The I've had a serious(ish) bike accident Thread.

[Billloudon]

Most of us have had accidents in our time and I thought let's log them.
How, where, when and damage.

How: Going too fast in the wet.
Where: Irvine on the 73 cycle path from Largs to Ayr.
When: July 2009 (Yes it was very wet)
Damage: Bike a write off. Helmet same. 2 broken ribs, shoulder cracked and upteen cuts. Good eh,. Oh and the good news was that I was due to go to Germany the next day on a cycling holiday. Went never looked at a bike!

 

[Theseus]

Nope, had a few minor prangs, but nothing that has either written the bike or myself off.

 

[Sh4rkyBloke]

How: Using a cycle lane to filter past stationary traffic when a driver pulled across it onto the pavement to take/make a phone call.
Where: Stretford
When: Jan 2008
Damage: Scuffed brake hoods, torn bib longs and jacket, broken computer and light, deep muscle bruising in left calf, injured right side on Transit wing mirror mount (and took a piece of the small mirror off as I hit it). Bruised shoulder and hip.

 

[GrasB]

4 big incidents & it explains why I want to train small agile quadrupeds.


How: Motorist clipped a pinch-point island curb & was thrown into me as I passed
Where: coming out of a village somewhere in Norfolk
When: ages ago, summer 2002 I think
Damage:
- Personal: broken leg, broken arm, cracked ribs, loads of bruises & a serious cut to my abdomen
- Mechanical: bike a total write off (though the woman who hit me took me to a bike shop & gave me £1000 to replace the bike regardless of being told the bike was worth about £200, which was very nice of her). All clothing was a write off as well

How: hit a large squirrel or similar sized quadruped at moderate speed
Where: between Chrishall & Elmdon
When: Oct 2004
Damage:
- Personal: cuts & bruises… I was kept in hospital for observation purely on the blood loss!
- Mechanical: Rear mech problems (maybe a new hanger was needed) & crankset needed replacing

How: hit at cat at high speed
Where: B1381 coming out of Sutton
When: Aug 2007
Damage:
- Personal: 2 fractured fingers, assorted bruises & serious road rash
- Mechanical: bent handle bars, fractured steerer, broken spokes in the rear wheel (WTF?), lots of small paint chip & small dent in the frame.

How: Cig butt flicked at me & burnt through cycling top causing me to lose control at very high speed
Where: heading out of Over towards Longstanton
When: 31st Oct 2009
Damage:
- Personal: large collection of cuts & bruises.
- Mechanical: trashed front wheel in tyre, bent forks & 'bars suspect.

 

[gaz]

How: Doing some dirt jumps
Where: some woods
When: 2004
Damage: Snapped frame, i got off with no injures some how.

How: going over a speed bump
Where: Plymouth city centre
when: 2006
Damage: buckled front wheel, forks twisted out of place, front and re-derailed snapped, front brake pads bent out of line. Damage to me = pride

How: Car pulled in front of me.
Where: Croydon
when: late 2009
Damage: front wheel buckled badly, forks bent. me = badly bruised, muscle damage.

 

[Riverman]

Mechanical: bike a total write off (though the woman who hit me took me to a bike shop & gave me £1000 to replace the bike regardless of being told the bike was worth about £200, which was very nice of her). All clothing was a write off as well

That has renewed my faith in humanity.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

do spectacular off road / mtb crashes count?

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Mechanical: bike a total write off (though the woman who hit me took me to a bike shop & gave me £1000 to replace the bike regardless of being told the bike was worth about £200, which was very nice of her). All clothing was a write off as well

despite her personal generosity please tell us you got compensation from her insurance company for your injuries and the plod were involved because of her inattentiveness?

 

[TVC]

How: Car travelling in opposite direction made a right turn across my path whilst I was doing 20-25mph.
Where: By the Cemetery gates, Wigston, Leicester
When: April 2006
Damage: Bike written off, frame snapped. Me - Broken arm, Dislocated shoulder, broken fingers, broken nose, two front teeth shattered through top lip. Thirty(ish) stitches for cuts to face and arms, road rash on anything that sticks out, bruised back where the bike landed on me, and 4 days in hospital for observation and an operation.

 

[Cubist]

May 2009 Huddersfield Narrow Canal
Hopping up step, chainring digs into wooden edge, pitching me over retaining wall with 15 foot drop....
Crush fracture to vertebrae
Bike, bent saddle rails, bit of grass in shifter.

 

[fossyant]

Too many to list............

 

[Aperitif]

Last Thursday - before embroidery.
A5 Edgware Road in wet conditions - no idea how it happened.

Road over the edge of a road in the South of france a couple of years ago - cut eye and another crushed helmet that's all. I had a choice between a tree and a fair old slope.

We also got a barrel or two overhead during the Sanglier (wild boar) season - up in the mountains, followed by a lurcher who was undecided whether to knock the bikes over or just run alongside with his bloody great bell ding-a-linging. Luckily there was a 'spotter' at the top of the col who took charge.

Earliest incident: Going home early from school to collect my Carlton and go to inter school athletics meeting. Rode, at speed into the back of a Morris Traveller and found the Carlton's front forks under the saddle! Injury? As always, pride + I hit the corner of the car with my shot-putting shoulder. Walked back home and got a bus to athletics.

 

[al78]

Descending steepest section of hill from Coldharbour to Dorking, warm, dry sunny evening last summer. Saw oncoming car and applied brakes, shortly afterwards bike went sideways. Landed on right elbow, needed 12 stitches, bruises on right shoulder and hip, road rash on left elbow, a few other small cuts. Front wheel knocked out of true, front forks bent, cost around £250 to replace (Birdy folder). Was very grateful to the two motorists and cyclist who assisted me and called the ambulance.

Have been nervous descending that hill ever since.

 

[GrasB]

despite her personal generosity please tell us you got compensation from her insurance company for your injuries and the plod were involved because of her inattentiveness?

No & yes. I viewed the £700 or so she spent over direct replacement of my bike as compensation enough & I duno what happened to the driver but there was talk of DWDCAT.

 

[661-Pete]

Oh well ....

Two injury crashes, similar in some respects. Both of them entirely my own stupidity.

Around July 1984. Had just bought a rucksack, but wasn't wearing it, instead had it in a carrier bag hooked over the handlebar, as I wasn't going very far. What a plonker! Accelerating smartly and speedily (well I was young in those days) along Western Road, Brighton, suddenly found myself kissing tarmac, a spectacular cartwheel over the handlebars and face-plant, at least spectacular according to the witnesses who rushed to my aid. Four broken front teeth (one of which the stump had to be extracted), several stitches to my face, an agonizingly painful back but no permanent harm (just muscular), and I suspect a broken finger which was never diagnosed at the time but has since then given occasional twinges. After being patched up at hospital and calling a cabbie to take me home, he at first didn't want to take me, he said I was too frightening a sight. And I still had to confront the Mrs. when I did get home...

November 2005. I'd had a bad day at work and stomped home at lunchtime, knocked back a few glasses of brandy (very unusual for me) then got on the bike to try and work off my anger. I distinctly remembered reaching a T-junction on a quiet country lane, where I had to stop to give way to a passing car (unusual on that quiet road, so I remember it). Then there's a gap in my memory, until I recall coming round wrapped in a blanket on the verge (not at the T-junction - a mile or two from it), with a couple of anxious ladies peering over me. I was, I reckon, out for about 15 minutes with a spell of amnesia for the period preceding that. I don't even remember whether I turned left or right at the T-junction: I might have done either and the memories are hazy. Anyway, the dental bridge which was put in after the 1984 'off' was gone, more cuts and bruises, a broken nose and a painfully wrenched leg (although that recovered). The hospital did a CT scan on me just to 'be sure'.

In neither incident was the bike damaged, beyond the odd scratch. Bikes are tough.