Crash Protection

[steveindenmark]

My safety kit is my helmet, my glasses and gloves. Anything else would be impractical. All of my injuries in my recent accident were impact injuries and not gravel rash. I cannot think of a way to prevent that.

 

[gbb]

At 60, I'd been road riding seriously for 20 years, totalling maybe 70,000 to100,000 miles (just an estimate based on my max of 6k annually, prior to that, another 20 years of occasional riding.,
I could probably count on two hands the number of times I've fallen off or got knocked off.

If you're aware of your surroundings, alert, read ahead, take care in dodgy weather, you shouldnt need excessive gear.
Many of my summer road rides, I didnt even wear a helmet.

 

[Drago]

On a ride a few years ago one of my mates slowed to about 4mph on a really tight, greasy corner, both wheels went from under him and he broke his hip. If he'd tried going round at 15 to 20mph he'd have probably ended up skidding along the slippery surface without doing much real damage. Moral of story; NEVER slow down for corners.

Thats why whenever there's thenfiret hint of snow im heading out the door with my bike, just as everyone else is battening down the hatches. Best opportunity to practice the technique required for staying upright when the bike goes from under you (a technique that really benefits from being clipped in).

 

[mikeIow]

I’ve never felt that even a helmet adds much value on the slow pedalling I do...often take the helmet off going up a hill....only worn it since our kids were little and I wanted to set a good example.....
That said, I’ve always thought these air bags look decent, if a tad pricy!!

 

[Blue Hills]

Glasses, helmet, avoid carbon forks.
After that trust to your guardian beelzebub/natural talent for rolling.
All served me well in my head-on crash with a car on a Vespa.

 

[Illaveago]

I wear a thick pair of jeans, jumper underneath my cycling jacket, motorcycle gloves, glasses and helmet . I feel that a bit of padding will help in the event of an off .
I'm not sure if it helped when I came off earlier this year . It was sudden and totally unexpected ! My pedal came off as I was standing up to climb away up a slope . I went down like a sack of spuds! No time to react except" Oops!" It was a good job a vehicle wasn't following me as I ended up in the middle of the road . My main concern originally was that It had been witnessed by a woman and child walking along a pavement .
The next thing was to get back up and find my pedal. I didn't feel much pain, a bit of a graze on my elbow and a bit of a knock on my inner thigh . I remembered that my helmet had hit the ground and that hurt ! Not much padding inside .
I couldn't refit the pedal as the thread had stripped so I had to call my wife to pick me up .
My injuries the next day started to show up . The bruise on my inner thigh had started to swell and turn purple, it was extending down towards my knee . We rang up the out of hours peeps and they were more concerned that I had bashed my head and that I should go to the hospital to have it checked . I didn't fancy going due to the virus, also I didn't feel it was necessary as the impact wasn't bad , it was more of a shock as to the hardness of the expanded polystyrene .
Everything turned out okay the only damage sustained was my pride in falling off. It was totally unexpected, I couldn't do anything about it. I went down with the full force of trying to power up an incline . I think that some of my padding may have lessened the impact .

 

[Big John]

Similar thing happened to me while I was doing the club's annual hill climb event. The last bit before the finish line was the steepest and that's where everyone stood up on their pedals for the big finale. When I stood up, giving it some beans, the chain snapped and I hit the deck like I'd been fired out of a cannon. Spent the afternoon in A & E waiting to be stitched. When I later examined the chain I should have spotted it was in a dangerous condition so ultimately it was my fault. A painful lesson learnt. When I clean the bike now, which is every week, I spend a bit of time checking the chain over. Not all accidents are avoidable but this one was.

 

[Brandane]

As @ianrauk may have mentioned before over on the "H" word debate....

Cycling is not a dangerous activity.

Unless you choose to throw yourself down the side of mountains or some other kind of specialised activity involving bicycles.
Protective equipment, including the unmentiionable headgear, just isn't necessary for normal cycling. IMHO, of course .

 

[Blue Hills]

Similar thing happened to me while I was doing the club's annual hill climb event. The last bit before the finish line was the steepest and that's where everyone stood up on their pedals for the big finale. When I stood up, giving it some beans, the chain snapped and I hit the deck like I'd been fired out of a cannon. Spent the afternoon in A & E waiting to be stitched. When I later examined the chain I should have spotted it was in a dangerous condition so ultimately it was my fault. A painful lesson learnt. When I clean the bike now, which is every week, I spend a bit of time checking the chain over. Not all accidents are avoidable but this one was.

Could you really have spotted this in advance?
With these two alarming tales I'm glad that I NEVER get out of the saddle to climb but then I'm not a racer. The only time I get out of the saddle is to relieve my bum for a while on long long rides - but am just freewheeling.

 

[Drago]

Pre ride checks folks. Go through your B.E.S.T.C.O.P.A. routine every day, or an M check if you don't know how the pros do it.

Old pilots, bold pilots, and cyclists with broken bones, stiches and road rash.

 

[Brandane]

Pre ride checks folks. Go through your B.E.S.T.C.O.P.A. routine every day,

Enlighten us, please! Google only throws up a load of South American football related stuff...
Or is this an annoying E.L.A. dreamt up by a promotion chasing cyclist at your previous employment? At least they didn't arrange the letters differently and come up with B.E.A.S.T.C.O.P. .

 

[Brandane]

Just a guess........
B. Brakes. Cables, pads, adjustment.
E. Energy. Ensure a good stock of Snickers/Mars bars.
S. Spokes. Or steering. Or something...
T. Tyres. Tread, pressures, bulges etc..
C. CO2 cylinders to ensure you'll not need them.
O. Oil.. chain and moving parts, except perhaps wheel rims or brake discs!!
P. Pedals. Always come in handy, preferably 2 of them.
A. Arse. Make sure it's comfortable.

 

[kingrollo]

What about a bit of work in the gym - your muscles stronger , may provide a tad more protection for you bones.

 

[boydj]

The best protection is not crashing, but when you do eventually crash, there's no way of knowing which part of you is going to need protection. In the last twenty years, I've come off a handful of times, at least two of these have been slow speed topples, where I landed on the muscle at the top of my right arm, one was a tap from behind by a car on a corner where I broke my left thumb and a bone in my right palm. Another where I was sideswiped by a car and landed on my bum and got a small cut on the back of my head (no helmet). Then there was a club run where there was a small tangle that took me down and somebody stood on my hand. A couple of years ago I hit black ice on a roundabout and skidded on my side for a bit - sore shoulder again. Finally last winter I was thrown by a pothole and got a friction burn on my left elbow through about three layers of clothing.

There's very little that any protection I could have worn would have mitigated any of these injuries. I suspect that if I had been wearing a helmet when I landed on my bum, my head would have hit the road a lot harder and it might have hurt more, but who knows.

For the record, I wear a cap to keep the sun off my bald patch, and mitts to protect my hands.

 

[Illaveago]

Motorcyclists think that people that ride motorbikes in just shorts and T shirts are mad due to the fact that if they came off they would get severe gravel rash. I think the same about people who just wear thin lycra. If they were to come off and slide down the road at speed the lycra wouldn't offer much protection and a lot of dirty grit could get into the wounds . Just think ! A farm tractor with a slurry tanker might have been down that road .