Originally Posted by
Allegheny Jet
BrazAd, Glad your fall had no dire consequences. You stated that you had your arms extended when you fell. That's a no-no and can result in broken wrist, arms and shoulders. It's better to keep your hands on the bars and fall onto you side and hip, much like a football player when he is hit and tackled. I've seen where cycling groups will go to a grassy patch and practice falling at slow speeds to get the feel of crashing without extending an arm. I have fallen so much in cyclo cross riding/racing and mtb riding that its 2nd nature to hold the bar, and now when I crash on my road bike I just hang on and let the body take the blow.
Not that I crash that often.
That's an interesting comment about holding on to the bars during a crash. I had my bike slide from underneath me last week when I hit a patch of sand/dirt while going through a section of pavement a bit too fast and wound up on my side and hip. I've got matching road rash burns on my left arm and left shin from that one. The bike wound up landing on the grass and I hit a combination of sand and pavement. I don't recall ever extending my arms when I crash but I don't hold onto the bars either.
The one thing I've noticed is that if I'm on a bike with a heavier alloy or steel frame, the bike usually winds up on me after a crash and I wind up with lacerations from the chainring on my leg. My much lighter CF road bike always ends up away from me. Fortunately, the rare instances where I have crashed have been at low speeds so I've managed to escape any significant damage to either myself or the bike.
A friend of mine wasn't so lucky many years ago. He hit a patch of gravel while going way too fast on a very bumpy descent and wound up sliding about 200 feet on his side.
He had one of the worst case of cuts, abrasions and road rash I'd even seen and he looked like something from a horror film. The bike wound up with one slightly bent brake lever.