Ah man - where to start. First off, I hope your buddy recovers and keeps riding.
Head on collision with dirt bike. Lucked out and reacted faster than he did so I took the high line as we hit and he went over the edge. Shattered my front disc and I went over the bars hard.
Rock rolled as I whizzed through trees and it turned me right into one that caused my arm to hook perfectly around it at the elbow and would likely have come close to severing it. I realized it was happening and gave up everything to pull my arm back, resulting in a spectacular cartwheel and chunks of bark buried in the skin of my arm to show how close it was.
Funny one in Moab. My best riding buddy weighs 230 and is incredibly athletic. We were side by side picking our way down a rocky face when I stuffed my front tire in a hole and was going over the bars when he palmed my rear tire as it whizzed past and completely stopped my flip, simply dropping it as I got my weight back again.
The injury that never happened. Going down a rock garden with merciless pointed rocks everywhere I slipped and went over the bars, landing on my feet on the tips of two, skated right off them and landed on two more before falling gently. Sat there breathing hard and amazed to have just a few scrapes.
Flirting with my fiance on the first of a 4 day mtn biking/wheeling weekend in Anza Borrego, I landed awkwardly from the last jump I ever did in my life, tacoed the front wheel and separated my right shoulder. Bummer was we were doing some serious trails the next few days and I had to shift my manual tranny 4Runner with it. Thank you, Ibuprofen max dose for 3 straight days and nights. Good part is she snapped a picture that is on my desk at just the right instant and my bike is near vertical with the front rim in a mild figure 8 with a beautiful curl of desert dirt ripping off it. Sweet.
Stretching the thread a bit to road bikes.
My brother (post 12 above) got me into the habit of having a hankie tucked into the traffic side of my shorts, which causes movement that keep vehicles farther away. Works beautifully. Unfortunately, one day I could not find any of mine so I grabbed a thick table napkin on the way out the door. Later, while chasing down a hill into town I was in the aero bars and had just glanced at my 32mph speed when I heard a sizzling sound and the back end started drifting. Unable to get to the brakes, I did my best to steer from the aero bars and used both lanes as the crown of the road had me drifting from side to side flashing past parked cars. Finally, I was unable to counter steer out of the last slide and then the rear tire blew and the rim hooked and threw me down at about 7mph. Whew! Stood up and discovered my napkin wadded into the rear brakes. Just for grins, we paced off the skidmark as the tire was new and agreed that the useful distance of a locked Kevlar tire was 87 feet!
Broken right clavicle, both shoulders separated, dislocated pinkie, broken right index finger, cracked arm bone, numerous road rashes and cuts but I'm currently having the fastest year of my riding life and I'll be 47 on Friday!!
DougM
. Walked him out as the only person that drove to the trails went to get his vehicle. Me, my wife and Brian walked to the road. The three of us had ridden to the trails...so Jeff brought him to the hospital.
