What was your worst crash and how did it happen?

I lost traction on my back tire while racing down a parking garage on my RL-22 circa 1989... hit my head on the concrete and blacked out... had the full-on concussion "David Bowie eye" etc...

Probably the next worst one was catching air off of a curb onto a asphalt street on my Revcore 24... upon landing the drive-side 401 Flight crank arm snapped at the pedal ferrule and I landed sideways on the bike with my right hand going through the front wheel and my forehead slid across asphalt... at least I didn't get run over by any cars!

Let's hear some good horror stories.... ;-)

I'll super condense for those with weak stomachs:

Lawn jump with ramps and tires.
10 plus feet plus of air.
Perfect landing until...
the gooseneck(Schwinn Ashtabula style) breaks
just below the quil nut(stripped from vice grips)
ENDO
torn tough skins(groin area)
BLOOD
Big upside down "V" shaped scar

Fill in the gaps with your imagination and that's exactly what happened.

My worst crashes have been on an mtb doing shuttles.
I'm torquin' it across fall line on a trail that comes down out of Jupiter Bowl in Park City, UT. This trail is a gentle downhill all the way across the east wall. Doing like 30, pumpin' the rollers, having a great time. Suddenly the front end dropped and I got pitched forward over the bars. I mean quick-like, no time to react. I hit the ground head and left shoulder/arm first, and then just rag-dolled to a stop. As I'm tumbling along, damned if I don't see my FRONT WHEEL go bouncing by off into the trees in my peripheral vision. I thought I was seein' things, but I staggered to my feet and went down and looked - sure enough, there's my front wheel. Axle's not broken, skewer is still there. Now I'm thinkin' "did I break a fork dropout?" and hobbled drunkenly back up to where my bike landed in the scrub oak. Nope, fork dropouts are intact. I still to this day wonder what happened to make my front wheel come off (I had Ringle' skewers, if you are familiar w/ them, you know they don't flip open by themselves) and I still bear the scars left from bouncing over all those rocks for about 30 feet.

Not for the faint of heart.

Clearwater practice before the races...we always hit the table top or tried jumping the woops..This time it was the woops..woops are about 1.5' high two of them about 12'-15' across so you had to be bookin...I got squirrly off the first ran into the second one with my front tire tumbled down the track...dust settles and my thumb ballons up instantly... go to the doctor and I had dislocated it and it had went back into place by itself......

actually this was my only injury..

[ October 03, 2006, 10:14 AM: Message edited by: Florida Vaughn ]

Flying down a hill back trail to the stream in the woods. My brakes got wet and I went full boogie into a rock pile and face planted. You could see my teeth with my mouth closed. The lower ones came through the skin half way between my lip and my chin. Blood everywhere.

This is why I grow a Goatee, to cover the scars.


Another one was a wall ride on the local Dunkin Donuts. Slipped off my Hutch pedal (with Urchin cages) when I landed from about 4 feet up. I could see about 6 inches of my shin bone.

I looped out on a jump riding a bike with a Kashimax Aero, and when I came down (the bike being pointed straight up) the tip of the seat went right into the back of my theigh. I had a bruise on the back of my leg from my knee up to my butt. Ouch. I don't think that damaged me mentally as much as when I hung up my front wheel on re-entry doing an aerial on a quarterpipe.

What's up Jay?
Jay would know about the quarterpipe - he was one of the lucky kids that actually had one in his driveway BITD.
My parents were'nt as tolerant of our construction projects. After a short period it was always "that thing has to go".
At least the practice gate was portable, so it was tolerated...

[ October 03, 2006, 04:01 PM: Message edited by: Mike Corvin ]

Rancho Downhill in san diego. 1982
got a bad start so was mid-pack going into the first turn.the leader washes out, taking everyone with him.i'm over the bars before i can let go.
end up with a broken collar bone and a gash on my leg. worst part, i drove to the track alone and my car had a three speed on the collumn. a slow painful drive home.

the morning after my best friend's bachlor party .....

At some trails in pa. bike looped out from underneath me ,seat ripped my head open. 13 stitches, and a concussion, But the fun was the next day. my freind's helmet whacked me on the head. I got pics of me bleeding. gotta find em

I did this one on Memorial day...



I was blasting down a singletrack trail on my S&M 24 with a group of 10-12 year old kids... there was a tree branch leaning out over the trail at a corner and I tried to go around it and didn't quite make the cut... my front wheel went into a drainage ditch and it blew out my front tire and bent a Sun BFR rim (bummer)... fortunately the bike did fine thanks to S&M extreme strength! If this had been my Revcore I probably would have bent the forks back.

Not the worst wreck I have had... only a fleshwound! Hahahaha

With a few beers on board, a mate and i decided that we needed to get some more
we lived at the top of a valley and started to race down the hill rounded the corner and my mate decided to take a short cut and jump the curb, well i followed and didnt pull up in time
My front wheel hit the curb and destroyed itself (cheap no name rim) over the bars and i slammed in the pavement (well a gravel path you could also call it) lol
all i remember is waking up in the hospital with the nurse digging the pavement out of my shoulders arms and back.

well on a side note the same corner got a proper coating of asphalt last month......15 years later lol

2 come to mind. The first during a race at Metro West (liverpool, Australia) big mother tree at the end of the first , very fast left hand sweeper. I was shunted off the top and headbutted the tree and high speed. I got up and put a show on for the crowd with big air and a table top off the last jump.
The second was at Fivedock Skatepark. Sydney again. I came out of the top of the halfpipe and lost my balance to the wrong side. I fell about 12 feet onto my knees with no pads or helmet. The worst part was the 3 hour trip back home riding.
This was the bowl.

My worst are the following: In 1985, I was flying down the street and out of nowhere, I went over the bars and slid on my face for a bit. The result: concussion, nerve damage and most likely the cause of a grand mal siezure in 2000.

The other one is jumping off the side of my halfpipe and breaking the end off my bars when I landed. The bars turned, jagged end poked me in the stomach, and thankfully only a gash and blood. I did a hammer throw with my bike into the woods and left it there for a month.

Braddock, 1982, second straight, an old set of vans with a worn bottom, slilled both pedals over a jump, and face planted. The nurse at the track was asking me question, and I couldn't remember how I got there, then she pushes where she is wiping the blood away and gets this sickened look. She says "you need to go to the hospital". Why? Cause I tore my nose off and it was attached by only one side and it was just flopped back into a normal postition till you pused onit. When I got to the hospital, they determined I seperated the gums from the upper lip as well. That was a whole lotta stiches. Sunday was the worst road bike accident yet, hit by a guy not paying attention to a stop sign and pulled out in front of me!!! Unlike superman, I haven't mastered the landing part>

My worst I really don't remember other than it was at an NBL race down in Florida and I was told that Rusty Cable took me out. Concussion, muscle spasms in my ribs, messed up shoulder. The funny thing is that I ended up flying home to VA. The plane was late into atlanta and I missed my connection. Being 14 I couldn't get a hotel so I had to stay in the airport. Woke the next morning on my side with my shoulder stuck to the carpet from my injury. Had to roll over to get unstuck because of my muscle spasms in my ribs. I don't have much patience for my kids when its time to pull off a band-aid. Im 38 now and my ribs still hurt.
Does anybody have Rustys address?

A couple of years ago, I was hitting a down hill course on my MTB with tubeless tires. We were sessioning on a section that had some jumps and I was doing about 25mph. When I landed this tabletop jump the air blew out of my front tire. I went down hard. When I came to, the bike was about 50 feet from where I landed. A nice hipper and back peice, but not too hurt. It was still knarly, though. It hurts a lot worse at 35 than when I was 11...

My worst? Man I`ve had many. From peddling way too fast and feet slipping off peddles (on pavement) to jumping off the sidewalk that had a 3 step drop to the street and hitting the curb on the other side and blacking out. That was 20 years ago. My worst though had to be last year (I`m 44 now so I`m more gentle) after getting off work, night shift, and having a few *cold ones* and starting to get brave, and feeling 20 years younger, I think I came sailing off my deck landing on the front tire continuing over the bars breaking my collar bone. The reason why I think I came off the deck is because I really don`t remember how I flew over the bars and that was the only logical solution I could come up with. I quit drinking shortly after that too.

In 1984 when I was 16 I had a freak accident while racing a national in NJ. Upon landing over a set of doubles I was instantly thrown head first into the ground shattering the 4th cervical vertebra in my neck. This caused a severe spinal cord injury which left me a quadriplegic (quad)...permanently paralyzed from the chest down. It was something that was completely out of my control, and it could have happened to anyone even with the best of skills.

I spent the next 6 months in the hospital and rehab learning how to live and cope with my altered life and I now have to use a wheelchair to get around. It was and still is very tough to deal with, but through it all I have kept a positive and realistic attitude. I now realize how much little things we all take for granted.

Brian- I was at those races in Orlando and Lake Alfred, Florida as well. The race ran really late and my whole team (Thruster) missed our flight also and we spent the night as well in the airport. Had a lot of fun and got into a little trouble with security.

I also raced against Rusty quite a bit. His website is http://www.rustycable.com/