There are plenty of threads with photos discussing bikes, bike equipment etc. But what about separate thread for incidents? Some of us have probably had bad commuting experience they would like to share. Knowing the cause might help you to avoid similar accidents in fu Gravity Swift2 fixed gear, stock. First fixie since MTBs. Decided to start with something cheap.
This was the first day I used my new fixed gear for commuting. Way to work was perfect, didn't even expect to get there almost as fast, as on my car.
The ride back was at night, around 9pm. Passing a traffic light I felt sitting uncomfortable and tried to move closer to handlebars. What I've forgot, though, that I was riding a bike with no freewheel. Trying to get myself up by standing on pedals I lost balance and fell over the front wheel. Result - teared up handlebar tape, damaged brakes, dented front rim.
If you ever decide to switch to fixed gear, please don't give them hard challenge (like 14miles commuting) the first days. Get used to your fixie first, practice balancing, use it for short distances.

I had an accident in my shorts once, but you wouldn't want to see pictures.

1. If your accident just happened, read this sticky in A&S.
2. We can do without the pics of bodily injury- some people are squeamish at the first sign of blood.

What do you mean by accident? Do you mean a collision that results in damage to the bike or bodily injury? I've fallen before due to ice and wet leaves which resulted in minor scrapes and damage to my bike, but nothing major.

Accidents are unforeseeable and unavoidable. Incidents can be avoided. Operator error is not an accident.

Unless he sat there going, I'm going to shift my weight and plant my body on the pavement I'd call it an accident.

Exactly what I did!

no

No accidents yet but a couple of close calls from cars backing out of their driveways without looking, a recreational cyclist coming out of a sideroad with a stop sign (*ignored*) thinking that I (no stop sign) was going to give way to him (although his girlfriend was pretty cute, I would have slowed for her) and a car squeezing me to the edge of the road.

Oh dear, have I just jinxed myself?

By that definition hardly any incidents that happen on the roadway are accidents. Trees falling on the roadway, things like that, yes. Anything involving humans, IMO even including black ice, are avoidable. The idiots who wonder why I'm driving 25 MPH, pass me then spin into the ditch on the next corner probably think that it's "unavoidable" though.

yes.

That's pretty much the argument. The OED has two definitions for "accident," one of which only speaks to something happening unintentionally, and the other one talks about a lack of apparent or deliberate cause.

The vast majority of crashes have an identifiable cause, and are usually something that someone was doing perfectly deliberately, knowing that they increase the risk of a crash, but thinking that it won't happen to them. The OP's crash, for example, seems to be the result of choosing to ride a fixie, knowing perfectly well that these bikes are more dangerous than a bike with freewheel and brakes. Rolling stops and riding with clipless pedals also risks.

I got hit head-on by a car. It was bad enough that I don't remember the impact or the ambulance ride. This was about 33 years ago, when I was 21.

“Accidents are unforeseeable and unavoidable. Incidents can be avoided. Operator error is not an accident.”






On July 4th I watched an hour long thunder shower, with wind gusts easily reaching 70 plus mph. My bike and I had taken cover under a well built overhang of a store from which I had just bought a tent and a rear rack for my bike. After marveling at the power of nature I put on my rack for carrying the tent and a few gallons of water.


In retrospect I can see that my incident/accident that evening was foreseeable and therefore, avoidable. Twenty minutes after rain stopped and with my new tent and rear rack installed on my bicycle I started to bike home. Soon, I noticed massive tree damage from the storm. People who had wisely taken cover in the safety of their homes were now out in their yards assessing the damage to trees, houses , electrical lines etc.....


To me it felt safe to be riding home because it was still only 6pm and the sun was now out and danger from the passing storm and the tree damage was clearly visible and avoidable.


I noticed young tenets in this college town working on huge tree limbs that had fallen on sidewalks and informing them that it would be safer for them to report the damage to city, than to risk injury chainsawing dangerously leaning and partially toppled limbs.


Two hours later I was still bicycling/sight-seeing around this city thinking maybe the fireworks would not be called off and then it dawned on me. I should forgo fireworks and ride back to my campground before the sunsets. The side of the road in the towns north of this city would likely be littered with fallen branches (and perhaps a few too many drunken revelers on the road after celebrating).



So I packed up my bike and started the 15 mile ride to my camping spot. Eight miles north of the city and I had lost daylight and was climbing a huge hill. I had several blinking lights on the rear of my bike and two lights in the front because I like having spare safety equipment in case of failure. I was cresting the hill and only traveling 5 -8 mph, but because I was about to go downhill I looked back to see if I could pull out into the middle of the traffic lane. Traveling uphill at 5 mph it's pretty easy (with two forward facing lights) to spot debris on the side of the road and react appropriately.



After that quick glance back, to see if I could safely pull out into the middle of the lane, I was quite surprised to then look forward again and see two large branches blocking the entire northbound traffic lane. My guess is that very little traffic had been on this road and if any had been traveling northbound, they merely went around the branches into the opposite lane to avoid since the storm had brought them down.


In the moment, it sure felt like I had an accident that night when I jammed on my brakes and did a slow motion fall onto one handlebar end, cracking a couple of ribs. The 140 and 170 lumens bright set of forward facing lights are not adequate for the speed I would like to travel at so I anxiously await the arrival of my 1200 lumen lights that I was surprised to learn can be purchased for under $30 at Amazon.


I was lucky I just cracked the ribs and bruised my knees this time.


"The price of bicycling safety is eternal vigilance" Jeffrey Ferris

In March I went for a ride on my road bike because all the snow had melted off the road, sidewalks, and pathways. For some reason I decided to go full-speed down a very steep hill. Unfortunately, on that hill I found the last bit of ice in the city. Snow-melt from one side of the path had run across the path and frozen overnight. If the pathway didn't curve I could have just gone straight over the ice without turning and been fine. But the path curved, so I could either purposely slide out on the ice at about 20km/h or ride off the pathway and off-road it.

I decided to off-road it. Might have been better to slide out, because I hit a bump and flew 20 feet through the air down a hill with my bike sailing over my head. Landed hard on my shoulder and broke my collar bone.

Now I've been riding that hill nice and slow ever since, even in June.

Interesting story. A mirror might have helped, as you can see behind you without losing time turning your head and back.

I'm curious about these inexpensive, powerful lights you found, can you share?

Trying to parse the original post is giving me a headache.

Do you want incidents or accidents here? If everyone's commute is anything like mine, I have multiple incidents per day, accidents on the other hand, I can luckily count on one hand for many years of cycling.

This is most likely the 1200 lumen light referred to.

If you go to amazon.com and search for "1200 lumen bike light" you will find many suppliers of these lights and some are even brighter. The one i ordered cost $24.99 and includes rechargeable batteries.
One person reported that the batteries supplied were unreliable and if so, I'm willing to spend $40 to buy a large external battery pack for $40 by EasyACC that would extend the run time reliably.

Pictures or it didn't happen!!! I have only been riding for about a month and a half but no accidents yet.

I accidentally got in the way of a Camry in 2011. Totaled my bike and broke my clavicle. Did not make it to work that day. Or the next month and a half.

Nonsense. They may have unpredictable response for an inexperienced fixed rider, but they're not dangerous per se.

I don't know about accident or incident, but I've had a self-inflicted stupid....

20mph, road tires, from pavement across a patch of deeper than expected sand... it ended badly. Didn't break anything, but torqued both shoulders and left hand and forearm badly during emergency, cement assisted deceleration. Pain lasted a couple months, took about six months to recover full function and strength.

Fortunately, no one that I know saw the event.

I'm also pretty good at slipping on wet pavement going too fast, but those are usually alot more funny and less damaging.

I went up a steep and curved concrete ramp/bike path, and my right pedal hit the corner where the ramp meets level ground. I landed a few meters away, on the side that didn't carry my laptop in a pannier. I felt lucky and bruised.