joe_5700

I have dumped my bike 3 times at speeds between 18-22 mph on ice, gravel and wet grass. I came unclipped from my pedals immediately on both feet in each instance (using Shimano SPD-SL R540 pedals). I too wondered what would happen when I went to clipless as well and was thankful that I always wear gloves.

Brian Ratliff

It really depends on how you crash.

There is the high side crash, which is very painful and the type of crash where people land on their head/shoulder/back and get concussions and broken collarbones/shoulders. The high side usually involves some interruption of the front wheel. Overlapping wheels and having the bike ride out from under the rider is the classic.

Then there's the low side crash where you land essentially on your ass and you'll get bruises and lose a lot of skin, but otherwise isn't all that bad. The low side crash is usually the result of losing traction.

The only difference between a 10mph crash and a 20+mph crash is the speed at which you can react. A 20+mph crash happens before you can do anything. Wear your helmet because you have zero control over how you fall. A 10mph crash is slow enough you can figure out how you want to land and what appendages to stick out or not. An unexpected crash at 10mph can be every bit as damaging as a similar crash at 20+mph (assuming you land on the road and not hit a curb or some other vertical surface).

wphamilton

I have to disagree with all of this. Recalling my past crashes using off-road motorcycles, motorcycles on the street, and a handful of bicycle crashes I don't think there's any correlation at between speed and how long it is between losing control (however it happens) and hitting the ground. I don't think I can recall a single time where there wasn't time to react and control the fall or at least influence the impact. 20 mph is at the low end of those speeds.

Actually the least time I had to react was at around 15mph, cornering motorcycle on icy pavement where some diesel had slopped. It shot out from under in I guess about a tenth of a second. The most time I've ever had to react was after rear-ending a stopped vehicle (brakes failed) at about 60mph, flying over it to about 12 feet high. That was a second or two before hitting the ground. In both cases I was able to control my motion, and had no injury in either case.

It can be as damaging if you did something wrong and had terrific bad luck. But the difference between hitting the ground at 10, 20, or 30 is much, much greater than you're making it out. At 10 there isn't really much risk except for more superficial injuries. Even if you stick your hands out, fall on your bony parts or do everything else wrong. At 20mph falling the same way will probably result in serious injury.

Brian Ratliff

You completely miss the point that there are different types of crashes and the type of crash is what dictates how you get injured and how much reaction time you have.

wrr1020

I got doored going 22 mph. Didn't see the door open as my head passed the car already since the door clipped my right foot. Ate it hard, cracked the left side of my helmet, stitches on my finger and got an AC sprain. This was back in late April and my shoulder is still in the healing process. Going to physical therapy for it and plan to see an orthopedist soon. Accident could have been a lot worse then it was, glad there were no passing cars since i fell right in the middle of the lane. 9/11 was called and i was taken to the emergency room by paramedics. I didn't think i needed 9/11 but since i did fall on my head i didn't want to take any chances, have medical insurance anyway so i said what the hell, why not.

cooleric1234

Good post. My above mentioned crash was when the front wheel got caught in a suddenly appearing groove just wider than the tire. I turned my head to look for traffic behind me. The last thing I remember was barely starting to feel the back end of the bike raise up. Woke up with 3-4 people who had stopped their cars looking down on me. Oh yeah, and a torn labrum in the shoulder that eventually required surgery. I was going less than 20 mph.

caloso

Good point on the high side falls. For a famous and extreme example, see Beloki, J.

wphamilton

That's all fine, but "The only difference" and "you have zero control" and "figure out ... what appendages to stick out" is all completely wrong. The only reason I mention it - I'm not argumentative, really - is that if I read your last paragraph literally, and I didn't know any better, I'd be in a world of serious hurt when it did happen. I'd reason that since it doesn't matter what speed you're going (the only difference is time to react), and since there's no time to react, and since there's nothing you can do to control it, then there can't be any particular difficulty at 20mph. I might have only skinned my knees at 10mph. Why do anything differently at 20, if I can't react to it, have no control, and there's no other difference?

banerjek

Didn't read the whole thread, but there are many crashes where unclipping isn't even desirable.

However you crash, you want to avoid impact because that's what breaks things. This means you want to dissipate as much energy as you can by rolling (sliding is your second choice). Generally speaking, you want to keep arms and legs close to your body if you don't want to break them.

Brian Ratliff

You are terribly argumentative. If you have to say "I'm not argumentative", it means you are being argumentative. Otherwise the fact that you aren't argumentative is self-evident.

wphamilton

Well, it could mean that I was reacting to your tone and trying to reassure you, but if you like I'll cede that point and you can chalk up a win or whatever you do in these threads.

nuhtowel

5 weeks ago I got T-boned while doing my cool down by two kids bombing a hill around a blind turn with no hands on a bike path. They were going at least 25mph.

Me:

Collar Bone:

Bike:

The frame had massive dents in it, handle bars were bent, shifters smashed, and wheel was broken. My helmet also broke in the fall. It really sucked, and still does right now. It was crazy when it happened though, right before they hit me everything slowed down and I though to myself, "Wow, this is going to freaking hurt." I almost went into shock after it happened, after seeing my collar bone visibly broken I couldn't hear or see but after I poured some cold water on my head I snapped out of it.

Brian Ratliff

Am I in a competition of some kind here? I'm here just to share my thoughts on the subject based on my (teammates have been known to term it "excessive") experience with crashing.

My point is that there is a good way to crash (lowside) and a bad way (highside); they are different and forward speed doesn't affect the damage of the crash itself so much as determine how much control you have over it. If your head is turned and you hit a pothole at 10 mph (going slow but not attentive to the impending crash), you could end up pretty seriously injured. If you slide out in a corner at 30mph (lowside crash at high speed), you might hardly be injured at all.

The dynamics of crashing isn't just grade school physics. In practice, there are lots of ways to control how you fall, depending on a lot of different variables; speed, attentiveness, and crash type being a few of them.

Grumpy McTrumpy

It's the internet. There is no "tone".

If you think you can read tone here, get ready for a whole lot of misunderstandings.

wphamilton

Thanks for the life lesson Grumpy. (Don't be reading any tone in that now)

surgeonstone

Hamilton is correct. The amount of time, between start of fall and hitting the ground is the same whether your going 10 mph, 50 mph or 2100 feet per second. The reaction time is also precisely the same. The consequences do vary.
I remember in college ( pre helmet years), going into a death wobble at 45 mph on a downhill, crashing and doing 3-4 summersaults on hard pavement. Lots of road rash and a ruined front wheel but otherwise okay.

dwhitlow

You are bad-ass!

jamesvb

I have 3 crashes at over 100 mph. One was at 140. Okay... my bike has 190 hp.
Crashing at speed is surreal. Everything slows down and I could hear the the wind getting knocked out of my body. I was racing at the time with all of my gear so I jumped up in time to flip off the guy who knocked me down. Not a scratch. I've been lucky.

Anyway, crashing on a bicycle without any protection worries more than crashing my motorcycle. I've been racing crits and I always go off the front before the finishing sprint just out of fear of getting knocked down.

Brian Ratliff

No, the amount of time for a center of mass falling from 4 feet high to the ground is the same regardless of the forward speed. This is high school physics. Crashing on a bike involves a lot more than a mass falling from 4 feet high. Most crashes involve some effort towards recovery; those efforts typically delay and modify (hands grab for the brakes, arms flail, feet attempt to touch ground, etc.) how the crash evolves. The faster the forward velocity, the faster the crash evolves and the more the crash approximates a mass falling from four feet high.

fishymamba

I hit a huge rock at ~30mph downhill. I landed on my head so I don't really remember what happened. My friend who was behind me told me that I did a complete front flip. Nothing hurt for the first half hour. After that I was in agony. My right leg was covered in road rash and my hip was bruised very badly.

BridgeRider

Mazdatech10:

Two weeks ago, I crashed and suffered similar injuries to yours (pneumothorax, broken clavicle, broken ribs, shoulder separation; no broken scapula, however). I don't know how fast I was going, though; surely not much over 20mph.

My lifetime mileage is probably around 25K, so I'm not exactly a novice. But this crash has me spooked. It's gonna be weeks before I can go back to work, or even consider riding. How long did it take you to recover, and more importantly, to feel confident on the bike again?

Matt H

Nick Bain

I think a good way to practice crashing would be riding your road bike as fast as you want into a sand pit.

riding MTB technical helps keep you from crashing. ride with confidence my friends and for the love of god don't think about crashing during a race.

Six jours

I've had a couple of crashes on the road at over 40 MPH. One was setting up for a downhill field sprint and the guy in front of me took a bunch of guys down. I more-or-less surfed him down the road and was barely injured. He still has the scars, a couple of decades later. During another field sprint I clipped out of my first-generation Look pedals (on the downstroke) and it was a week before I got out of bed.

I've also had two 40+ MPH crashes on board tracks. One was in a motorpaced race at more than 50 MPH. I suffered an abdominal puncture from a bit of board that was torn up by one of the motorcycles, but it didn't up being too serious. Another was right around 40 MPH or perhaps a bit less, and the rubberized skinsuit I was wearing melted into my ass. That hurt!

Re. 20-30 MPH falls, well, I never gave them much thought. It was always just a part of racing, and rarely ended in more than some lost skin. That's kind of unpleasant, but it grows back. As for the horror stories about destroyed bikes and multiple, serious traumas, well, I'm glad my racing career ended before that sort of thing became common. It's only been in the last 20 years or so that bike racing became an "extreme sport".

Kurogashi

I actually had a crash today, not that fast, maybe 15mph, it was more of a skid, too sharp of a turn and too slippery. I surprisingly came out with only a scratch; I had the most epic tuck and roll ever, I probably rolled a good 20 feet and walked away like a champ. Now a little sore here and there but only thing visible is a a tiny cut on my forearm.

2manybikes

One possibility for a new uh ... crasher?..........

Get a pro racing coach, or some one who knows what to do, and go on the grass and practice tuck and roll etc.

I took a motorcycle through a three rail, split rail fence. I split the top rail with my face and part of a good motorcycle helmet. No helmet, no life. I had on a leather jacket, heavy jeans, and leather boots. The clothing protected me extremely well. NO slide or scrap injuries. About 50 mph. If I had on bicycle clothing I would have looked like a took a nap on a belt sander.

When I finally came out of shock, I rode the bike home with the handlebars bent 90 degrees to the side. I had to ride beside my friends bike for light, my light pointed right at his bike beside me.