jungovox

Hi all,

I am back on the bike this year - loving it and finally went clipless - 105's
Rode home from the bike the bike shop - all was good
Commuted to work the next day - 16 miles in the city - no problem -
on day three I go the end of my street slow to zero for a car - forget I am clipped in - pull up, fall over -
I thought I was smarter than that - but was distracted by thinking about the cool air.

It felt like i strained my arm - To my surprise a week later xrays revealed that I actually broke my elbow via a compression fracture (like a cracked tea cup) from falling and using my hand to take the hit... Mercifully no cast but will take a good month to heal - even though I am back on the bike - i am riding mostly one handed.

Damn!! - After reading the clipless fall threads here , I expected that i may forget and fall but a broken elbow - seriously ? Wtf !

Am i just brittle boy (57) or have any of you actually been injured falling clipped in at zero mph.

pdedes

when you fall at 0 km/h (0 mph), you are sustaining pure impact. falling at speed allows you to scrub some energy off via abrasion.

pharding

Join the club everyone falls when they go clipless. It is a rite of passage. Best wishes for a speedy recovery. Best strategy for the inevitable fall is not to attempt to break the fall. Keep your hands on the bars and roll over like a turtle onto your back as you keep your elbows in. It doesn't hurt. It is just embarrassing. The absolute worse strategy is to put your hand out and try to break your fall. It is not uncommon to get a braken collar bone doing that.

oxman

pdedes, that does not sound right to me. Increasing forward momentum from zero does not change acceleration toward the ground.

I fell while track standing at a red light, hurting my left wrist. I never went to a doctor. A dull ache in that wrist would flair up for almost a year afterward.

jungovox

thanks for the encouragement and the tips -

that car that i 'fell for' - freeked out and screeched to a halt - haha - the guy jumped out and made sure I was alright (a classy move)... he was truly curious as to why I fell - He knew he was 5 feet from me and I was slowing down - then just fell over - my pride took a hit on that one. -

D.I.S.C.O

Vertical force reminds the same no matter what the horizontal forces are. The road rash might distract you from the pain of broken bones

guadzilla

Incorrect (fail?). We arent talking about simple rigid objects falling here. Horizontal speed will affect how the human body hits the ground and how the shock of impact is transmitted/absorbed.

And yes, it is quite possible to fracture bones even from a fall from a stationary bicycle. Have seen quite a few fractured wrist bones when students didnt breakfall correctly after a hip throw... that's a fall from about the same height as a bike seat.

V

daredevil

3 words I don't think I've ever heard before. Would make a good band name.

Sorry about your poor luck. There's another thread on clipless where one fellow swears he will never fall. We maintain it's simply a matter of time.

umd

Seriously this crap again?

FAIL

daredevil

In a bad mood morning after Halloween?

umd

I don't think I have ever sworn I wouldn't fall, I can't see the future. I simply maintain that it is not inevitable, and there are many people who have never fallen due to forgetting to unclip. And regardless of whether or not I eventually do, I certainly didn't when I "first went clipless".

umd

Not in a bad mood, just pointing out stupidity.

big john

One of the women in my club fell over while messing with something on her bike and cracked 2 vertebrae. She's back now but still scares me.

Barese Rider

You can ruffle some feathers around here by not falling when you first went clipless and then claiming that it helps to get used to clipless before you go at it rather than take the attitude that a fall is inevitable.

ericm979

I fell over a couple times before I "went clipless" (back when clipless pedals came out). I'd tighten the toe straps for sprints or steep climbs and then forget to loosen them when I got back in traffiic. With cleated cycling shoes and tight toe straps, you can't get your foot out, at least not in time to prevent going over when you've come to a stop and forgot to loosen the straps.

As soon as the original blocky white LOOK pedals came out I "went clipless", sensing the advantages of not falling over at stop lights, and not having a tight toe strap cutting off circulation in my feet.


If before you "went clipless" you were on platforms or used toe clips without cleated shoes, I could see that "going clipless" would be a problem since there's a (small) bit of effort required to get loose from the pedals, but beleive me, it's far superior to what serious cyclists used before.

jdon

I won't say I never will, but I never have. Not everyone falls but it seems by the recent poll, that 70 percent do. Welcome to that club. I like my club better.

That said, a good friends kid was sitting on the door of a car with the window open. He had his arms on the roof using it as a table at a local take-away fast food place. Fell backwards and hit his head on the ground and passed away within an hour. You don't have to be moving to get hurt.

Barese Rider

[ With cleated cycling shoes and tight toe straps, you can't get your foot out, at least not in time to prevent going over when you've come to a stop and forgot to loosen ]

I used to leave the strap on my right foot loose just because of that and only tighten it when I thought Id have a good stretch of uninteruppted road to ride.

Mark Rolling

Wish you a quick recovery.
I also felt a couple of times when I went clipless, it happens to almost everyone. It wasn't too much fun, but ended without enjuries.
There are advantages and disadvantage for everything, so this is the disadvantage for going clipless.

raduray

Dude, why are you wasting your time with a thread in which you have no interest? Just move on.

X-LinkedRider

Damn, Yeah I fell like 3 times when I first went clipless, luckily they were all on towpath or grass. No injuries. Stay healthy.

umd

How is your complaining about my complaining any different than my complaining about pharding's post? I saw something stupid, I pointed it out. Moved on. Thanks.

eippo1

Only time I ever fell was when I had a few too many and forgot to put my foot down. Then I took a nap.

grwoolf

I've never fallen from forgetting to unclip and been riding clipless for well over 10 years (mostly mtb, just back on a road bike this year after many years off). On a MTB bike, it is just reflex to quickly unclip. On a road bike, I spent many years riding regular toe straps and cages when I was in my teens and early 20's. I still sometimes feel the urge to reach down and loosen the straps as I'm slowing for a stop.

However, I've have had 2 stationary 'wrecks' on my new bike in the last month or so and they can hurt. I bought some rollers and like to watch TV while riding them (you can figure out the rest). I've now got a couple small scratches on the new bike and a little gash on my leg that is healing nicely.

purefreedom

had one happen to me in the middle of Pennsylvania Ave and 7th Street in Washington DC on a ride back to my office from some spinning at Haines Point...it was about 5pm and traffic was crazy...Crossing Penn on 7th, I was behind an MTA bus rolling about 2mph, for some reason he jammed on his breaks in front of me, I stopped to quick to even unclip and down I went! lol It happened so fast my hands never left the bars, I kinda fell on the side of my right knee, then to my hip, arm, and shoulder! lol kinda like I hit and rolled...I laughed it off...the best part of it was that a bum laying on a bench yelled, "You aint supposed to be riding that bike in the street anyway! thats what you get!" I looked at him, got back up and on and hammered off with a smile...

eippo1

You need to go to your nearest field and practice track stands.