Could foot retention have helped me avoid this accident?

[Ultraspontane]

Gawd I'm so embarrased to post this. Made a total noob mistake and got thrown off my bike. I setup my Trek Earl as fixed before a commute. I guess since I just associated the Earl with coasting due to all the months of riding it as a ss, on the way home from that commute, I was going at a pretty good click and had a brain fart and locked my right leg and put weight on it to coast. I think you know what comes next.




I was thrown into the air, and landed shoulder and elbow first into the sharp corner of the curb next to me. Deep bruising to my shoulder, foriegn objects and/or bone chips in my elbow, and some nice and deep road rash to along with it. Bike is trashed. Frame is tweaked, front wheel out of true, pedal caved in, drive side crank arm cracked and bent. Dont know how the bike got so ****ed up, but it obviously did. I'm glad it wasnt my Big Block.

I know there is an accident thread. If I was riding with straps, could I have at least avoided being thrown several feet into the air? Obviously if I didnt make that stupid mistake of forgetting I converted the bike to fixed that morning it could have been avoided.

[JuiceWillis]

Buddy of mine did the same thing, he took off his straps riding fixed, destroyed his bike and his body. So...yes foot retention is a must on a fixed gear.

[Scrodzilla]

[Spoonrobot]

I think it would have been either the same, or worse. With straps.

Clipless may have made it possible, but it would have been difficult.

[LesterOfPuppets]

I accidentally tried to coast around a fast corner yesterday. Outside leg got jacked up good and I said "Oh yeah". I stayed on bike. Dunno if that was because of foot retention or just that I got my "Oh Yeah" moment a few milliseconds before you did.

When I started riding fixed, I soon realized I have bad habits of coasting when:

1. getting out of saddle
2. Sitting back down
3. farting
4. grabbing water bottle.

[Tom Stormcrowe]

All I can say is OUCH! Yeah, forgetting you're on a FG and trying to coast is definitely a recipe for disaster. That was what crashed ya, and not the lack of foot retention, this time. Retention is most useful at high cadence or when you are back pressuring the pedals to control DH speed.

[hairnet]

I think you would have gone down either way. I have made the coasting mistake but caught it right away and kept on pedaling.

[jammincakes]

Woah, I did something really similar (getting "bucked off"), with the scabs on the same parts about a month ago. I have cages, so no, I don't think there was a difference. I've been riding for a year fixed now, maybe it was something else.

It all happened so fast...

[RGNY]

i rode fixed with bare pedals for like a month until i encountered my first serious downhill. almost getting bucked off changed my mind real quick.

not to mention a bruised taint from pogo'ing in the seat......

[Tom Stormcrowe]

Not to sound unsympathetic, having been there and got the scars and healed fractured collarbone to prove it.......but I bet you don't forget to pedal again. I'm not laughing at you, I'm ruefully laughing WITH you.....

[Ultraspontane]

How does this sound? The doc I went to see said she thought there was a rock in there. After not being able to find it after some lame attempt at poking around, she changed her story to "calcium deposit" and claimed that it was in there before the accident.

Thats a pretty big ****ing coincidence, dont you think?

[Dannihilator]

Umm I'm no doctor, but doesn't calcium deposit mean bone chip?

[Squirrelli]

So much ow. I hope you'll get back on the bike soon.

[hamfoh]

I think your chances of staying on the bike then were definitely improved. I just went 10 or so days without riding fixed and forgot almost immediately into my first straightaway, of course my leg awkwardly forced itself up and I felt like an idiot but I never felt like I was leaving the bike. maybe it's a good thing I didn't immediately go down a hill though

[Dannihilator]

I did it once, but caught it.