Who has never had an "off"?

[Simontm]

Past 4 years had 4 offs.
1st was on a tow path at around 10/15mph where the back went and I went on down on my right. 4 ribs, collar broken in 4 places and a nasty bash on the knee.
Back on the bike and have to say I over-reacted when clipping a kerb. Before above incident would have ridden through but I braked and over I went, dislocated finger.
Silly one was the cobbles at Richmond. Completely forgot about the floodline and subsequent silt and went skidding covering myself in mud. No damage except for ego.
The fourth was a Corsa crossing across a traffic jam and the bus lane I was in. Hit the side of the car and bounced off his windscreen. Bike a write-off but I only got a small facial scar and a mark on the hand. The weirdest bit was picking a bit of glass out of my nose two days later that somehow got sat in the cavity.

 

[deanbmx]

I've only ever come off once on the road and that was due to being pushed into the gutter by a close passing car and not being able to unclip in time.

Touch wood it remains this way too.....

Come off my MTB most times I ride it though

 

[Willie Erskine]

Never, that I remember, at least as an adult (57 and counting). Wife falls off every ride (almost) including a dismount into a ditch. (Why get off the other way when there's a perfectly good ditch to fall into?)

 

[nickyboy]

Turns out my off was due to a random cooking oil spillage....WTAF?

That would explain why one second I was tootling along, the next second I'm upside down looking at the sky. At least it was so sudden that I had no chance to stick my arm out and get a broken collarbone

 

[KnackeredBike]

1 x diesel spill - a vague smell of the stuff and then sliding along the floor. Ripped bartape.

There is a roundabout near me that is an absolute sod for diesel spills because it is quite wide and has adverse camber. I have come off three times there and narrowly avoided cars skidding as well. I don't know if there is a solution because if you cling to the kerb to avoid any spills you just get morons trying to undertake you to the exit.

 

[Alan O]

...especially the time when I skidded on black ice, following the path of someone who I'd watched go down on exactly the same patch just 5 seconds before me...

One of mine was like that. I'd watched some other idiot skid on the ice only a few yards further along the road a minute or so earlier - the trouble is, that other idiot was also me.

 

[John the Monkey]

There is a roundabout near me that is an absolute sod for diesel spills because it is quite wide and has adverse camber. I have come off three times there and narrowly avoided cars skidding as well. I don't know if there is a solution because if you cling to the kerb to avoid any spills you just get morons trying to undertake you to the exit.

Liked out of sad recognition of the truth, rather than in the traditional sense.

 

[Colin_P]

Loads as a yoot. Worse one was going over the drop bars at speed having straightened up from a turn. We'ed just been swimming on day two of the summer holidays (1986, this was the last full summer holidays before leaving the next year) from school, I had a carrier bag with my towel and cacks in it which swung into the front wheel and locked it. Over I went.

I was out and don't recall the impact but I landed on my head and shoulder at the same time and skidded along in that postion for a bit as there was hairless patch on my head and a section of my shoulder where the skin had been sanded off by the road. The worse part was clean snapping my right hand collar bone in half. Off to A&E in an ambulance and then a thoroughly miserable summer dealing with a broken collar bone.

In a way I'm glad it happened back then as, to coin a phrase, it knocked some sense into me. Prior to that I was a complete loon on a bike, not regarding traffic, but taking huge risks of not slowing down as much as I should.

However, some four to five years later, still a yoot, that was all forgotten. I had many near misses on my commute across London from Paddington station to the Upper St / Essex Rd area of Islington. It was the time of the bike couriers (I wasn't one) but tried to out loon them on my way to work on the building site.

Having our first child was what really calmed the loonacy down. I think it takes a heavy off to appreciate how much it can hurt, glad I did it as an idiot yoot and was lucky enough to have survived my way through it.

These days I try and avoid roads as much as possible although in a moment of madness only a few years ago and quite soon out of hospital having survived a cardiac arrest and having a newly fitted defib / pacemaker I thought it would be a good idea to cycle to the office for a very late afternoon meeting. As was 25 years earlier this meant the train to Paddington and then cycling across town, but only as far as Kings Cross which the office is very close to.

Meeting over and about 5-6 pints I set off on the return leg along the Marylabone Road back to Paddington before the last train left. All this on an 80's racer with 70's/80's brakes wearing a suit and no plastic hat. Was a bit of a nervous wreck once I finally got me and thebike on the train.

Some people (me) are idiots and never learn. [edit] saying that I resisted the urge, despite their peer pressure, to carry on a pub / club crawl with colleagues, missing the last train and having to cycle all the way home very drunk, which I would have done without batting an eyelid years before.

 

[GuyBoden]

My knee hit the edge of a pot hole when I came off, you could see the knee cap. Taxi to the hospital.

 

[Colin_P]

My knee hit the edge of a pot hole when I came off, you could see the knee cap. Taxi to the hospital.

I clicked like, not to like it, but to empathise with the pain.

Bet that was sore for a while and something a bit of germaline and a plaster would [edit] NOT cope with.

 

[raleighnut]

My knee hit the edge of a pot hole when I came off, you could see the knee cap. Taxi to the hospital.

View attachment 371741

Ouch

 

[Jayaly]

I am almost afraid to tempt fate by saying that I haven't had an off as an adult. A few undignified emergency dismounts, though, when the small person in front stopped dead for one reason or another.

 

[fatjel]

One in 2014, leaves at the bottom of a Welsh mountain, about 2mph elbow still hurts
Two in 2015 both low speed pain free.
One in 2016 broken collar bone wrecked bike and a new found determination to look where I'm going
Can't remember any before that but i am 61

 

[McBrian]

I come off more than I would like too, I have no evidence but I think it may have something to do with a perforated eardrum I had in my late 20's affecting by balanace a wee bit.
My latest off has resulted in a broken collar bone, pretty glad it was just that as I was accelerating through 20mph and ended up going over the bars head first in to hedge roots, I had to use a little force to get my helmet off, this happened 13 weeks ago and today I learned I need surgery as there is no sign of the break healing :-(

 

[raleighnut]

I come off more than I would like too, I have no evidence but I think it may have something to do with a perforated eardrum I had in my late 20's affecting by balanace a wee bit.
My latest off has resulted in a broken collar bone, pretty glad it was just that as I was accelerating through 20mph and ended up going over the bars head first in to hedge roots, I had to use a little force to get my helmet off, this happened 13 weeks ago and today I learned I need surgery as there is no sign of the break healing :-(

I've had a broken collarbone for the past 11yrs (Non-union fracture) the Consultant said it was a bit too close to the end to plate and would leave it dangerously weak if I fell on it again (mind you it was the 4th time I'd broken this one)
It depends where the break is as to whether surgery is the best option.