On 6/20/2018 12:41 AM, jbeattie wrote:
On Tuesday, June 19, 2018 at 8:03:53 PM UTC-7, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 6/19/2018 3:54 PM, jbeattie wrote:
On Tuesday, June 19, 2018 at 10:11:48 AM UTC-7, Frank Krygowski wrote:

OK, aside from the crash caused by the tandem fork suddenly breaking
off, my only other moving on-road fall happened like this:

It was winter. I was riding home from work down a short steep downtown
hill. (The grade is over 15%, the hill is only 200 feet long, and the
road's since been closed to traffic.) There was lots of road salt on the
surface so I was descending very slowly, less than 10 mph.

I suddenly noticed that the patch of stuff just in front of me wasn't
road salt. Instead it was broken glass. I swerved rightward to avoid it.
My front tire slipped on the road salt and I fell. I scratched my knee
and tore my windbreaker.

I didn't say "That was an act of God." I didn't say "Nobody could have
avoided that." Instead I said "Damn; I screwed up."

I try hard to not screw up.

I hit a submerged pot hole, went OTB, separated my shoulder, knocked myself out and cut my face -- but not my head or anywhere under my helmet, which was wrecked. I did not blame myself for being unable to see through standing water at night in a rainstorm. I suppose I could have walked home. I don't think Garmin makes sonar. I'll look into that.

Good plan. You gotta be safe!

BTW, low-side crashes (like my crash in the West Hills) can just happen and may or may not result in a head strike -- usually not, but they can.

Yes, they can. Lots of things _can_ cause head strikes. Most have
nothing at all to do with bicycles. But only for bicycles and
motorcycles does "It can happen" translate to "so you really should wear
a helmet."

I'm not talking about a situation where you screw up, try to correct and then go down. You just go down due to loss of traction, often when traction was previously good.

Yep. That's what happened to me in that incident I described. It felt
like a judo throw.

FWIW, it's also happened to me mountain biking off road, including at
least once due to ice. Back in those days, I figured falling was a
normal part of mountain biking, because I was trying to see what I could
get away with on the bike. Sometimes that involved riding at "eleven
tenths," as they say.

But oddly, while I often wore a helmet mountain biking, I never hit one
on anything other than twigs.

Culprits can be invisible like oil or even a change in pavement surface, crack seal, black ice, etc. There is no warning, no nothing.

I suspect I'm a much more conservative rider than you are. I suspect I
was much more careful even back when I was your age.

What would more careful look like? Using a walker?

My "more careful" still includes 40 mph downhills, riding in groups,
drafting, riding in city and suburban traffic, and a bit of riding in
the woods, on gravel, etc.

But for me, it includes lots and lots of "what if" anticipation and
attention to the road surface. What if there's gravel around that
downhill bend? What if that motorist tries to push into the roundabout
while I'm in the circle? What if that puddle is really a deep pothole?
What if the meeting goes late and I have to ride home in the dark? What
if that squirrely rider suddenly weaves into my path? What if that mud
across the bike trail is really slippery?

I'm sure you do more miles than I do. (A recent health issue has all but
stopped my riding for a while.) I'm positive you ride more miles in the
rain than I ever will. But I still suspect that if I could match you
mile for mile, I'd arrive a bit later than you, but with fewer crash tales.

We used to have a dude here who bragged about riding drunk, about
getting big air entering an intersection from a sidewalk, about riding
wrong-way or riding at night without lights, etc. He claimed I didn't
know as much as he did about riding because he had crashed a lot more. I
think that logic is perfectly backwards.

--
- Frank Krygowski