v639dragoon

So this is my third week of road cycling. I was on a longer ride yesterday at my 60th mile, having gone up 6500 ft of incline. My body was just giving out so I had called someone to come pick me up. I finally reached the top of what seemed to be a 2 hour long hill I had been going up. So I started going down. I wasn't going to fast, garmin said only 25 mph and there was a sharp turn and I leaned in a bit to turn and was on the brakes a tiny bit when I caught some gravel and slid off to the side of the road. Hit my hip on the ground first and cut up my jersey and shorts and messed the bike up a bit. Had to go to the hospital, but luckily nothing was broken. I just have some really bad bruising on my hip and it looks like a grapefruit, and bad road rash. I wanted to know for when I'm healed up in 2-3 weeks, if you guys have any tips for taking turns going downhill? I know to lean my body with the bike a bit, but sometimes when I use the back brake the tire will skid out and I catch myself. Should I get better tires? I see guys on the tour taking turns so quickly, even if there wasn't any gravel going at high speeds like that I'd fly off a cliff.

I'm upset I messed up my bike a bit, one of the shifters up top doesn't shift correctly, I should be able to fix it. You guys were right when saying "when you crash" not "if". Any tips and tricks for taking turns downhill would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Beaker

Sorry to hear about the crash - I'm sure the bike will be just fine, and in a few days the swelling/tenderness from the road rash will start to lessen.

To your question - it'll be very hard for folks to diagnose what caused your crash as there are so many variables, but here are some points to consider. Firstly, you've only been riding for three weeks, it takes time to really get used to handling a bike, so don't be too hard on yourself. That being said. Balance and where you put your weight on the bike are about the most important factor. For me that means get low, ride in the drops not the hoods and weight the outside pedal when you corner with the pedals in the 6 and 12 o'clock positions. Finally, don't make too much use of the rear brake, it doesn't provide much stopping power and it's easy to lock - especially downhill where more of your weight is on the front wheel.

Heal up quick.

island rider

First rule, don't hit the gravel. Better riders than I will probably have good advice for you, but I wouldn't feel too bad about yourself for the accident. If you hit something that makes your tires slide out from under you on a sharp turn I'm not sure any tips or tricks for taking the downhill would have helped much.

Savagewolf

Here are some tips that work for me. If I feel uncomfortable going down a hill, I squeeze the top tube somewhat with my legs to center my gravity. I also usually go to the drops as well as it feels more stable to me. I'm also not afraid to hit the brakes to keep myself at a comfortable speed according to how I feel and what the terrain is like.

When using the brakes, I tend to use both front and back ones. I lightly squeeze them, and only for a very short time. After a few seconds, I do it again and it usually keeps me at the speed I like without overheating the brakes.

dissident

don't hit gravel and sand on a curve. Even while jogging I notice the massive reduction in traction sand has on my shoes... road bikes and motorcycles don't stand much of a chance if they are taking a steep curve and hit sand. By the time you realize what's happening it's probably too late to try to do anything... but if you see sand ahead, attempt to cross it going as straight as you can, or slow before you hit the sand in anticipation of traction issues.

Laws of physics... object in motion will stay in motion... so if you're going straight you will stand a much better chance of avoiding traction issues.

Jaymadd

+1 for laying off the rear brake. I use my front break about 85% of the time.

https://sheldonbrown.com/brakturn.html

HokuLoa

Some basic pointers:

1) Develop your handling skills slowly and in a controlled space. Practice in a big flat parking lot to get the feel of the physics involved.
2) Descend in the drops.
3) Use you front brake mostly and do your braking BEFORE the turn.
4) Pick your line through any turn and lay off the brake until through the turn (braking midturn can easily result in a skid)
5) Pick a line that avoids anything slippy like sand, gravel, painted lines, organic matter like leaves etc.
6) If you see slippy things you must pass over try to stay as upright and as straight as possible until you are safely past them.
7) keep your center of gravity low and position your weight appropriately for the turn AND for your speed (you practiced this before in the lot, right?)
8) Let the physics work FOR you rather than trying to fight it. This comes with practice, practice, practice. It is an understanding you will "feel" more than a "learn by being told."
9) Stay loose and conquer the fear. Rigidity and fear often spell mishap on descents. Plan right, relax, and let the bike do what it was intended and engineered to do.

DannoXYZ 

Sorry to hear about crash. Glad that you survived it with minimal damage. You've got great attitude about it and things will improve for you. Couple of ideas:

1. on ANY ride over 1-1.5hrs, bring along some energy-bars and/or drinks. Your body can only store about 1500-2000 calories as glycogen and when that runs out, carb/fat metabolism goes down tremendously and you catabolize muscle for energy (fatty-acid spiral requires input of ATP from aerobic combustion of glucose). The biggest decline when you're low on blood-glucose is brain function, it ONLY consumes glucose and makes poor decisions and has bad muscle-control when you're depleted.

2. practice maximum-braking using BOTH front & rear brakes in a parking-lot. Roll-on the brakes gently to maximum in about 1/5th of a second. Don't just grab both-brakes and squeeze as hard as you can. Some lady posted on here that she woke up in hospital after going for a bike-ride. Turned out she grabbed the brakes and went over the bars and hit her head. Also practice shoving your butt off the rear of the seat and placing your belly on the saddle when under maximum braking. This helps lower COG and prevents the bike from lifting as much. And... learn to modulate the brakes. The initial application of both brakes then requires you rolling off the rear and you squeeze more in front. At some point, you've got only 5% or less on the rear brake and 95-100% on the front. Maximum deceleration-rate is when 100% of the weight and braking-power is on the front. Practice, practice, practice....


3. on a downhill, do ALL of your braking in a straight line before the corner. It's OK to end up short and coast for 10-30ft before entering the turn. The front tyre will turn and lean over the bike much easier when it's not loaded up with braking. Your arms and hands can also do a better job of steering when you're not braking. IF you have to brake in the middle of a corner for any reason, use both brakes evenly. Rear-end slide can throw you into the other lane and into oncoming traffic. Front-end slide takes you down instantly. Using both brakes keeps both ends of the bike stable and allows you time to manuveur around an obstacle.

4. don't worry about or obsess about equipment. Unless you've got a 20-year old $5 thrift-store special with cracking tyres, most people are not able to ride their bike to its physical limits anyway. Until you're able to slide both tyres evenly around a corner (with zero braking), then work on your skills and technique.

5. learn "the line" around a corner. It's the path that allows maximum-speed around a corner with minimal braking (as big of a curve as possible with minimal bending). It's also the line of maximum-safety when used at slower speeds because it leaves you the most traction in reserve. This line starts you at the full outside of a corner at the entry, then apexes 50% through at the full inside of a corner, then you drift all the way to the full outside on the exit. I don't have a readily availble picture, but the ideal line for beginners to learn is a combination of the red & blue late+early apex lines. Make your entry and exit paths symmetrical with an apex at 50% through:


You can practice cornering and picking lines in a parking-lot. Set up cones to mark the desired entry/exit and apex points. This is what I've been doing with my wife on her motorcycle to get ready for track-racing and it really helps the mental parts of bike-control. Good luck & have fun!!!

Beachgrad05

Have the bike looked at. Don't know what bike you have but it would be a good idea to check for damage that might have been done.

valygrl

Great advice here.

The only thing I would add is you are a beginner, those guys in the TdF are experts who have been riding for years and are paid to go fast. There's nothing wrong with taking the downhill corners nice and slow while you are learning.

P.S. - 60 miles and 6500' is a monstrously huge ride for a beginner! Nice work!

v639dragoon

Thanks for the advice and encouragement everyone. I have a stock 2012 Trek 2.1 . I'll give the tips a try and practice with my brakes more. I'm also going to try to find some group rides around here in the bay area. Still have a lot to learn about road cycling.

DannoXYZ 

Lots of rides in that area:

https://www.unitedvelo.org/Home/ride-calendar
https://www.teamsanjose.org/section/rides.php
https://www.actc.org

Let me know which one you're going on and I'll join you. When starting out, be careful about overdoing it. Too many miles will wear you out and cause mental issues.

tanguy frame

I'v been riding 40 years and I also crashed 3 weeks ago, hospital stay, stitches on the elbo, huge bruse down to the bone on the hip. Stiff as a board for 3 weeks and I'm finally starting to feel a little better. Took 3 accupuncture treatments to promote healing and it really helped me feel better. I'm back on the bike now after minor repairs - shifters and bar tape mostly - (check your rr derraileur alignment).

That hip bone really can hurt!!! Hope you heal fast.
Vitamine E ointment helps the skin heal. So does grapefruit seed extract. So does Neosporin. I found a product called NutriBiotic Skin Ointment that is da bomb - very spendy but worth it. I used non-stick gause pads taped down on one side. rotate the tape around the bruise to avoid getting sensitive skin under the tape. And tell those screaming nerves to calm down! (My doc said at least I didn't damage the nerves! - Damn that hurt!

Ice41000

Congratulations on your first crash! You are now a real cyclist! ;-)

Regarding turns - practice, practice, practice. Follow better (but not MUCH better) riders.
Use both brakes. Brake before turns.

adrien

Agree. Also...when you brake, especially hard and especially when going quickly, counter the forces with your body. Lift slightly off the saddle and move your behind back to counter the shifting of the center of gravity forward.

TrojanHorse

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned this but when you are cornering - look where you WANT to go, not where you ARE going...

newbies (this is really a motorcycle tip but it works on bikes) tend to get tight and look at that thing they don't want to hit and then that's exactly what they do. Most bikes / motorcycles can corner much better than we think they can, it's a matter of trusting the machine and not getting super tight on the handlebars.

All the other advice above is good as well but do remember to look through the turn to a safe exit point.

Camilo

Basic. I've seen it many times with inexperienced riders. I guess I learned the lesson riding my single speed kids' bike in the 60s, it has never been a factor for me on a road bike, like muscle memory. ALWAYS look ahead and anticipate, avoid sand and gravel, and NEVER turn on sand or gravel.

PhotoJoe 

This is true, but adding a very trivial point that helps me...remember, you tend to go where you are looking. Looking at the hazard is called "Target Fixation". It's what we call "bad".

ColinL

I'm going to guess that your technique was horrible and the situation was avoidable. That's ok, it happens.

+1 on practicing somewhere on level ground, with a lot of space. You can control the situation much easier if there's no downhill and no ditch (or guardrail).

v639dragoon

Ya my technique was probably horrible. I had been without water for a couple of hours, the road I decided to go on was extremely long and steep (didn't anticipate this) and no stores were in sight. Heat, dehydration, and being frustrated probably added to bad technique and me falling. You live and you learn though. I def was braking during turns, I didn't know you weren't supposed to do this. I have a lot on my plate to work on when I heal up, thanks again everyone!

Shinjukan

Not to rub salt to injury (again, no pun intended), but the upside of crashing similar to what happened to you makes one a better rider the next time around. For those of us who have crashed in the past, it makes us contemplate what we did that made everything wrong. At this point, this is what separates the poseurs from those who really are passionate about cycling. The poseurs would simply say "That's it" and walk away altogether from cycling while the dedicated ones (like you) would try to accept what happened, learn from the other riders, visualize the good pointers, apply them and come out a better and wiser rider the next chance available.

Like what you shared, nothing broken except your ego so you'll recover soon. The road's waiting to welcome you back.

JustinHorne

One thing that helped me out a little was getting over my fear of the road 'pulling' me faster. It's hard to explain, and maybe you don't experiance this, but I noticed that on descents my speed would be high enough I was on and off the brakes to stop myself going faster, even though I have ridden on flat ground at higher speeds. For me, the mental aspect of the fact my bike was wanting to accelerate made me want to be on the brakes a little harder.

For instance, I've done hours in pacelines over 27 mph, and into the low 30s, but for some reason goign 25 down a hill worried me. Once I got over that fear and let my bike do what it wanted to do, I was more comfortable. That, and my brakes would be cooler if I needed them.

Lastly: As mentioned, bikes are VERY maneuverable. I've definitely saved myself on a few tighter than expected corners by gritting my teeth and leaning farther into the turn rather than trying to grab the brakes and go straight [off the edge.]. Plus, I'd personally rather lay the bike down low side than ride straight off the side.

hueyhoolihan

i'm not into telling people how to do something that is fundamentally a balance issue. but if your rear wheel is skidding out and you have to catch yourself while cornering, for god's sake slow down. give yourself a chance to learn.

BTW, if uncomfortable descending, squeezing the toptube with your legs (apologies to Savagewolf) won't help you . the trouble is too much speed. i recommend squeezing the brake lever.

EdIsMe

This is all great advice. One thing I feel is missed is you'll steer primarily with your hips, not your handlebars. If you feel like you are pushing or pulling the bike through the turn, it's quite possible your balance is off.

Also, and this can't be said enough, RELAX. Keep your body loose and calm so that you can react appropriately to anything that may happen.

Braking and cornering are a matter of traction. You only have so much to give. If you are using 100% of your traction (force) in braking, you will have none left for cornering and will slide out. The same applies vice-versa. You should attempt to do all of your braking before the turn, and then just coast through the turn without braking any more. If you need to brake during the turn, this just means you didn't brake enough before.

rangerdavid

lots of good advice here, so just let me add, always, ALWAYS be aware of road conditions. if you'll be descending the same road you climb, keep a lookout on the way up for gravel, water, etc. It will be there on the way down. There's always the unexpected animal, dog, cat, etc that can run out in front of you, but you always have to expect the unexpected.

most of all, a man has to know his limitations. you said you were tired. if you're worn out, maybe even though 25 isn't that fast, it may have been too fast for your physical condition at that time.