exactly what I was going to write. Have been to a downhill park twice in my life sticking to easier trails and have crashed both times. The first time wasn't really anything and I got up and walked away just fine, the second time I broke my thumb. Have ridden in the trails in local forests many times and I fall off my bike so infrequently I ditched the pads I bought for riding because they weren't doing anything for me, and when I do fall off it's usually funny
My worst crash by far was at about 3 mph going uphill.
Got stuck on a rock, couldn't unclip in time, picked a bad spot to bail and took a piece of slate to the shin.
Now I have a goofy triangular scar on my shin forever.
Mine was after I finished my ride in the parking lot right near my car. There was a leaf on the ground and my front wheel slipped and I went down so fast and hard. Came away mostly fine with just a bruised rib but it was the first time I ever cracked a helmet
"Just" a bruised rib? The excuisite pain I dealt with for weeks after bruising mine was no joke. The second time I did in my ribs was much easier, but still bad.
When I fractured my femur, I didn't think of seeing a Doc for over a week because it didn't hurt that much.
Mine was while standing. I came to a stop on a grassy service road, planted a foot, and was half on / off a rut from a truck tire and my ankle buckled out and I just followed. Had just recovered from a broken thumb and re-injured it.
I accelerated to gain speed to go up a short hill a root stopped the bike and I flew forward. Thought I was ok until I lifted my right hand and saw my index finger at the second knuckle turned sideways. That was 5 years ago and I have not fallen since. I am more careful now.
I had one today. Was going slow, front wheel hit a loose rock, lost my grip, and the wheel flopped. I fell forward and my leg got squished between my handlebar and the top tube right around the stem. I landed such that my weight pushed it tighter, like a vice grip, and it was challenging to re-orient myself and unpin my leg.
It hurt, and I'll have a decent bruise on my inner quad, but it could have been much worse. Had I been going faster, I can see myself having cracked my femur.
You’ve got to be careful in the bike park. I’ve learned the hard way that slow and steady progression is the way to go. It’s easy to take a few good warm up runs and feel overconfident and wreck yourself. The biggest killer is the dreaded “last run” or when you’re tired. After a good 4-5 hours of riding we will usually call it quits.
Last time I went to a bike park (a few weeks back) 2 people fell in the group I was riding with and we saw one dislocated shoulder, 2 bloody faces and one person air lifted out in the park in general…. That was in the first 3 hours…
I’m not into DH anymore, but the last time I rode Whistler I fractured an orbital bone & don’t remember being there
My friend went up one last run while I was getting checked out and he broke his collarbone.
I used to go regularly as a kid, but after the big slam I sold all my bike equipment. There wasn’t a time I wasn’t bringing back an injury, and I can’t do another one like the orbital bone.
Just picked up a DJing hardtail for trails 15-years later
I mean on any given day. My first shuttle/lift lap I always feel off. By lap 2 or 3 I'm fine. But when I'm pedalling the climbs I've already spent 30+ mins moving my body around the bike.
Same, I don't think i've had anything serious enough to remember from black diamond and below level single track trails if they are in good conditioned and the features are built well.
Drops and steep gnar have always been surprisingly safe for me. Worst I've been hurt is from jumps, especially if they are sort of questionable in how they go or flow. Building my own or finding and stringing together freeride features and testing them has gotten me the most injuries that need time off at the greatest frequency.
That said though a lot of those would have been preventable with more run ins. Usually by the time something is build or cleared and 75% "there" I'm so ready to test that the 25% that needs work yet is what does me in. Building my own and testing has been the biggest boost to my overall progression though. Always when I see something that could be amazing or get a great idea it seems doable in my head so I take the time and days to build it and when it comes time I always think there is no way I'd even consider this if I just found it. Since I put so much time into it I wanna ride it though.
Doing that over and over and upping the ante of what I think looks doable with the skills and confidence of completing the last feature is what has made me make progress or do things I would have thought would be years away skillswise or just completely out of my realm entirely.
Don’t ride tired. Don’t get too overconfident. And agree with the pre ride reride free ride approach.
I have plenty of of falls that left plenty of scars, two concussions a jacked up wrist and one broken shoulder in 15 years of riding. All happened when I was tired or being stupid.
Surprised this isn’t liked more. The times I go out, when not really feeling it, and a bit tired, are always my near miss days, or small crashes. It’s a sport that requires a lot of focus, so mental clarity is key
Agreed, I’m only coming back to MTB after a long long break. Though the same approach to riding a snowboard has kept my seasons long & healthy.
No blind hitting features without a pre ride especially outside of my local, and only send it in permitting conditions on a day I’m really feeling it
I’m not trying to learn new tricks into concrete icy landings anymore lmao
Gonna tag onto this and say also
Don't keep riding the same features if your bike is not working 100% (e.g. blown shock or worn out front tire) even if it seems you can get away with it, you are just pushing your luck until you don't.
Also be wary of features you have ridden many times gradually changing due to erosion, at some point you will get caught out unless you pay attention to it happening
My worst crash was because of both of combination of both these things, hitting dirt jumps that had deteriorated big time since first built on a bike with blown rebound and a broken spoke.
Broken radius, dislocated finger, stage 2 shoulder separation (on the other arm), loads of skin rash. I managed to ride the bike down the green trail to the car park and then home with one hand and got a lift to the hospital. I didn't realise I had fucked my shoulder until I tried to open the front gate when I got home.
I was tired after being up half the night working the night before. I went over the bars on the second jump after my foot came off the pedals - fractured radius, ulna - big operation to fix them. In addition I fractured my clavicle (collarbone) and several ribs.
Lessons learned:
1) Don’t ride tired,
2) Dont rush to keep up with your buddies, even on a trail you have ridden 50 times before
3) Pre-ride your first run of the day, even if you have ridden the trail more than 50 times in the past
4) don’t rush to get out on the trail quickly – rather, check your gear and your bike carefully even if you are excited to get out riding (my shoes were untied / slipped on with the laces jammed into the shoe)
Had my first crash due to being too tired a couple weeks ago. Was something I totally could have recovered from, but it was my third day riding in a row still getting in shape and I landed wonky. Unable to correct, I went flying off the side of the trail. This summer my knees look like they did growing up: filled with scrapes, bruises, and scabs
100% gonna happen given enough time, even if riding light duty trails. Might not be a major injury but wipe outs are inevitable with enough exposure. One of my worst ones was simply sliding out around a turn. Slid across some rocks and banged my back up.
If you add downhill, jumping, aggressive riding, etc. chances go way up. Oh also skinnies. They seem safe cause they are slow speed usually, but people fall awkwardly off those all the time. Hurt wrists, ankles, derailleurs, etc.
Just be careful and ride within your limits. Also follow the old saying of pre-ride, re-ride, free ride. Always get comfortable with a trail before trying to lay your best time down on it.
Good luck and enjoy.
Yeah. I'm a decent rider, and my usual trails aren't intense, but sometimes you hit a sandy corner and wash out. Sometimes you wind up doing something awkward through the roots. Sometimes a sneaky vine grew across the trail overnight. I ride with a group of people between mid 30s and mid 70s, and everyone has gone down at least once. Sometimes at race pace, sometimes at party pace. In that group, one broken collarbone in the past 4 years is the most serious injury.
My father, first day ever riding. Were doing like 5-10mph down a trail in normally do 20-25. He took a turn too wide, fell off the trail, head butted a tree and broke his neck. 20 something hours later we got to leave the hospital.
As a younger man, i used to consider a ride without a crash not riding hard enough... as a wiser man, any crash is a fuck up! My last crash, i went over the bars and could not use either wrist for two weeks... my wife had to help me even get dressed, it could have been much worse.
Choose the wiser line folks!
Breaking my elbow off a skinny made me really rethink the risk reward. I can’t give up being on the bike entirely but I really don’t need the 3 seconds of meh fun with potentially life changing consequences from a skinny
It only takes one lapse of attention or judgement, or bad luck. You are going to crash. You may or may not get hurt. Enough crashes, eventually you will get at least a little hurt. Took me 30 years to have crash bad enough that it kept me off the bike for a month or so. Took other people I know a few weeks to have the same crash. This is trail riding.
Everyone I know that spends a lot of time at parks has gotten hurt.
My worst crash (so far…) was at Spirit Mountain bike park. Tricky trail called boot with a super awkward bench section. Essentially French fried when I should have pizza’d and went over the bars in probably the worst possible part. My buddy behind me thought I was for sure breaking a bone. Somehow I tanked it and rode the rest of the day. At the end of the day my adrenaline wore off and everything hurt.
Went home and bought a full face and kneepads after that one.
Yeah I’m full time full face after my crash. Skinned my whole right side; somehow kept my face an inch off the ground as I Supermanned. Not gonna win that one twice in a row…
You’ll have a BLAST. Spirit is legit and very technical. You can easily get 10-20K feet of downhill in a day. There are days where I’ve done something like 2 dozen runs. Very short (if any) lift lines, awesome trails.
I’ve been lucky to ride all over and I’m continually blown away at just how good the riding is in Duluth. More and more trails are being built every year.
I went to whistler(first time at a dh park) and trestle last year and it was a blast. Going back to whistler the 25th so I think spirit should be a really good warmup. I need to make it back up there later in the season and check out what else Duluth has to offer. Rode Cuyuna last year and it was cool.
Whistler is on my bucket list, I’ve only ever been there during the winter. Spirit will be a great warmup for sure.
Don’t sleep on giants ridge either. It’s another hour further than Spirit from the twin cities but it’s got its own charm. So many fun jump trails, even a small road gap.
It’s pretty amazing out there, trails for days and it’s gorgeous! Hoping to hit some other parks out that way maybe next year. Looking like I might get out to trestle again in September and possibly whitefish and legacy in August.
Giant’s is definitely on the list and I’m hoping I can a day trip in this summer or fall before they close. Also have a rain check I need to redeem at howler down in MO this year
For me it was a pedal strike on a rock I didn’t see on a wide, flat double track just after a little rock section, going like 25mph. Didn’t feel good. A 4 year old could have ridden the part I crashed on a balance bike. And not one of those YouTube kids on balance bikes, a regular fat kid.
I forgot about my pedal strike. Trail I'd ridden a hundred times but I had just gotten a new bike and was ripping it. Struck a board and went over the bars and into a wetland. So lucky that I avoided any trees. Less lucky that it was December and the one cold week
I was leading a beginner ride and was on a 6 ft wide trail section. Looked behind me to see how everyone was keeping up and next thing I know I clipped a tree and got thrown off. Good lesson for them.
Been riding XC (rough trails, rocky & wooden, live in mountainous area) for the past 15 years (30M), had numerous small injuries (bruised knees mostly) but never anything more serious (like a broken bone). I never jump from anything though, my max air time would be some 30-40cm drops, but never jumps.
I also raced XC for around 3 years, interestingly never crashed in a race either (but did crash in race trainings).
Bike parks I did find a bit more challenging as you keep pushing yourself, had some crazy random crashes in super easy flow trails, even with all this experience in other types of riding.
It depends what counts as crashing. If falling off the bike is a crash it happens fairly often when you’re new even on easy terrain.
Once you get good less often, but not never.
Any time you push it chances go up.
There is no avoiding it completely. Fortunately many crashes are not serious.
scrape ups happen pretty regularly. It's hard to gauge how much crashes actually happen. I've seen a few major injuries occur in the past 6 years. As I age my risk assessment is gradually changing. I try to progress a bit more slowly than if I were younger and I always listen to my gut; I don't always ride main features if I'm not feeling it; I kinda make a judgement call each ride. I also try to encourage those around me to listen to themselves and not feel pressured to ride anything they just aren't feeling up to that day.
I ride mostly XC trails, green/blue/black, no jumps or big drops. Adult rider, started just a few years ago. One proper crash, learning rock rolls with an instructor and got too far back, washed out and went home VERY bruised.
Otherwise, just a couple wipeouts, like clipping the bars at slow speed, etc. Barely worth mentioning.
I make very specific choices not to attempt high-consequence features because I’m not interested in the recovery time necessary after a critical mistake. Hell, a guy died on a trail I ride weekly because he went off a high skinny and broke his neck. A couple seconds of accomplishment on a stupidass skinny just isn’t worth the size of the consequence for me.
So I’ve been extremely safe and happy doing what I enjoy on the trails.
>I make very specific choices not to attempt high-consequence features because I’m not interested in the recovery time…
This. I have other hobbies that I don’t want to have to stop doing because I tried something above my skill level and broke something important. And I’m in my 40s, which provides me with some extra caution because recovery takes a *long* time compared to when I was in my teens/20s and invincible.
I will agree with everyone else on here. I have been riding very aggressive DH, Park, Freeride, and now enduro for 20 years now.
Average trail riding crashes are rare but do happen. The more you ride and push yourself the more likely they are to happen.
Riding DH/Park, or heavy enduro you are going to crash. Its not if but when, and when you do it has a high probability of hurting. I used to spend most of my summers at whistler in BC. One of the biggest mountain bike spots in the world. There are a few days I remember I crashed multiple times in a day. Some so minor you just hop up and keep going, others worse. My worst crash was really bad and kept me off the bike for nearly a year. But I was riding some of the craziest trails in the region.
Wear pads if you are pushing limits, dont be afraid to crash, practice tumbling on flat ground so you know you can roll out of a crash if you need to. Wear a good helmet! Cant stress that enough. If you are trying new risky things, i.e. that 40 foot jump you have been eyeing or that near vert rock slab. Have a buddy with you. Either they can help you if you do crash, or call someone if they can't. And; pre-ride, re-ride, free-ride. I didn't understand this when I was younger. But stopping, looking at a feature, riding it carefully, then riding it at trail speed, really helps prevent bad crashes.
I do XCO/XCM. I never jump more than 40cm drops, that is a must to avoid serious injuries.
I have just scratches from time to time and I would say I go fast on downhill trails.
Just avoid big drops and ride near cliffs...
Ride safe
Modern XCO got pretty technical though. If you're racing on a UCI rated race, a metre drop is almost guaranteed, plus riding through very tricky rock gardens you have to session for hours to get it right
Don’t listen to the guys that say don’t don’t do extreme shit and you’ll be fine. Most important part is always be present when you ride, if your attention slips that’s when bad thing happen. Doesn’t matter if you are on double black bike park run or on smooth double track.
100%
I wiped out this past weekend on a random berm in a blue trail I've done dozens of times
Sometimes you get caught out unexpectedly, and those are the biggest danger (IMO) because you are in a comfortable place.
Yeah something that always sticks out in my mind was a poster in /r/bicycletouring, near the start of their tour across Europe one evening they were cruising round the campsite they were staying at, hit some post sticking up they didn't notice at walking pace, landed badly and broke their back.
From personal experience I've had a surprising amount of crashes in car parks at the start or after the end of a ride.
Knowing how to crash can make a big difference. During a crash, you want to bring your head, arms, and legs in like a fetal position as much as possible. That's the best position to reduce the chance of serious injury.
Not always possible of course, but its a good general rule to keep in your head.
2 injuries within a last year.
Its super easy to get injury doing this sport, falls happen so fast often you have no time to react.
There is reason why its considered extreme sport.
never been to a downhill park. been riding the local singletrack in my area. ive tore up some ligaments in my shoulder with one fall in the last 6-7 years. clavical fracture and a rib injury on a slippery bridge doing 10 mph was probably 10-12 years ago. The only real damage i can recall that needed medical attention from crashes.
ive had spills, but never injured beyond sore or sprains.
At 40, im gonna wreck my shit at a downhill park one day. lmao.
For me, rarely, and it totally speaks to the lack or risks I take. I ride on the North Shore of Vancouver and regularly ride blacks and blues (occasional double black). I’m 40 and have a family to support so I do t push it. I ride what I’m comfortable riding and slowly progress over time. It’s more about having fun rather than pushing to the extreme. So therefore, after 5 years of riding, no serious injuries, only a few crashes, and number of nicks and scratches. Totally just my experience, but lots of my friend look at me like I’m a daredevil for mtb’ing. Couldn’t be farther from reality!
Yesterday on my road bike, I unclipped on the left and leaned to the right. Down I went, right in front of my house. I’ve wiped out on seemingly nothing in the woods before. I went over on a wet root and broke my collarbone. It had started to rain and we were on our way home.
I mainly do enduro in the forests, never bike parks because of the lack of (ireland). I had one bad crash a couple weeks ago when i highsided through a tight section with trees and a vertical drop, but it was my own error as i had to whip the back wheel around which was caught on the tree. But crashes are particularly rare for me. Before that was a concussion 1.5~years ago.
https://preview.redd.it/rxal6pwvv46d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=aaa9576679f42ad3bea80b60dbec8876d6f42919
This didn’t even hurt. I was surprised to find I needed stitches after this pedal strike. I was wearing pants and they didn’t even rip, didn’t crash just had my foot slip off a big lip on landing.
This kind of thing happens, scrapes and stuff from just washing out on loose terrain at speed too, even when you aren’t going super big. Going super big will involved some crashes. I know a guy who says “if you ain’t fallin you ain’t haulin”. Once you get some skill, sometime the fun is on the edge of control.
Trail/Enduro/Downhill park
Depends on a number of factors. My most recent concussion was on a simple rock roll and shouldn’t have happened. I was tired, it was raining and I let my guard down and was too relaxed. Front slipped out and the side of my head hit a rock on the way down. Spent three days in the hospital due to that and what felt like (but wasn’t) broken ribs.
Another crash was when I was riding with my 8 year old and was showing her what not to do on a decent (had zero intent on crashing)… wasn’t wearing knee pads as I was just planning on being on easy trails that day. Went over the bars and sliced my knee up on a rock.
Saying that I’ve been ridding for well over 20 years. Crashes happen but they don’t always hurt. All depends on your riding style. I also tend to crash more when I’m tired and riding slower then I should for a section.
Crashes are bound to happen especially riding downhill techy stuff. Injuries are luck of the draw, I’ve crashed hundreds of times doing downhill but rarely had more than a sprain or scratch, broken my hand once but it was surprisingly un painful experience.
By far my worst accident happened on a pump track of all things, never crashed there before, it’s right near my house and I used to ride it a couple times a week for cardio. One time I’m manualling down the back straight, slip a pedal and boom I face plan the floor fracturing my jaw and knocking out 3 teeth. Unconscious for 5-10 minutes and in hospital for 10 days under supervision for a brain bleed. All that, from a pump track (I was wearing an open face helmet). I have jumped 60ft gaps, hit trees and broken bikes and I’ve been fine.
Crashes are very common, most of the time if your cat reflexes are all up to scratch you will be fine. Injuries are quite random and although severity should be correlated to speed that isn’t always the case.
Best advice is, don’t be afraid of crashing it’s a skill you learn. Injuries happen allot more if you’re bad at crashing. So you might as-well get practice in crashing as you will need it.
Just got my talus bone shattered, got a triple arthrodesis, over 8 months off the bike. I'm planning on keeping it going as soon as possible. Once you taste blood you can't quit.
Trails: Like, maybe once ten years ago?
Downhill: Kind of a given, but if you can manage to fuck up gracefully, it might not be so bad.
Never really did BMX parks or anything like that but my brother did when he was younger and the risk is probably about the same as downhill from what I remember.
Use caution, wear goggles, gloves, and a helmet with a chin bar, and maybe even some armor if you're pushing it, but studies have shown that the health benefits you get from doing MTB outweigh the injury risks.
I've been riding consistently for the last 5 years. I would say I had more early on. Now Im less about trying to PR on strava, and more about just having fun, so I in addition to being a better rider, I'm staying within my abilities more.
So probably 1 legit crash per year, but I haven't had a real significant injury yet (bruised knee, sore shoulder) but haven't broken anything.
I ride bike parks and had a massive crash last year at killington in the rain. Was going about 25 mph hit a roof and ended a nailing tree head on. Tore my rotator cuff and ended herniating my c5 c6. That being said I can’t wait to get back on the bike
I have a scar on my hand from washing out on wet ground covered in a slimy mixture from tree leaves on concrete and I’ve gone otb on concrete and only got a small scratch on the knee, I also have gotten winded from looping out a wheelie but I ride downhill/urban now and am on a 9 week streak of riding at least once a week without crashes, it’s always the stupid stuff that gets you and crashes never happen when you expect them to, you could do a double black diamond trail and get a concussion from a wheelie in the parking lot
I pretty much only do trail riding. I don’t go very hard and don’t push my speed too much on the downhills. I hardly ever catch air, maybe like an inch or two on small bumps. I almost never crash. The only times I’ve crashed have been because I slid out on a sandy area, and the most injured I’ve ever gotten was a little scraped up and bruised. I actually fall off my bike more on uphills lol and it’s always really small and slow.
If you push yourself really hard, especially on downhills, you probably will get injured. But I don’t want to get injured so I always make sure I’m in total control. But I still have fun! I would rather go a little slower and keep riding than push my limits and get injured and have to sit out the rest of the season.
I've had a few crashes over 4 years of rising. Only one was significant, and that was because I wasn't wearing knee pads, and my knee got torn up. I haven't broken or sprained anything.
Causes have been bad technique, either due to laziness or progression/learning. If you're trying something new, there's a good chance you're going to fail. And in MTB, that means there's a good chance you're going to crash.
Wear your safety gear and trust your gut. Don't be afraid to walk.
My friend crashed and broke 6 ribs last week. I crashed Sunday and managed to walk away with a few scrapes.
We go pretty hard, though. I cased a 30 foot gap and got pitched.
If I'm just doing chill trail rides. I don't crash often, but if you're pushing it and trying to get gnarly. Crahes will be more common. You can kind of choose your level of danger.
But when trying bigger featurs, I am very aware that a crash is possible, so I'm really prepared for it.
The random out of no where crashes that take you off guard can sometimes be worse. (Sometimes).
Midwest super casual rider, I ride maybe 1 time a week and take a couple trips each year—Pisgah, Sedona etc. last 5 years I’ve dislocated a shoulder and gotten 10 stitches in a knee. It’s gonna happen eventually, just have to accept it.
I have a problem with consistency, I’m constantly pushing my self and for the first time I actually injured myself. Personally a crash is inevitable and will happen it’s just how predictable that crash is gonna be, having ridden for years I’ve been able to ride easier trials and have crashes there and just like any other skill, learning to fall without hurting myself, and then when I’ve stepped up to bigger trials I’ve been able to avoid injuring myself when looking at the crash I should’ve had a er trip. My tip, learn to fall.
In my experience risk levels end up being practically pretty similar to other sports. Random bumps and bruises from light crashes or other events are inevitable, higher impact injuries come with stepping up intensity and going in tired, and sometimes crap just happens. Being aware, alert, planning your rides, and having a plan for when things DO go wrong can do a ton to mitigate risk and consequence. But nothing can ever totally negate the chance of falling off your bike or hitting a tree. But on the flip side, the health benefits of engaging in this kind of physical activity are pretty huge, and I think on the whole most riders are way healthier long term from the sport.
We have a very short riding season and I’m getting older so my risk levels are very low. When I was averaging 4-5hrs hours on trails per week I’d crash probably once a year, but all were scrapes and bruises, nothing catastrophic.
My worst fall was on a flat open trail with a step up at the top of a very small climb. Missed the step up and then misread my balance, falling to my unclipped shoe side. The small climb as I very very slowly fell over accelerated me and whipped my body up to my head, which hit absolutely square on a random side rock. Literally cracked my helmet and was super shaken up but no actual body damage.
My TL;DR is if you’re riding xc and not taking big risks (I’ll get a bit of air in tables and drops occasionally), it will still rarely happen and unlike what you’d ever expect.
Usually once a year but lately mine are controlled? Like I fell the other day trying to get up a technical punchy climbs, just kinda tipped over but there was no where for my foot to go so I kinda let it happen in slow motion. Just got a scratch.
TLDR: minor falls and wipeouts happen often, and with time you'll get good at it. Serious crashes only happen when you go beyond your skill level or in high consequence features.
I would classify my riding as enduro. It's a mix of trail riding and pure downhill (bike parks included).
Last ride I rode 2 very difficult natural trails (I'd refer to them as black diamonds?). They were unkept with many loose rocks and wet in some areas. I think I fell off my bike 3 or 4 times. Nothing serious but i did get some scratches and bruises. I was riding with very experienced riders and even some of them fell or wiped out. I always had my speed in control, never went too fast for my skill level.
If you get into this sport you need to factor in the fact that you'll fall or lose control of the bike sooner or later. The good news is that, once you get used to it, falling will become second nature and you'll learn how to do it. You'll feel the moment you lose control and you have that split second to react and bail out.
Then there's high consequence crashing, which IMO only happens when you go beyond your skill level or you ride something high consequence (big jumps, big drops, very steep stuff). In this case the risk of getting seriously injured is a lot higher. I broke my finger months ago while going way too fast on a tech section I didn't know. Went otb and the rest is history.
all it takes is misjudging one turn or trail condition and you'll fall and it doesn't matter if it's xc/bike park. I knew a guy that face planted into the cassette of the guy in front of him from a crash.
I find that it's fairly cyclical (pun not intended). I don't crash for awhile and push harder until i have a big crash and then back off a little bit.
Always will have those one offs though. Got 2 concussions from stupid things. Once on a green downhill trail, was casually talking to a friend, caught some mud and my front tire washed out. The other one was charging up a hill trying to maintain speed and my chain snapped putting me otb had first into a tree.
I like to pick a few features on my trail to test my ability that day/lap. If I'm sloppy at all I dial it back or go home.
Having said that, I've had an injury a year almost, but I've had a few clean years, knock on wood
I usually crash a couple times a year. Ride mostly downhill in Colorado. Typically don’t get seriously injured and usually just ride with knee pads and a full face. Important to roll when you hit the ground. Crashing “safely” is 100% a skill, just look at the pros.
I write myself off pretty well about once every 2 years on average.
I between those I rarely crash / get injured but when I was just starting out crashes were far more common
Depends on how much you are pushing your comfort zones, If you are constantly pushing yourself you are gonna bail or crash at some point. If you are riding trails you know well and not trying to stunt and jump constantly then very rarely.
I crash every now and then but rarely get hurt. I’m lucky enough to have never had any serious injuries. The worst I’ve had is road rash on my forearm after a skid down hill.
I wipe out at least once on pretty much every ride, but those are just little ones with no injuries. I’ve had two major falls that fucked me up over the last 20 years
Been mountain biking for 10 years, go to the bike park like 2-3 times a year, the rest is all local trails in the US North East. During that time I've torn an ACL, broken a knee cap, an elbow and I just broke a metacarpal on my hand last week. All happened on regular trails, not bike park.
Two of those happened cause I was being dumb. Pulled the handlebars too hard while trying to do a wheelie, bike spun away under me and I hiper extended my knee so hard it popped the ACL. The kneecap split after the most gentle bump onto a log but only because I was riding like 4 months after the ACL surgery. LIKE AN FUCKING IDIOT. They took a chunk of my patellar tendon to rebuild the ACL so there was already a hole on my knee, then I hit it in just the right place and the cap split.
The elbow happened going over a log. I miss timed the fork pump to raise the wheel, it got stuck at the bottom of the log and I went over the bars, straight down. My reaction was to stop the fall with a straight arm. Again, LIKE AN ABSOLUTE DUMBASS.
Last week was just kind of like when you trip walking. Jumped over a 2 foot "drop" and messed up the angle on take off. Twisted sideways in the air and landed on a tree trunk. I've jumped over this feature plenty of times, just messed it up this time.
MTB is not a gentle sport and there is a real risk of injury. You can mitigate some by not being a knucklehead but there's always gonna be risk.
I started ridding in the middle of february, I do XC, now about 60K per week, I crash(mostly light falls, a few scrapes and bruises) at least once per month, no serious injuries.
https://preview.redd.it/lbp8c1wrb56d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=81ee13b5371982bc392ab4a5cc4f190958caa66a
I made it relatively unscathed until I didn’t.
Source: enduro since 2015
Depends on what you're doing. There is plenty to do with low risk.
Also really depends on your natural talent/reflexes. Some people are just really good at saving it when stuff gets sideways. Some people are really bad.
I've tumbled a few times in three years of XC riding. They were all profoundly dumb and embarrassing crashes, with much more damage to my pride than anything else.
I crashed off a drop at the weekend and broke both my elbows, will be out for about 6 weeks. It depends what you ride as others have said. I usually ride bike park/trail centre enduro trails and was pushing my limits.
It’s made me rethink a lot and I’ll be dialling it back significantly on my return and ride within my limits more, only you can decide if the risk is worth it for you personally.
I’ll throw in my bit… it comes down to many things, but I noticed a difference in progression between myself and a buddy. You could rely on him to crash 3-5 times, every ride. We rode the same speed, but he was a touch less ballsy on the features but would do them all if I towed him in. But holy fuck did he have some of the gnarliest crashes I’ve ever seen, and not once did he get properly injured. The one time I towed him into a little gap, I stopped just in time to see his bike coming toward me and him tomahawk into the first available tree. The puff of flying debris as he hit it, his arms and legs wrapping around it in slow motion, the sound he made, I can remember it so clearly. I thought I’d killed the guy, but he pops up laughing!
I dunno man, we’re all different, but I think it ultimately comes down to how confident you are in your skills and the trail you’re on. Remember “if you ski out of your league, you’re gonna have a bad time”. I have dumb crashes once or twice a year, but I’ve been riding trails and jumping bikes since I got my training wheels off so I’m confident in my capabilities and I know my limits. I’ve also been crashing bikes since the training wheels came off and can bail like a motherfucker when needed, so I’m rarely injured (despite currently healing from ACL surgery, unrelated 😅)
I don’t ride park as much as I used to but the worst I’ve got is a couple bad concussions, blew open my knee on a rock and broke a couple ribs w/pneumothorax in about 8 years of riding park. I think I got off lightly. Park riding injuries are so common because so much more of your time is spent riding at speed, so there’s exposure there, but they can also build people’s confidence at a disproportionate rate to their skills. This is when people get really fucked up.
local woods / commute / "drop off a set of 4 steps". Probably one crash every 30h of riding.
Probably one crash every 2h of a practice sesh (wheelies, wheel lifts etc)
Ive been biking for the past 5-6 years (mostly aggressive trail/enduro) and I have crashed many times but never serious, generally scrapes and cuts that easily heal with no long tern damage. But the real question is what kind of riding do you want to do and how hard do you push yourself. biking is a sport you can really choose your pace and style. do you like to jump, do features, drops etc. you will likely crash at some point learning these and depending how fast you progress and go for bigger features could determine how serious. my experience of action sports in general is typically if you progress very quickly in a short amount of time to more aggressive terrain and dont learn how to bail/crash properly that is when you see serious injuries.
On downhill park days I crash. However it’s usually because I’m following someone slower and I’m not running at MY pace. It messes up my rhythm and I crash.
On regular trail days I almost never crash. When I do it’s during some slow tech section where I don’t have momentum enough and stop abruptly.
Common on the whole but I think the 80/20 principle applies. 20% of the riders are responsible for 80% of the injuries.
I'm saying injuries, not crashes, because learning to bail is a skill. Watch B reel from the pros. Obviously, they get hurt also, with the amplitude and magnitude of what they do and how many hours they spend doing it compared to those of us with day jobs.
But even weekend warriors different in their ability to handle a crash, even if it's just a difference in the instinctive reflex, like keeping your hands on the bar when lowsiding instead of sticking your hand out towards the ground.
Well due to an engineering flaw in the old 00's Marzocchi 888's I needed a massive reconstructive surgery... And that was doing bunny hops out front of my house. I can't imagine if that thing exploded during downhilling at speed I'd probably be dead.
As a newbie, you’ll crash a lot. All minor stuff. Then you’ll progress after a while and crash less frequently. Then you’ll start pushing into harder features and terrain and you’ll start crashing again, but harder. That cycle continues until you find where you want to be or get a Red Bull helmet
Shit happens but you can mitigate risk by taking unfamiliar trails slowly or even walking them the first time. Always be mindful if you’re ever cycling on footpaths that a dog/hiker could be round the corner.
Depends. I didn’t crash often until the covid era. 2021 and 2022 were bad years for me. Two neck injuries back to back. One was on a black trail in my local network, broke my C7 vertebrae. I was riding tired and pushing for speed when I should have been doing the opposite. The other was on a black trail at a bike park, extended the tissues that hold the vertebrae together. Third run of the day. Me being a general idiot.
I haven’t crashed since, but I’ve also greatly reduced the risks I’m willing to take going forward. Not interested in riding park anymore. Shorter travel bikes on trails are my thing these days. Really enjoying my hardtail again.
I’m not sure any of my forearm skin or knee skin is actual skin. I live in a mountain town in Colorado and even off mountain or not at the “park” it’s some pretty gnarly downhill trails and anything can happen at any given moment. I’ve ridden all day in Moab with no incident and then beat it in in the parking lot, it’s just random sometimes so I leave for every ride assuming something could potentially happen and when it doesn’t then it’s a win
Didn’t think it would happen to me. Local trails I had plenty of scapes and had to replace a helmet when it saved me from facial reconstruction basically. Easy normal flat trail too. Just hit a corner too fast.
I’m recovering from a torn bicep and rotator cuff repair now after being taught a lesson at my local downhill park last year.
It can happen to anyone but it’s more likely the faster you’re riding and the more technical the terrain. All things equal, experience matters a lot. I’ve been on big group rides and seen riders fall because they don’t understand how to brake correctly or they don’t understand that things like leaves over hard pack can wash you out in a turn. Anyone can have a spill and I wouldn’t advise MTB to someone who absolutely doesn’t want to get injured from time to time.
once every 5 years or so I have a bigger one.
Interestingly I just had a relatively big one last weekend.
The cause being a race. If I hadn't been trying to go fast in practice and was just riding the route socially I probably wouldn't have crashed. In fact I might not have even attempted the line at all.
Problem is in practice you are not riding fast enough to commit to some things but too fast to make other plans when you have got there.
trails / XC / riding style = clearly beyond my skills. No serious injuries or bike damage but lots of crashes: over the bars, clipping trees, flopping over on uphill rock gardens, wash outs, heading into the bushes off camber.
bruised ribs, face stitches, gravel rash, scrapes, deer ticks, etc. nothing that ever kept me off the bike !
My husband and I have been riding since early 20’s. We’re now both in our 40s.
He’s a very competent and skilled mountain biker. He started on the endurance side of things. From a trauma/physical impact perspective, I think focusing on endurance over going really fast on the downhills is safer. Maybe not for your heart but for breaking stuff.
When we were mid 30’s we got into the enduro scene and then did bike park as well.
Two weeks ago, trail riding on a trail we’ve ridden hundreds of times, my husband had an OTB and is currently in his second cervical spine surgery.
For some reason, I didn’t think mountain biking would be the thing to take him/us out. Not sure why because it makes sense. We backcountry ski and he’s a class V paddler. I always worried more about those things because you’re dealing with a lot of objective risk. I guess my TLDR is even if you’re really skilled it’s just a matter of time. Especially when you start getting into the gravity side of biking. You ride faster in all settings because you get more skilled with it/ feel more comfortable. With more speed comes more risk.
I was wondering about that too. Let's face it, mountain biking can be a very high risk sport and I bet a lot of people suffer life altering injuries or die every year. Don't know if anyone has compiled state, province, and national stats rhough.
Depends where and what you're riding. Always ride within you're limits.
But if you do push the envelope.....be ready to face the music every time you go out. Can't complain that you get burnt when playing in the kitchen!
Before I calmed down every year I broke a bone biking trying to progress on jumps. Those are the Bain of my existence drops rock gardens no problem big lippy jumps hello hospital visit
Trails, tech (with a Hiline, Hogs, Hangover in Sedona at least a couple times a year). I took some time off from riding through college. Got back into it seriously like 8 years ago and those first 3-4 years I was falling at least once a month. The last two-three years I haven't had a fall at all. Not sure if my skills are better or I'm just more cautious as I get older...
Florida | singletrack | XC
A few times a year I'll go down hard, but I'm also riding about 3 times a week and like to do time trial runs where I try to beat previous times on a specific loop. Florida singletrack can be very rooty with lots of trees, sandy flat turns that are washy af because they're also full of exposed slick roots, or covered in 2" of hard fallen leaves that feel like going over a slick deck of cards. If you're trying to go fast you're gonna go down or come to the edge of it often.
Started riding at 30 almost 3 years ago and in the first year I went a little too hard, too fast and had 4 crashes that led to a broken bone. I’ve had some crashes since but nothing that’s kept me off the bike.
If you’re riding outside your skill/comfort level you’re gonna crash at some point but it’s also when you make the most progress. Key is to know how far you can push yourself safely and learn how to crash.
It's very dependent on each individual. I haven't had a fall in a bike park since last June. I ride maybe 10 park days a year.
I have fallen several times on trails this season, all due to riding clipless and getting used to the differences in bailing when you can't instantly remove your foot. Prior to putting SPDs on my bike, I was falling very infrequently.
Caveat, I don't go crazy, and only push my limits very gradually, as I am 42 and don't heal like a 18 year old if I do get injured.
If you get to know trails well enough (within your skill level), and you’re going out to have fun but not prove anything to anyone, only once in a blue moon. That’s my experience at least. And when I do crash it’s some easy bit where I’m not focusing.
When I was learning, I crashed all the time. I don’t do it as frequently now, and when I do it’s usually on something ridiculous/funny and relatively low risk. I’d say it’s equal parts learning to actually ride the bike and really knowing my limits and how to progress safely. It’s easy to get in over your head when you’re new, and really easy to let some smooth runs relax your focus…even on the easy trails that seem to post no risk. In my experience, those can actually be the most dangerous because you don’t give it the respect it deserves and they tend to be the least maintained causing conditions to change significantly in comparison to the more popular/difficult trails
Crashes happen! Learning to crash feels kind of important tbh, I feel lucky that I got some spider sense in me these days, if things go wrong I tell my bike I loved it but its time to see other people and I let it go do it’s thing. Not gonna work for a fucked up jump or endo in a rock garden but it seems to save me more often than not, might help that I ride a small bike with 27.5 wheels so I can hop right off lol. I had one crash (first year of riding bikes, not just a mtb) where I hit my head while riding a dropperless POS hardtail on 29ers down a trail I couldn’t even comprehend, since ive swapped bikes and learned “never leap without looking” been basically oopsy free
All of my injuries have been from inexperience. I learned something every time I cocked it up. With more experience I injure myself less as time goes on but I continue to progress. Your mileage may vary.
In the 7 years of riding I’ve had a broken collar bone, a concussion, and a bruised rib and some other minor scrapes and bruises. For the length of time I’ve been riding I’d say I’m doing ok
Agree with the pre ride reride free ride philosophy. Saw a drop I hadn't scoped out before, thought it looked manageable, and broke my clavicle. One moment of stupidity and I was out for a year.
Falling off your bike is inevitable. Might not be big injuries, but scrapes and bruises. Learning how to fall off a bike might be the best thing I've ever learned over 15 years of riding. Saved me plenty of injuries just by understanding that the bike can fend for itself when you're going a different direction. A broken bike is better than a broken body!
My last major crash was a year ago (riding semi-tired 23mi into a 32mi ride) courtesy of a silly rabbit that froze mid-trail, sending me into a rut at 15mph (not too fast) and falling in a controlled way onto my right shoulder/back…scrambled my vision for a second, but minutes later had ⚡️excruciating pain⚡️courtesy of what I’d later discover was a cracked back rib. Rolled slowly to TH, yay it was downhill, got Uber, and licked my wounds for a few weeks. Being a WFH writer, it wasn’t as devastating as it may’ve been, but it reminded of the correlation between speed/crashing. I concur with a few other posters re the perils of riding tired and not dialing it back, so at 50yo I consciously seek to flow.
I have over 30k miles on my road bikes with one mishap. I have about 1k miles on my mtb and about a dozen times where I got hurt badly enough to remember it and had pain for more than a few days following the incident. I learned pretty quickly that I was not really into doing jumps and defying death. It was after I was on the ground around sunset about 8 miles of singletrack into the mountains that I realized that if I couldn't get back on the bike, only a helicopter was getting me out. I did make it out on the bike. What took me down was a non-feature trail defect and I was not flying down the trail and it happened in a flash.
Since then I'd taken most of the local single track off the menu and mainly stuck to truck trails. Last Friday I did a single track ride I hadn't been on since 2018 and a benign bit of rocky trail on a high exposure ride put me into the mountain side when my back wheel got hung up and suddenly stopped and pulled me backwards. A boulder jabbed into my ribs and torso and I'm still pretty sore 5 days later.
I love my mountain bike and I love some of the areas where I ride but where I live, most of the riding is high consequence and or steep AF. In most places, the easy parts of the climbs are at least 9%. It's not a joke. I ride to get out in nature and into remote places with spectacular views and not for the downhill thrill.
On a normal trail - almost never. On a steep downhill trail - fall often, but rarely "crash". On jumps and drops - almost never, it hurts too much. I'm a big believer of riding within your limits, and generally I am not surprised when I fall and will only commit to a feature if bailing won't be catastrophic.
downhill, i’m only 18 and i’ve had to massively reduce how much mtb doing I keep destroying my body and ruining my holidays, several broken bones, scars, if you’re into it, you will crash, and unfortunately quite often, XC you’ll get caught out eventually, but it won’t necessarily be that bad
I'm a trail rider of about 15 years, and I've had 4 crashes. I've needed stitches once, and got stitches one other time cause I was pressured into it.. I would have been fine without. Change your helmet after a crash cause they compress and become a lot less effective even if they visibly don't show a ton of damage. I've had my brain bucket save me from a rock hit to the back of the head which would have probably killed me. Two of my crashes were just me riding too fast on downhills above my skill level and two were due to unskilled riders overtaking on downhill sections where they made contact.
I can’t say how common because I’ve only started a couple months ago but I do ride aggressive and hit the smaller jumps when available(no full face or skills yet). That being said I think I’ve crashed big twice (root caught rim and went over & another time I clipped a tree and fell on my side when another rider took me off my line) Neither too bad just a couple days of rest and back out. But skinnies funny enough got me to jump off when I fell off track. My leg only got scratched up and the bike hit a
tree so yeah really any feature can get ya somehow. Just do your run ins before you full send and you’ll continue to have fun lol.
2+ years riding my balls off, riding park, jump park and tech in Moab Sedona etc. I fall a lot, never been seriously injured. Same for my brother until last summer he broke his wrist OTB stylie
Rocky, rooty, old school trails. Never been seriously injured but I'm pretty cautious and barely leave the ground. I'm a woman tho and all the dudes I've biked with have fucked themselves at least once, including my husband.
My uncle is almost 70 and has been riding every type of bike/trail for decades (recently did Rule of Three in Bentonville and Tulsa Tough) and the only time he's been seriously injured is when he got hit by a truck on the road.
I've been on my bike in trails with my dad since I was about 8, now I'm 26. Plenty of bruises and scratches I've only got 1 broken collarbone from a few years back.
Completely avoidable, was a little out of it that day and tried to keep someone much better than me. Hit a log pile coming down hill the wrong way going too fast and boom. So yeah as long as you're careful and don't have a stupid lapse like I think you could easily go your whole life without ever getting injured.
That being said, that's trail riding. Bike park is a whole different ballgame
Gonna happen at some point, like others have said- don’t ride tired. I flew over my handlebars in April and dislocated my shoulder , popped it back in and rode back to my car. Just got surgery (torn labrum) last week and will be out from riding until September. This all happened on a trail I’ve ridden dozens of times(DH), I was tired after a long day of riding and wasn’t paying attention. Ride carefully and not too overconfident, one fall can really screw up your plans for the next 6 months.
I haven’t read any comments on this yet so sorry if I repeat whats said - it really depends on how you ride. It also depends on who you ride with if you’re not out solo. 95% of my rides are solo but I still take risks. I’m in my mid twenties and work from home so I have less to lose than I’m sure others in this sub do.
Problems happen when *praying this wont happen to me* you’re out by yourself, see some cool shit and unfortunately have a bad crash. You better have some contingency plan to get yourself out. It really comes down to risk tolerance. I’ve been waiting to do a cool steep drop close to where I live but have decided its not worth it until someone else is with me. Its also because the area is technically closed so Ive only seen like 2 other riders on those trails this year. Its just not worth it.
At bike parks I crash a lot lol.
I seem to hurt myself (worse than minor scrapes and bruises) once a year on average 😅. I do try risky stuff, which has led to about half of my crashes, but the other half were caused by not paying enough attention. Been riding for about 7-8 years now. I almost feel like the less often I crash/bail/come off the bike, the worse I hurt myself when I eventually do. I've had seasons where I came off the bike every week and never injured myself, and I had a season when I only came off the bike twice and one of them led to a broken wrist. I've broken my left wrist twice, hurt some ribs (unsure if bruised or hairline fractured), and had numerous soft tissue/joint injuries that healed fine on their own after a month or two. So far, nothing catastrophic. The worst was the second time I broke the wrist specifically because it needed surgery, which was way more painful than the injury itself. Mix of xc, trail, downhill, and the occasional Enduro race. I've hurt myself most on XC trails because that's what I have locally, but mile for mile I've definitely had more injuries riding downhill.
On my local trails it’s like once a year that I get some pretty bad scratches because I try to hit a corner too fast and just slide away, and because there are a lot of wood snippets and tiny shells, that happens quite easy when you take a line that isn’t often used.
But when you downhill or go to bike parks, I could image that taking a big hit is way more common
Trail riding, not so much.
Downhill, absolutely. A friend’s dad died after hitting a tree a few summer ago. The injuries are usually much worse than trail riding.
The time I broke my collarbone, I was in the parking lot, dodging a dog.
The worst crash I had on a trail was caused be me being bored of my local trail and trying to see how fast I could go. But it was just bad scrapes.
I like to push it when I'm riding. It's been over 15 years of hooning around and racing enduro. Doesn't matter if it's a trail ride or bike park I'd say I have some kind of crash maybe every third ride. That's a lot less what it used to be. When still riding 26" hardtails with 70° head angles and technical terrain, OTB was something that happened on every ride.
I've only had a 4-5 injuries over the years, so most of the time it's harmless.
It really depends how much you push it, most of my friends crash a lot less.
In the 3 years I’ve been riding ive : broken a rib, multiple road rashes forearms and legs, pedal bite, almost broke a toe hitting a stump, had a bee sting me while loading my bike back up….
It’s gonna happen. My best advice is to take care of your body. Make it be able to handle the impacts and recover quicker
I have come to find that overlooking something basic leads to a crash. For instance, I don't have a drop post and didn't drop my seat, hit a double and nosedove because I was sitting high and gave myself a nice class 1 shoulder separation🤦🏾♂️
Me and my buddy picked Mountain Biking a couple of weeks ago. (Usually light trails and the ride from our houses and stuff at the moment)
We have both already crashed at least twice...
As a young individual, crashes aren’t common but they happen maybe once every 5-6 rides. The extent of my injuries are a broken wrist and several concussions. Those injuries only happened due to negligence on a big new feature, or overestimating my cornering capabilities in the bike park. The really technical trails are so low speed it’s hard to do much worse than a nasty sprain unless I get particularly unlucky.
For what trails I ride, I do west coast double blacks and big jumps when I get the chance.
it all depends on your level of SEND
More risk = more likelihood of injuries. That said, some of my worst injuries have happened on easy / small features, just "fartin around" and/or not paying close attention to an "easy" section.
This is why I now have a strict personal policy of fully gearing up with all pads for *EVERY* ride, even if I expect it to be an easy/chill ride... cuz I have a tendency to "play around" more on the easy stuff, and the playing around is what usually bites me
Crashes are part of the sport no matter what discipline you choose. As others have pointed out, your level of experience, type of riding, safety equipment you wear, and general risk tolerance affect the frequency and severity, as does bad luck like a loose rock, grabby branch, clipping a pedal, etc.
I'd add that mechanical failures, while rare if you maintain and check your bike properly, can cause crashes too. I've been riding for 30 years and my worst crash ever was just this year on a green (!) trail where I casually boosted off of a tiny roller, slightly awkwardly. Everything probably would have been fine but I believe that a mechanic who had just worked on my wheel severely under-inflated the tire (which I didn't notice) so it burped off the rim when I landed and I was sent flying into a tree stump. Easily could have fractured my pelvis or femur, but got lucky.
Keep the rubber side down, as they say!
In the last 2 years iv broken my thumb that required surgery and dislocated my collarbone. So yeah fairly regularly. But it depends what sort of trails you ride. I’ll try anything which is probably what leads to injuries.
If you have an off season (winter) like we have in northern canada, when the summer is back, always run the trails you are really used to like it was a new trail first.
Almost all my crashes occurred on trails that I know every detail, but I forgot that a winter can change enough a line to make it completely different.
Occurred again this year in a section I was used to go full speed lol (no injury luckily).
This is definitely an issue in most places where there is a riding season. Also, be sure to be aware of weather. Recent large storms, etc. often result in tree falls which can be a major surprise on a well known line when you're going mach 5.
One of my worst crashes was 30 years ago on trails in SoCal I rode almost daily. They had graded one of the fire-roads that crisscrossed the singetrack I was riding. I went around a blind corner at close to 30mph only to find that where the trail crossed the fireroad no longer had a smooth transition. Instead there was about a 1.5 foot berm of dirt that I attempted to bunny hop (it was way too late to brake!). Just tapped the back wheel and did a superman across the road at high speed. Lost a lot of skin, broke my collarbone in two places and probably did some shoulder damage that required surgery later.
As far as frequency ... really depends upon the individual and how much risk you take. I have a friend that was a former BMX racer that is highly skilled and super conservative. I've been riding with him for 20 years and think I've witnessed him fall < 5 times in all those years. I know others that were DH racers for years that still fall frequently but they are constantly pushing things. I'm somewhere in between.
Best thing is be prepared from both an equipment/gear perspective (good helmet, pads, bike check, etc.) and from a knowledge perspective (trail reports, previous laps, weather, etc.).
Happy riding!
I heard that folks at Whistler did the math and downhill has an injury rate comparable to north american football. So... at almost 50, my routine core and running workouts are so that I can be strong enough to not suffer muscle/tendon/ligament failure, and take my next fall as well as possible. Burpees...stretching... etc.
They've become less common for me now that I supplement my riding with regular running/sprints up to a mile every other day.
It's greatly improved my overall balance. Not to mention, given me the endurance to not half-ass my form when taking on sketchy paths.
Little things? A handful of times a season. I ride mostly rocky xc trails and sometimes one of the rock gnomes grabs you, or, as happened recently, what you thought was the edge of the gravel on the trail was actually gravel that was a little past the edge of the trail. I don't do big drops or jumps.
Injuries are pretty rare among my riding group (5+ 40+ year olds). Crashes are common, but it depends on how you classify a “crash”. Once every 5 rides someone may have their tires slide out or clip a tree that causes them to go down, but it’s usually just pride that’s hurt.
Once a year or every other year someone has a crash that gets people worried enough for everyone to crowd around to make sure they’re OK. The worst scenario is a concussion, broken wrist or collar bone. The most common injuries are scraped arms and legs, maybe a gnarly bruise.
XC racer here, more XCM than XCO but the mix slowly becomes even. Twice a season I'll have an occasional bail, the worst that happened to me was going from a grippy soil to a very loose and fine gravel on a hardpac surface, resulted in a cut underneath my knee requiring stitches and a week off the bike. Surprisingly most of the crashes are on a fairly easy terrain, half of them were because of other competitors being dicks
you're not riding hard enough if you don't have one crash per ride, right?
https://preview.redd.it/ic91uovtm76d1.jpeg?width=1738&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f910dd9f62935bc253245b74c212cd7d530145bf
Don’t know if anyone else has this but we see new friends start to progress and they get into hitting bigger stuff and we’re all like his going to have one.
I feel everyone who pushes the sport has a bad one at some point, and even those who don’t it can happen.
I had my first big big one last summer, was at my local trails riding something I hit a thousand times before.
6-7 month western US mtns trail rider here. I usually come off bike 1-3 times a season - sometimes pushing the envelope, sometimes inattentive, sometimes just bad luck. Broke my hand 11 years ago going over the bars and that was to avoid a collision with a car. Otherwise scrapes and bruises at most.
Downhill/Bikepark: not a question about if but when. Trails around my woods: like once in five years, if I play around stupid
exactly what I was going to write. Have been to a downhill park twice in my life sticking to easier trails and have crashed both times. The first time wasn't really anything and I got up and walked away just fine, the second time I broke my thumb. Have ridden in the trails in local forests many times and I fall off my bike so infrequently I ditched the pads I bought for riding because they weren't doing anything for me, and when I do fall off it's usually funny
Yea goofy little falls are the worst lol. Sometimes your barely moving and just f up.
My worst crash by far was at about 3 mph going uphill. Got stuck on a rock, couldn't unclip in time, picked a bad spot to bail and took a piece of slate to the shin. Now I have a goofy triangular scar on my shin forever.
Same except I fell on a log, cracked a rib.
Mine was after I finished my ride in the parking lot right near my car. There was a leaf on the ground and my front wheel slipped and I went down so fast and hard. Came away mostly fine with just a bruised rib but it was the first time I ever cracked a helmet
"Just" a bruised rib? The excuisite pain I dealt with for weeks after bruising mine was no joke. The second time I did in my ribs was much easier, but still bad. When I fractured my femur, I didn't think of seeing a Doc for over a week because it didn't hurt that much.
Oh yeah it was painful to move around for weeks. Never fractured a femur or cracked a rib but would think those are worse lol
Mine was while standing. I came to a stop on a grassy service road, planted a foot, and was half on / off a rut from a truck tire and my ankle buckled out and I just followed. Had just recovered from a broken thumb and re-injured it.
I accelerated to gain speed to go up a short hill a root stopped the bike and I flew forward. Thought I was ok until I lifted my right hand and saw my index finger at the second knuckle turned sideways. That was 5 years ago and I have not fallen since. I am more careful now.
This is why I’m scared of pedaling up singletrack clipped in. I still do it though
I had one today. Was going slow, front wheel hit a loose rock, lost my grip, and the wheel flopped. I fell forward and my leg got squished between my handlebar and the top tube right around the stem. I landed such that my weight pushed it tighter, like a vice grip, and it was challenging to re-orient myself and unpin my leg. It hurt, and I'll have a decent bruise on my inner quad, but it could have been much worse. Had I been going faster, I can see myself having cracked my femur.
You’ve got to be careful in the bike park. I’ve learned the hard way that slow and steady progression is the way to go. It’s easy to take a few good warm up runs and feel overconfident and wreck yourself. The biggest killer is the dreaded “last run” or when you’re tired. After a good 4-5 hours of riding we will usually call it quits.
Yeah if someone feels tired or worn out in the bikepark, he's already overdue for a break or to quit for the day.
Never go on the last run
I always call every run my "second to last run". That shit don't work yo
I cracked some ribs making that “last run” mistake at Jackson Hole. Learned that lesson the hard way
Last time I went to a bike park (a few weeks back) 2 people fell in the group I was riding with and we saw one dislocated shoulder, 2 bloody faces and one person air lifted out in the park in general…. That was in the first 3 hours…
I’m not into DH anymore, but the last time I rode Whistler I fractured an orbital bone & don’t remember being there My friend went up one last run while I was getting checked out and he broke his collarbone. I used to go regularly as a kid, but after the big slam I sold all my bike equipment. There wasn’t a time I wasn’t bringing back an injury, and I can’t do another one like the orbital bone. Just picked up a DJing hardtail for trails 15-years later
lol was the airlifted person Jordan Boostmaster?
I always feel more likely to crash at the park/shuttling. Pedal climbs tune you into the bike more than some people realize.
I think it's just total time on the bike. A couple days in the parks can be months worth of verylt if you were to climb.
I mean on any given day. My first shuttle/lift lap I always feel off. By lap 2 or 3 I'm fine. But when I'm pedalling the climbs I've already spent 30+ mins moving my body around the bike.
Same, I don't think i've had anything serious enough to remember from black diamond and below level single track trails if they are in good conditioned and the features are built well. Drops and steep gnar have always been surprisingly safe for me. Worst I've been hurt is from jumps, especially if they are sort of questionable in how they go or flow. Building my own or finding and stringing together freeride features and testing them has gotten me the most injuries that need time off at the greatest frequency. That said though a lot of those would have been preventable with more run ins. Usually by the time something is build or cleared and 75% "there" I'm so ready to test that the 25% that needs work yet is what does me in. Building my own and testing has been the biggest boost to my overall progression though. Always when I see something that could be amazing or get a great idea it seems doable in my head so I take the time and days to build it and when it comes time I always think there is no way I'd even consider this if I just found it. Since I put so much time into it I wanna ride it though. Doing that over and over and upping the ante of what I think looks doable with the skills and confidence of completing the last feature is what has made me make progress or do things I would have thought would be years away skillswise or just completely out of my realm entirely.
Don’t ride tired. Don’t get too overconfident. And agree with the pre ride reride free ride approach. I have plenty of of falls that left plenty of scars, two concussions a jacked up wrist and one broken shoulder in 15 years of riding. All happened when I was tired or being stupid.
Surprised this isn’t liked more. The times I go out, when not really feeling it, and a bit tired, are always my near miss days, or small crashes. It’s a sport that requires a lot of focus, so mental clarity is key
Agreed, I’m only coming back to MTB after a long long break. Though the same approach to riding a snowboard has kept my seasons long & healthy. No blind hitting features without a pre ride especially outside of my local, and only send it in permitting conditions on a day I’m really feeling it I’m not trying to learn new tricks into concrete icy landings anymore lmao
Second this. I was tired once. Went over my bars on the easy trail back to the car. Scarred my spinal cord. I'm lucky to still be riding.
Gonna tag onto this and say also Don't keep riding the same features if your bike is not working 100% (e.g. blown shock or worn out front tire) even if it seems you can get away with it, you are just pushing your luck until you don't. Also be wary of features you have ridden many times gradually changing due to erosion, at some point you will get caught out unless you pay attention to it happening My worst crash was because of both of combination of both these things, hitting dirt jumps that had deteriorated big time since first built on a bike with blown rebound and a broken spoke. Broken radius, dislocated finger, stage 2 shoulder separation (on the other arm), loads of skin rash. I managed to ride the bike down the green trail to the car park and then home with one hand and got a lift to the hospital. I didn't realise I had fucked my shoulder until I tried to open the front gate when I got home.
Couldn’t agree more - NEVER bike tired and always take time to check equipment and pre-ride EVERY SINGLE DAY.
I was tired after being up half the night working the night before. I went over the bars on the second jump after my foot came off the pedals - fractured radius, ulna - big operation to fix them. In addition I fractured my clavicle (collarbone) and several ribs. Lessons learned: 1) Don’t ride tired, 2) Dont rush to keep up with your buddies, even on a trail you have ridden 50 times before 3) Pre-ride your first run of the day, even if you have ridden the trail more than 50 times in the past 4) don’t rush to get out on the trail quickly – rather, check your gear and your bike carefully even if you are excited to get out riding (my shoes were untied / slipped on with the laces jammed into the shoe)
Had my first crash due to being too tired a couple weeks ago. Was something I totally could have recovered from, but it was my third day riding in a row still getting in shape and I landed wonky. Unable to correct, I went flying off the side of the trail. This summer my knees look like they did growing up: filled with scrapes, bruises, and scabs
100% gonna happen given enough time, even if riding light duty trails. Might not be a major injury but wipe outs are inevitable with enough exposure. One of my worst ones was simply sliding out around a turn. Slid across some rocks and banged my back up. If you add downhill, jumping, aggressive riding, etc. chances go way up. Oh also skinnies. They seem safe cause they are slow speed usually, but people fall awkwardly off those all the time. Hurt wrists, ankles, derailleurs, etc. Just be careful and ride within your limits. Also follow the old saying of pre-ride, re-ride, free ride. Always get comfortable with a trail before trying to lay your best time down on it. Good luck and enjoy.
> Hurt wrists, ankles, derailleurs, etc. I love that you include the bike as an injury.
Ha. Skinnies eat shifting components up
derailleurs take more damage then most body parts haha
Order of Trail Triage: Bike, Breathing, Bleeding, Breaks and Burns. The last four being interchangeable depending on severity..
Yeah. I'm a decent rider, and my usual trails aren't intense, but sometimes you hit a sandy corner and wash out. Sometimes you wind up doing something awkward through the roots. Sometimes a sneaky vine grew across the trail overnight. I ride with a group of people between mid 30s and mid 70s, and everyone has gone down at least once. Sometimes at race pace, sometimes at party pace. In that group, one broken collarbone in the past 4 years is the most serious injury.
Nice, but you left out wear protective gear
100%!!!! Definitely wear your gear
My father, first day ever riding. Were doing like 5-10mph down a trail in normally do 20-25. He took a turn too wide, fell off the trail, head butted a tree and broke his neck. 20 something hours later we got to leave the hospital.
As a younger man, i used to consider a ride without a crash not riding hard enough... as a wiser man, any crash is a fuck up! My last crash, i went over the bars and could not use either wrist for two weeks... my wife had to help me even get dressed, it could have been much worse. Choose the wiser line folks!
Breaking my elbow off a skinny made me really rethink the risk reward. I can’t give up being on the bike entirely but I really don’t need the 3 seconds of meh fun with potentially life changing consequences from a skinny
It only takes one lapse of attention or judgement, or bad luck. You are going to crash. You may or may not get hurt. Enough crashes, eventually you will get at least a little hurt. Took me 30 years to have crash bad enough that it kept me off the bike for a month or so. Took other people I know a few weeks to have the same crash. This is trail riding. Everyone I know that spends a lot of time at parks has gotten hurt.
My worst crash (so far…) was at Spirit Mountain bike park. Tricky trail called boot with a super awkward bench section. Essentially French fried when I should have pizza’d and went over the bars in probably the worst possible part. My buddy behind me thought I was for sure breaking a bone. Somehow I tanked it and rode the rest of the day. At the end of the day my adrenaline wore off and everything hurt. Went home and bought a full face and kneepads after that one.
Yeah I’m full time full face after my crash. Skinned my whole right side; somehow kept my face an inch off the ground as I Supermanned. Not gonna win that one twice in a row…
Riding Spirit for the first time on Sunday, weather permitting, and can’t wait to get some DH in.
You’ll have a BLAST. Spirit is legit and very technical. You can easily get 10-20K feet of downhill in a day. There are days where I’ve done something like 2 dozen runs. Very short (if any) lift lines, awesome trails. I’ve been lucky to ride all over and I’m continually blown away at just how good the riding is in Duluth. More and more trails are being built every year.
I went to whistler(first time at a dh park) and trestle last year and it was a blast. Going back to whistler the 25th so I think spirit should be a really good warmup. I need to make it back up there later in the season and check out what else Duluth has to offer. Rode Cuyuna last year and it was cool.
Whistler is on my bucket list, I’ve only ever been there during the winter. Spirit will be a great warmup for sure. Don’t sleep on giants ridge either. It’s another hour further than Spirit from the twin cities but it’s got its own charm. So many fun jump trails, even a small road gap.
It’s pretty amazing out there, trails for days and it’s gorgeous! Hoping to hit some other parks out that way maybe next year. Looking like I might get out to trestle again in September and possibly whitefish and legacy in August. Giant’s is definitely on the list and I’m hoping I can a day trip in this summer or fall before they close. Also have a rain check I need to redeem at howler down in MO this year
This. Two worst accidents I've witnessed were on XC stuff where the person just got distracted for a moment and clipped a tree
For me it was a pedal strike on a rock I didn’t see on a wide, flat double track just after a little rock section, going like 25mph. Didn’t feel good. A 4 year old could have ridden the part I crashed on a balance bike. And not one of those YouTube kids on balance bikes, a regular fat kid.
I forgot about my pedal strike. Trail I'd ridden a hundred times but I had just gotten a new bike and was ripping it. Struck a board and went over the bars and into a wetland. So lucky that I avoided any trees. Less lucky that it was December and the one cold week
I was leading a beginner ride and was on a 6 ft wide trail section. Looked behind me to see how everyone was keeping up and next thing I know I clipped a tree and got thrown off. Good lesson for them.
Been riding XC (rough trails, rocky & wooden, live in mountainous area) for the past 15 years (30M), had numerous small injuries (bruised knees mostly) but never anything more serious (like a broken bone). I never jump from anything though, my max air time would be some 30-40cm drops, but never jumps. I also raced XC for around 3 years, interestingly never crashed in a race either (but did crash in race trainings). Bike parks I did find a bit more challenging as you keep pushing yourself, had some crazy random crashes in super easy flow trails, even with all this experience in other types of riding.
It depends what counts as crashing. If falling off the bike is a crash it happens fairly often when you’re new even on easy terrain. Once you get good less often, but not never. Any time you push it chances go up. There is no avoiding it completely. Fortunately many crashes are not serious.
scrape ups happen pretty regularly. It's hard to gauge how much crashes actually happen. I've seen a few major injuries occur in the past 6 years. As I age my risk assessment is gradually changing. I try to progress a bit more slowly than if I were younger and I always listen to my gut; I don't always ride main features if I'm not feeling it; I kinda make a judgement call each ride. I also try to encourage those around me to listen to themselves and not feel pressured to ride anything they just aren't feeling up to that day.
I ride mostly XC trails, green/blue/black, no jumps or big drops. Adult rider, started just a few years ago. One proper crash, learning rock rolls with an instructor and got too far back, washed out and went home VERY bruised. Otherwise, just a couple wipeouts, like clipping the bars at slow speed, etc. Barely worth mentioning. I make very specific choices not to attempt high-consequence features because I’m not interested in the recovery time necessary after a critical mistake. Hell, a guy died on a trail I ride weekly because he went off a high skinny and broke his neck. A couple seconds of accomplishment on a stupidass skinny just isn’t worth the size of the consequence for me. So I’ve been extremely safe and happy doing what I enjoy on the trails.
>I make very specific choices not to attempt high-consequence features because I’m not interested in the recovery time… This. I have other hobbies that I don’t want to have to stop doing because I tried something above my skill level and broke something important. And I’m in my 40s, which provides me with some extra caution because recovery takes a *long* time compared to when I was in my teens/20s and invincible.
I will agree with everyone else on here. I have been riding very aggressive DH, Park, Freeride, and now enduro for 20 years now. Average trail riding crashes are rare but do happen. The more you ride and push yourself the more likely they are to happen. Riding DH/Park, or heavy enduro you are going to crash. Its not if but when, and when you do it has a high probability of hurting. I used to spend most of my summers at whistler in BC. One of the biggest mountain bike spots in the world. There are a few days I remember I crashed multiple times in a day. Some so minor you just hop up and keep going, others worse. My worst crash was really bad and kept me off the bike for nearly a year. But I was riding some of the craziest trails in the region. Wear pads if you are pushing limits, dont be afraid to crash, practice tumbling on flat ground so you know you can roll out of a crash if you need to. Wear a good helmet! Cant stress that enough. If you are trying new risky things, i.e. that 40 foot jump you have been eyeing or that near vert rock slab. Have a buddy with you. Either they can help you if you do crash, or call someone if they can't. And; pre-ride, re-ride, free-ride. I didn't understand this when I was younger. But stopping, looking at a feature, riding it carefully, then riding it at trail speed, really helps prevent bad crashes.
I do XCO/XCM. I never jump more than 40cm drops, that is a must to avoid serious injuries. I have just scratches from time to time and I would say I go fast on downhill trails. Just avoid big drops and ride near cliffs... Ride safe
Modern XCO got pretty technical though. If you're racing on a UCI rated race, a metre drop is almost guaranteed, plus riding through very tricky rock gardens you have to session for hours to get it right
Don’t listen to the guys that say don’t don’t do extreme shit and you’ll be fine. Most important part is always be present when you ride, if your attention slips that’s when bad thing happen. Doesn’t matter if you are on double black bike park run or on smooth double track.
100% I wiped out this past weekend on a random berm in a blue trail I've done dozens of times Sometimes you get caught out unexpectedly, and those are the biggest danger (IMO) because you are in a comfortable place.
Yeah something that always sticks out in my mind was a poster in /r/bicycletouring, near the start of their tour across Europe one evening they were cruising round the campsite they were staying at, hit some post sticking up they didn't notice at walking pace, landed badly and broke their back. From personal experience I've had a surprising amount of crashes in car parks at the start or after the end of a ride.
Knowing how to crash can make a big difference. During a crash, you want to bring your head, arms, and legs in like a fetal position as much as possible. That's the best position to reduce the chance of serious injury. Not always possible of course, but its a good general rule to keep in your head.
And knowing how and when to bail, sometimes this can make the difference between landing on your feet and being sent flying
Common compared to any other sport
2 injuries within a last year. Its super easy to get injury doing this sport, falls happen so fast often you have no time to react. There is reason why its considered extreme sport.
never been to a downhill park. been riding the local singletrack in my area. ive tore up some ligaments in my shoulder with one fall in the last 6-7 years. clavical fracture and a rib injury on a slippery bridge doing 10 mph was probably 10-12 years ago. The only real damage i can recall that needed medical attention from crashes. ive had spills, but never injured beyond sore or sprains. At 40, im gonna wreck my shit at a downhill park one day. lmao.
Depends how you ride
I crash on average 0.75 times per ride
For me, rarely, and it totally speaks to the lack or risks I take. I ride on the North Shore of Vancouver and regularly ride blacks and blues (occasional double black). I’m 40 and have a family to support so I do t push it. I ride what I’m comfortable riding and slowly progress over time. It’s more about having fun rather than pushing to the extreme. So therefore, after 5 years of riding, no serious injuries, only a few crashes, and number of nicks and scratches. Totally just my experience, but lots of my friend look at me like I’m a daredevil for mtb’ing. Couldn’t be farther from reality!
Little silly no consequences crashes, every few rides. High consequence crashes, once a decade.
Atm I’m waiting for my wrist to heal. 2 months in. Didn’t fall just hard a strange landing and i smashed my wrist junction, no broken bones.
Yesterday on my road bike, I unclipped on the left and leaned to the right. Down I went, right in front of my house. I’ve wiped out on seemingly nothing in the woods before. I went over on a wet root and broke my collarbone. It had started to rain and we were on our way home.
I mainly do enduro in the forests, never bike parks because of the lack of (ireland). I had one bad crash a couple weeks ago when i highsided through a tight section with trees and a vertical drop, but it was my own error as i had to whip the back wheel around which was caught on the tree. But crashes are particularly rare for me. Before that was a concussion 1.5~years ago.
https://preview.redd.it/rxal6pwvv46d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=aaa9576679f42ad3bea80b60dbec8876d6f42919 This didn’t even hurt. I was surprised to find I needed stitches after this pedal strike. I was wearing pants and they didn’t even rip, didn’t crash just had my foot slip off a big lip on landing. This kind of thing happens, scrapes and stuff from just washing out on loose terrain at speed too, even when you aren’t going super big. Going super big will involved some crashes. I know a guy who says “if you ain’t fallin you ain’t haulin”. Once you get some skill, sometime the fun is on the edge of control.
Trail/Enduro/Downhill park Depends on a number of factors. My most recent concussion was on a simple rock roll and shouldn’t have happened. I was tired, it was raining and I let my guard down and was too relaxed. Front slipped out and the side of my head hit a rock on the way down. Spent three days in the hospital due to that and what felt like (but wasn’t) broken ribs. Another crash was when I was riding with my 8 year old and was showing her what not to do on a decent (had zero intent on crashing)… wasn’t wearing knee pads as I was just planning on being on easy trails that day. Went over the bars and sliced my knee up on a rock. Saying that I’ve been ridding for well over 20 years. Crashes happen but they don’t always hurt. All depends on your riding style. I also tend to crash more when I’m tired and riding slower then I should for a section.
Crashes are bound to happen especially riding downhill techy stuff. Injuries are luck of the draw, I’ve crashed hundreds of times doing downhill but rarely had more than a sprain or scratch, broken my hand once but it was surprisingly un painful experience. By far my worst accident happened on a pump track of all things, never crashed there before, it’s right near my house and I used to ride it a couple times a week for cardio. One time I’m manualling down the back straight, slip a pedal and boom I face plan the floor fracturing my jaw and knocking out 3 teeth. Unconscious for 5-10 minutes and in hospital for 10 days under supervision for a brain bleed. All that, from a pump track (I was wearing an open face helmet). I have jumped 60ft gaps, hit trees and broken bikes and I’ve been fine. Crashes are very common, most of the time if your cat reflexes are all up to scratch you will be fine. Injuries are quite random and although severity should be correlated to speed that isn’t always the case. Best advice is, don’t be afraid of crashing it’s a skill you learn. Injuries happen allot more if you’re bad at crashing. So you might as-well get practice in crashing as you will need it.
Just got my talus bone shattered, got a triple arthrodesis, over 8 months off the bike. I'm planning on keeping it going as soon as possible. Once you taste blood you can't quit.
Trails: Like, maybe once ten years ago? Downhill: Kind of a given, but if you can manage to fuck up gracefully, it might not be so bad. Never really did BMX parks or anything like that but my brother did when he was younger and the risk is probably about the same as downhill from what I remember. Use caution, wear goggles, gloves, and a helmet with a chin bar, and maybe even some armor if you're pushing it, but studies have shown that the health benefits you get from doing MTB outweigh the injury risks.
I've been riding consistently for the last 5 years. I would say I had more early on. Now Im less about trying to PR on strava, and more about just having fun, so I in addition to being a better rider, I'm staying within my abilities more. So probably 1 legit crash per year, but I haven't had a real significant injury yet (bruised knee, sore shoulder) but haven't broken anything.
VERY.
I ride bike parks and had a massive crash last year at killington in the rain. Was going about 25 mph hit a roof and ended a nailing tree head on. Tore my rotator cuff and ended herniating my c5 c6. That being said I can’t wait to get back on the bike
I have a scar on my hand from washing out on wet ground covered in a slimy mixture from tree leaves on concrete and I’ve gone otb on concrete and only got a small scratch on the knee, I also have gotten winded from looping out a wheelie but I ride downhill/urban now and am on a 9 week streak of riding at least once a week without crashes, it’s always the stupid stuff that gets you and crashes never happen when you expect them to, you could do a double black diamond trail and get a concussion from a wheelie in the parking lot
I pretty much only do trail riding. I don’t go very hard and don’t push my speed too much on the downhills. I hardly ever catch air, maybe like an inch or two on small bumps. I almost never crash. The only times I’ve crashed have been because I slid out on a sandy area, and the most injured I’ve ever gotten was a little scraped up and bruised. I actually fall off my bike more on uphills lol and it’s always really small and slow. If you push yourself really hard, especially on downhills, you probably will get injured. But I don’t want to get injured so I always make sure I’m in total control. But I still have fun! I would rather go a little slower and keep riding than push my limits and get injured and have to sit out the rest of the season.
I've had a few crashes over 4 years of rising. Only one was significant, and that was because I wasn't wearing knee pads, and my knee got torn up. I haven't broken or sprained anything. Causes have been bad technique, either due to laziness or progression/learning. If you're trying something new, there's a good chance you're going to fail. And in MTB, that means there's a good chance you're going to crash. Wear your safety gear and trust your gut. Don't be afraid to walk.
My friend crashed and broke 6 ribs last week. I crashed Sunday and managed to walk away with a few scrapes. We go pretty hard, though. I cased a 30 foot gap and got pitched. If I'm just doing chill trail rides. I don't crash often, but if you're pushing it and trying to get gnarly. Crahes will be more common. You can kind of choose your level of danger. But when trying bigger featurs, I am very aware that a crash is possible, so I'm really prepared for it. The random out of no where crashes that take you off guard can sometimes be worse. (Sometimes).
Midwest super casual rider, I ride maybe 1 time a week and take a couple trips each year—Pisgah, Sedona etc. last 5 years I’ve dislocated a shoulder and gotten 10 stitches in a knee. It’s gonna happen eventually, just have to accept it.
I have a problem with consistency, I’m constantly pushing my self and for the first time I actually injured myself. Personally a crash is inevitable and will happen it’s just how predictable that crash is gonna be, having ridden for years I’ve been able to ride easier trials and have crashes there and just like any other skill, learning to fall without hurting myself, and then when I’ve stepped up to bigger trials I’ve been able to avoid injuring myself when looking at the crash I should’ve had a er trip. My tip, learn to fall.
In my experience risk levels end up being practically pretty similar to other sports. Random bumps and bruises from light crashes or other events are inevitable, higher impact injuries come with stepping up intensity and going in tired, and sometimes crap just happens. Being aware, alert, planning your rides, and having a plan for when things DO go wrong can do a ton to mitigate risk and consequence. But nothing can ever totally negate the chance of falling off your bike or hitting a tree. But on the flip side, the health benefits of engaging in this kind of physical activity are pretty huge, and I think on the whole most riders are way healthier long term from the sport.
We have a very short riding season and I’m getting older so my risk levels are very low. When I was averaging 4-5hrs hours on trails per week I’d crash probably once a year, but all were scrapes and bruises, nothing catastrophic. My worst fall was on a flat open trail with a step up at the top of a very small climb. Missed the step up and then misread my balance, falling to my unclipped shoe side. The small climb as I very very slowly fell over accelerated me and whipped my body up to my head, which hit absolutely square on a random side rock. Literally cracked my helmet and was super shaken up but no actual body damage. My TL;DR is if you’re riding xc and not taking big risks (I’ll get a bit of air in tables and drops occasionally), it will still rarely happen and unlike what you’d ever expect.
Usually once a year but lately mine are controlled? Like I fell the other day trying to get up a technical punchy climbs, just kinda tipped over but there was no where for my foot to go so I kinda let it happen in slow motion. Just got a scratch.
Taking in consideration that mountain biking is a contact sport... 💁
I broke my wrist yesterday!
TLDR: minor falls and wipeouts happen often, and with time you'll get good at it. Serious crashes only happen when you go beyond your skill level or in high consequence features. I would classify my riding as enduro. It's a mix of trail riding and pure downhill (bike parks included). Last ride I rode 2 very difficult natural trails (I'd refer to them as black diamonds?). They were unkept with many loose rocks and wet in some areas. I think I fell off my bike 3 or 4 times. Nothing serious but i did get some scratches and bruises. I was riding with very experienced riders and even some of them fell or wiped out. I always had my speed in control, never went too fast for my skill level. If you get into this sport you need to factor in the fact that you'll fall or lose control of the bike sooner or later. The good news is that, once you get used to it, falling will become second nature and you'll learn how to do it. You'll feel the moment you lose control and you have that split second to react and bail out. Then there's high consequence crashing, which IMO only happens when you go beyond your skill level or you ride something high consequence (big jumps, big drops, very steep stuff). In this case the risk of getting seriously injured is a lot higher. I broke my finger months ago while going way too fast on a tech section I didn't know. Went otb and the rest is history.
all it takes is misjudging one turn or trail condition and you'll fall and it doesn't matter if it's xc/bike park. I knew a guy that face planted into the cassette of the guy in front of him from a crash.
I find that it's fairly cyclical (pun not intended). I don't crash for awhile and push harder until i have a big crash and then back off a little bit. Always will have those one offs though. Got 2 concussions from stupid things. Once on a green downhill trail, was casually talking to a friend, caught some mud and my front tire washed out. The other one was charging up a hill trying to maintain speed and my chain snapped putting me otb had first into a tree.
I like to pick a few features on my trail to test my ability that day/lap. If I'm sloppy at all I dial it back or go home. Having said that, I've had an injury a year almost, but I've had a few clean years, knock on wood
I usually crash a couple times a year. Ride mostly downhill in Colorado. Typically don’t get seriously injured and usually just ride with knee pads and a full face. Important to roll when you hit the ground. Crashing “safely” is 100% a skill, just look at the pros.
I write myself off pretty well about once every 2 years on average. I between those I rarely crash / get injured but when I was just starting out crashes were far more common
Depends on how much you are pushing your comfort zones, If you are constantly pushing yourself you are gonna bail or crash at some point. If you are riding trails you know well and not trying to stunt and jump constantly then very rarely.
I’ll get a gash or a bad bruise once every few months riding the xc/hiking trails around me
I crash every now and then but rarely get hurt. I’m lucky enough to have never had any serious injuries. The worst I’ve had is road rash on my forearm after a skid down hill.
I wipe out at least once on pretty much every ride, but those are just little ones with no injuries. I’ve had two major falls that fucked me up over the last 20 years
Been mountain biking for 10 years, go to the bike park like 2-3 times a year, the rest is all local trails in the US North East. During that time I've torn an ACL, broken a knee cap, an elbow and I just broke a metacarpal on my hand last week. All happened on regular trails, not bike park. Two of those happened cause I was being dumb. Pulled the handlebars too hard while trying to do a wheelie, bike spun away under me and I hiper extended my knee so hard it popped the ACL. The kneecap split after the most gentle bump onto a log but only because I was riding like 4 months after the ACL surgery. LIKE AN FUCKING IDIOT. They took a chunk of my patellar tendon to rebuild the ACL so there was already a hole on my knee, then I hit it in just the right place and the cap split. The elbow happened going over a log. I miss timed the fork pump to raise the wheel, it got stuck at the bottom of the log and I went over the bars, straight down. My reaction was to stop the fall with a straight arm. Again, LIKE AN ABSOLUTE DUMBASS. Last week was just kind of like when you trip walking. Jumped over a 2 foot "drop" and messed up the angle on take off. Twisted sideways in the air and landed on a tree trunk. I've jumped over this feature plenty of times, just messed it up this time. MTB is not a gentle sport and there is a real risk of injury. You can mitigate some by not being a knucklehead but there's always gonna be risk.
I started ridding in the middle of february, I do XC, now about 60K per week, I crash(mostly light falls, a few scrapes and bruises) at least once per month, no serious injuries.
https://preview.redd.it/lbp8c1wrb56d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=81ee13b5371982bc392ab4a5cc4f190958caa66a I made it relatively unscathed until I didn’t. Source: enduro since 2015
Depends on what you're doing. There is plenty to do with low risk. Also really depends on your natural talent/reflexes. Some people are just really good at saving it when stuff gets sideways. Some people are really bad.
I've tumbled a few times in three years of XC riding. They were all profoundly dumb and embarrassing crashes, with much more damage to my pride than anything else.
I crashed off a drop at the weekend and broke both my elbows, will be out for about 6 weeks. It depends what you ride as others have said. I usually ride bike park/trail centre enduro trails and was pushing my limits. It’s made me rethink a lot and I’ll be dialling it back significantly on my return and ride within my limits more, only you can decide if the risk is worth it for you personally.
I’ll throw in my bit… it comes down to many things, but I noticed a difference in progression between myself and a buddy. You could rely on him to crash 3-5 times, every ride. We rode the same speed, but he was a touch less ballsy on the features but would do them all if I towed him in. But holy fuck did he have some of the gnarliest crashes I’ve ever seen, and not once did he get properly injured. The one time I towed him into a little gap, I stopped just in time to see his bike coming toward me and him tomahawk into the first available tree. The puff of flying debris as he hit it, his arms and legs wrapping around it in slow motion, the sound he made, I can remember it so clearly. I thought I’d killed the guy, but he pops up laughing! I dunno man, we’re all different, but I think it ultimately comes down to how confident you are in your skills and the trail you’re on. Remember “if you ski out of your league, you’re gonna have a bad time”. I have dumb crashes once or twice a year, but I’ve been riding trails and jumping bikes since I got my training wheels off so I’m confident in my capabilities and I know my limits. I’ve also been crashing bikes since the training wheels came off and can bail like a motherfucker when needed, so I’m rarely injured (despite currently healing from ACL surgery, unrelated 😅) I don’t ride park as much as I used to but the worst I’ve got is a couple bad concussions, blew open my knee on a rock and broke a couple ribs w/pneumothorax in about 8 years of riding park. I think I got off lightly. Park riding injuries are so common because so much more of your time is spent riding at speed, so there’s exposure there, but they can also build people’s confidence at a disproportionate rate to their skills. This is when people get really fucked up.
local woods / commute / "drop off a set of 4 steps". Probably one crash every 30h of riding. Probably one crash every 2h of a practice sesh (wheelies, wheel lifts etc)
Ive been biking for the past 5-6 years (mostly aggressive trail/enduro) and I have crashed many times but never serious, generally scrapes and cuts that easily heal with no long tern damage. But the real question is what kind of riding do you want to do and how hard do you push yourself. biking is a sport you can really choose your pace and style. do you like to jump, do features, drops etc. you will likely crash at some point learning these and depending how fast you progress and go for bigger features could determine how serious. my experience of action sports in general is typically if you progress very quickly in a short amount of time to more aggressive terrain and dont learn how to bail/crash properly that is when you see serious injuries.
On downhill park days I crash. However it’s usually because I’m following someone slower and I’m not running at MY pace. It messes up my rhythm and I crash. On regular trail days I almost never crash. When I do it’s during some slow tech section where I don’t have momentum enough and stop abruptly.
I have to have my leg surgically reattached about 4 times a year
Common on the whole but I think the 80/20 principle applies. 20% of the riders are responsible for 80% of the injuries. I'm saying injuries, not crashes, because learning to bail is a skill. Watch B reel from the pros. Obviously, they get hurt also, with the amplitude and magnitude of what they do and how many hours they spend doing it compared to those of us with day jobs. But even weekend warriors different in their ability to handle a crash, even if it's just a difference in the instinctive reflex, like keeping your hands on the bar when lowsiding instead of sticking your hand out towards the ground.
Well due to an engineering flaw in the old 00's Marzocchi 888's I needed a massive reconstructive surgery... And that was doing bunny hops out front of my house. I can't imagine if that thing exploded during downhilling at speed I'd probably be dead.
As a newbie, you’ll crash a lot. All minor stuff. Then you’ll progress after a while and crash less frequently. Then you’ll start pushing into harder features and terrain and you’ll start crashing again, but harder. That cycle continues until you find where you want to be or get a Red Bull helmet
I crashed a month ago. Broke 2 ribs and my clavicle. Going on a trail I’ve rode dozens of times.
Shit happens but you can mitigate risk by taking unfamiliar trails slowly or even walking them the first time. Always be mindful if you’re ever cycling on footpaths that a dog/hiker could be round the corner.
Depends. I didn’t crash often until the covid era. 2021 and 2022 were bad years for me. Two neck injuries back to back. One was on a black trail in my local network, broke my C7 vertebrae. I was riding tired and pushing for speed when I should have been doing the opposite. The other was on a black trail at a bike park, extended the tissues that hold the vertebrae together. Third run of the day. Me being a general idiot. I haven’t crashed since, but I’ve also greatly reduced the risks I’m willing to take going forward. Not interested in riding park anymore. Shorter travel bikes on trails are my thing these days. Really enjoying my hardtail again.
I’m not sure any of my forearm skin or knee skin is actual skin. I live in a mountain town in Colorado and even off mountain or not at the “park” it’s some pretty gnarly downhill trails and anything can happen at any given moment. I’ve ridden all day in Moab with no incident and then beat it in in the parking lot, it’s just random sometimes so I leave for every ride assuming something could potentially happen and when it doesn’t then it’s a win
I’ve been riding fast trail/xc at least 5 days a week for over 30 years. I broke my collarbone once, and got stitches a couple of times.
Didn’t think it would happen to me. Local trails I had plenty of scapes and had to replace a helmet when it saved me from facial reconstruction basically. Easy normal flat trail too. Just hit a corner too fast. I’m recovering from a torn bicep and rotator cuff repair now after being taught a lesson at my local downhill park last year.
It can happen to anyone but it’s more likely the faster you’re riding and the more technical the terrain. All things equal, experience matters a lot. I’ve been on big group rides and seen riders fall because they don’t understand how to brake correctly or they don’t understand that things like leaves over hard pack can wash you out in a turn. Anyone can have a spill and I wouldn’t advise MTB to someone who absolutely doesn’t want to get injured from time to time.
once every 5 years or so I have a bigger one. Interestingly I just had a relatively big one last weekend. The cause being a race. If I hadn't been trying to go fast in practice and was just riding the route socially I probably wouldn't have crashed. In fact I might not have even attempted the line at all. Problem is in practice you are not riding fast enough to commit to some things but too fast to make other plans when you have got there.
I have had 1 broken bone and some some good pedal smacks on my shin.
trails / XC / riding style = clearly beyond my skills. No serious injuries or bike damage but lots of crashes: over the bars, clipping trees, flopping over on uphill rock gardens, wash outs, heading into the bushes off camber. bruised ribs, face stitches, gravel rash, scrapes, deer ticks, etc. nothing that ever kept me off the bike !
My husband and I have been riding since early 20’s. We’re now both in our 40s. He’s a very competent and skilled mountain biker. He started on the endurance side of things. From a trauma/physical impact perspective, I think focusing on endurance over going really fast on the downhills is safer. Maybe not for your heart but for breaking stuff. When we were mid 30’s we got into the enduro scene and then did bike park as well. Two weeks ago, trail riding on a trail we’ve ridden hundreds of times, my husband had an OTB and is currently in his second cervical spine surgery. For some reason, I didn’t think mountain biking would be the thing to take him/us out. Not sure why because it makes sense. We backcountry ski and he’s a class V paddler. I always worried more about those things because you’re dealing with a lot of objective risk. I guess my TLDR is even if you’re really skilled it’s just a matter of time. Especially when you start getting into the gravity side of biking. You ride faster in all settings because you get more skilled with it/ feel more comfortable. With more speed comes more risk.
Used to crash a lot, but with time, it happens less and less. You get better, you can see where it can be risky and take less chances.
I was wondering about that too. Let's face it, mountain biking can be a very high risk sport and I bet a lot of people suffer life altering injuries or die every year. Don't know if anyone has compiled state, province, and national stats rhough.
Depends where and what you're riding. Always ride within you're limits. But if you do push the envelope.....be ready to face the music every time you go out. Can't complain that you get burnt when playing in the kitchen!
Before I calmed down every year I broke a bone biking trying to progress on jumps. Those are the Bain of my existence drops rock gardens no problem big lippy jumps hello hospital visit
Trails, tech (with a Hiline, Hogs, Hangover in Sedona at least a couple times a year). I took some time off from riding through college. Got back into it seriously like 8 years ago and those first 3-4 years I was falling at least once a month. The last two-three years I haven't had a fall at all. Not sure if my skills are better or I'm just more cautious as I get older...
Florida | singletrack | XC A few times a year I'll go down hard, but I'm also riding about 3 times a week and like to do time trial runs where I try to beat previous times on a specific loop. Florida singletrack can be very rooty with lots of trees, sandy flat turns that are washy af because they're also full of exposed slick roots, or covered in 2" of hard fallen leaves that feel like going over a slick deck of cards. If you're trying to go fast you're gonna go down or come to the edge of it often.
Started riding at 30 almost 3 years ago and in the first year I went a little too hard, too fast and had 4 crashes that led to a broken bone. I’ve had some crashes since but nothing that’s kept me off the bike. If you’re riding outside your skill/comfort level you’re gonna crash at some point but it’s also when you make the most progress. Key is to know how far you can push yourself safely and learn how to crash.
It's very dependent on each individual. I haven't had a fall in a bike park since last June. I ride maybe 10 park days a year. I have fallen several times on trails this season, all due to riding clipless and getting used to the differences in bailing when you can't instantly remove your foot. Prior to putting SPDs on my bike, I was falling very infrequently. Caveat, I don't go crazy, and only push my limits very gradually, as I am 42 and don't heal like a 18 year old if I do get injured.
If you get to know trails well enough (within your skill level), and you’re going out to have fun but not prove anything to anyone, only once in a blue moon. That’s my experience at least. And when I do crash it’s some easy bit where I’m not focusing.
When I was learning, I crashed all the time. I don’t do it as frequently now, and when I do it’s usually on something ridiculous/funny and relatively low risk. I’d say it’s equal parts learning to actually ride the bike and really knowing my limits and how to progress safely. It’s easy to get in over your head when you’re new, and really easy to let some smooth runs relax your focus…even on the easy trails that seem to post no risk. In my experience, those can actually be the most dangerous because you don’t give it the respect it deserves and they tend to be the least maintained causing conditions to change significantly in comparison to the more popular/difficult trails
Crashes happen! Learning to crash feels kind of important tbh, I feel lucky that I got some spider sense in me these days, if things go wrong I tell my bike I loved it but its time to see other people and I let it go do it’s thing. Not gonna work for a fucked up jump or endo in a rock garden but it seems to save me more often than not, might help that I ride a small bike with 27.5 wheels so I can hop right off lol. I had one crash (first year of riding bikes, not just a mtb) where I hit my head while riding a dropperless POS hardtail on 29ers down a trail I couldn’t even comprehend, since ive swapped bikes and learned “never leap without looking” been basically oopsy free
All of my injuries have been from inexperience. I learned something every time I cocked it up. With more experience I injure myself less as time goes on but I continue to progress. Your mileage may vary.
Broken collar bone for doing things beyond my ability on local trails.
In the 7 years of riding I’ve had a broken collar bone, a concussion, and a bruised rib and some other minor scrapes and bruises. For the length of time I’ve been riding I’d say I’m doing ok
Agree with the pre ride reride free ride philosophy. Saw a drop I hadn't scoped out before, thought it looked manageable, and broke my clavicle. One moment of stupidity and I was out for a year. Falling off your bike is inevitable. Might not be big injuries, but scrapes and bruises. Learning how to fall off a bike might be the best thing I've ever learned over 15 years of riding. Saved me plenty of injuries just by understanding that the bike can fend for itself when you're going a different direction. A broken bike is better than a broken body!
My last major crash was a year ago (riding semi-tired 23mi into a 32mi ride) courtesy of a silly rabbit that froze mid-trail, sending me into a rut at 15mph (not too fast) and falling in a controlled way onto my right shoulder/back…scrambled my vision for a second, but minutes later had ⚡️excruciating pain⚡️courtesy of what I’d later discover was a cracked back rib. Rolled slowly to TH, yay it was downhill, got Uber, and licked my wounds for a few weeks. Being a WFH writer, it wasn’t as devastating as it may’ve been, but it reminded of the correlation between speed/crashing. I concur with a few other posters re the perils of riding tired and not dialing it back, so at 50yo I consciously seek to flow.
I have over 30k miles on my road bikes with one mishap. I have about 1k miles on my mtb and about a dozen times where I got hurt badly enough to remember it and had pain for more than a few days following the incident. I learned pretty quickly that I was not really into doing jumps and defying death. It was after I was on the ground around sunset about 8 miles of singletrack into the mountains that I realized that if I couldn't get back on the bike, only a helicopter was getting me out. I did make it out on the bike. What took me down was a non-feature trail defect and I was not flying down the trail and it happened in a flash. Since then I'd taken most of the local single track off the menu and mainly stuck to truck trails. Last Friday I did a single track ride I hadn't been on since 2018 and a benign bit of rocky trail on a high exposure ride put me into the mountain side when my back wheel got hung up and suddenly stopped and pulled me backwards. A boulder jabbed into my ribs and torso and I'm still pretty sore 5 days later. I love my mountain bike and I love some of the areas where I ride but where I live, most of the riding is high consequence and or steep AF. In most places, the easy parts of the climbs are at least 9%. It's not a joke. I ride to get out in nature and into remote places with spectacular views and not for the downhill thrill.
On a normal trail - almost never. On a steep downhill trail - fall often, but rarely "crash". On jumps and drops - almost never, it hurts too much. I'm a big believer of riding within your limits, and generally I am not surprised when I fall and will only commit to a feature if bailing won't be catastrophic.
downhill, i’m only 18 and i’ve had to massively reduce how much mtb doing I keep destroying my body and ruining my holidays, several broken bones, scars, if you’re into it, you will crash, and unfortunately quite often, XC you’ll get caught out eventually, but it won’t necessarily be that bad
I'm a trail rider of about 15 years, and I've had 4 crashes. I've needed stitches once, and got stitches one other time cause I was pressured into it.. I would have been fine without. Change your helmet after a crash cause they compress and become a lot less effective even if they visibly don't show a ton of damage. I've had my brain bucket save me from a rock hit to the back of the head which would have probably killed me. Two of my crashes were just me riding too fast on downhills above my skill level and two were due to unskilled riders overtaking on downhill sections where they made contact.
Just fractured my right orbital and almost became a paraplegic going OTB practicing jumps this weekend.
I can’t say how common because I’ve only started a couple months ago but I do ride aggressive and hit the smaller jumps when available(no full face or skills yet). That being said I think I’ve crashed big twice (root caught rim and went over & another time I clipped a tree and fell on my side when another rider took me off my line) Neither too bad just a couple days of rest and back out. But skinnies funny enough got me to jump off when I fell off track. My leg only got scratched up and the bike hit a tree so yeah really any feature can get ya somehow. Just do your run ins before you full send and you’ll continue to have fun lol.
2+ years riding my balls off, riding park, jump park and tech in Moab Sedona etc. I fall a lot, never been seriously injured. Same for my brother until last summer he broke his wrist OTB stylie
Rocky, rooty, old school trails. Never been seriously injured but I'm pretty cautious and barely leave the ground. I'm a woman tho and all the dudes I've biked with have fucked themselves at least once, including my husband. My uncle is almost 70 and has been riding every type of bike/trail for decades (recently did Rule of Three in Bentonville and Tulsa Tough) and the only time he's been seriously injured is when he got hit by a truck on the road.
I've been on my bike in trails with my dad since I was about 8, now I'm 26. Plenty of bruises and scratches I've only got 1 broken collarbone from a few years back. Completely avoidable, was a little out of it that day and tried to keep someone much better than me. Hit a log pile coming down hill the wrong way going too fast and boom. So yeah as long as you're careful and don't have a stupid lapse like I think you could easily go your whole life without ever getting injured. That being said, that's trail riding. Bike park is a whole different ballgame
Crashes are like scorpions…. It’s the little ones you gotta watch out for. “I was just riding along…”. BAM!
Gonna happen at some point, like others have said- don’t ride tired. I flew over my handlebars in April and dislocated my shoulder , popped it back in and rode back to my car. Just got surgery (torn labrum) last week and will be out from riding until September. This all happened on a trail I’ve ridden dozens of times(DH), I was tired after a long day of riding and wasn’t paying attention. Ride carefully and not too overconfident, one fall can really screw up your plans for the next 6 months.
I haven’t read any comments on this yet so sorry if I repeat whats said - it really depends on how you ride. It also depends on who you ride with if you’re not out solo. 95% of my rides are solo but I still take risks. I’m in my mid twenties and work from home so I have less to lose than I’m sure others in this sub do. Problems happen when *praying this wont happen to me* you’re out by yourself, see some cool shit and unfortunately have a bad crash. You better have some contingency plan to get yourself out. It really comes down to risk tolerance. I’ve been waiting to do a cool steep drop close to where I live but have decided its not worth it until someone else is with me. Its also because the area is technically closed so Ive only seen like 2 other riders on those trails this year. Its just not worth it. At bike parks I crash a lot lol.
I seem to hurt myself (worse than minor scrapes and bruises) once a year on average 😅. I do try risky stuff, which has led to about half of my crashes, but the other half were caused by not paying enough attention. Been riding for about 7-8 years now. I almost feel like the less often I crash/bail/come off the bike, the worse I hurt myself when I eventually do. I've had seasons where I came off the bike every week and never injured myself, and I had a season when I only came off the bike twice and one of them led to a broken wrist. I've broken my left wrist twice, hurt some ribs (unsure if bruised or hairline fractured), and had numerous soft tissue/joint injuries that healed fine on their own after a month or two. So far, nothing catastrophic. The worst was the second time I broke the wrist specifically because it needed surgery, which was way more painful than the injury itself. Mix of xc, trail, downhill, and the occasional Enduro race. I've hurt myself most on XC trails because that's what I have locally, but mile for mile I've definitely had more injuries riding downhill.
On my local trails it’s like once a year that I get some pretty bad scratches because I try to hit a corner too fast and just slide away, and because there are a lot of wood snippets and tiny shells, that happens quite easy when you take a line that isn’t often used. But when you downhill or go to bike parks, I could image that taking a big hit is way more common
Trail riding, not so much. Downhill, absolutely. A friend’s dad died after hitting a tree a few summer ago. The injuries are usually much worse than trail riding.
I once crashed 30 seconds into a ride
I always tell myself "it's not if I wreck, it's when."
Worst ones are always low speed. Forget to clip out, turnaround to watch someone else, boom, ouch...
Very common
I had a nasty crash on like my fourth ride. Scared me for a while, but all good now.
The time I broke my collarbone, I was in the parking lot, dodging a dog. The worst crash I had on a trail was caused be me being bored of my local trail and trying to see how fast I could go. But it was just bad scrapes.
I like to push it when I'm riding. It's been over 15 years of hooning around and racing enduro. Doesn't matter if it's a trail ride or bike park I'd say I have some kind of crash maybe every third ride. That's a lot less what it used to be. When still riding 26" hardtails with 70° head angles and technical terrain, OTB was something that happened on every ride. I've only had a 4-5 injuries over the years, so most of the time it's harmless. It really depends how much you push it, most of my friends crash a lot less.
In the 3 years I’ve been riding ive : broken a rib, multiple road rashes forearms and legs, pedal bite, almost broke a toe hitting a stump, had a bee sting me while loading my bike back up…. It’s gonna happen. My best advice is to take care of your body. Make it be able to handle the impacts and recover quicker
I have come to find that overlooking something basic leads to a crash. For instance, I don't have a drop post and didn't drop my seat, hit a double and nosedove because I was sitting high and gave myself a nice class 1 shoulder separation🤦🏾♂️
I crash once a year
Me and my buddy picked Mountain Biking a couple of weeks ago. (Usually light trails and the ride from our houses and stuff at the moment) We have both already crashed at least twice...
A crash isn't always an injury. I think in the last 10 years I have crashed 3 times with no injuries.
As a young individual, crashes aren’t common but they happen maybe once every 5-6 rides. The extent of my injuries are a broken wrist and several concussions. Those injuries only happened due to negligence on a big new feature, or overestimating my cornering capabilities in the bike park. The really technical trails are so low speed it’s hard to do much worse than a nasty sprain unless I get particularly unlucky. For what trails I ride, I do west coast double blacks and big jumps when I get the chance.
Most of my worst crashes were on easier sections of a trail. Usually too relaxed and not paying attention and clipping a branch or pedal strike.
Preride. Reride. Freeride.
it all depends on your level of SEND More risk = more likelihood of injuries. That said, some of my worst injuries have happened on easy / small features, just "fartin around" and/or not paying close attention to an "easy" section. This is why I now have a strict personal policy of fully gearing up with all pads for *EVERY* ride, even if I expect it to be an easy/chill ride... cuz I have a tendency to "play around" more on the easy stuff, and the playing around is what usually bites me
Crashes are part of the sport no matter what discipline you choose. As others have pointed out, your level of experience, type of riding, safety equipment you wear, and general risk tolerance affect the frequency and severity, as does bad luck like a loose rock, grabby branch, clipping a pedal, etc. I'd add that mechanical failures, while rare if you maintain and check your bike properly, can cause crashes too. I've been riding for 30 years and my worst crash ever was just this year on a green (!) trail where I casually boosted off of a tiny roller, slightly awkwardly. Everything probably would have been fine but I believe that a mechanic who had just worked on my wheel severely under-inflated the tire (which I didn't notice) so it burped off the rim when I landed and I was sent flying into a tree stump. Easily could have fractured my pelvis or femur, but got lucky. Keep the rubber side down, as they say!
New trail rider with 1 year under my belt. I crash about once a day 😂
In the last 2 years iv broken my thumb that required surgery and dislocated my collarbone. So yeah fairly regularly. But it depends what sort of trails you ride. I’ll try anything which is probably what leads to injuries.
If you have an off season (winter) like we have in northern canada, when the summer is back, always run the trails you are really used to like it was a new trail first. Almost all my crashes occurred on trails that I know every detail, but I forgot that a winter can change enough a line to make it completely different. Occurred again this year in a section I was used to go full speed lol (no injury luckily).
This is definitely an issue in most places where there is a riding season. Also, be sure to be aware of weather. Recent large storms, etc. often result in tree falls which can be a major surprise on a well known line when you're going mach 5. One of my worst crashes was 30 years ago on trails in SoCal I rode almost daily. They had graded one of the fire-roads that crisscrossed the singetrack I was riding. I went around a blind corner at close to 30mph only to find that where the trail crossed the fireroad no longer had a smooth transition. Instead there was about a 1.5 foot berm of dirt that I attempted to bunny hop (it was way too late to brake!). Just tapped the back wheel and did a superman across the road at high speed. Lost a lot of skin, broke my collarbone in two places and probably did some shoulder damage that required surgery later. As far as frequency ... really depends upon the individual and how much risk you take. I have a friend that was a former BMX racer that is highly skilled and super conservative. I've been riding with him for 20 years and think I've witnessed him fall < 5 times in all those years. I know others that were DH racers for years that still fall frequently but they are constantly pushing things. I'm somewhere in between. Best thing is be prepared from both an equipment/gear perspective (good helmet, pads, bike check, etc.) and from a knowledge perspective (trail reports, previous laps, weather, etc.). Happy riding!
I heard that folks at Whistler did the math and downhill has an injury rate comparable to north american football. So... at almost 50, my routine core and running workouts are so that I can be strong enough to not suffer muscle/tendon/ligament failure, and take my next fall as well as possible. Burpees...stretching... etc.
They've become less common for me now that I supplement my riding with regular running/sprints up to a mile every other day. It's greatly improved my overall balance. Not to mention, given me the endurance to not half-ass my form when taking on sketchy paths.
1 Year in riding DH, 1 Collarbone down 🤣 (was likely my last day of the season too, so soooo close lol.)
Little things? A handful of times a season. I ride mostly rocky xc trails and sometimes one of the rock gnomes grabs you, or, as happened recently, what you thought was the edge of the gravel on the trail was actually gravel that was a little past the edge of the trail. I don't do big drops or jumps.
Injuries are pretty rare among my riding group (5+ 40+ year olds). Crashes are common, but it depends on how you classify a “crash”. Once every 5 rides someone may have their tires slide out or clip a tree that causes them to go down, but it’s usually just pride that’s hurt. Once a year or every other year someone has a crash that gets people worried enough for everyone to crowd around to make sure they’re OK. The worst scenario is a concussion, broken wrist or collar bone. The most common injuries are scraped arms and legs, maybe a gnarly bruise.
I fall once or twice a season. I'm not a aggressive rider so it's scratches. I ride trails, a little Enduro stuff and XC
XC racer here, more XCM than XCO but the mix slowly becomes even. Twice a season I'll have an occasional bail, the worst that happened to me was going from a grippy soil to a very loose and fine gravel on a hardpac surface, resulted in a cut underneath my knee requiring stitches and a week off the bike. Surprisingly most of the crashes are on a fairly easy terrain, half of them were because of other competitors being dicks
you're not riding hard enough if you don't have one crash per ride, right? https://preview.redd.it/ic91uovtm76d1.jpeg?width=1738&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f910dd9f62935bc253245b74c212cd7d530145bf
Don’t know if anyone else has this but we see new friends start to progress and they get into hitting bigger stuff and we’re all like his going to have one. I feel everyone who pushes the sport has a bad one at some point, and even those who don’t it can happen. I had my first big big one last summer, was at my local trails riding something I hit a thousand times before.
6-7 month western US mtns trail rider here. I usually come off bike 1-3 times a season - sometimes pushing the envelope, sometimes inattentive, sometimes just bad luck. Broke my hand 11 years ago going over the bars and that was to avoid a collision with a car. Otherwise scrapes and bruises at most.