Strider8

Category – Solo accident
Location – Madison, Wisconsin
Bike - Takara, racing

One day I was out exploring, hunched over on my racing style handlebars, pedaling in a ‘need for speed’ fashion, when the road changed. The asphalt was interrupted by a 30 foot stretch of egg-sized rocks before continuing on its merry way. I had little warning of my impending doom. In any case, I had conquered obstacles before and in my, at the time, youthful exuberance expected to surmount this one as well. No way . . . The bike stopped; I didn’t. It was one of those times when life seemed to slow down. I vividly remember flying through the air, as if I was on my hands and knees. Strange sensation . . The bike was unharmed, (thank goodness); I wasn’t. The skinned hands took a couple weeks to heel, my pants never did. If the bicycle manufacturers ever make a self-healing rock jumper, I’ll be first in line to buy one.

Strider8

Category – Theft
Location – Madison, Wisconsin
Bike - Peugeot racing (my first serious bike)

Lived in a building with steps up to a porch. The sides had white wooden removable lattice. I would remove the lattice and secure my bike under there with the biggest cable available and a strong lock. Though you couldn’t see it from the sidewalk, someone had, obviously, seen me putting it away there. It was gone within a week

teachme

Category - Theft
Location - Port Arthur, Texas
Bike- 1968 Schwinn Stingray

I parked my Stingray outside of Fred Miller's Hardware store at the door entering the bicycle repair shop part of the store. I went inside the store to look at a Vista ten speed english racer that I was saving up for with my paper route money. I was 11 years old at the time. I looked at the Vista for about 10 minutes, went back out to hop on my stingray to ride home... Yep! Someone stole it. I was $50 shy of affording the Vista, so I walked the 5 miles home. My Dad, when I got home, picked up the $50, we went back to the hardware store and bought my new bike. We filed the theft with the police, but I never saw my stingray again...

Dudelsack 

I'm afraid we're all one gravel patch away from an interesting story.

Tom Stormcrowe

War Story: Cat IV Criterium Race, riding in a tight paceline descending a small hill coming into a curve
Location: Lake Wawasee
Bike: 2007 Specialized Allez

In the curve is a "Delta of Death", it had rained the night before, and the sweepers missed this in the final course prep, cleaning off the sand washes.

The riders in frot of me had several go down and we had no place to go, and I wound up in a multibike crash at 30+ MPH.

Results:

• Road Rash
• Fractured distal collarbone end in a lengthwise split (Exquisitely painful, I can assure you
• My front 12 teeth embedded in another riders CF handlebar, and the rest of my teeth's roots so fractured that they all had to be extracted
• Concussion
• Ruined shorts and my butt hanging out of them, bleeding from the road rash
• I couldn't remember the day or my name

So off to the hospital I went, via ambulance.

RaymondK43

I once tried to do an Evel Knievel off the driveway wall at a friends house. Two problems. Not enough distance to get up to speed and no practice time.

On another occasion went over a tall mound of dirt, I still have the scar on my upper lip.

Tom Stormcrowe

War Story II (The funny one!)

Location: Purdue University
Bike: 1971 Nishiki Custom Sport Fixed Gear conversion

I was showing off outside of ΑΦ Sorority, trackstanding, and slowly tipped over into the Rose Bushes. My evil plan worked well, though, because it attracted a bevy of Sorority Girls to help me untangle from the thorns and clean up the thorn wounds. Not bad for a dirty ol' middle aged hipster.

locolobo13 

There used to be a large abandoned quarry in my neighborhood in Phoenix. Everybody called it "Little Grand" after the Grand Canyon.

When I was 19 I was playing Evel Knievel in the deepest part. There was a 30-40 ft downslope to the bottom of the bowl. In the middle of the bowl was a 3-4 ft hump that had been smoothed out by riders. I was on a Schwinn Varsity.

I was doing miserably compared to my friends. Only getting 3 or 4 ft of ht above the top of the hump. Getting mad I decided to "pump" on the downslope. My friends said I achieved great "air". Unfortunately I lost control and came down upside down. I had a scar where my shoulder impacted for years. Not hurt other than bruising though. LOL

Bikey Mikey

War Story I
Catagory: Crash
Location: Ft Belvoir, VA
Bike: not remembered(I was 12)

I just got a new bike for my birthday and my father drives me and the bike to the base gas station to fill the tires with air. Dad lets me ride the bike home and follows behind to protect me from other vehicles. Going down a big hill I gather a lot of speed(have no idea how fast) and I lose control. Last thing I remember was my being 1 foot off the ground ready to crash. Now, what happens next was told to me as I don't remember it. My father stops the car and he helps me up and helps me walk to the car. He then puts my bike in the back of the station wagon and takes me home. My dad says he gave me a bath and put me to bed. Three hours later, I wake up with a bloody pillow and start puking my brains out. We go to the base emergency room where I'm hospitalized overnight for a concussion.

I still ride bikes afterwards.




War Story II
Catagory: Endover
Location: Newport News, VA
Bike: DiamondBack Edgewood LX

I'm coming up from Museum Drive to where it intersects Avenue of the Arts. In front of me is a cyclist with no helmet who goes onto the sidewalk and across to the other lane(lanes are separated by a triangular median). He goes further towards the other sidewalk which I presume he's going to ride on. I have a yield sign and no traffic is coming so I cross the road(4 lanes separated by a median) and suddenly the other cyclist decides he's going to cross and crosses in front of me while I'm going about 15mph. I slam on the brakes, and slam the front brakes a bit too much. I do an endover hitting the pavement hard on my right thigh, scrape my right arm, and hit my head(front) on the road with a really good thud. Fortunately, I had a helmet which saved me from likely a slight concussion. I end up with a huge bruise which migrates down the leg during the next 2 weeks.

Dudelsack 

Gee, my stories are just minor skirmishes, like the time I stalled going uphill on a MTB and fell backwards on my helmeted head. Some part of the bike embedded in my knee, leaving a kind of nasty looking wound. I cleaned it up and put duct tape on it. It did fine.

Retro Grouch 

Yup. I don't know what I hit or what actually happened while riding with my grandson. I do know that 1 second later I had two broken elbows. I've since marveled at the short time elapse between everything going great and a life changing experience.

dirtclod

R.G. I come from a racing family offroad. Can't remember exactly what I was telling him, but I do remember my dad's exact words. He said, when things go to S they go to S in a hurry.

Tractortom

War Story...
Spring 2010
South Bay, Florida on the Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail

A pretty spring day here in South Florida, I decide to take my Catrike Trail recumbent on a long ride along the south shore of Lake Okeechobee. I load up in the pickup, and then stoped at the pancake breakfast the volunteer firefighters are holding at the fire hall in Lakeport, on the way. After driving to Moore Haven, I get on the Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail, and ride along at an average pace to the town of Clewiston, and then continue on the path to South Bay. Near the trail access point at South Bay, I'm looking at the campground down below the 30 foot all dike where the path is found, and trying to decide if I can cycle there in a day from my house with the trike and then complete the 120 mile round trip the next day with a night of camping. While doing this, I didn't notice the vehicle gate I was approaching at 14 mph. I actually turned my head and saw the gate at a distance of about 10 feet, and didn't even have time to raise my hands to ward off the impact. Struck the gate with the point of my chin and then the side of my neck at speed, pushing me off the back of the trike and over the rear rack and rack bag, breaking the rack attachment to the back of the seat frame. I managed to extract my bleeding self and lay on the asphalt of the path, trying to catch my breath, when a nice woman passing by asked me, "Honey is there someone we can call?" I assured her I was going to be OK, tied the rack in place with my bandana, and headed back towards the truck, some 25 miles away. After the first three miles, I called the wife and had her drive to Clewiston and meet me with the car, to haul me back towards the truck and home. Just after I met her, the swelling in my neck began to shut off my airway, and I began to have trouble taking a breath. An ambulance was called, and arrived promptly to feed me oxygen and check my vitals. The decision was made to send me to a Trauma center in Ft. Myers, and a helicopter was called. Ambulance hauled me to the landing zone, and helo hauled me to the coast and the trauma center at Lee Memorial. After a couple hours, several xrays and a cat scan, it was decided that I was NOT going to die, and was given a steroid injection to reduce the swelling in my throat, and I was released. Slept sitting up for the next two nights, was discovered by my ENT that I had a large bruise on the inside of my throat from the impact, but no other real damage. Had I been riding a diamond frame, I would have flown over the gate, but the low seating arrangement of the Catrike allowed my feet and the crank to pass under the gate, and the impact to be placed on my chin (which took seven staples) and my throat.

Digital Gee

These stories are downright scary. Shudder.

Tom Stormcrowe

Surely you got a laugh out of me being tangled up in a huge rose bush, being rescued by the Sorority girls of ΑΦ.....

Digital Gee

No, that was the scary part.

Bikey Mikey

I laughed my butt off. Reminded me when I was 13 riding a bike in circles in front of a girls house trying to impress her when the bike skidded out from under me. She ran over and helped me up....got a kiss that evening. Of course your story was a bit more painful but with some nice results...a good laugh too.

Barrettscv 

War Story
Catagory: Newbie Trail Crash
Location: Bedford, Ohio
Bike: Origin 8 CX700

Last month I tried out my new Schwalbe Smart Sam 29er tires on my newish Monstercross bike. I was being a scofflaw on a local Bridle path that has several steep sections. The tires were great, and I had that "I can cross any terrain" buzz in my brain. I was a eyeing a soggy section ahead of me while descending a steep, 20%, decline with front & rear brakes needed to control the speed while descending.

My front tire dropped into the bathtub deep marsh-of-muck and stopped cold. I went over the handlebars with the bike tumbling behind me. I did the huck-n-roll I learned while alpine skiing.

No real harm to me or the bike. I no longer pay any attention to that "I can cross any terrain" buzz in my brain.

Wogster

We all have at least one...

I was riding with my Brother-in-Law, cut a curve a little tight, some "genius" had cut an 8" deep, by 8" wide ditch beside the trail, of course my front wheel hits it, and stops moving, me and the rest of the bike keep moving, I go right over the bars, and land on my face. The bike was okay, I mashed some the nerves in my left arm, and got a lovely hematoma, which needed to be drained. This was along with various road rash on my face and other places. The only good thing, gave me a reason to grow a beard while the road rash healed This was the last time, I actually rode off road, too dangerous, I'll take my chances with the cars.

Red Rider

Category: Solo accident
Location: Mt. Holly, NJ, early 60s
Bike: English racer

I was in the 3rd or 4th grade, riding my great girls bike all over, and the neighbor kid brought over his English racer and told us we could ride it. I got on, road around, played with the gears, then grabbed brake to stop.





Nobody told me what happens when you stop with the front brake.

That hurt worse than any other spill I've taken, including the one where I broke my wrist.

missjean

War Story
Category – Crash
Location – Nashua, NH
Bike – Klein Palomino

About 8 years ago, riding buddy George, my husband and I went for a winter mtb ride one cold, icy day in a local park. The trails were ice covered so we were all riding with studded tires.
The trail was cut into the side of steep hill above a pond. There was a slight incline, then the trail did a steep dip down and an equally steep sweep up. Normally, if you got a good head of speed going down, you just let momentum carry you 90% up the other side, then with a couple of strong cranks & you were up and over. Well, George went flying down into the dip and was headed up the other side with me about 10 feet behind him. When he got to the part where a couple strong cranks were needed, he cranked, but his studded tires just spun out on the ice. He came to a stop and slipped backwards – right into me. We both went down, tangled in the bikes, sliding backwards towards the edge of the trail. He grabbed a tree and we stopped. I yelled back to my husband to stop!, but it was too late, he was already headed down the dip. He tried to stop, but just slid down the hill and piled right into us.

We all lay there for a minute laughing, then carefully untangled, slipping and sliding on the ice. George tried to walk up the steep, slick trail, but couldn't get traction on the ice & kept slipping back into us. Finally, he said to hold onto his bike and he grabbed the trees on the side of the trail and by stepping on some stones sticking up through the ice, pulled himself up the to the top of the trail. He held onto to a tree, reached down as far as he could and we slid his bike on it’s side up the icy trail so he was able to grab the front tire and pull it up. We pushed my bike & my husband’s bike up the same way. Then using the trees on the side of the trail, we climbed out too.

k7baixo

Category: Car/bike collision
Location: Auburn Al, 1980
Bike: Mercian King of Mercia framed tourer

I was six months out of the service and had just started school. It was a typical fall Friday afternoon and my last class of the day was done. I was carrying 21 hours and school didn't come easily for me....but class was out and it was time to go for a ride!

I left my tiny apartment and went north on Gay St and then turned east on Thach which is a small down hill. I made it maybe 100 yards when a car turned left in front of me and then....stopped in the middle of my lane.

I ** almost ** made it by her on the right by her front bumper grabbed the rear triangle of the bike and ripped the bike out from under me. When I hit, I did a nice tuck and roll and wasn't hurt.

The police came, she gave me her insurance agency who could believe I had a $1,000 wrapped up in a bike. I collected enough to purchase another Mercian frame and have the LBS move the components over but I sure do miss that black-framed Mercian. It was simply beautiful.

maddmaxx 

A long time ago, perhaps about age 12 I had an "english racer" with steel rims that didn't break all that well when wet. I was on a morning ride on a farm road, the sort that is wheel tracks with grass. The grass was wet, the road ended at a 3 strand barbed wire fence. The crash involved an over the bar entaglement in which the bike, I and the fence became twisted together.

There was no one else there and it took a long time to get myself out by rolling the fence back to the upright and getting untangled from the barbed wire.

To this day, the sight of barbed wire renders me watertight.

SuperDave

Category: Solo accident
Location: Absecon, NJ, this time last year
Bike: Jamis Coda Comp

The road I live on is the "alternate" northbound route out of Atlantic City, the route used by those who know and want to avoid the police presence of the Garden State Parkway. For that reason, my homebound commute from work was always on the sidewalk. I've seen so many drunks leaving the city, unable to maintain a lane, that I dared not ride the road at 11PM. My route is decently-lit so I dispense with the front light (although I always use a rear). After three years of riding it almost every workday, I knew every crack in it.

One night, coming home at 17-18mph, I struck a rather large branch extending across the *only* poorly-lit section of the trip. Bike and I went our separate ways - it into the road, me shoulder-first into a telephone pole. I remember it distinctly. I was still vertical, hadn't even had time to begin rolling forward after leaving the bike.

Incredibly, nothing broke either on me or the bike. My habit of underinflating my tires and the apparently-unbreakable Ritchey Aero wheels saved the bike. I was so deeply bruised that I missed a week of work, though. The injury to my pride was worse, though, knowing I had nobody but myself to blame for the accident.

Jamesw2

I was rolling down Left Hand Canyon near Boulder Co doing about 35mph when i hit a fist size rock. The front tire went flat in two revolutions. ( for some reason I watched the front wheel ) I crossed a traffic lane on a tight curve. Grabbing all the rear brake i could get and i went 30 feet towards the creek. I was lucky most places along the road you have a few feet before the creek here i had about 40 feet and used most of it getting stopped.
One of the things i learned from reading cereal boxes was that the hero always avoided danger. At the beginning of the story he would avoid the danger created by the writer in the previous installment. In that case I believe i avoided "great danger"

Still have the bike did 40 miles on it yesterday