Does anyone remember there first crash?

[Soup890]

Does anyone remember when they first fell off their bike?

Just remembering back in the day I was 13 and had a bike race with my mates (about 7 of us). I had a Argos BMX bike. We were all sprinting down a shared path my handlebar became loose and flopped forward I lost control and ploughed into my mate who was cycling beside me. We were both tangled up in our bikes I was in so much pain I laughed while rolling on the floor. I will never forget that moment in my life.

 

[smokeysmoo]

Not really TBH, but I do remember what would have my been my first big one.

Circa late 70's, hurtling down our street, probably astride a Raleigh Budgie IIRC and I drifted into the kerb and went straight down on my left side

Sadly for me the pavement changed from hard but relatively smooth flagging to a kind of surface dressed topping where I hit it!

Skinned all the left side of my face and had multiple other abrasions and gravel rash on my left side bits and pieces.

I can still remember sitting on the drainer in the kitchen with my Mum cleaning my face with TCP

In fact my folks still say they can see the marks on my face in certain lights to this day approx. 34 years later!!

 

[slowmotion]

The front tyre of my BSO got jammed into the back edge of the wonky front mudguard. Instant front wheel lock-up. Both the bike and the rider flipped through about 220 degrees onto the tarmac. The second accident involved a sweeping bend, a brick wall and seven pints of Adnams. No harm done, amazingly.

 

[classic33]

Side swiped by a bus and sent off down a road closed due to ice. Putting as much distance as possible between me and the bike.

 

[midlife]

I remember lots of tumbles but the first one that put me in hospital was when I was about 14.......... riding into school with a bag on my handlebars thinking "if that bag goes into the wheel I'm in trouble"

Sure enough bag goes into the wheel and I go over and land face first on the tarmac, no time to move hands so it's really face first. Wake up with various members of the public wondering what to do and eventually end up in casualty for x-rays. No damage apart to the front of the face as everything protected by my Jack Klugman profile

Never ever rode with a bag on the handlebars again, honest

Shaun

 

[Pro Tour Punditry]

You're getting better at this thread starting Soupy
My first crash was when I was 9 or 10 in the late 70s, up Glen Clova when a sheep walked out in front of a car and the car braked suddenly and came to a stop. It was on a downhill and I didn't manage to stop (or indeed slow down at all) and ended up ploughing into the back window, splitting my chin open.
The driver took me the 20 miles to the nearest hospital and made sure I got home. And left me with a towel that I had held over my bleeding wound - I still have the scar and the towel...!

 

[snorri]

Shortly after learning to cycle I went for a run around the block. With confidence building as i successfully navigated the first left hand turn followed by a left hand curve, I decided I should signal my intentions to turn left at the next junction even although no one was around. Just as my left arm was fully extended I remembered I hadn't cycled with one hand before and quickly attempted to grab the handlebar grip which wasn't where I'd left it as I careered to the right and across the road and towards the railway. Could have been worse if it wasn't for the railway lines I'd have been over the sea wall.
It was quite some time before I tried to give a hand signal again.

 

[Shut Up Legs]

I got my first bike at age 8, got on it, rode down the hill on my dead-end street, forgot where the brakes where, and rode straight into a fence. It was one of those stretchy wire fences, though, so the impact wasn't that bad. Thus began my life-long love affair with bicycles.

No, wait: I just remembered something else. I had a trike at about age 3, I think. I crashed on that, and still have a scar on my forehead today to remind me of it. Oddly enough, I can't recall the crash, but it must have been a doozy, to leave a scar.

 

[Keith Oates]

At age 5, I was coming down a steep hill and got into a speed wobble and came off and cut my eyebrow so several stitches later I was patched up but still have a scar!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[RWright]

I remember my first bad crash. I had a ton of crashes when I was a kid, some worse than others. I was around four or five. I was going down a steep hill and seeing how hard I could zigzag. Got tossed head first into the road, luckily it was smooth finished. I got road rash on my forehead and end of my nose. I still have a photo around here somewhere, from later that summer, that my skin was lighter on my forehead and tip of my nose because it did not tan evenly. No lasting scars though, at least not that time.

 

[Mark White]

At age three, on a trike. The front wheel hit a stone and I went down. I scratched one side of my face and still have a scar on my nose from it. Have vague memories of the doctor giving me some medicine on a sugar lump*.

(* I am not a horse)

 

[Batgirl]

I learnt to ride a bike in the South of France, in the 70's where the kids rode for miles everyday.. end of first days riding.. returning 'home' with the family kids (3 of them).. flying down a hill - having great fun doing it.. only to realise friends were turning left into a driveway with brick gate posts either side.. I'll be honest, I thought I'd hit them, so the relief of 'only' ditching myself to the side on the grass was immense, the speed wasn't such a great thing but I lived.

 

[mrbikerboy73]

I was 5 and had not long learned to ride without stabilisers. Older brother and his mates made a ramp with an old door and a milk crate. Of course I had to have a go. Over the bars I went, knocked my front tooth out, my face used as brakes.
It never put me off though!

 

[w00hoo_kent]

All these head injuries, don't let the anti helmet brigade read this... :-)

I'd have been around 7 or 8, out on my Chipper (I think it was a Chipper, bright orange smaller version of the Chopper and definitely not a Budgie) going down a massive hill (now a small bump) got to the bottom and yanked on the front brake on gravel. Next thing I remember was lots of sobbing and scuffed knees as the older lads who had been hanging around sat me down and waited for my dad (who was a way back walking the dog) to turn up. I have always been much more careful with the front brake since then.

Second biggie (still small) aged 9 or 10 with a Raleigh Grifter (red one) out riding with my dad, again a massive hill, again went as quick as I could down it. The bike had a speedo that worked by clicking a small angle of metal within the spokes. At the bottom the speedo was at max (30 or so) and I came off, again there was gravel. This was nastier (although still not hospital worthy) a passing car driver took me home and my dad scooted the 4 or 5 miles with both bikes. To this day he says I just lost control and crashed, I hold as it was a dead straight piece of road the speedo stuck in my front spokes locked the wheel up. As I never remember accidents (I don't get slo mo effects and earth/sky/earth/sky, my brain just wipes the bit from 3 seconds or so before the crash to when I'm thinking again) I'll never truly know.

 

[maltloaf]

My first proper crash was a bit of a grizzly one when I was about 12. I was with my cousin and was showing off doing endo's against his garage door on my bmx. I miscalculated and ended up over the handlebars. Didn't think anything of it as I'd fallen off a million times until my cousin fainted. I had a six inch gash in my shin down to the bone and a corresponding amount of skin on the beartrap pedal.

Hospital dash, ruined my uncle's back seat with blood, 15 stitches and I still have the scar now, which is quite wide because I managed to open it up a few times so it took ages to heal.