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If/when you fall, what's the best way

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I have (ahem) some small experience in this area. When it happens, you won't be able to control how it happens. At least it's very unlikely. Wear the right gear, tuck, and pray a lot. If you have the presence of mind, try not to break your fall with your hand. All that you're likely to do, is break your scaphoid bone (tiny, little bone in the wrist, at the base of the thumb). It takes forever to heal, if it heals.

The best, that I've been able to do, is not brace for the fall and remain aware of my surroundings. I've had the presence of mind to make sure that I don't stand up, while I'm still sliding and to get out of the middle, of a busy 4 lane highway without getting hit. That's about it.
 
Gotta ask how you crashed and still ended up in the middle of a 4 lane highway.
 
Practice makes perfect! Other then that all I can say is try your best not to use your hands....Use your forearms....Wrists and fingers are easy to mess up when you extend your hands out...I know someone that was wearing full on race gloves and her thumb still ripped off her hand inside the glove and she lost it....
 
braveheart said:
if your lucky, you wont hit any of those things. if if you do go for a tumble. STAY DOWN.
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Sometimes yes, sometimes no. The last time I went down was making a left hand turn over a set of streetcar tracks during freezing rain. One moment Im upright, the next on down on my side in the oncoming lane - and there is a police cruiser that is coming straight for me. I had to roll out of the way towards the centerline. The cop stopped his car and ran over to me almost sure that he had clipped my head.
 
I always figured that sliding is better than tumbling so if you're sliding you want to stay sliding, so stretching out like a leaf to avoid tumbling (this would require very good protection on your extremities, boots and gloves). Then I figure if you're tumbling, tuck in to protect your extremities.

That's all theoretical though.

When I went down it was instantaneous, so I didn't have time to react. Probably lucky that I didn't. As I was sliding I tried pushing back up with my knee, probably in reaction to being embarrased about having fallen. That's also a bad reaction as Rob said but luckily I was going < 40km/h and wearing good pants so they tore up good but protected me entirely. Kinda surprising since I was essentially trying to lift the bike up by pushing against my knee while sliding on the cheese grater. Anyways, all's well that ends well.
 
I've heard in a highside you roll, and during a lowside you spread out.
This is to avoid colliding with your bike. Don't know how good the advice is though...
 
never stick your hands out if you highside, tuck and roll i stuck my hands out i have a 100% separation in my right shoulder, which means I don't have any ligaments holding my collarbone to my shoulder.
 
I highsided about 5 years ago and I don't even remember it happening. All I can clearly remember is lying on my back, then lifting my head up to see my bike on its side with the rear wheel still spinning. It took me a minute to even realize that I'd gone down.
 
wearelopey said:
I've heard in a highside you roll, and during a lowside you spread out.
This is to avoid colliding with your bike. Don't know how good the advice is though...
Click to expand...

In a lowside, you slide or roll. In a highside you either go waaaaay up and then come down hard (low speed), or you get flung like a skipping stone and usually roll repeatedly (high speed).
 
It will all happen in a blink, and the outcome will be mostly due to random luck, IMO.


"try to look cool, cause you're probably being filmed by someone, somewhere"

... chances are unlikely... and if it's private property they likely won't give either party a copy of whatever they have.

"the adrenaline surge takes most of the pain away, and you might think you're not hurt, but you most likely are."

... didn't for me FWIW...

"My last two times down I was trying to "Neo ala Matrix" it by just saying "No."

... yup, this is definitely true!

"never stick your hands out if you highside, tuck and roll i stuck my hands out i have a 100% separation in my right shoulder, which means I don't have any ligaments holding my collarbone to my shoulder.

... same here, probably 50% separation, from landing on the tip of the shoulder, thankfully the padding prevented a collarbone fracture as well.


My best advice to all riders now is to mount a camera on your helmet or bike, and car, 'cause with this BS no-fault system you're going to be found 50% at-fault if there's any doubt at all as to what happened.
Or, as the adjuster said to me, "It's unfortunate, there's no video of it."

Ya, unfortunate for me,... good for the INS CO, only half the $$$ to pay out.
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