How often do you crash?
 

How often do you crash, and what are the most common causes? I've crashed twice since starting cycling again and it probably isn't a coincidence that they both happened when riding in the rain. I don't have great handling skills but was curious how often crashes happen to others here.

Once a year. Leaves, ice too! Gotta concussion last year that way.

Once in a dog's age.
Inattention or wet conditions.

every night

There are 6 that I can remember (not counting minor MTB falls). I've been riding for over 10 years now, so that doesn't sound so bad. The last one was pretty serious, though.

1: my fault for overcooking a corner
1: hit by a car (mostly the driver's fault, but partially my fault, too)
3: hit something in the road (my fault, not paying attention)
1: ice (the bad one)

As you can see, they're all my fault. I mostly ride solo, so unless I get hit by a car they're pretty much all going to be my fault.

I had 3 falls in the last 4.5 years of biking, one was from a clip fall, another one was i took a turn to sharp and fast, last one was a clipless fall.

I used to crash once a year and believed in the macho ethic of, "If you don't crash once in awhile, you are not riding enough".

Then I got gobsmacked by 2 bad crashes in one year.

June 20th, 2012: Descending a local mountain I climb many times each year. No memory of the crash.
I was found unconscious in the road with a cracked helmet. I woke up in the hospital 2 days later to the relief of a very worried family.

June 8th 2013: A deep crack on a rough road seized my front wheel on a steep descent on an otherwise mundane local road.
I went down and lost skin on my knee cap, almost to the bone. I self treated with Tegaderm and was riding again in a day or two.
I got a nasty keloidal scar from that spill.

Now I am riding more carefully, and hopefully will close out 2014 as a crash free year. 5,582 miles so far in 2014.
All ridden while keeping rubber side down and shiny side up.

From what I can tell, every 8,000 miles or so. Most of them are wash outs on slick surfaces though a couple were caused by cars that I just couldn't avoid even with 20/20 hindsight

Only once since I started riding again (away from work where we have Schwinn Cruisers)
I collected my daughter when trying to snag her dropped water bottle (a move WAY above my skill level esp on my 29er)
My two worst crashes were one when I was 17, I was riding a 10 speed from a box store circa 1980, racing with my friend when the chain blew on the right down stroke, and inertia flipped me on my right side hard enough to bruise and cherry my hip through 2 pair of shorts and briefs. it just happened to be in front of my Future BILs .
The other was at work, I had a atmosphere monitor with a collapsible probe, in a basket. The probe escaped the basket and swung through the spokes and found the front forks Instant Endo flat on the back.
I got a standing ovation from the Reactor Catalyst crew from that one.
We use basket liners at work now.

In the last 10 years I've had 3 major wrecks, but I've also rode over 125k miles in that time period.

Had a few FDGBs when learning to captain our tandem, but never any damage. As it is said, doesn't count if there's no blood.

Otherwise, only two crashes in the last maybe 70,000 miles. One was a car pulling out from a side street right in front of me. My moto skills came in handy: I locked up the rear wheel, laid the bike down, and slid into him wheels first. Only a little blood from a pedal cut.

The other one happened when I turned left onto the shoulder of the lower section of a road which I usually descend from the top. Unusually, an oncoming pedestrian was on the shoulder ahead of me and I forgot about there being a 1.5" high lip between the concrete roadway and the asphalt shoulder. Down at a good 20 or so. Got my hand off the downside hood in time, did not put out my hand, took the blow along my whole body. I pushed the side of my helmet into the road to get the pressure off my shoulder and thus only lost a few square inches of skin and of course my shorts and jersey. Only ground a little bit of aluminum off the pedals, brifters, etc. New helmet, new clothes, Tegederm, and was back on the road in a couple of days.

That was 10-12 years ago. Haven't been down since.

More than I care to admit, but nothing serious. Since I started riding again 2008:
1-Novice riding side-by-side with me lost control of her bike, her front wheel hit mine, then she fell and I fell on top of her. Ugly.
2-Pedal strike making a sharp corner too fast. Lost control, tried to regain, ran out of road, fell on nice soft lawn and was covered with dead leaves. Lesson: keep the inside pedal UP on turns.
3-Back wheel washed out taking a corner too fast. Road was glass-smooth, clean and dry, but slightly dusty. Cracked helmet, bloody raspberries on face, black eye, sore and bruised but finished ride.
4-Lost control of bike in parade unit 2-3 mph. Had the "wrong" foot unclipped and went down in front of 100,000 spectators or so. Walked the rest of the route. Too bruised and sore to ride for a week.
5-Seems like there was another episode or two needing to unclip at walking speed. Either it's unclipping on the right falling left; or right pedal is UP and can't backpedal it down in time to unclip.
I need to quit doing the parade/community rides with very slow speeds and other riders who don't understand the idea of holding their line.
I had campus pedals on the bike I use for these types of rides, but my knee couldn't tolerate the lack of float. Solved by going back to clipless and recessed cleats for commuter/mountain bike shoes.

Once a year. But only rode one year thus far.

Fell once when I unclipped the wrong foot at a near stop. Two close calls, one due to giant crack in street, another due to elderly man turn in front of me - despite my wearing a neon orange fall jacket.

Broke my once a year average this yr. Only because I had less miles this year due to travel and recovering from last year's crash. I'm due. :)

At least once a month.

Twice this week because of ice.

Usually I fall either in a race or riding single track. Single track crashes are usually caused by clipping a tree, coming off a jump wrong, or from skinnies. Race crashes are usually caused by someone in front of me.

In the last 5 years I've only had one crash that required treatment. Even that wasn't such a big deal. I cracked a rib, and lost some skin. A stupid mistake... the water bottle fell from my fingers and I ended up flipping my bike.

Once construction traffic forced me to the curb... and into a gutter that was covered with leafs... which threw me several feet. I was surprised that nether me or the bike got a single scratch. I was even more surprised at how sore I was the next day.

Three times I've failed to unclip. With one of the falls the injury to my hip took a couple years to completely heal. But mostly just normal scrapes and scratches that would occur with any activity.

Twice on my road bike in 5 years/50 k miles. First one my fault couple years ago. Was focused on the guys wheel ahead of me instead of the road ahead and went into a curve way too fast. Bailed off the bike to avoid a tree. Second was last year and not my fault. Was on a bikeway and a cyclist with a flat was on the side of the path, she didn't look and proceeded to walk her bike perpendicular onto the pavement right in front of me. T-boned her bike and I went over the bars. Shaken up but fortunately no injuries for either of us.

Made up for the lack of crashes on the road with a few good ones on my mountain bike this year. Took a bad line on a dirt road and front wheel washed out. I hit the dirt at 20 mph. https://vimeo.com/95705753 I bounced and lost some skin on elbow and knee on that one.

In the last 5 years, 3. I between 15,000 and 20,000km per year, on average, depending on weather and life circumstances.

2 minor tipovers at slow speeds - 1) fellow rider turned in front of me and I couldn't avoid clipping his rear wheel with my front, and 2) hit a massive pothole while making a u-turn and couldn't hold the bike up or unclip in time. No injuries, just scratches.

Then there was the big one at high speed - I overcooked a corner with sand on it, and went flying at about 26mph. Skipped off the asphalt a few times, ruined a helmet, and bloodied/bruised myself really good. The bike flew into the grass and had barely a scratch. I ended up riding it home but found I couldn't walk or stand up when I got there and dismounted. So I ended up driving to the emergency room, where they x-rayed my hip. It wasn't broken but it was seriously bruised. They cleaned my road rash and gave me a tetanus shot. That crash hurt like hell, and I hope it never happens again. After 25+ years riding and racing motorcycles, I never got hurt that bad.

I save all my crashing for my mountain bike. Gets it out of my system and no road rash.

Well that didn't take long
 

Went out for a nice ride, stayed in the drops, lots of cars, pedestrians, parked vehicles etc..
came to an intersection, and had to stop faster than planned, not used to the balance point of the drops, and braking plus trying to upshift, unclip etc.
Rotated over the front wheel and onto my right side where the bike with me still clipped on the right foot went over me and spun back the way I was coming from.
Only damaged my Ego, maybe scratched my right shoe.

(Upon further review it appears I went down left side first, which did release the left shoe, gouged my Brooks saddle, scratched up the left shifter, and scratched both shoes, things were moving quickly and in many axis)

I thought the cleats were supposed to release when you hit the ground, it was an effort to get my right foot unclipped when I was on the ground.

I need to put my seat post back up, it collapsed a bit when I hopped back on after the wreck.

I checked it out on the work stand, and it all works right. No sign of frame damage or even a scratch on it.

My front tire was pretty low when I had it was on the stand, might have been a contributing factor.

I have just started really road cycling but I have been commuting for many years with some crashes from that. Knock on wood these are my worst ones ever.

Two weeks ago I took corner that is just more than 90° way too fast in the wet and went down at 40+ km/h. I got real lucky with just a small scratch on my elbow and new bar tape and lever.

Almost exactly three years ago I went through a corner I knew would be slippery with black ice and made it. Then I relaxed my guard and went down at about 25 km/h. A few abrasions and some ego bruising was all the damage.

Four or so years ago a car right hooked (more of drifted/merged) me a year or so before that. I saw it coming and slowed right down and rode it out upright on the side of the van. Lost it as we almost stopped. Messed up a wheel and my RD. I do not recall any damage to me. A few weeks later I found the shop did a poor RD adjustment, when I ripped it off with my spokes.

About five or six years ago on a short gravel chicane connecting the non-connecting roads for bikes was occupied by a guy and his dog on a long retractable leash. No attempt to move was made by him and I went down braking and turning on the gravel. Scrapes and bruises not any damage to the bike.

One afternoon many moons ago, it was a few weeks after putting new cables on and I noted I needed to adjust my RD cable due to stretch. I decided to do it later. Well I stood and cranked hard, and my RD shifted and my chain jumped and I veered/swerved right. Towards the parked white Mercedes C class in front of a grocery store at about 30 km/h. I stood on the brakes and brought the rear up what felt like two feet. Three people were coming out of the store with mouths agape. Me and them all thought I was going to superman into the rear window. I managed to stop about a foot from the bumper. They commented on it looking awesome yet terrifying. I went my way only to be stopped by a wheel well out of true. I had to walk the last 6 blocks.

When I was 10 bombing down a hill I clipped a no parking sign and yard saled. Drug my sorry blood self home to get bandaged up. Just abrasions and contusions.

I had significantly fewer crashes when I rode more (for a number of years, I rode 10K+ miles each year). I ride harder if the distances are shorter, especially if my legs are fresher and I don't need to worry about burning them up for the next day.

I rode in California from 2006 until 2013 and never crashed. I had a few close ones but never went down. I think it is because of paranoia because I dropped a motorcycle on the freeway once and have taken every precaution so I don't crash. I also no not race. All of my rides are training or group rides.

Living in Texas now and haven't gotten back into riding since being here. It appears to be riskier here to ride than where I lived in California plus I have a lot less time to ride here.

I only crashed once, but only been riding a year. It was my fault. After a long ride I was headed back to my car and there were some pretty ladies next to it at their car. I went into a rear wheel skid to do a sweet sideways slide up to my car and the rear tire caught traction and put me on my side. It worked out to my favor though since they ran over to make sure I was OK and did not laugh or anything. They were truly concerned if I was OK or not.

I should point out that my road rides usually consist of at least 5 miles of single track.