Bike Crash!

Here's a crazy one. This is Bernard Hinault. 5 time winner of the Tour de France and not so affectionately known as "The Badger". In this clip he went off the front and was attacking the field during a mountain stage. He misjudges a turn and literally rides off a cliff. The only thing that saved his live was that he hit a small tree growing on the side of the cliff. Hinault climbs back up to the road, gets back on his bike (actually a replacement bike) and went on to win the stage. Crazy bastard!

 
I did that skiing once. Landed on my back, head first, sliding down the steep grade, feet up in the air with my skis still on. Came to rest 6" from a boulder. But at least I had a good helmet on.
 
Right said:
I did that skiing once. Landed on my back, head first, sliding down the steep grade, feet up in the air with my skis still on. Came to rest 6" from a boulder. But at least I had a good helmet on.
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I'm a big believer in helmets. I was wearing hard shell helmets back in the day when most bike racers did not and didn't want too. It only took me once to witness a rider doing a face plant and I started wearing a helmet religiously.

I'm also mildly surprised that I never broke my collar bone. Almost everyone I knew that I used to race with had done that at some point of the other.
 
Road racing has nothing on track racing when it comes to crashes. Here's a crash at a Japanese Kierin race. Kierin racing in Japan is like a cross between Thoroughbred racing and NASCAR. When these guys wipe out in this video they are doing about 40 mph.

 
Mott the Hoople said:
I'm a big believer in helmets. I was wearing hard shell helmets back in the day when most bike racers did not and didn't want too. It only took me once to witness a rider doing a face plant and I started wearing a helmet religiously.

I'm also mildly surprised that I never broke my collar bone. Almost everyone I knew that I used to race with had done that at some point of the other.
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I've skied with a full coverage helmet when I started racing about ten years ago and never regretted it at all. A buddy of mine who's much better than I am fell backwards our least changeling course, with a race helmet, hit his head and it still knocked him out. He had to take a season off because, according to him, the fall re-wired his brain a bit.

Many of the coaches here do not wear them.
 
I still ride occasionally without a helmet but that usually when I'm just out cruising around by myself on back roads. To be honest, it's more an enjoyable experience when you're not wearing a helmet. Having said that whenever I'm riding with other riders, or I'm riding hard or in traffic I wear a helmet.
 
Mott the Hoople said:
Road racing has nothing on track racing when it comes to crashes. Here's a crash at a Japanese Kierin race. Kierin racing in Japan is like a cross between Thoroughbred racing and NASCAR. When these guys wipe out in this video they are doing about 40 mph.
Click to expand...

The only entertainment of NASCAR are crashes. If you can find a racing sport where that is not the case, then you've found your niche.
 
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