By John Marsh
It may be the first thing I heard on one of my first group rides: It’s not a question of if you will crash, but when.
I now call it The First Rule of Crashes.
And it’s a maxim that I’ve seen realized numerous times over the years in my own local group, the Domestiques. Thankfully, only one of those crashes involved a car, and we’ve all lived to ride another day.
The Banality of Roadie Wrecks
What all of the Domestiques’ crashes illustrate is the banality of roadie wrecks – they occur for just about every possible reason, and most often are not the fault of the rider.
I witnessed one friend hit an invisible sheen of thin mud left behind by a water-and-sewer crew on a 90-degree curve. His tires simply lost all traction and washed out, leaving him to go down and skid along on his side – including, barely, the side of his face.
Another buddy hit the far lip of an inadequately filled pothole and sprawled onto the sidewalk adjacent to the road.
Yet another friend – a powerhouse of a guy – snapped off a pedal at the axle mid-stroke and slid into the opposite lane of the two-lane road. Thank goodness there was no traffic at the time.
And another Domestique rolled up onto the trunk of a car that stopped abruptly, in the roadway, even though it was signaling to turn into a parking lot.
And then there was me, a couple of times.
Several years ago, I was riding on a dedicated bike path when a 10-year-old boy walking a dog darted off the sidewalk directly into my path. I managed to avoid both the boy and the dog, but the leash snagged my head tube, and I hit the pavement all along my right side.
I ended up with a deep thigh bruise, a scraped-up knee, elbow and top of the shoulder, and a separated shoulder. Only when I finally sat up and took off my helmet did I realize that my head had also hit the ground – hard enough to split the helmet completely through at the temple. I remain amazed that I did not even have a headache from that impact.
I can say the same thing about the crash I had almost a year ago, when I rolled over a wide white stripe in a fast curve just starting a short descent. I’m now convinced that even though it was a dry day, a car’s air conditioner or some other source added moisture to that white stripe – as my tires washed out instantly, sending me sprawling backward and to the left, hard into the pavement. I fractured my clavicle into five pieces, and smashed up my helmet – but not my head.
Helmets ‘Just Doing Their Job’
In all the crashes just described, helmets did their job – whether it was dispersing the force of a full-on impact with the pavement or keeping (most of) a face an inch off the road as a head skidded along, or dissipating the force of a backward slam into the road, with nothing to break the fall but the shoulder that preceded it. Without the helmet, each crash could have been far worse.
My first bad crash happened before the advent of MIPS technology, but I was wearing a MIPS helmet last April when I went down.
{slider WHAT IS MIPS?|blue|closed}
Modern (non-MIPS) bike helmets are wonderful pieces of technology in terms of their impact resistance. They are designed – and tested – to help prevent skull fractures and other major blunt-force trauma. They are not, however, designed to mitigate the forces that can cause a concussion.
A Swedish company called Multi-directional Impact Protection System (MIPS) patented the slip plane concept (what it calls a low-friction layer), using two layers in the helmet (the MIPS “liner”) to help mitigate the rotational force of an impact, which can result in a concussion or other brain injury. Here’s how the company itself describes the technology:
“In a helmet with MIPS Brain Protection System the shell and the liner are separated by a low friction layer. When a helmet with MIPS Brain Protection System is subjected to an angled impact, the low friction layer allows the helmet to slide relative to the head.”
Click to read MIPS and Sliding Resistance of Bicycle Helmets from helmets.org. Click to read more from MIPS at http://www.mipshelmet.com/ {/sliders}
While I cannot say for sure that the helmet definitively kept me from suffering major head injury, and that the MIPS technology was an added benefit, I walked away without any head trauma.
I can only judge the impact to have been quite hard, as it was objectively forceful enough to devastate my collarbone. And my buddy who was fairly close behind me and witnessed the crash said my head bounced on the pavement. I certainly would have suffered at a minimum a contusion and abrasions to my head, if not worse.
Personal Experience is All the Proof I Need
I’ve reached the point in my cycling life – after my own crashes, and those of friends – where I don’t need “definitive” proof of the helmet’s responsibility in the outcome. (I keep hearing arguments that MIPS technology has never been proven in government testing – which, by the way, does not exist for such technology. Helmets are still tested mostly for blunt force protection.) But, really, personal experience is all the proof I need.
If it gives me a shot at protecting myself, and it takes the brunt of an impact that obviously would have hurt my head to any degree – I’m a proponent.
A helmet is insurance, and why not insure your head to the extent of the available technology?
John Marsh is the editor and publisher of RBR Newsletter and RoadBikeRider.com. A rider of “less than podium” talent, he sees himself as RBR’s Ringmaster, guiding the real talent (RBR’s great coaches, contributors and authors) in bringing our readers consistently useful, informative, entertaining info that helps make them better road cyclists. That’s what we’re all about here—always have been, always will be. Click to read John’s full bio.
Someone told me when I started cycling a few years ago, that I wasn’t a cyclist until I crashed! That only took two seasons and changed my approach to riding. I’ve always worn a helmet and like your article says personal experience was the proof. Without being overbearing, I always share my story when I see someone without one on.
My son was riding fast behind me when his shoelace caught the crank arm or chain wheel. His bike completely flipped. He landed on his head and cracked his helmet in two. He was 16 at the time and will be 22 when he graduates college next month. I often think about what could have been had he not been wearing a helmet.
Helmets are not enough. Cyclists should learn to tumble from a karate or judo instructor. Learning to roll in a crash can make a huge difference in not breaking bones. Unfortunately, I tried taking a lesson and found I got too dizzy learning to tumble that I couldn’t continue.
There are three types of cyclists: those who have crashed, those who are going to crash, and those who are crashing.
I do the same, Bob, re: sharing my crash stories. I kept my 2nd crash helmet (have it hanging in the printer closet in my home office) and wish I had kept my first. Sadly, after the ER folks showed it to my wife, they trashed it. Split all the way throughat the temple, it would have made an excellent show-and-tell piece.
Been riding for almost 30 years and have crashed numerous times. Last crash was during 2016 local MS ride. The group I was riding with slowed abruptly without signaling, and I hit the guy in front of me and went down. Decent road rash on my arm and knee; looked like one of the musicians in a Revolutionary war picture, with bandages flapping in the breeze as I rode. Didn’t realize until after the ride that the side of my helmet had a crack in the foam. Helmet trashed, head fine. No brainer- you WILL crash if you ride, and a helmet sacrifices its life to save yours.
I passed 30k miles last week (started in 2006) and have crashed three times. So my metric is 1 crash per 10,000 miles. I broke my helmet in two of the crashes and broke a wrist in one of those two. After Natasha Richardson’s death ([url=http://]http://wp.me/p7B0Rg-bdNz[/url] after a simple fall and head strike, I will not even get on my bike without my helmet.
This is something I have heard a number of times…the idea of ‘knowing how to crash.’ In my experience, this is not a thing that exists. One second you’re fine, a brief moment of utter chaos follows, and then you’re lying on the ground trying to figure out what just happened.
And to those who suggest there’s no data to support the idea that helmets protect your noodle, I invite them to a scientific test at my house. You head butt the bumper of my jeep bare headed hard as you can, and I’ll do it with my helmet on. Then we will make a careful study of the results.
[quote=Bill]Helmets are not enough. Cyclists should learn to tumble from a karate or judo instructor. Learning to roll in a crash can make a huge difference in not breaking bones. Unfortunately, I tried taking a lesson and found I got too dizzy learning to tumble that I couldn’t continue. [/quote]
I don’t see any reason to believe the MIPS factor made a difference in these crashes. Given that a properly fitted conventional bicycle helmet still rotates a fair amount when one pushes on it, I don’t see how MIPS is an improvement. MIPS=More In Pockets (of helmet) Syndicate.
Bill, I agree. As a USCF level 2 coach, I have put together a slow-speed bike handling skills clinic and work with several bike shops that help host the workshops. The final exam is that the students ride in pairs practicing wheel bumping skills. We do this drill in soft grass and many learn how to fall and also important, learn what to do when they hit the wheel in front of them. I wish more of these workshops could be made available.
[quote=Bill]Helmets are not enough. Cyclists should learn to tumble from a karate or judoinstructor. Learning to roll in a crash can make a huge difference in not breaking bones. Unfortunately, I tried taking a lesson and found I got too dizzy learning to tumble that I couldn’t continue. [/quote]
Which bike shops do you hold the clinics at?
If I live too far away to attend, do you have any
suggestions such as videos? You could offer
videos on DVD for sale.
I have had numerous crashes, but only two of note, both road-race crashes. Neither was my fault, the first a squirrely cat 5 swerving out of his line into my front wheel, the second from a rider slipping and crashing in front of me on oily pavement in the rain (Watkins Glen race track). This is pieced together from witnesses, as I have retrograde amnesia from both crashes. Combined, about two weeks in hospital, a nice titanium plate, three surgeries, 6 weeks in a wheel chair and years of recovery from TBI. I have both broken helmets on a shelf in front of me in my office as I type. Testing shows that MIPS will help reduce TBI. Actual studies will take some time to come in, but I’ll pay the extra insurance just in case the testing is right.
While that pavement stripe might have had water from a car’s AC, it also might have just had a different coefficient of friction compared to the pavement. While most likely it was slipperier than the pavement, just the change in traction might have triggered the fall.
After 33 years and numerous crashes as an adult rider, my worst head smack came after a particularly clumsy clip out – at a standstill, in my own driveway. What an idiot! Anyway, a helmet is a full time, every time accessory for me.
Adam Martin, frequently what you say is true and, for those situations, I suppose no more needs to be said. However there are plenty of times when there is time to react quickly to situations that seem to be drifting south if you know what to do. I am amazed at how the pros seem to always get a foot (or both) out of their clips when things around them get dicy (and frequently are able to keep form suffering the fate of those around them). Similarly when one’s front wheel overlaps and touches the wheel in front ( know, I know, …) knowing what to do (and NOT to do) can make all the difference. Maybe in subsequent articles Mr. Marsh will give us more rules of crashes rather than just a soliloquy on the efficacy of wearing a helmet. (He kind of makes me wonder who he thinks his audience is.)
When I crashed last June the paramedics and ER docs noted that my helmet looked fine so likely no head injury. Considering that I was unconscious when the paramedics arrived, I have to question that thinking. While waiting for XRay I took stock of my injuries and noted that I likely had a broken clavicle (I did along with 3 cracked ribs) and then I noticed a bump on the back of my head that felt like it had dried blood. I pointed it out to the ER doc who immediately sent me for a cat scan. I had TMI with a brain bleed and was admitted to the hospital. The brain bleed was on the back of my head while the only noticeable damage to the helmet was near the front. My guess is that I bounced on impact and the injury occurred on the second impact. There’s no question that the helmet saved my life. One lesson I learned from the experience is to always request a cat scan after a crash even if the helmet doesn’t appear to be damaged. Fortunately I am fully healed from the TMI and my new helmet has MIIPS, I figure if it gives me slightly more protection it’s worth it.
Hey roadies, free your front wheel and your back will follow. If you encounter sketchy conditions get your weight on the back wheel and loosen up those arms . Stiff elbows mean too much weight on the front wheel which has the least traction meaning that your roadie traction is greatly diminished. Most pothole, slick pavement , railroad track, and other roadie crashes can be avoided by weighting the bike correctly. And remember, never rub wheels. And the ditch is always good place to go when a dbag crashes in front of you. Its better than being super man and launching over a crashed rider.
Thats an awesome crash. Wish you the best and hope you keep riding. Ive known other riders that have been on their bikes for decades and never went though what you described so Im thinking it only gets better for you.