Falling Off

Commuting, Day rides, Audax, Incidents, etc.
karlt
Posts: 2244
Joined: 15 Jul 2011, 2:07pm

Re: Falling Off

Post by karlt »

Flinders wrote:I say 'twitchy' because that's what most people seem to say when they mean 'very responsive'. On a road bike, on actual roads, I don't really 'steer' round bends or turns, I just adjust my weight, and allow the bike to 'steer' itself, which I like. It's a bit like riding a really good, soft mouthed and balanced horse, you steer with your weight, not the reins. .


Yeah, but that's how I steer a MTB as well.
User avatar
661-Pete
Posts: 10593
Joined: 22 Nov 2012, 8:45pm
Location: Sussex

Re: Falling Off

Post by 661-Pete »

The mention of potholes reminds me....

One of my more amusing 'offs' - my wife and I had come to a flooded stretch of road, and several other cyclists turned up while we were pondering what to do. In a moment of supreme foolishness, I brazenly remarked "it doesn't look that deep", flipped to a low gear, and set forth into the flood....

The golden rule that I'd forgotten is, if the road is flooded you can't see the potholes. And down I went, to the exultant amusement of all those watching. At least the water cushioned my fall, so the main thing bruised was my ego. I then had to endure a very cold and wet ride home....

Lesson learnt. :oops:
Suppose that this room is a lift. The support breaks and down we go with ever-increasing velocity.
Let us pass the time by performing physical experiments...
--- Arthur Eddington (creator of the Eddington Number).
User avatar
mjr
Posts: 20297
Joined: 20 Jun 2011, 7:06pm
Location: Norfolk or Somerset, mostly
Contact:

Re: Falling Off

Post by mjr »

I think the only completely unprovoked fall I've had since learning to ride was when I was weaving, trying to clean mud off my tyres, and left the tarmac. I've had another fall when I rode on ice when I should have either used spiked tyres or waited for it to warm up. Finally, I've had various things that I'd call crashes (another bike hit me, I rode into a car and so on) which generally ended up with [EDIT: me] upright.

So I don't really understand the trend for falling off. I've seen lots of other people fall, though, both from riding in a group and riding in busy places. Rather than blaming the bike type, I would attribute most of them to foolhardiness (I've got a helmet on so I'm invincible), foolishness (clipping in too readily) or stubbornness (the other road user should give way!), with freak incidents and misjudgements making up most of the remaining non-collision ones. My view may be skewed because I rode a road bike for many years, though.
Last edited by mjr on 10 May 2016, 5:08pm, edited 1 time in total.
MJR, mostly pedalling 3-speed roadsters. KL+West Norfolk BUG incl social easy rides http://www.klwnbug.co.uk
All the above is CC-By-SA and no other implied copyright license to Cycle magazine.
karlt
Posts: 2244
Joined: 15 Jul 2011, 2:07pm

Re: Falling Off

Post by karlt »

Or some people being inherently less co-ordinated than others. That would seem the most likely cause. I was eight before I could ride a bike and still occasionally make a pigs ear of mounting and make an exhibition of myself. Probably significant that I was also the klutz no-one wanted on their team at school because I couldn't kick in a straight line, catch or hit any kind of ball with any kind of bat.
User avatar
mjr
Posts: 20297
Joined: 20 Jun 2011, 7:06pm
Location: Norfolk or Somerset, mostly
Contact:

Re: Falling Off

Post by mjr »

karlt wrote:Or some people being inherently less co-ordinated than others. That would seem the most likely cause.

I'd file that under "misjudgement". It happens, but seems much rarer than the big three causes I mentioned. Heck, I was near the last-picked for sports too and I've managed to run myself over more than once :shock:, but I still don't fall off much!
MJR, mostly pedalling 3-speed roadsters. KL+West Norfolk BUG incl social easy rides http://www.klwnbug.co.uk
All the above is CC-By-SA and no other implied copyright license to Cycle magazine.
eileithyia
Posts: 8398
Joined: 31 Jan 2007, 6:46pm
Location: Horwich Which is Lancs :-)

Re: Falling Off

Post by eileithyia »

I don't think the Countess admitted to being a 'cyclist', she did say she had done some riding with the children when they were younger, so she is probably relatively new to this style of riding. She did admit to having had 3 'off's' while 'training' for the charity ride she is about to embark on..... however we did not learn of the reasons, may have been when she first got on the bike and unused to it, due to fact she is trying to get used to cleats (as previously referred to) or just a misjudgement while riding with others.

I have a few offs not attributable to other road users; gravel on a bend on a descent, wet greasy road on a bend on a descent (twice), unclipping issues in the early days of using clipless cleats and something jamming in mudguard (it was dark so did not see what object was). Others were stupid things like putting my foot down when stopping and missing my balance (twice while pregnant so presumably due to pregnancy clumsiness or similar).
I stand and rejoice everytime I see a woman ride by on a wheel the picture of free, untrammeled womanhood. HG Wells
User avatar
ArMoRothair
Posts: 351
Joined: 20 Jun 2013, 10:55am
Location: Londinium

Re: Falling Off

Post by ArMoRothair »

Up until last November I was happy to say I had not fallen off in thirty years.

Apart from childhood prangs the only offs I had previously were (1) Around 15 years old, racing to school, downhill left turn in the rain: both wheels slid from under me. As motor-racing commentators say: it was ambition over adhesive. (2) Late teens, art college, riding with an A2 portfolio under my left arm, which I did regularly, reached down to the down tube for the gears (that's how long ago it was) and I don't know what happened but the next moment I was in a tangle on the ground. (3) Early '80s commuting home in the rain, mis-judges a pavement dip which had a bigger lip than I expected due to it being concealed in a puddle, hit it at an oblique angle and went down.

After that thirty years of crash free riding. Until November when I was taking my 7yo daughter on her BoBike seat along the canal tow path. There are three very steep bridges near Kensal Rise. Three in a row and spaced out, so awkward for both of us to get off the bike and walk. Over time we experimented with various approaches: speed up first, or go steady and gear-down. On this occasion I tried it slowly in a very low gear and near the top, with my daughter's weight behind me, the front wheel just lost lateral adhesion on one of the pedal strokes and flicked sideways without warning. We both shouldered the ground laughing.
User avatar
[XAP]Bob
Posts: 19793
Joined: 26 Sep 2008, 4:12pm

Re: Falling Off

Post by [XAP]Bob »

And the worst is when you think it's a bit icy, so you pull up, pop a foot down, and that foot promptly slides out from under you...
A shortcut has to be a challenge, otherwise it would just be the way. No situation is so dire that panic cannot make it worse.
There are two kinds of people in this world: those can extrapolate from incomplete data.
rmurphy195
Posts: 2199
Joined: 20 May 2011, 11:23am
Location: South Birmingham

Re: Falling Off

Post by rmurphy195 »

I've been lucky in that apart from being knocked off, its a very long time since I fell off of my own accord, although I've had a couple ofclose shaves with leaves hiding gutters at the edge of a cycle path.

There was the time though that I'd just recovered from an ear infection which at its worst meant I couldn't stand, let alone walk or ride a bike. Except I hadn't quite recovered, as soo as I looked round I suddenly found myself on the ground!

Like other posters I found my galaxy a bit twitchy atforst - I replaced the Continental touring tyres (this was about 1993) with Hutchinson Kevlars which had a much more rounded profile - made a huge difference. Did the same more recently swopping-out a pair of Marathons for a pair of Randonneur Pros, again made a huge difference for the same reason.
Brompton, Condor Heritage, creaky joints and thinning white (formerly grey) hair
""You know you're getting old when it's easier to ride a bike than to get on and off it" - quote from observant jogger !
eileithyia
Posts: 8398
Joined: 31 Jan 2007, 6:46pm
Location: Horwich Which is Lancs :-)

Re: Falling Off

Post by eileithyia »

We had 3 riders come off on a roundabout yesterday evening...... damp but not wet enough to wash the roads, only dampen the diesel etc., and 3 not so experienced newbies skidded off, pride and skin left on the road.
I stand and rejoice everytime I see a woman ride by on a wheel the picture of free, untrammeled womanhood. HG Wells
pwa
Posts: 17357
Joined: 2 Oct 2011, 8:55pm

Re: Falling Off

Post by pwa »

I fall off rarely. Maybe twice a decade. And it's never due to bike handling mistakes. I've been down because of ice a couple of times, and once my rear wheel was nudged by a van, causing me to tumble. I've never had more than bruises to show for it. It must be four or five years since I last hit the deck, so maybe I'm overdue!
iviehoff
Posts: 2411
Joined: 20 Jan 2009, 4:38pm

Re: Falling Off

Post by iviehoff »

I would say I fall off my bike roughly once a year on average, and this has been going on for decades. Mostly very little injury results. Worst has been one broken bone in my hand, and some stitches in my chin, both a very long time ago. However several expensive items of clothing, notably goretex jackets, have been ruined, and once my glasses were broken.

My most recent fall, in January, was due to riding over some slippery leaves concealing a water drainage feature on a shared bike facility. Second time, so I now refuse to use it in winter.
Fairly recently, during mounting the bike, I fell when I got a gear lever caught up with my trouser leg. I did that to a large audience by Leicester Sq tube station.
I've had two or three similar low speed falls due to general clumsiness, broke a knuckle on one occasion.
Once was riding home in the dark and rain and a stick hidden in shadow got caught in my wheel and threw me off.
I've come off about 4 or 5 times due to ice.
A couple of times due to loose gravel.
Cleated pedal incompetence resulted in about 3 falls - don't use them any more.
Three or four times some luggage equipment or bicycle component failure resulted in wheel ceasing to turn and throwing me off.
Once incompetently got stuck in the gutter and fell off.

Then of collisions resulting in fall, there have been 2 pedestrians running out in front of me, a dooring, a left hook, and twice a car overtaking me and immediately stopping in front of me - one of those resulted in some stiches, the other broke my glasses.
Richard D
Posts: 298
Joined: 27 Sep 2011, 6:16pm

Re: Falling Off

Post by Richard D »

I seem to fall off every 18 months or so. Wet cattle grid, gravel on bend, and wet manhole cover reached caused the last three.

Probably shouldn't do it again, though, as that last one has left quite a bit of metalwork in my hip, and I shudder to think what would happen if I hit the deck hard enough on that side again.
Phil Fouracre
Posts: 919
Joined: 12 Jan 2013, 12:16pm
Location: Deepest Somerset

Re: Falling Off

Post by Phil Fouracre »

'Probably shouldn't do it again, though, as that last one has left quite a bit of metalwork in my hip, and I shudder to think what would happen if I hit the deck hard enough on that side again'

You'll be fine, as long as you're wearing a helmet :-)
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity
User avatar
Tilley
Posts: 185
Joined: 19 Jun 2016, 4:54pm
Location: Nailsea

Re: Falling Off

Post by Tilley »

Having ridden for over 40 years I have had a few spills mostly due to ice, mud, or inappropriate speed. However approx. 4 years ago I had a series of falls on tarmac and gravel surfaces, all within weeks of each other. As I had also been an advance motorcycle observer I knew all of the potential surface related hazards, but in each instance I had been unable to attribute any external influence. Each time the front wheel had slid from under me, depositing me very firmly to the ground. As the last fall resulted in a torn ligament on my thumb and saw me splayed in the opposite carriageway of a well used road I felt it was time to call an end to my cycling. Some people have suggested that my balance problem may have been a side effect of the migraines I occasionally suffer from. However I have managed to resurrect my cycling exploits through the purchase of a recumbent trike.
Post Reply