What is your worst crash?

That depends on how you define “worst.”  What is worse–destroying your bike or destroying your body?  What is worse, the immediate pain which may fade, or longer term effects even if the immediate pain wasn’t severe?

For me, I would probably refer to a crash which would have looked like nothing, but had significant impact (no pun intended).  When crossing a log pile on a very humid day (the logs were wet), I spun out my rear tire and simply fell to the side.  It didn’t look spectacular–it was low speed and a simple fall to the side.  But as I extended my right arm to break my fall, it hit at just the right angle and dislocated my right shoulder.  Not particularly painful, but the arm was hanging quite oddly.  I walked over to the nearest standing tree and slammed the shoulder back into joint a-la Mel Gibson in Lethal Weapon.

I wisely chose to ride directly back to my vehicle which was only about a mile away on relatively easy trail.  But then I made a very unwise decision.  I was driving a minivan which had all the back seats removed, so it would have been very easy to just put the bike in the back . . . but nooooooooooo . . . I did the usual and went to put the bike up on the roof rack.  Ooops!  When raising the bike high overhead to place it in the tray atop the van, the shoulder popped back out . . . and this time, it hurt!

6 weeks of relative inactivity was followed by 6 additional weeks of PT before I was back on the bike.

I crashed on my lefty and broke my back and my tailbone in 2 places. Hit some thing in the grass and went over backwards and landed on my butt at a high rate of speed. All I remember about the impact is a really bright light and the compression of my spine. Was 8 months before I was back on the road bike and a year for the Flash. Still hurts me at times but I can deal with it for now. I am 58 and not getting younger. I am riding till I can’t. Then I will worry about all that stuff. Having way too much fun to stop!

I hear ya on the low speed falls.  When I was new to my clip in pedals I fell on the same butt cheek about four times when running out of steam going up a hill.  The last time was on a boulder and holy hell it hurt.  The kind of hurt that just pisses you off so bad you want to just throw in the towel and call it a day.  My arse was black and blue for weeks after.  I hated those pedals so much.  I still have some fails going uphill with them but now I’ve gotten better at falling haha.  One time it almost sent me off the side of a mountain, but I grabbed a big bush and just hung off the side for a little while.  That one could’ve been bad.

Messed up the ribs a couple of times, but nothing ever broken.  Took a nice digger at Rocky Knob in Boone, NC last week on the PB&J trail.  Didn’t feel great at the time.  Nothing but a few scabs and a bruise left to remind me of it at this point.  Need to get back down there for a retribution ride some day.

Crashed coming down the banks of a riverbed outside of Canmore, Alberta.  About a 15 feet fall onto a small boulder in the creek.  Knocked the air out of me and probably cracked a rib or two (it only hurt to walk, stand, sit or lay down).   Especially hurt as it was the first of a 10 day trip to the Canmore (just outside of Banff NP) area.   I had planned the trip for a few years and had lots of hiking and biking on the schedule.   Besides the physical pain, my confidence (as I had only been riding a few months, exclusively in Florida) took a big hit.    Inspired me to take a BetterRide camp and have never looked back.   Need to get back to Canmore as it might be the most beautiful area I have visited.

So far this is the worst crash, it really shouldn’t have been a crash but I think the lack of warmup and being offline at the start killed my legs which then had difficulty in supporting the mass above them lol