it quits right then.

In the winter of '04 I was riding my wife's bike (steel frame, waaaay undersized for me) during a rainy night. The rear wheel gear locked as I was going downhill, which had the same effect as me putting down the front brakes hard.

I went over the bike -thank God I wasn't clipped, whole body flipped over and fell to the side, hitting a mailbox with my right shoulder. As I was in the air I remember thinking '....this is going to hurt....'

I had had rotator cuff a few weeks before. You guessed it, on my right side.

Didn't say I was smart....

Pink_Ninja

damnit, someone beat me to it

peregrine

haha, nah, me too With me it happened about a week after I got clipless for the first time. It's even worse for me because I was just standing in line, waiting to get my commuter card punched, with one foot clipped, when all of a sudden I just lost my balance and started falling slowly to the side, able only to mutter 'godamn it!' No damage, just a few bruises because my bike fell on my leg.... well my dignity was quite bruised too

DerekU2

Careful... do not taunt the god of clipless pedals. My first ride was incident free and I was thinking "these clipless nuts are crazy. This is cake." Then on my second ride I encountered a low speed situation that required my brain to think about bike handling for a few seconds... and I forgot to twist out of my clips.

DXchulo

My first fall was pure stupidity on my part.

I was coming around a corner faster than I was comfortable with, and I freaked out. I was too wimpy to try to actually make the corner, so I put on the brakes and went straight forward into a ditch. The grass was soft, so I didn't get injured. I just had a headache for a while.

Looking back now I just laugh. I wasn't even going all that fast. I could have easily made that corner. I think I even posted a thread about it here when it happened.