riding on crappy roads, and the 6 inch shoulder disappeared, and up popped a mess of potholes. I tried to avoid them, but ended up going off the road and into a ditch-nothing major. My aero bars hit first, then I flipped over the bars, and the bike flipped over me. Everything was in pretty soft grass (thank God for the warmer weather). The only things that I noticed were my front brake was shifted, and I had to re-align it so my tire could spin. The left front aero bar (near the brake lever) was a little scratched. Nothing major.
While I was riding it after that I hear a little sound, I couldn’t tell if it was a stone hitting my bike somewhere, or my bike is cracked.
Do you think it is possible that wiping out at 15 mph (braking) into the grass could cause my frame to crack, or am i just being paranoid?
**wierd. No lie just before I wrecked (the winds were 20-25 mph) I thought about a quote I read on here a while back. There are 2 types of bikers, those who have wrecked, and those that WILL. 30 seconds later, I was sitting on the side of the road! crazy.
Welcome to the club! Glad you’re OK. Just have the local wrench take a look at your bike. It’s probably fine, but you wouldn’t want to learn of a crack coming down hill at 48mph!!!
No offense meant here … but with your description of the crash and circumstances, I think you need a fair bit of bike handling skills. Triathletes are famous for this. Perhaps training this time of year on a road/cyclocross bike in a group, etc. would be a great idea. The group could have called out ahead of the potholes, you might have been looking more forward on a road bike then in aero bars, you can bunny hop, hit em square on or ride in the grass on the cross bike, etc.
I hit a stone wall going about 20 and it didn’t even scratch the frame so I bet you are ok. That being said, I would absolutely have a bike shop give it a look over, no telling what little thing got tweaked.
Yes, that simple crash could, theoretically, have cracked something. Look the bike over carefully and if that sound continues make sure to identify it’s source.
I was taken out in the crit yesterday and hit the oavement at 22-23 mph. Luckily it wasn’t the 27-28 mph we’d been going earlier. Missed the Super Bowl, spent the rest of the day at the ER instead.
Absolutely have everything looked at and partially disassembled. You could have hidden cracks that could be a serious hazard to life and limb. A couple of things pop to mind:
Stem. Disassemble from the fork and the handlebar, carefully inspect for cracks around bolt heads, etc.
Fork. Take the fork out of the frame and carefully check for cracks, especially in the main tube and where the tube meets the crown of the forks.
Handlebars. You said the aerobars hit first…check to make sure there aren’t hidden cracks in the basebar, especially if you have tape over them.
I slipped in my driveway on some slimy pavement and fell over at 2mph a couple years back and put a hairline crack in my left basebar arm…under the bar tape. Being an idiot I rode anyway and when I pulled hard the left arm almost completely came off in my hand. I was lucky to not ditch it, especially because there were a couple of cars around!!!
This is why uscf and others recommend riding in the lane, not on the shoulder.
It differs but in most states you are required to ride as far to the right as is safe. If the shoulder is full of debris, in bad shape, or in your case gone, then you can ride in the lane.
I place myself about 12 - 18 inches inside the white line, in addition to the bad shoulders, I am more worried about someone trying to “sneak by” and clipping me as they do so than I am worried about being ploughed into from behind.