Zei

You can see the small hole in the video as well.

Beaker

I winced when I saw the IAB in the camera.

Bianchi Ben

I was gonna watch, then realized how much I hated watching bail scenes in skate videos back in the day. To a quick recovery!

celticfrost

And I bet you were right. And it hurts even more once the adrenaline wears off.

Hope you heal-up fast. When you feel better, I'd also ask the group to enforce a no IAB (Invisible Aero Bars) policy or at least ask them to advise people not to do it in a frikkin paceline.

MrTuner1970

There is a guy in our group rides that always rides his tri bike. Pacelines with us. I didn't think much about it until my first time trial when I used aero bars for the first time. Nobody should do group riding on aero bars. Asking for a wreck, IMO.

But I don't say anything either. But I should.

merlinextraligh

First, it looks like the guy videoing is an idiot.

Second, I mean this to be constructive, and not to add insult to injury.

That said, I think you had at least a chance to avoid this.

It looks like in the video that you and the guy in the video are passing a guy in the gutter, and that there may be another rider out in the left of the lane. That situation alone is going to make me think that things could happen, I need to be watching everything around me, prepared to take evasive action, and perhaps leave just a little extra room behind the wheel in front till things reform in a settled fashion.

Also, you have to size up the people around you, if someone in the group your with is sketchy, give them extra room, if they're really sketchy, drop them, leave the group, or at least get in front of them. Seeing this guy doing the IAB thing in that situation would justify one of the above.

Finally, it does look like there was room to go to either side of the guy. A little more vigilence in protecting your front wheel, and perhaps a bit looser and you stay up.

Not saying you definitely could have stayed upright, or that I would have in the same situation; just some thoughts on how to maybe have a better chance next time.

ultraman6970

Uff we were talking about stupidity while riding plus handling skills last week and this is the prove of what we talked.

Agree the rider is an IDIOT. second i thought he was using aerobar but based in the hand position he might have been emulating pro aero position w/o having a clue how to handle the bike.

I have go no hands over gravel and even hit holes in the road and never got this issue. The reason is the rider and the bikes i have handle well. Like 95% of the bikes sold in the market are garbage in the handling dept, add that the super aero position handlebars with the stem flipped a lot of guys use (aero with up right position) and there you have it. The bike it self handles badly, add the super aero position and a moron that cant handle a bike and you have this things to happen.

Sad you got a broken bone, hope you wont ride with that moron again. Aero bars and aero morons sure are easy to spot now, right? Last week had to move 4 guys off the center of the road with the old touch in the hip just because of the same situation.

As for the aero bars, people cant figure it out how to handle a bike with the normal bars, imagine something that restrict the movements a lot more. Calling to an accident.

Get well soon.

bhayes505

I'm gonna have to disagree w/ you on this one. In the situation I was in, there was no way to avoid going down. We were 30 miles into a century and up to that point the rider that crashed in front of me showed no signs of being sketchy. As a matter of fact he seemed like one of the more experienced riders in the group. Average speed up to that point was 21.2 and we were running around 22 at the time of the crash. I had just finished a long pull and had went to the back around 30 to 45 seconds before the crash. When he went down his bike went left so I couldn't go that way and also did not want to head towards possible on coming traffic. As you mentioned, we are passing somebody so going way right is out of the question. The only lane I had was were his body went and that's what I ended up hitting. All this with in a split second, so I don't see where I could of avoided this. Just my opinion.

merlinextraligh

1) you didn't read anything I said.

2) the fact the guy was relatively strong doesn't make him a good rider. If he was in fact in the IAB position you can tell that if your watching.

3) there's more room around you than you think. one guy is on the shoulder, you and the guy in front of you look to be a foot or two into the lane. There certainly appears to be room on the right (it only takes 42 cm) and there's 10 feet on the left before you cross the centerline.

4) centuries with mixed groups of people, moving at different speeds are notorious for crashes. When you're passing people on these it's a good time to be prepared for something abrupt to happen.

When things like this happen, you can just write it off as **** happens, and wait till it happens again, or you can think about how it happened and what you might do differently next time.

Just following the wheel in front with tunnel vision, and yeah you likely aren't going to avoid a crash like this. More situational awareness and you give yourself a better chance.

ultraman6970

+1

banerjek

The way to avoid it is to anticipate what could go wrong. If you're in a group, you and anyone you depend on needs to be able to hit things hard. We're talking big deep holes, fairly substantial rocks, etc. All kinds of things happen on rides. People hit things, equipment suddenly fails, animals appear out of nowhere. None of those things was a factor.

Just being in IAB position in a group should qualify someone as totally insane and you should avoid them like the plague. Such a person has no handling capability nor the ability the signal to those behind. That he'd actually reach for a water bottle in the middle of a group puts him clearly into the lunatic fringe. People who ride like that will cause wrecks. I'll do a lot of crazy things, but ride close to someone in IAB position is not one of them.

As has been mentioned, group wrecks on centuries are common. And you can avoid them the vast bulk of the time. More than once, I've abandoned a group and watched a bunch of riders go down shortly afterwards.

rm -rf

With Invisible Aero Bars, the cyclist could have been applying forward pressure on the bars with his forearms. A bump in the road that bounced just one arm off the bars would then shove the bars sideways instantly. "Insane"
EDIT--I've changed my mind here. See my post below.

At 20 mph, a rider travels 29 feet per second (20*5280/(60*60)) With a best case .25 second reaction time, that's over 7 feet traveled before any steering movement is even started. So it's hard to avoid a sudden crash immediately ahead.

pallen

I'm not sure who started the whole IAB fad, but this is exactly why I've have never had any interest in this technique. If I'm really worried about getting aero, I'll put my hands together on the top of the bars and tuck. Any benefit beyond that is not worth not having my hands on the bars.

banerjek

Weight weenies, cheapskates, and Freds...

dmcdam

IAB on a group ride is flat stupid. That guy owes you a new collarbone...

mmmdonuts

For a second there I thought the guy who caused the crash was wearing a Gyros jersey.

But it wasn't.

TWong1200

Yikes...hope you have a speedy recovery!

merlinextraligh

True, however, the bike in front of you is moving forward at the same speed, at least at the start of the sequence.

Even then you've got very limited opportunity to react. Hence my point about anticipating potential problems.

bhayes505

I can understand the anticipating potential problem riders and dangerous situations. On this paticular ride I haven't ridden with a lot of these people before so I was paying extra close attention but will admit I did not notice anyone riding in an IAB position all day. As a matter of fact I was paying close attention to another rider most of the morning. He was the type that would break formation and go to the front, then fall back after a second or two. Another words he was all over the place. Did I miss a sign from the rider that went down? It's possible but sometimes accidents happen and I think this was just that.

I went to the orhtopedic today and found out I will not need surgery on my shoulder or collar bone so that was good news. I should be back on the road soon! Thanks for all the get well wishes from everyone!

bianchi10

piping in late here, but I agree with what has already been mentioned, looks like he was either on aero bars or resting forearms on the bars. The road looks like it would cause some SERIOUS road rash!!!! Broken collar bone SUCKS, broke mine in the same place 5 times from soccer. No good can come from a broken collar bone and you dont realize how much it effects your everyday motion until it happens to you.

P.S. who the freak mounts their camera directly behind a cable!!??

longbeachgary

I'm surprised that no one suggested that you should have bunny hopped over the downed rider. That's just as ridiculous as some of the other comments....

longbeachgary

Did you bike almost hit the guy riding in the other direction? Looks like he had to do some off-roading

banerjek

It's possible he never was riding in that position when you had a chance to observe it. From close behind, it wouldn't be evident if he dropped into it because his butt would be in the way.

Hope you heal fast. Injuries suck.

gregf83 

The IAB position is an aerodynamic position for mass start races where aerobars or clip-ons are not allowed. It doesn't have anything to do with weight, cost or fredliness.

coolmingli

painful, don't even want to watch it, are you ok? what exactly happened? looks to me you ran into a pole hole. Damn, knock wood, I am going out for a ride.