I'm into my 2nd year of riding, about 8000-9000 miles, hundreds of rides but 3rd ride with a Garmin and 1st wreck. I'm not 100% sure of exactly what happened because my brain seems to have blanked out a few of the seconds but I'm pretty sure I was just coasting on a deserted road toward an intersection where I was going to turn around with a drink bottle in one hand while looking at the Garmin data. This is the hazy part: I saw a stick in the road, heard a tire noise and instantly was on the ground. I don't remember the transition at all.

I remember hitting though, on my right shoulder and arm, on the asphalt. Thanks to the Garmin, I discover I was doing only 14 and cadence zero. Another 5-6 mph and that would have been a hospital event. As it is I'm sore, freaked and bloody well skinned.

Maybe it's a relatively cheap lesson in paying attention, it could have been a bunch worse.

I have a friend that was coasting through and intersection not paying attention and picked up a stick in the front wheel. It sheered her fork and threw her to the ground. She is now a quad in a wheelchair. So, I'd say you got off lucky.

Reminds me of when I riding along a highway where another lane was being constructed. I kept looking and switching between all the functions on my computer and ran into one of those big orange barrels with the flashing lights.

Thanks for sharing... I'm glad you're OK. I'm going to share this with Hubby; I often see (saw) him looking down at his Garmin, and I've admonish him saying all it would take is a stick or a stone and he'd be down. It could happen to anyone of any skill level.

My friend was an ex Cat1 womens racer. It can happen to anyone. Keep your eyes on the road!

Help me understand why Garmin is at fault here?

There has to be more to the story about the ex-CAT1 racer that is in a wheelchair now???

Disadvantage to a Garmin? You could just as easily claim there's a disadvantage to riding a bike, a disadvantage to leaving your house, to waking up in the morning, to being born! ;-)

Except for your ability to think logically, I'm glad you weren't seriously hurt!

How so? The accident happened about 3 years ago and she has recovered to the point of being able to partially use one arm, otherwise she is chair bound. She was riding solo after a storm and was looking across an intersection for traffic, coasting around 15mph when the stick sheered her fork. It threw her face first into the ground and she was found unconscious by a passerby. She barely survived the ordeal in the hospital at the time. She continues to try to live her life to the best of her ability. The following year I rode in a fundraiser with some of her former teammates. That ride continues each year.

Here's a picture from that first fundraiser ride with her former teammates pulling me along.



BTW, those women are all in their 50s.

Cellphones, Mp3s, GPS, cycle computers, this, that and the other thing. I thought riding was to get away from all that crap......
Enjoy your surroundings, forget the rest of the crap.

How about this?

A possible disadvantage in the use on a bicycle of a class of objects which display large amounts of data, thereby potentially distracting a rider's attention at a critical moment, a Garmin being one such member of said class? Sheesh!

Having a stick flip up and jam the wheel while having two hands on the grips can put you on the ground. With one hand it is almost certain.

Because of the angle of the stem upon which my Garmin is mounted, the glare is so bad I can't easily see any of the data displayed, so I almost never look.

I know, when I get home, I can download it onto my computer and see all the data (and more!) from the comfort of my desk chair.

So, without really wanting to, my Garmin has made me a safer cyclist! Funny how that works.

Rick / OCRR

Thanks for the reminder. Garmins can have lots of data displayed, or a live updated map. The map can sometimes take 3 or 4 seconds to stop moving when the bike goes around a curve.

I'll sometimes take a much longer time looking at it, compared to checking the mph display on a regular bike computer. I need to be a lot more careful. At least I don't need to look down to switch from one screen display to the next, I just use the side buttons.

...cameras. I'm amazed how many pictures I see from the rider's perspective. That generally implies one hand off the bars and a good chance of not seeing a rock, stick or hole. I take "moving" photos once in a while but I'm not that comfortable doing it.

Wow that is sad. I have been sort of daydreaming and hit rocks before, little ones but avoidable ones,where they could have done damage.
Yeah you really have to pay attention all the time.

So I guess you'd excuse drivers who use a GPS, cell phone, etc and run into a cyclist? Pay attention to what you are doing. Don't blame technology.

Good point. As a frequent offender, I am aware of the potential risk when I take photos while riding the bike. But I do minimize the risk by carefully choosing the times when I use the camera. I keep my eyes on the road, not really looking at the viewscreen, just holding the camera pointing toward the subject. I fix the rotation and cropping in processing on the computer.

This is why I don't take this kind of picture on mountain bike rides. Too risky.

Not meaning to pooh pooh the concern for electronic device related distraction, but I don't really consider my Garmin any more distracting than the Polar HRM I used before. But it is not a mapping one. Note to self: be a little, no make that a LOT, more vigilant around sticks.

Glad you are okay TomD.

Where on earth did you get that? My mother used to have an expression she used whenever someone came up with some comment from just outer space: Speaking of totem poles---

Advantage me: I am technologically deficient.

Guess I see this thread as a warning about technological distraction, and not an attempt to excuse it.

Thanks!

I need to change the battery on my Cateye of course I have to look at the directions so I can reset every thing. 50+ mind don't for get, no memory for such things. As I was looking them over I saw a section that was titled "CAUTION!". The first item? "Do not concentrate on the computer while riding. Be sure to ride safely!"
Sage advice.

Anything can be distracting if you let it. We all need to keep our eyes on the road ahead. My older brother was riding in the bike lane with his head down and ran into a traffic baracade - with a sign on it that said 'Bike Lane Closed'! Let's all pay attention out there.