Fell off bike, landed on head

[Tiberius]

Hi everyone,

Well I have to humbly report that I fell off the other night. Going too fast round a corner at the bottom of a hill, I met a car coming the other way. I tried to tighten the turn and the front wheel went from under me. The car was in the right; I was in the wrong, and I ended up hitting my head on the road and turning the handlebars through nearly 360 degrees.

Actually later I worked out that I didn't really land on my head. The bruises and the damage to my jacket show that the main landing was on the back of my shoulder, where you are taught to take it.

To answer the second question everyone asks, no I wasn't wearing one. Would I have been better off with a helmet instead of a woollen hat, well, clearly yes. It was my face rather than the top of my head that hit and all the damage is in places that aren't covered by a helmet. But the rim of a helmet would have provided just that little bit of separation to keep my ear and eyebrow off the tarmac.

I am wondering, however, whether the type of helmet used for hang gliding, parascending, etc would be better than the polystyrene flower pots? What do you think?

Another thought is whether the weight of the front wheel had a bearing. Certainly I am more used to drop handlebars, lightweight front and a different riding position. Are there significant differences in the handling of bikes in extremis? Sorry, the racer in me has to ask the question.

And finally: flecc, a while ago we were discussing the respect and admiration of the neighbours. It was less than a mile from home and the car in front of me, the car behind and the first pedestrian on the scene were all people who know me. There goes the street cred.

Nick

 

[ITSPETEINIT]

Even a Tea Cosy!

Hi everyone,

Well I have to humbly report that I fell off the other night. Going too fast round a corner at the bottom of a hill, I met a car coming the other way. I tried to tighten the turn and the front wheel went from under me. The car was in the right; I was in the wrong, and I ended up hitting my head on the road and turning the handlebars through nearly 360 degrees.

Actually later I worked out that I didn't really land on my head. The bruises and the damage to my jacket show that the main landing was on the back of my shoulder, where you are taught to take it.

To answer the second question everyone asks, no I wasn't wearing one. Would I have been better off with a helmet instead of a woollen hat, well, clearly yes. It was my face rather than the top of my head that hit and all the damage is in places that aren't covered by a helmet. But the rim of a helmet would have provided just that little bit of separation to keep my ear and eyebrow off the tarmac.

I am wondering, however, whether the type of helmet used for hang gliding, parascending, etc would be better than the polystyrene flower pots? What do you think?

Another thought is whether the weight of the front wheel had a bearing. Certainly I am more used to drop handlebars, lightweight front and a different riding position. Are there significant differences in the handling of bikes in extremis? Sorry, the racer in me has to ask the question.

And finally: flecc, a while ago we were discussing the respect and admiration of the neighbours. It was less than a mile from home and the car in front of me, the car behind and the first pedestrian on the scene were all people who know me. There goes the street cred.

Nick

Even a tea-cosy would be better that nothing.
IMMEDIATELY after my first head-butt to the road I got a crash hat - a "polystyrene flower pot" which saved me from certain concussion (at the very least) the second time it happened.
Please Tiberius, get some protection or stay off the bike, until you have decided what's best for you.
Don't spend any time evaluating 'why you are not dead' - you just got lucky. Don't throw the experience away.
Peter

 

[rooel]

I would suggest just two things to remember, Tiberius, if you start wearing a helmet: they only help if the impact speed (front of head to solid object is less than 12 mph), and in your type of unfortunate accident, while the front rim of the helmet would perhaps have hit the ground first, and provided some crumple zone type protection, it would also probably have jerked your head back causing neck injury.

The only thing for it is to ride as safely as possible, and try to keep separate from motor vehicles.

 

[carpetbagger]

The main thing is that you are ok, Take it easy in future. A few years ago we didn't see our neighbour for a few days. He appeared from a taxi looking like he had gone 10 rounds with a rottweiler ! He hadn't worn a helmet and spent three days in hospital and was lucky it wasn't longer. For me its a helmet every time..In fact its like driving a car without a seatbelt ,if you forget..it just doesn't feel right.

 

[ITSPETEINIT]

Safe or charmed?

I would suggest just two things to remember, Tiberius, if you start wearing a helmet: they only help if the impact speed (front of head to solid object is less than 12 mph), and in your type of unfortunate accident, while the front rim of the helmet would perhaps have hit the ground first, and provided some crumple zone type protection, it would also probably have jerked your head back causing neck injury.

The only thing for it is to ride as safely as possible, and try to keep separate from motor vehicles.

I agree with you Rooel: ............to ride as safely as possible. That means wearing a helmet. One is bound to spend some part of a journey riding at less than 12 mph. Limit your speed to 11 mph, then head-on contact will be safe. But there are many fortuitous circumstances where head contact is not head-on but very injurious.
Peter

 

[Jeremy]

Bad luck Nick. I think a paragliding type helmet would make a lot of sense. They are very light weight, so don't really increase the risk of neck injury, but most importantly are massively more capable of withstanding impact than the daft polystyrene things sold as bike helmets.

The downside is they are moderately expensive, plus are styled to suit their intended sport, so may look a bit out of place on a bike. The upside is that if you take up paramotoring you can use the helmet for that as well. If you intend to do the latter, then it'd be worth looking for a helmet that can accept a comms upgrade fairly easily.

Amongst the best known are Lazer (fairly conventional looking in the main) and Charly (tend to be full face and fairly extreme looking). Both have models that start at around £40 or so. A Google will no doubt find the nearest dealer to you etc. As far as I know, most of them now seem to be approved to EN966, which although not appropriate for road use, does require some pretty impressive impact and penetration testing.

Jeremy

 

[flecc]

And finally: flecc, a while ago we were discussing the respect and admiration of the neighbours. It was less than a mile from home and the car in front of me, the car behind and the first pedestrian on the scene were all people who know me. There goes the street cred.

Nick

Never mind, you have their sympathy instead.

On helmets, the ones used in hang gliding and the like I think are better than our cycle helmets. I've noticed that in Australia they have many cycle helmets with much better wrap around protection than ours, some almost reminiscent of WW2 German army helmets.

On emergency steering corrections, the increase in dynamic weight in a front wheel with motor will make it less able to respond sharply to direction changes. The weight makes the steering "slower", and the gyroscopic forces tend to oppose a sudden direction change and convert it into side slip to retain the old direction of travel. It sounds like that is what happened to you.
.

 

[Tiberius]

Thanks everyone.

I was looking at the paragliding helmets at the NEC a few weeks ago. Think I will have to get one. I have also been severely lectured on the subject by my son. This is some kind of role reversal; I expect he will talking about pocket money next.

Nick

 

[Ian]

Mmmnn, I don't see many Tour-de France riders wearing paragliding helmets. This in a sport where speeds are high, accidents are frequent and R&D budgets to give the rider the best tools for job are virtually unlimited.

 

[Jeremy]

Tour-de-France riding seems to be a sport where recklessness abounds and drug taking is common place though, so I'm not sure that it should be held up as a paragon of safety conciousness................

Lazer certainly make a range of cycling helmets too, although I think they are mainly aimed at the downhill racing, BMX and mountain bike crowd. From what I can see they look extremely similar to their paragliding helmets.

I believe that one of the big compromises with cycle helmets is finding a way to allow adequate cooling. This may not really be such a big issue for the likely lower exertion levels that an ebike rider may be riding at.

Looked at in terms of the requirement, bike riders and paraglider pilots need something very similar in many ways. Both want light weight, good aerodynamics, good hearing ability and good impact and penetration resistance. The differences are that a paraglider pilot wants his/her helmet to work at typical glide speeds, say around 20 to 30mph and doesn't need quite so much head cooling capacity.

Jeremy

 

[Ian]

I'm not too familiar with paragliding helmets so I'm not sure what they use as an energy absorbing medium which is obviously an important part of a cycle helmet. I know that the Bell cycle helmets styled a bit like a paragliding helmet and favoured by some downhillers use a normal rigid foam/thin shell construction without slots.

Its so cold today that I may tape up the slots on mine.

 

[Jeremy]

Paragliding helmets are quite like very lightweight motorcycle helmets. They often use Kevlar, carbon fibre or perhaps ABS outer shells, with an inner energy absorbing foam layer. The major difference between bike helmets and these is in the outer skin strength and impact resistance. Most bike helmets I've seen have an outer skin that seems very thin indeed.

The other thing about paragliding helmets is that many are designed to provide better facial protection. A "face plant" is a fairly typical paragliding/paramotoring low speed incident!

Jeremy

 

[giguana]

there is a lot of technique involved in flying off a bike at speed over the handlebars. fortunately I have never been there, but the best way to land from very high on your head is rolling over the shoulder like this- http://www.crossfit.com/mt-archive2/DanShoulderRoll-th.jpg
you should always be half prepared for one of these on your bike, when things get unpredictable, bent over sideways slightly as if you were listening through a door, with 1 foot sensing the lowest pedal so you can push up and jump in the air a bit if need be.
you should probably practice on the grass in the garden, rolling over your shoulder from standing up and then doing it jumping first, and know that riding head-first completely straight gives you no leverage to balance your body if you are in midair. you can't turn either way.

 

[Tiberius]

Hi giguana,

It was all too quick for a conscious decision about how to play it; trouble is most of the gymnastic manoeuvres involve using the handlebars and when the front wheel has gone sideways that doesn't work.

I think the best recovery would be the crash dive ball out, if you know your trampolining manoeuvres, and have properly loosened up and stretched beforehand. Sorry, don't know how to post a picture. Wouldn't work wearing a rucsac, though.

Nick

 

[Ian]

One of my favorite TV programs is Discovery channels Mythbusters. Here's Jamie Hyneman from the show demonstrating appropriate headgear while riding his Wavecrest Tidalforce, and this is a link to a video of Tory Belechi also from the show demonstrating one way of going over the bars.

 

[giguana]

Ian, that's quite a good crash but is lucky he wasn't going too fast, I much rather go out with my legs flying higher than my head and onto my shoulder! I am constantly in crash prediction posture on my bike! Comes from climbing trees. fell from 20 feet once. On my head when I was leaping.

crashes are completely unpredictable, and very scary, just to say that it's good to never go fast headfirst, but very powerful brakes are really useful. I personally never dare go near a car junction fast or through one at all, I hop through the pavements if possible!

I was also thinking about putting a heavier front wheel on the bike, you could get one of those of puncture proof inner tubes which are filled of gel, some of those are very heavy. probably a heavier wheel is less responsive so it's harder to make small adjustments, but it's less likely to bounce out of control from a bump and causes something unpredictable. taking out some pressure makes the imprint of the tyre round and I guess that's better for turning.
turning at speed really just put faith in the grip and grit /oil on the road.

fingers crossed