Serious question. I've always loved riding and felt totally comfortable in all kinds of traffic -- my fears being more about how far I can push myself -- not the other stuff. But since I stupidly fell last week (I jammed my gears going up hill), I'm totally spooked. I hope you guys won't make too much fun of me.

I'm just hoping you might have some advice for getting over the butterflies that you never had before.

the only way to confront a fear is to immerse yourself in it, go ride your bike up and down that hill until your exhausted.

I wouldn't know. I've fell before, one time as an adult on my road bike and many many times as a child on my BMX and MTBs, but never experienced any butterflies because of it. Just ride on, I guess... or don't. You'll eventually get over it, or you just won't ride. Either way, problem solved.

There's always some residual fear. That's called learning.

Simply learn from your mistakes (like shifting under a high torque load in the middle of a hill) and go right back out. Bet you won't make the same mistake again. I've fallen my share and even took a pretty bad hit from a car, but was back on the bike as soon as I got the doc's OK......but I do look around before turning a bit more as a result.

Ever since I was a kid I've been use to falling or crashing. I've even had several motorcycle crashes on the canyons and race track, granted I was wearing a full suit but I just go back and do it again without much thought. I think for some people it's easy but for others they get traumatized and have a hard time getting over it. As somebody mentioned, you either get over it or you don't. What I realized with dangerous sports is that many people who do them don't realize that at some point in time they WILL get hurt doing it. You have those who get hurt and keep doing it, and you have those who get hurt and quit. Know that this is not the last time you will go down. Either accept that fact and get back on the bike or get rid of that death trap and play some computer games instead. You won't ever get hurt if you stay in your room.

i know this sounds crazy but enter a local cat5 crit. u'll gain back that confidence u once had before. otherwise it may take time.

Watch pro cycling, the Giro is going on right now.

Thanks for these thoughtful replies. It's a weird thing. The fall was dumb and not my first ever but ever since, I've just had butterflies and every car that passes or dog that barks makes me jump. I've never had that feeling before. The LBS owner, who has been my mentor in getting me from MTB to the road, is taking me on a ride on Sunday. He says it sometimes takes time to get over the nervousness. Hearing from other cyclists is very helpful. Thank you. I love this sport. Being out on the road is one of my favorite things to do ever. I'd hate to lose that. I'm not giving up. I'm just learning another thing. Again, thanks.

I'll think of you when I'm pushing off in the morning. I'm determined to ride until I get over the fear.

Did you get hurt physically? What happend to your gears? Let me guess was it sram and you downshifted the big ring while up shifting the cogs? When that happens to me I get so mad I feel like I could throw the bike out from under myself.

I remember an old skiing adage - if you are not falling, you are not skiing hard enough. Well, I have a partially torn ACL in my right knee from skiing and could not walk for almost six months waiting for the partial tear to heal. But, I still ski.

For biking, I fell a couple of times when I switched to clipless pedals while crossing an intersection and did not unclip on time. I also fell a couple of times when I switched to Speedplay when I was concentrating too hard on clipping in and not maintaining my forward speed. Fortunately, I have never crashed (knock on wood) and seriously hurt myself. But, I do have a slight fear of falling - but, I must confess that my fear is in damaging/scratching my bike rather than hurting myself.

Last month, I was skiing in spring conditions at Mammoth and twisted my left knee. I could not walk down stairs for a day and was limping the next. But, I skied on the third and fourth day - although gingerly. Only last week, after going to a sports therapist/masseuse who 'twisted' my knee back did my pain finally and completely go away.

The fear of falling will be always be there. It is a natural human instinct of self-preservation. Fear is a good thing if it keeps you alert and not complacent. But, do not let fear control you (Dune: for fear is the mind killer). I believe that pain will be temporary, wounds will heal and your helmut will protect you. If you really want to, you can do what a couple of crazy MTB friends do - they practice falling on grass lawns. Probably necessary because they like to do downhill MTB'ing down skiing mountains like Mammoth and can go crazy fast and occasionally crack helmets.

Mark

+1

I broke my neck in December 2010, and still get a bit nervous when riding at over 40mph. It's not so bad that I avoid fast descents, but I'm more aware of the risks, and more focused on safety than top speed.

It will be hard. Judging just by how you are speaking you may be just slightly introverted but not necessarily awkward, however more importantly you seem like an emotional guy that is sensitive, nervous, and most likely sympathetic with a probability of being very kind, warm hearted, and easily liked. This is in contrast to a very resilient personality, of someone who is a little more dry but also steadfast and easily overcoming of challenges due to a lack of sensitivity to emotional response.

The qualities you have will present more of a challenge as you look to overcome this fear, but given your traits, you most likely have a very powerful tool-- creativity. If I'm right, use this to your advantage; a creative mind will find ways around all obstacles. It is the work smart not hard mindset, the type of person that doesn't braze through harm sucking up the pain, but uses strategy to maximize efficiency. Be confident in these abilities. Your mind was shocked by an event, it didn't like it to a great extent and now it is trying to make sure it never happens again. What you need to confront is the action itself. You don't truly want to forget about it, what you want to do is ask yourself if it was a fluke and unlikely, and if not then justify to yourself that it is ok if it happens again, but that you have learned and that the chances are even smaller. From there you want to do what others have said and go back to ridding in a similar circumstance. From here you will gain confidence as you find that every time your ride and succeed is a time that makes the accident seem out of the norm. If it happens again, then your body will further try to limit your abilities, but most likely you will be fine and with each day you will become a stronger and a more intelligent rider.


EDIT:
Also, you say you jammed your gears, so become knowledgeable on how to maintain a bike if you do not already know how. Technical understanding is why we do not fear Zuess any longer when lightning strikes. If you work on your own bike, not only will you reduce mechanical failure, but you will understand it and know how to fix it. After placing YOUR hands on YOUR bike you will have great confidence. Ex; if a racer has a wheel fly off in an event, he will think that the blame is to the mechanic and not the bike, so he will make sure to check his own wheel every race and be at peace.


Be bold

Just ride. Everyone gets extra cautious after a significant accident but you'll get back to a new comfort level in short order.

^^^
Yikes - Did u happen to just swing by your local weed dispensary before writing this post? Seriously ... all this insight from a two sentence post ....impressive

It's ok, don't beat yourself up for being scared. It always takes me some time to get over it after an accident, but eventually I do.

I was on vacation last year and got left hooked. It destroyed my bike but I was relatively unhurt. My first ride was when I got back home a week later. I swear every other car was trying to right or left hook me that day, but I got through it and the fear went away. Next month I’m going back to the same area for vacation and I feel I have to ride down that same road of the collision. I need to pass by the spot I was hit and exorcise it out of my system. I wouldn’t consider myself a necessarily brave person, but my love of cycling is greater than the fear.

I know this is the Road Forum, but maybe you could try cross training with a little MTB, cross, or pumptrack. On one mountain bike ride I lost count of the number of times I was off in the rhubarb.
Nothing like repeated contact with the ground to get over one's fear of it. Technical riding won't hurt your handling skills either.

You just keep riding. For a while, you'll be nervous. But one day you'll realise that you aren't nervous any more, and haven't been for a while.

it was a freak accident, not the norm, ignore and HTFU and ride more.

You need to understand what caused the fall. Until you understand it's all superstition and therefore fear. You don't want to end up like a primitive culture, sacrificing an animal before going out on a ride because the last time you sacrificed an animal before a ride you didn't crash. One didn't cause the other, they just happened to be correlated.

So figure out what happened to make you crash. Once you understand that you'll be in a much better situation.

You'll also want to be conservative in your equipment and riding choices. This means that you should understand what could cause you to crash and to take steps to reduce the chances of doing so. For example have you checked your chain? Do you know what to check? One of the most common causes of surprise crashes that I've seen is either an improperly installed new chain or a totally worn old chain. They'll fail in an instant but will give you plenty of seeming random warning before they fail.

Other low-chance but high-damage items are bars, stems, forks, front tire/wheel units, front skewer, front derailleur, brake cables, chainrings, pedals, cranks. Make sure they're all installed correctly and in good working order. Most of the other stuff can fail without hurting you too much. When the above parts fail it can be disastrous.

It's a case of association. The pain and fear of falling is linked, database-like, to the memory of bicycling, so that the act of bicycling brings back thoughts of "I'll fall! This is going to hurt!" The way to break the chain is to break the association between bicycling and falling. For that, the local Therapist should be able to help. As a cheap, and not-reliable self-help alternative, you could try taking a beta blocker, wait for it to kick in, and discuss your accident in detail to someone who cares enough to listen to you prattle on. Beta blockers are used for things like stage fright, by calming down anxiety response. Do this a few times, and then try beta-blocker-bicycle rides rewarding yourself with ice-cream or pie. Eventually, unreliably, and possibly not, this will break the association between the pain and fear of falling, and the act of bicycling.

Amateur psychologist wants 5¢! I really would try the therapist option, since, unlike my option, the therapist is someone who actually has a clue.

Edit: Memory is such a bizarre thing. It's apparently not what we think it is, either.

I always miss the bike before I'm even healed up. So I guess my advice is to keep remembering what you love about it.
Unless you're really stupid, you learn from each fall. Don't think of it as fear, but knowledge.
I'd be lying if I said I wasn't still a little hinky about the trolley tracks, the shady curving descent where the black ice lurks, or the four-way stop where the Jeep didn't, but I still traverse those spots frequently.

Keep riding. Ride that hill. Your confidence WILL come back if you keep riding.

Do figure out the cause of the mechanical failure though.

First off, I've done a lot of biking in Healdsburg and think it's a great little town.

Secondly, other than just riding to be more acquainted with your bike, focus on changing your riding technique. I'm amazed at how many people who are even experienced riders that I see and hear shifting to a lower gear once they've already begun a climb. That not only make it more likely that you'll drop a chain or jam your chain a sprocket, etc., but that kind of shifting under stress can lower the lifespan of your chain and other critical components.

Lastly, to the extent you can, just relax on the bike. Your body will perform much more instinctively when relaxed, allowing you to maximize your abilities and just generally have much more fun. Even now, having been back on the bike seriously since 08, if I'm on a tough hill and hear a tractor trailer gearing down behind me because they're not able to get the visibility to pass just yet, it takes some doing to not be a little unnerved. But once I relax, I can easily draw from my experience that shows they're much better drivers than the typical SUV motorhead in a hurry. Overall, being relaxed will greatly increase the chance that you won't do something that will lead to undesired outcomes.