This may seem a bit odd, and maybe sacreligious to the cycling community, but has anyone mastered falling off their bike to reduce injuries and damage to their bike? I took a wicked spill after hitting a pot hole at dark and banged up my side pretty well, and this thought came to me.

roll, keep your momentum going as much as you can when you hit the ground. get back up before you have time to lay on the ground and mope.

+1.

Do not put your hand out. Tuck and roll. Eddy B actually had his racers practice gymnastics (i.e. tumbling)

It's saved my wrist and collar bone a couple of times.

try skateboarding (srsly)

Back in my early teens I was into rollerblading, it was fairly easy to protect yourself. At speeds +20 mph, it's a little more tricky. That's why I was inquiring.

I began on a MTB a 12 years ago and fell alot, now I road bike and still have the falling "skills", never fell over 20mph that would suck.

Though my falling skills don't do much good when I can't unclip

I did Judo for a long time and the falling skills I developed have saved my butt more times than I can count.

If you are going over the bars... tuck and roll.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rizlP_I0E6c

If your front wheel washes out underneath you... side fall
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLangLPf9xQ

The most critical thing to remember is to not stick out a hand to catch yourself because you just end up breaking your wrist or collarbone. Instead you should try to absorb most of the impact with the side of your body.. shoulder blade, hips/butt, and thighs.

Don't expect to be able to avoid road rash (unless you get lucky and can continue the front roll up onto your feet) but at least you can avoid breaking things.

I have these two friends that are into BMX. It's not even funny what they can walk away from. I've seen them fall off their bike and ride away in seconds for me, I would still be on the ground in a pretzel.

My first and only road bike crash so far was turning and I fked up my front wheel and rolled straight onto my back. Rolling ftw. My back and elbow took most of the blow/slide.

Looks like I'll pass his course when he becomes one of my coaches this winter.

Like MXL said, keep your hand on the bars, preferrably in a deathgrip. Keirin racers are trained to do this too. The most popular injury among crashed cyclists are broken collarbones which is caused by throwing out your arms to "protect" yourself.
All three of my crashes in my years, and no injurys. I've got permanent road rash scars on my eblow and the back of my hand/wrist to prove how I fall.

I had another crash today.

I did exactly this. No damage to my bike. My hip seems to think otherwise about my falling technique, but the bike is fine!

Practice.

Also, this:

2007 Giro stage 11

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jeB9_VmkNc

Watch popovych at around 50 seconds into the vid. The perfect fall.

I mastered the fall last Friday. CONCUSSION!

I try to fall on my side mainly, on the hip & thigh, while lifting my head up so it does not hit the ground. In certain situations like going over the front of the bike/handlebars & you can not clear the bike or bikes, then I will stick my arms out to avoid a head injury/concussion. Had a concussion as a kid which is worst thing that ever happened to me.


Sorry about your concussion above. Take it your helmet was destroyed.

You don't master falls. You survive them.

Tuck and roll. You guys kill me. I don't know about anyone else, but when I crash it's generally *BAM* and I'm on the ground in a heap trying to figure out if anything is broken. There's no planning involved. Just wear a helmet.

I almost always have a split second after I lose control of my bike where time seems to slow down. Without fail, the last thought through my mind before I hit the ground is: "this is really going to suck" (or something similar, anyway). I figured it was like that for everyone.

I've only had on fall that happened so quickly I didn't realize it until I was on the ground. I was doing ~30 MPH (downhill - just a guess on the speed, but I was keeping up with traffic) on a rigid MTB, doing some stupid "jumps" off of driveway lips, and I hit a patch of gravel in the gutter. Next thing I knew, I was sliding to a stop on the sidewalk, and my right leg & arm were on fire. Luckily nothing was broken, but I was very bloody. Never had a chance to tuck and roll, or anything else for that matter. I was just glad to be in one piece when I got back up.

-DR

Just like cornering skills and riding in the rain, it's something that very few Roadies practice.
Find a grassy area and practice tumbling.

Geez, how often are you guys crashing? I guess if you do crits it's expected, but if you're a rec rider and you are crashing enough to want to hone your falling skills, maybe you need to work on staying upright?
ES, please don't yell at me.

Great post and advice - what I take from the thread is that you need to basically accept that gravity is a fact, avoid throwing your arm/hand out, hope for the best, get up quick and walk it out. As a born-again biker (did it as a kid, picked it up again a year ago as an adult) I have yet to experience my first all-out crash, but I'm not afraid of the possibility. Riding primarily in NYC pretty much guarantees it will happen at some point, but that's not enough to keep me off of my bike. I just have to hope that my trajectory is not in a delivery truck's or crazy cabbie's path.

WRONG, you can master falling. There was big article in Bicycling Mag, of all places, on bike cop school. Those guys are actually trained to fall and get back up in a hurry. I've used the technique and it works.

do some 'cross

Great, you called pcad wrong. Now he is going to spend the rest of the day spamming the forum with threads related to how we all need to HTFU and just ride and deal with falling later. Good job.

+1 on not sticking your arm out. However, that does not guarantee that you won't break your collarbone. I've fallen more times than I'd care to admit, and I usually come out unhurt, but my latest fall where I broke my collarbone I tucked and landed on my shoulder.

i would say 95% of you who talk about not sticking your arm out are full of sh it. some things you cannot control.

have fun practicing your technique though.

mx

sure.

can you take some video of yourself doing it and post here for us?

mx