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benelchi -> RE: Bicycling....adventures, experiences, favorite rides etc (7/2/2008 2:39:38 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: phosadaud
I'm sure in many cases you are correct, but in my wreck, had I stayed with the bike, I would have been more injured. I didn't put my feet out to brace myself (by that time I knew I was going to hit the curb and there was no stopping that) but rather to let myself roll off the bike rather than come to a jarring halt and getting handle bars jabbed into my ribs.
Like I said, I'm just a casual rider - I'm not racing or going at high speeds.
When I teach people how to crash, I teach them to roll with the bike rather than apart from it i.e. staying on the bike doesn't mean you should come to a jarring halt. Without seeing your crash, I can't make a definitive call about what could have been done differently, but experience has shown me that separating from the bike is usually the worst thing to do in a crash. I personally spend more time teaching crash techniques with my juniors then do most coaches, and I do so for two reasons. First, knowing how to handle your bike in a crash situation helps avoid the panic and most of the time helps you to avoid the crash altogether (This is the Goal). Second, if you do crash your injuries are typically far less when these techniques are followed.
I would agree that these techniques are more important to racers; however, that is only because the potential for a crash is greater in a bike race. The techniques themselves are just as applicable to recreational cycling and I do teach them to recreational cyclist on occasion. Knowing what to do in a bad situation is always better than finding out how not to do it afterwards.
Here is a list of the things we practice:
1) hands on the bars, feet on the pedals at all times, always look for a way to avoid the crash and never commit yourself to the crash.
2) roll with the force if you do crash, keeping your body and head tucked.
3) In an overlapped wheel touch situation, turn into the wheel and lean away i.e. lean in the direction you are being pushed, not against it. This one takes lots of practice because the natural reaction is to do exactly the opposite. Following your gut instinct on this one will almost always cause the rear rider to crash when the wheels separate.
4) Breaking should almost always be primarily the front break because almost all of the stopping power is in the front break. The over the handlebar flips caused by using too much front break are almost always the result of someone who used the front break only in an emergency stop, but avoided it using it during normal riding. Those who know how to use the front break don't flip their bikes. Most bike racers go through one or two front break pads a season. Rotating the rear break pads forward when they need a replacement.
5) In a hard emergency stop you should shift your body behind your seat i.e. your butt should be hovering just above the rear wheel and your chest nearly touching the seat. Doing this will allow you to apply far greater amount of pressure to the front brake and can cut your stopping distance in half. This does take practice to master, and is something you want to know how to do before your are confronted with a need to use this technique.
6) If there is an obstacle ahead that you are going to need to go over because you cannot stop in time i.e. a curb, bike of a crashed rider, or even the rider themselves. While in the position described in point 5, you should apply your breaks as hard as you can to take off as much speed as possible, but you should release your breaks a fraction of a second before hitting the obstacle, doing so will help you to be able to safely get over the obstacle, and in the case of another rider keep him from getting seriously injured. When you slam into someone with your breaks locked both you and the rider you hit will have far more serious injuries. For the rider on the ground it can mean the difference between a bruise or a broken rib, and for the rider going over the top, it can mean the difference between a few scrapes and a serious head injury because when you hit any obstacle with your breaks locked, you will flip.
7) When riding in a pack of riders with road style drop bars (used in racing bikes) always keep your hands on the drops. Doing so prevents riders riding next to you from coming in on the inside of your bar and hooking their handle bars with yours. If you do get hooked, do not lean against the hook, but lean with it while accelerating from the front or breaking from the back to separate.
8) Always keep you upper body relaxed and never lock your elbows when riding, overall endurance is greatly enhanced and a much larger impact can be sustained (when another rider bumps you from the side) without transmitting that bump in to handle bars and causing the bike to veer in one direction or another. Even bumps on the ground (like potholes, rocks, fallen water bottles, etc) can cause a bike to steer badly to one direction if you are riding with your elbows locked. This is a bad habit that many cyclist develop, and it really takes conscious effort to unlearn.
Because I have been involved in bike racing for many years now, I have witnessed many crashes, and about 90% of the crashes I have seen were completely unnecessary; most crashes are the result of panic and overreaction and could have been easily avoided if the riders had practiced and followed the instructions above.
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