Big offs

[Vantage]

I once followed a father and son down a local path which has bollards protecting field entries. Lots of room either side of the bollards, but father insisted on telling his son to ' be careful, look at the bollard'. With the inevitable consequence, fortunately at low speed.

One bit of actual useful advice I read in Mountain Bike International when I were a lad (eh up) was to look where I wanted to go, not where I didn't want to go.
Saved me from a rock or ditch many times over.

 

[Tangoup51]

rider error rider error rider error rider error rider error rider error rider error rider error rider error rider error rider error rider error rider error rider error rider error rider error rider error rider error rider error rider error rider error rider error rider error rider error

*sigh*

Took roundabout too fast and slipped in wet.

Took canal bridge too fast and slipped in dry (my Dedicated rubinos nearly ripped of the rim)

Turned left and hit a low-drop curb that swooped my front wheel.

Cyclist knocked my handlebars during overtake and I landed in stinging nettles. (They're actually very soft.)

Saw horses on bridleway around a sharp corner & crashed into metal mesh fence.

 

[Bazzer]

Worst two are: Firstly when about 13 cycling back from church about 8 in the evening. Mid winter, mid 60s so street and bike lighting crap and going through an estate with long, (about half mile) straight road. No cars around given the era and it was a Sunday night. Got carried away with some fantasy and was speeding along going up one dropped kerb and down the next. Failed to see what was probably the only car parked on the entire length of the road and that coincided with a down on a dropped kerb. Concussion, a broken nose and a couple of days off school. (My Mum was the MTFU type before the phrase had been created.)

Last one was a couple of years ago. As I have recounted on other threads, solo night ride and a badger ran out from a hedgerow in front of my bike. Dead stop as I hit the badger then the tarmac. Leg broken in two places and much bruising to right side of body.

 

[boydj]

1. Late for school, haversack came loose and fell into front wheel. Over the handlebars, landing on my face. Came round trying to get the bike to move, which it couldn't because the forks were bent back and the wheel was jammed into the downtube. All the while a girl was having the screaming habdabs beside me because my face was like a thing out of a horror movie. Couple of days in hospital for observation because of the concussion, but no lasting damage to me. Bike was not so good. This was in the days long before cycle helmets were invented and, for me, proved that the skull is adequate protection for the brain in most circumstances.

2. Straight into the side of a car at about 20mph on my commute when the idiot who was passing me flashed an oncoming car to turn right. The car came off worst. Cosmetic damage to the bike and a bruise on the elbow for me where I had caught the rear door handle. I'd managed to half turn the bike with the car and take the impact all down my right side, spreading the load, though I did end up several yards up the side road with the car. This was one where you go into slow-mo and have time to think "SxxT, this is going to hurt".

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

Rider Error:
Trying to ride from road to pavement and missing the drop kerb.
Taking a shortcut and not noticing the difference in levels between grass and tarmac.
Riding down a steep hill on compacted snow on ordinary tyres. It was fine until I got to the corner.

Freak Occurrance:
Riding over a stick that flicked up and through the spokes of my front wheel.

Other:
Smooth concrete can be unexpectedly slippery when wet.

 

[Tangoup51]

I thought it was horses that get spooked by cyclists, not the other way round!

When you have the option to crash into a ton of potentially p*ssed muscle or a metal fence...suddenly metal looks very soft ;-;

 

[slowmotion]

Someone spiked my drink.

 

[PMarkey]

Rider error
To fast into a steep downhill right hand bend on an upright trike and I grabbed a handful of brake to scrub a bit of speed off , the inside wheel lifted so I grabbed a bigger handful of brake and the trike threw me off and into a lamp post , lesson learnt , never brake whilst cornering on a trike .

Paul

 

[gbb]

I never had offs that I remember until a few years ago then had two in the same year I think, both because of black ice...so I put other reasons.I wasn't riding inappropriately, just motoring along on the straight....bam, straight off, no warning, sliding along the road.
See those shiny black areas on summer roads where the tar has melted then set again...watch them in winter, that super smooth surface goes like glass when it's icy.

 

[Alan O]

Hmm, I see I'm the only one so far who's willing to own up to a "Mechanical failure - due to poor maintenance".

(Brake cable snapped after I hadn't checked or replaced it in ages - I was young and foolish)

 

[presta]

My biggest crash was when a crank broke about 25 years ago.

The gradient took a slight upturn, and as I got out of the saddle to give it some stick the world suddenly disappeared from under my right foot. I skidded up the road on my back, thinking "sh.t!, I knew I should have renewed the chain", but when I came to a stop the bike was back down the road and the pedal was still on my foot. No bones broken, but I couldn't sleep on my right side for three weeks, as I was black and blue and had a haematoma the size of a golf ball on my right hip.

The fatigue fracture had gone across the centre of the pedal hole, and on reflection it had been initiated by grounding the pedal on a corner some months earlier. The hint should have been the broken pedal spindle that had occurred a few weeks previously, but that bent without parting company when the crack had grown far enough. I didn't put two and two together until after the crash, so I don't know whether the crack would have been visible before it failed, but I check the cranks when I service the bike now.

After I straightened a bent derailleur hanger, the bike was OK with a new crank and bar tape.

 

[BrumJim]

Worst two are: Firstly when about 13 cycling back from church about 8 in the evening. Mid winter, mid 60s so street and bike lighting crap and going through an estate with long, (about half mile) straight road. No cars around given the era and it was a Sunday night. Got carried away with some fantasy and was speeding along going up one dropped kerb and down the next. Failed to see what was probably the only car parked on the entire length of the road and that coincided with a down on a dropped kerb. Concussion, a broken nose and a couple of days off school. (My Mum was the MTFU type before the phrase had been created.)

Last one was a couple of years ago. As I have recounted on other threads, solo night ride and a badger ran out from a hedgerow in front of my bike. Dead stop as I hit the badger then the tarmac. Leg broken in two places and much bruising to right side of body.

Yet another person blaming the badgers! First the government (they moved the goalposts, apparently), then a motorist who did a hit-and-run on a cyclist ("thought I hit a badger") and now you! Bet it wasn't a badger, and was just your own fault!

 

[BrumJim]

My biggest crash was when a crank broke about 25 years ago.

The gradient took a slight upturn, and as I got out of the saddle to give it some stick the world suddenly disappeared from under my right foot. I skidded up the road on my back, thinking "sh.t!, I knew I should have renewed the chain", but when I came to a stop the bike was back down the road and the pedal was still on my foot. No bones broken, but I couldn't sleep on my right side for three weeks, as I was black and blue and had a haematoma the size of a golf ball on my right hip.

The fatigue fracture had gone across the centre of the pedal hole, and on reflection it had been initiated by grounding the pedal on a corner some months earlier. The hint should have been the broken pedal spindle that had occurred a few weeks previously, but that bent without parting company when the crack had grown far enough. I didn't put two and two together until after the crash, so I don't know whether the crack would have been visible before it failed, but I check the cranks when I service the bike now.

After I straightened a bent derailleur hanger, the bike was OK with a new crank and bar tape.

Fatigue cracks can be a complete pain to find, so there is a good chance that you wouldn't have spotted it anyway. Sometimes even a good does of MPI/Dye Pen doesn't work (non-bike related experience and not worth repeating here), but you need to have the kit, be qualified, and have a good excuse for using it anyway.

Fortunately I noticed the fatigue crack on my chain stays before they both collapsed. One had gone all the way through, and the other was about 2/3-3/4 gone too. That one was very definitely noticeable, although a more experienced rider should have spotted it from the saddle.
Here it is:

 

[presta]

Fatigue cracks can be a complete pain to find, so there is a good chance that you wouldn't have spotted it anyway. Sometimes even a good does of MPI/Dye Pen doesn't work (non-bike related experience and not worth repeating here), but you need to have the kit, be qualified, and have a good excuse for using it anyway.

Fortunately I noticed the fatigue crack on my chain stays before they both collapsed. One had gone all the way through, and the other was about 2/3-3/4 gone too. That one was very definitely noticeable, although a more experienced rider should have spotted it from the saddle.
Here it is:
View attachment 377629

I've had quite a few fatigue failures over the years, but the only one I noticed in good time was the cracks on the spoke holes in the original rear rim. I first noticed the rim rubbing on the brakes whilst honking, and then spotted the cracks whilst I was servicing after I got home from the tour.

I had the end of a saddle rail drop on the floor when I picked the bike up by the saddle once, the broken piece was still acting as a strut in compression whilst riding, so that's why it had gone unnoticed. I clamped the broken end back in the seat pin to get me home, and then rode it like that for about another 600m whilst I was shopping round for a comfortable replacement.

A rack leg broke with a loud crack when I went over a bump. That sounded just like a spoke breaking, so having examined the wheel and found nothing I didn't discover the break until I washed the bike when I got home a couple of days later.

The detent track in my bar end shifter broke when I was down near Lands End once, so I rode the rest of the tour with 5 gears instead of 8, but as the lost gears were the top ones it wasn't really any inconvenience.

Then there was an obscure one. I'd noticed a clicking noise each time I was honking for quite a few hundred miles, and tried all the usual candidates like loose cranks etc., but it wasn't until I was back home a few months later that I discovered the cause. I have my bottom cage mounted on an extender bracket so that there's room to carry a Zefal Magnum without it fouling on the front mudguard, and the bottle disappeared under the rear wheel one day when it failed at the mounting hole. I made a new bracket with more metal at the stress point, and that one has done twice the mileage already with no further problems.

This is the end off the crank that failed:

Crank

• presta
• 8 Oct 2017

Fatigue

This is a pedal failure that I'd forgotten about until I went looking for pictures (not the one that preceded the crank failure):

Union Pedal

• presta
• 8 Oct 2017

 

[Bazzer]

Yet another person blaming the badgers! First the government (they moved the goalposts, apparently), then a motorist who did a hit-and-run on a cyclist (thought I hit a badger) and now you! Bet it wasn't a badger, and was just your own fault!

With hindsight, saying I had been a dickhead and had been (say) practising wheelies in the middle of the night, whilst embarrassing at the hospital etc., in the long term it would have given me less grief. Having known my wife for almost 40 years, as I was lying in the road waiting for an ambulance, I should have realised correction of my stupidity is much easier to achieve, than her fear of some random event happening to me.