Worst Crashes/Accidents/Failures etc on E-bike: Bring pics

I don't know if the crash I had about 40 minutes ago counts as my worst but it still felt pretty bad. I was up in the dirt behind CSUSB. I was going downhill and came to a curve I've done a number of times. This time however was at 48V and about 28 mph. Usually it's 36V and about 20 mph. I knew I was going to crash so instead of slamming on the brakes, I tried to slow down as much as possible without sliding and aimed for the dry scrub on the side of the road. My aim was fairly true and I hit one head on after bouncing over some rocks. The front wheel turned to the right and I went over the handle bars to the left and partially landed in some more scrub. My right knee hit the fork, my left knee hit a rock, and my left arm got scratched up by the scrub. I'm bruised and a bit scratched up but at least I didn't break anything this time; on me or the bike. I got home and cleaned my wounds. Irish Spring body wash with aloe is awesome. It didn't burn when I scrubbed my wounds.
 
@lbz5mc12, ouch! Glad you're okay enough to recount your mishap.
 
Chalo said:
Word. Assume the worst about car drivers and you'll be right enough of the time to be glad you did.

Yes. For an example see tonight's tale here:

http://www.endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=12500&p=1056335#p1056335
Where even though what I did do prevented a collision, and what I had planned to do would've, too, I could've done one better and just stopped completely before entering the intersection, and that's what I would've done had it actually been raining even a sprinkle. Not sure why I didn't do it, though, becuase I considered and discarded it as I approached despite a funny feeling about that car....
 
This kind of counts as disastrous,

Umm, I'm having a wonderful day. I went to Walmart to get some stuff and when I left, the bike wouldn't start. I unplugged everything and plugged it back together and the motor won't go. The monitor came on and displayed all the info. I don't know what's wrong. So I had to ride all the way home from Walmart with no motor and a fully loaded back pack in hundred + degree temperature. I had to stop multiple times for fear of passing out and the only person that helped me was a homeless guy who gave me a bottle of water. When I got to the top of the hill between E st. and 40th, I walked off to the side and collapsed onto the hot burning pavement for 20 minutes. Did anybody stop to see if I was okay, of course not this is San Bernardino.

That's part of an email I just sent to my ebikekit dealer.

I'm not blaming him, I'm blaming ebikekit.
 
zombiess said:
While a 10kW ebike is fun it can be dangerous, please make sure you know what you are doing. If not, video it and post it when you heal up enough :mrgreen:
....7kw
First one is my friend, second one is me.
[youtube]17fBV0aIBwI[/youtube]
 
Near-brush: Circa 2004, using the zig-zag bike trail that crosses the Second Narrows Bridge from Vancouver to North Shore, on the West Side (now closed, and a wider east side has been built), near midnight, someone jumped out from the bush as I made the turn. Was on a pre-Tidalforce ebike, same type, but with Currie nameplate, 1999 model. The Currie motor saved me from getting mugged or worse. The next day, I phoned Vancouver City Hall, and they turned on the municipal lights that cover this dark, scary bike route. Another time, circa 2007, on the Central Park bike path to Metrotown, in Burnaby, someone sprayed me, in the dark, with pepper spray. My ski goggles and the powerful ebike which was faster than he could chase me, saved me.


Had some really close calls, despite acting with "Only The Paranoid Survive".

In 2006, bought some Vancouver-made lights that used the Bucha Effect ("disorienting strobe light") including one made by Louie Garneau (LG) at the time, sadly no longer available.

http://www.policemag.com/channel/patrol/articles/2010/06/how-to-use-a-strobing-flashlight.aspx


Tests showed that I could slow down all traffic, both directions due to reflections in stop signs, in everything except broad daylight, even on Robson. The light worked subliminally. Atop Great Northern Way, in Vancouver, the 3W flashlight mounted on the handlebar slowed down 9 out of 10 cars. On Hastings Avenue East rear alleyway (the "bike lane" for ebikes, smoother than the designated bike street parallel), cars would now stop for me and any other cyclist with me.

The cost then was over $150.

On Ebay, you can build (2 items) a 3W "disorienting strobe" for $100.

The Bucha Effect is, essentially, any strobe between 6 to 15 cycles per second.

BTW, the German study on helmets showed that 80 percent of impact is the frontal jaw. So, I ride with a motorcycle full face helmet only, today, after someone I know lost 500 hours after an accident on an ebike.

Also, I didn't have a railway track, crossing nearly parallel to it (didn't know that is a "not"), because the 2006 Motorino XP had a bike stand that prevented the bike from dropping.

Also, I now wear a hard-to-find backpack with a hard spine protector, designed in Germany. Was told by someone, from France, in the BC Bike Race yesterday, that this backpack is no longer made; and, it saved his spine.

Here's what I have learned from being accident-free, given the danger from leaves in autumn, etc: Follow the Chinese -- they ride millions of electric scooters, not the bike frame. In earlier years, I modded my ebikes to go faster, only to realize that the frames, and/or brakes, and/or spokes, and/or chains, were no longer suitable, nor reliable, at the faster speed, and in the rain.
 
4LivesPerGallon said:
Here's what I have learned from being accident-free, given the danger from leaves in autumn, etc: Follow the Chinese -- they ride millions of electric scooters, not the bike frame. In earlier years, I modded my ebikes to go faster, only to realize that the frames, and/or brakes, and/or spokes, and/or chains, were no longer suitable, nor reliable, at the faster speed, and in the rain.

I think that tire width has a lot to do with it. A scooter tire is usually 2-3 inches wide and designed to be very sticky - not designed for the lowest rolling resistance possible like many bike tires are.

The best of both worlds is using moped tires on a bike. Or the fattest tires you can get.. ie 2.5 wide or above.

One other problem with a bicycle is the front-rear weight balance. I mean, surely 75% or more of your bike's weight is on the back, so the front wheel is gonna be a bit sketchy.. a triangle battery does help balance things out a little, as well as handlebars that force you to put your upper body weight as forward as possible.
 
I was just making a highoctane vid of my urban jungle trail :mrgreen: and took the nasty overgrown footpath around the flooded 'tributary' when this happened.

Not even on the freakn bike, a bigass stick got in the wheel and with just the throttle torque at walk speed = walla: rapid wheel deconstruction.
yeah2.jpg
When I got to cilivization i'm sure the people thought it was weird I was riding on my own handlebars with no one pedaling :lol:

The thing that really pisses me off as I was walking beside the dam bike and literally just trued the wheel 4 gd hours ago. Now 7 spokes are curly cues and the nipples are broke. RAH!!! :evil:
Oh well, pay to play.
 
Spokes pop quite rapidly like Tinkertoys and become a bird's nest of spaghetti when serial failure occurs. The last time it happened to me I had to push the wobbling clackety-clacker the remaining mile to work and have my wife pick me up at the end of my shift. :oops: Hope you're doing OK. :)
 
Hi guys
In 2012 i built a bike for commuting to work due to suspension of my drivers license.
Build was a hard tail 26inch mountain bike 203mm disc brake front and rear
18 fet from Lyen
HS 35mm Crystalyte motor, CA and 12s lipo
top speed was about 60km/ph
Anyhow made it to work and back home for 11 months of my 12 month suspension then one day coming home from work whilst travelling down the steepest hill of the route home a car apparently made a U turn in front of me.
woke up in hospital in a neck brace a stinking headache and two broken bones in my right arm that required surgery thank god for the morphine.
I would probably be dead if i wasn't wearing a helmet.
I still have no memory of the actual accident but my neck and arm have healed now so i reckon its time for a new build.
I loved that bike but it ended up pretty beaten up.
 
More a warning than anywhere near "worst".

Fresh blacktop coating-sealant is slick as hell after 1st rain.
Good, nice sticky tires ... slow turn ...
Went down faster than on the slickest ice I've ever run into.

No abrasions, nice smooth wet surface, just bruised bones and stressed joints.
 
Glad to hear you weren't scraped up.

In my neighborhood, the latest menace is fresh chip seal. That interferes with traction, but does not offer a benign surface to fall on. It doesn't obviously improve pavement conditions either.
 
This was the first one. Wet night, not going too terribly fast around a sharp bike trail corner in the rain. The city decided that day was a good day to paint a new reflective paint lane strip around the corner, which was slicker than whale snot, and my front tire must have touched it somehow. Down I went. Helmet visor bounced off the pavement, saving my cheek from more damage as I slid to a stop on my face and hand.

N8dZJ76.jpg
9UFR9Za.jpg


One last Friday was me driving too damned fast after a couple beers after work....stupid! Came flying around a corner into 2 women on HORSES....frock. Had to lock em up and bruised my hip pretty good, but ok other than that. I thought the horses were going to stomp me though, because they were as startled as I was! Got lucky. I really need to slow down. :oops:
 
First accident, March 2010: going too fast, not looking, endo'd and crashed into car stopped ahead. punctured knee, scrapes, and probably shoulder damage that later required surgery. The original post: https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=14842&p=250712#p250712

2011: couple of tumbles early in this year highlights vid:
[youtube]-2vtrHlAHMg[/youtube]

September 2013: concussion, pretty obvious here:
[youtube]wKMthhoafXU[/youtube]
 
Ohhhh... Just realised my stack want listed here... This is the stack Lurkin was talking about.

All the pics and video is in my build thread, but I'll put it up here for viewing :

Riding to work and had my Samsung Galaxy S5 recording on the handlebars (yes It did fly off and get run over... still works):

[youtube]3o2AMHTv-ks[/youtube]

Snapped frame :
20150430_153954.jpg


Hand punched through window :
hand_ripped_up.jpg

hand_stiched_up.jpg
 
I'm still alive =) but man... it frocking hurt... I've got a pretty high pain tolerance, but when it came time to pull that antibacterial mesh off the wound... dried blood sticking to open wounds.... ripping the wound open trying to get the mesh out... I nearly fainted... Like someone was scraping a serrated knife across my fingers. The nurse had to call for additional help as I fell to 1 knee over the sink.

No broken bones and I didnt lose part of a finger like the other guys, but yeah... Shit like this builds character.
 
driver no doubt had eyes on the pedestrians who were crossing and didn't see you, despite your madly blinking headlight...

i wouldn't expect cars to watch out for you tho, not on an ebike... i expect cars NOT to see me. and i try to ride as if they're going to TRY to hit me.

good luck healing up, man.
 
That's terrible! :shock: You're in our prayers for sure. Maybe you were obscured by the blind spot created by the driver's rear view mirror. Drivers need to move their heads by leaning in the seat in order to see around the roof pillars and when scanning to the side also. :x
 
I didn't want to start a new thread but this seems sort of applicable to this thread...

Today i caught a thief stealing my $220 Cycle Lumenator light....i wouldn't let him leave with it so he punched me in the face. Result, bleeding lip.
I wouldn't let him go and made a huge scene and eventually he threw it under a car and took off.

Third bicycle related injury so far with e-bikes,,,
First was cycling downhill without holding the handlebars, developed a shim and went for a tumble. Injured knee and elbow.
Second was getting hit by that car.
 
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