Hey guys, I figured I'd share my first real crash with the same board that got me commuting in the first place. Anyhow, I have been commuting for a few months now and loving my new life. Last Friday I left work excited to get my record for miles in a week (68miles, 8 miles each way to work and back) and then it happened. I live in downtown Los Angeles and commute to West Hollywood on Olympic blvd (anyone in LA?) and was about a mile away from home when it happened. The right lane is usually pretty open for bikers, but theres a few rough patches. I came up to one and got to the left side of the right lane, only to start moving over to the right a bit to early. My front tire caught a groove in the uneven pavement while I was leaning right, the next thing I notice is that im above my handle bars.. then oddly enough I remember sliding on my head on the sidewalk thinking, "thank god I have this helmet".. next thing I know Im sitting on the sidewalk wondering how hurt I am. Long story short, I have a sprain in my left wrist, and a minor sprain in my right wrist, a hurt shin, and a raw arm/shoulder. Could have been worse. Anyways, I miss the commute, and just remember to pay attention at all times.. this has cost me a solid week and change of riding.. it sucks..

ps, sorry about spelling, typing with one hand.

That sucks about your bail but you`ll be back at it before you know it!

That sucks, heal up and get back at it.

At least you had a helmet.

=/

Good to see you plan on getting back at it! Best of luck!

Sorry to hear of your crash.

Get well soon.

Good to hear you are ok

Good to share some war stories

Hey, glad you're not hurt too bad. I'm in L.A. Olympic is one of the faster moving streets in the town (cars I mean.. they average around 50mph, at least when i'm driving it myself).. I'm kind of a new bike commuter, so that street's pretty intimidating to me.

You know one of the things I learned from experience is that I'm not cycling on the same streets I'd take if I were driving. This knowledge was not intuitive for me, as I do see other bikers on the arteries. There are bike routes that are labeled that roughly get you to the same place as the arteries for part of my commute. I read in your post that you're changing your route -- good move. From time to time I have to ride the artery roads like you crashed on and unless specifically necessary, or early Sunday Morning, I don't. That doesn't guarantee that I won't crash but adds a little safety. Glad you're OK.

Agreed. You couldn't pay me to commute daily on Olympic. Most of it is poorly paved and it's pretty much a freeway.

(to the OP) What are your start and end points? Let's see if we can't figure out a better route for you!

Glad you are OK. Hope you are back riding soon!

It's the weird the things you think about when you're falling.

Self: Am I falling?

Self to Self: Why yes I think we are falling!

Self: Well efin' mankey spank, I hope we'll be OK!

Self to Self: You should of bought the $100 helmet dude...

Glad you're OK though, get back on the bike ASAP.

Oh man I had about the same thing happen to me last week. There is a fairly decent down hill section at the end of my ride that has a right angle turn at the bottom. Normally I'll slow down a good bit because if someone blows the red light and I take it wide I might get smooshed.

I found that a portion of the concrete gutter has a pretty good drop down gap thing between it and the pavement. I was going at a pretty good clip, took the corner really hard and almost got high sided off my bike! Luckily my cat-like viking reflexes allowed me to keep on going. I'm pretty sure if anyone would have seen me they would have laughed, I know I would have!

Interesting, I was just getting ready to post about a crash in the exact same manner. Cruising to lunch last Friday, I caught a groove in the road, and in trying to get out of it I apparently overcompensated and wound up jumping out of it and then thinking to myself "sweet, I made it" seconds before I wound up sliding across the grass to my right. Its amazing that I didn't fall the other way, because it would have been into traffic which seemed hell bent on not noticing I was there. Banged up knees, dirt everywhere (fun to explain to coworkers when you get back from lunch, that's for sure).

Sucks, but it could be worse. Glad you're ok.

Good to know you're OK!

My first (as an adult) was more embarassing. I decided to run an errand to the hardware store. I got there and fell over trying to stop in the parking lot. It turned out that a clip-on cleat had worked loose and I couldn't get out of the pedal. I had to add bandages to my shopping list!

I also wondered why I always rode like a drunk. After years of maintenance, I discovered that my rear wheel was true, but not properly dished. The rim was about 1/4" off center, and I kept riding off the shoulder. I spent an afternoon dishing the wheel, and suddently I could ride a straight line! That problem caused a lot of minor accidents.

Owwww....Caught a groove? I can't imagine what that looks like, are you saying a new crack in the road? What do these grooves look like and how deep?

The groove I caught was the gap between the road and the shoulder (both paved) where they had previously installed an expansion joint (usually tar or some sort of flexible gap filler) but it had been torn out (usually due to the plows). Normally just wide enough to get the bike in the gap and rolling, but if you try to do anything but go straight in the gap, it catches and well... you caught my story