Originally Posted by
alan s
Instinct takes over, and you can save yourself from falling if you are not clipped in. However, it is extremely hard to unclip when you are already falling, and you will certainly go down if clipped in. Personally, I feel safer riding on platforms with studded tires, so even if I fall, at least my ride up to that point was less stressful than riding clipped in.
Instinct taking over is when you get hurt. Instinct says throw your hand out to catch yourself when you fall. It's not a good idea. Instinct says brace yourself, i.e. tense up, for the impact. Being tense is a way of getting hurt.
Look at the video again. People who saved themselves by throwing out a leg didn't really save anything. Several of them suffered bad impacts to their knees as well as wrenching their legs (look at what happened to the person at around 59 sec or 1:16). They still crashed. One poor woman (30 sec) even threw her leg out, kept herself from falling over on the low side but went over...hard...on the high side.
Last edited by cyccommute; 11-15-11 at 02:56 PM.