How to Crash your Bike with Dignity and (Hopefully) Keep your Teeth!
Here are cycling terms for some of the different ways you can crash:
1. The ‘over the bars’ crash
Your front wheel gets stuck in a drain cover, or you ride into a curb or your neighbour’s dog. Whatever the reason, your bike has stopped dead and you’re heading over the handlebars.
2. The high side
This can often happen a fraction of a second after you’ve just saved a slide, and the back wheel has gone from washing out in a corner to suddenly gripping. The bike will sit upright in an instant and you’ll be ejected over the side.
3. The low side
You’ve come into a corner a bit too aggressively and the back wheel, front wheel, or both wheels have started to slide. You can’t recover the slide and you hit the deck, continuing the slide on your hip or bottom.
4. The sack of spuds
This is a clipless pedal newbie’s favourite, but can happen to anyone who’s not concentrating or anticipating properly. As you stop, you either forget you’re clipped into your pedals or you can’t unclip in time. The result is a sideways topple into a surprisingly painful and embarrassing heap on the road.
