JaredG

I'm new to posting in the forums, but have been lurking for a long time.

Just wanted to say, I got in my first wreck this morning riding a 1961 bianchi specialissima conversion.

I battled a street car rail and the rail won. Scared the **** out of me, but I couldn't help but laugh because I knew how stupid I must have looked flying off of my bike with nothing around. Luckily, only one car behind me stopped to ask if i was OK.

I picked up some road rash on my left knee, right ankle, and a mildly dislocated shoulder. First wreck was mild, at least i got it over with.

gfrance

Lesson learned. You'll ride better from here on out because of it.

skinnyland

Nice. Once you get a good one under your belt, you realize it's not so bad, huh?

My latest wreck was due to some drunken no-handed riding. Forgot how different it is to ride a fixed gear with no hands, compared to a freewheel. Add booze, and you have me flying off my bicycle in the middle of 29th St. (at the corner of Howard). Love it.

coelcanth

why would you convert such a nice/classic/valuable bike ?
do you still have the parts from it ?

doofo

coelcanth is right

you deserved to crash

CF4L

My one and only crash was for the same reason. I'm still not sure exactly what happened. All I know is that I went over the bars hard and fast on a Ped bridge. Slid on my bag. No injuries at all. Im really have not idea how I came away so well.. possibly cause I was drunk and fell limp? It was bad enough that I make myself lay still for a min cause I was positive that something must have broken...

JaredG

i found the original frame with cranks, fork, seat stem & handlebars... the rest was missing.

ryand

the trolley tracks in philly served me many lessons.
one of them was "don't ride on me in the rain"
another was "don't ride on me in the snow"

yeah, you would think the first would have convinced me of the second.
it just sucks because you don't realize it until you can't turn.

DannyRocks

T tracks did that to me once... Like 2 months ago, I still have marks from it.

Igneous Faction

The Philly tracks are a death-trap. I've never crashed on them, but I've come close.

JWalton215

I got a front wheel stuck in one like two days after I moved back to WP (I had forgotten the6y were there). Dipped between two cars as I approached 38th Street at Spruce. The car I essentially cut off, slowed (but still rolling), lady's head out the window asking me, "Wow. Are you o- (SMASHes into the car ahead of her)." I felt bad, but I just rode away.

DeafLamb

Second day riding fixed, diagonal train tracks, and a case of beer mostly to myself. Don't remember the crash all to well. When I woke up the next morning I said to myself

"Why am I so friggin sore"

I go look at my bike. The wheel is so out of true, when I spin it it almost hits both sides of the rear triangle. Lesson learned.

ryand

dislocated sholder, head against the glass.

the second time i ended up doing a 360 and jumping over my bars. still don't know how i didnt fall.

also, those tracks sent my girlfriend to the hospital with a bruised tailbone, she thought she broke it. almost a year later and it still bothers her. the bike was too big (something her dad got her), since then i found frames that fit her.

john_and_off

it's not just you...

hockeyteeth

What is the reason for riding the rails? No car traffic? Is there any way to get hit from behind by a trolley, or do they move too slowly?

doofo

rails run on, along or across streets

if someone rides train tracks id like to hear about it

chunts

that was my second wreck. I was passing a slow moving car on an old road with defunct rail tracks and I was between them. it had rained so there was a big puddle ahead, and I risked crossing the tracks rather than a potentially huge pothole. I hopped the front wheel over thinking that would be fine but the back wheel caught and it just pulled the bike out from under me. I tumbled and got a couple bruises but was basically fine.

my brother broke his arm pretty bad crossing some tracks a while back. that **** is no joke.

schnee

I had my first wreck about two weeks ago. Let's see... fractures in my temporal bone, mastoid sinus, and three lumbar vertebra. The road rash on the side of my face has healed, but the fluid inside my right ear means temporary hearing loss and some pretty bad vertigo. Oh yeah, also wearing a back brace for six weeks. I *probably* wont need surgery.

This all happened on a really low-key group ride, maybe 12mph. I stood in the cranks to move closer to the front of the group, and my foot slipped out of my clipless. I'm debating which is more at fault, the clips (loosey-goosey eggbeater c's that unclipped), the bike geometry (steep, twitchy) or the fixed (awkward to recover from all my weight suddenly being on the rising crank). Anyway, I went over the bars, and was knocked fully unconscious for 30 seconds. I was taken to the hospital by ambulance, strapped to a board with a neck brace.

Allow me a bit of preachyness: wear your helmets, everyone. I always wear one, forgot it this ride, and went anyway, thinking I would be fine at such a slow pace... never again. I could have died.