Here’s a cyclist who ended up with a bit of a headache – and hopefully nothing else – ahead of the New Year after a piece of debris got lodged in the rear wheel of his bike, sending him flying over the handlebars and landing on his helmet, head-first.
It has emerged that the cyclist involved was 55-year-old Anthony Condon of Byron Bay, New South Wales, who told the Sydney Morning Herald, "I've got the bruised bum to prove it."
He sustained nothing more than cuts and bruisesin the crash, and said, "I thought, 'This is going to be bad. This is going to hurt.'
"I sort of did the somersault. In no way was this controlled, or managed, or organised. The next thing I was sitting on the road."
Head over Wheels from Cycliq on Vimeo.
There are some top avoidance skills on show from a couple of the riders following Condon, who said, "I was very lucky to not have been badly injured. It was pure luck. The guys behind – it was just incredible evasive response to come around and not run into me."
One Byron Bay Cycle Club member, Adam Taylor, said: "The roads are really bad around Byron Bay and there is debris on the road.
"We always have a camera for insurance purposes, in case of a crash," he added.
Depite his cuts and bruises, Condon was out on a 50km ride with his clubmates the following day. His Canyon bike fared less well however, and he said: "I am sad I lost my racing bike. I might be going bike shopping this weekend."
The clip was uploaded to Vimeo by Cycliq, the Perth, Western Australia-based company behind the Fly6 camera it was filmed on.
15 thoughts on “Video – Top skills as riders avoid another who has crashed”
If you listen it sounds like
If you listen it sounds like the front rider goes over the debris and it flicks up from his/her wheel. Guy at the front should really have been calling and signalling that and gone around that debris…
Top Skills….from the
Top Skills….from the avoiding cyclists and also Colt Seavers at the front…
Suggest rear wheel stick
Suggest rear wheel stick lockup has a different effect. Front wheel for sure. Nice roll!
I cant believe how inaccurate
I cant believe how inaccurate this article is!!
first off it dosen’t jam in his rear wheel or even his front wheel
as he rides over the object his rear wheel flicks the object forwards past his legs and it seems to hit the back of the forks jamming the front wheel (seen this done on a mtb before, rider went o.t.b and broke his elbow)
the guy who swerves to avoid him dosen’t avoid a wall but a grass bank
whoever wrote this article didn’t watch the video very clearly!
Good thing the car was in the
Good thing the car was in the outside lane when he was overtaking.
This is why you shouldn’t ride in the gutter.
Hope he’s all right though. One time a helmet might be really useful!!
This does not look to be a
This does not look to be a “tea and cakes” ride where the guy in the front (and everyone else) is able to constantly yell (scream?) out every bit of debris and slowly and safely steer the group around it.
In an ideal world, they might have avoided it, but you’ve got to realize that there are other considerations at that apparent speed: the reflective road “turtles” along the paint, traffic potentially coming by in the adjacent lane, the fact that they had just crossed a merging traffic lane, other shoulder debris, and the other side of the paceline along the gutter. In a fast, tight group ride like that, you can’t really expect to swerve to avoid debris of that size. Swerving causes it’s own issues, so you’ve just got to hop it or hit it and hope that the guy behind you can do the same.
Holly s**t!
Holly s**t!
Wow, he was lucky. How close
Wow, he was lucky. How close was he to breaking his neck? I won’t be showing this to my wife..
Forgetting the title of the
Forgetting the title of the film and the other riders… I’ve spent the summer not wearing a helmet and was getting a little relaxed about needing one. Seeing where the crashee’s head goes has made me completely reconsider! Bugger.
as above.
Shouldn’t the rider
as above.
Shouldn’t the rider with the camera, avoided the debris, and signaled to fellow riders about it?
Front wheel kicks it up. It
Front wheel kicks it up. It hits his feet and spins into the front wheel. You can clearly see the stick caught behind the forks, which locks the front wheel instantly and over he goes. If you watch the bike bounce you can see the front wheel come off as well. This is why front mudguards have breakaway fittings and rear ones don’t.
I do wonder if most road cyclists actually understand the forces they deal with. Locking the rear brake/wheel on tar in a straight line will get you a nice long skid usually. Heaven knows I went through lots of rear tyres when I was a kid doing just that on purpose.
A locked front wheel is either over the bars or if in a turn likely (and certainly in the wet) an “understeer wash-out”.
It does depend on the situation – speed, tyre/road friction, up/downhill, how sudden the braking is, rider weight and the relation to bike geometry. But any bike braked in a corner will try and “stand up” and that makes it want to go straight (since as we all know, you steer a bike by leaning, not by turning the bars).
CanAmSteve wrote: If you
The fork actually breaks off, it’s not just the front wheel coming off. The wheel is completely mashed too…
as can be seen on this alternate version
http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/latest-news/australian-cyclist-walks-away-horrific-crash-video-150584
Ignoring what has already
Ignoring what has already been pointed out (front wheel not back, lack of warning shout, etc.) I have one question and three observations.
Question. Why are they riding alongside the road and not on it? The solid white line marks the edge of the road same as it does in this country. If you ride to the left of this line your going to find a lot of debris, mostly tyre puncturing debris. Also if you ride here and the gutter is narrow then you invite the close pass.
Observation 1. This is one of the few times you will see a cycling helmet impacted on the tested area in the real world.
Observation 2. Rider saved by helmet? Look particularly at the point of impact. Without a helmet there may well have been no head strike on the road. Think about how high your helmet is above your head. At best the helmet has saved him from losing a bit of skin off his head.
Observation 3. Look at the point of impact again. Notice the rider’s neck bend. Torsion injury alert! Has the helmet prevented injury or risked causing injury?
Before you all start shouting at me; please understand that I am neither pro- nor anti-helmet. I am pro-informed choice.
I’ve looked at this video
I’ve looked at this video quite a few times now and I really don’t think it’s possible to tell that he’d have been better off without a helmet.
And it’s certainly not possible to tell from the video that, at worst, he would only have lost a bit of skin off his head (and, moreover, I might remind you that the skin on our heads is very thin).
That’s just wishful thinking.
No time to avoid that. Even
No time to avoid that. Even if the first rider had shouted out they’re going too fast and spread too wide for all to avoid it. I imagine it looked like a piece of twine from a distance – instead of a dangerous strip of metal.
Glad the rider is ok. He’s a very lucky guy.