e bike crashes, whats your experiences

Yesterday, after using my 20s lipo ebike for only the 3rd time due to charger problems,
i rode through a park that had a few windy paths.

was going around one corner and accelerated to fast where the front wheel picked up maybe half a foot off the ground

Then i felt floating as i flew off the bike as it was turning..


3 things went through my mind..

1... my bikes!!!
2... glad im wearing a helmet.
3... glad i skid from the concrete to the grass, doing hardly any damage to my body



I now respect 74 volts.... on an e bike...
its a huge difference from my old 36 volter

Yikes! Glad you're ok!

I haven't actually crashed on an E-Bike yet (ok tipping over when getting used to clip-less pedals doesn't count! :lol: ) but I got myself pretty good on my Nishiki Road bike when my knee hit the rams' horn handlebar that was in a weird position (got it that way, promptly changed it after that experience) didn't get much more than a skinned knee, but it was embarrassing!

This was right as the light turned green wanted to show the cars how fast I was ... oops! :lol:

That's how icecube57 crashed.
Front end lifted up and he did an unexpected wheelie after hitting a bump.

I'll be honest. I have the worst setup running right now on my secondary ebike. 14lb DD hub and 9LB battery on the rear.

Move that battery weight as forward as she'll go.

nechaus said:

I now respect 74 volts.... on an e bike...

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You definitely need to respect that much voltage (and power). I almost crashed the same way when I upped the voltage from 57 to 90V. I was in the middle of a wide and fast corner, opened the throttle juuust a little bit, but that was enough to make front wheel very light (rear drive and rear mounted battery, unfortunately), and as the road surface was pretty uneven, front of the bike started oscilating from left to right few times. Fortunately, I was quick to react, and as soon as I closed the throttle it stopped oscillating.

I ride dirt and mountain trails, so crashing is part of the game.
My experience is pain, adrenalin, euphoria.
It is also that one can learn more in a crash than in a hundred successfull laps.

Prevention and knowledge comes from this crashing experience. You learn to better balance and anticipate, learn to better tune your suspension, learn to chose and build a bike that fits your size and riding style. You also learn not to fear the crash as you get used to it, for nothing makes you crash better than fear and ignorance.

MadRhino said:

I ride dirt and mountain trails, so crashing is part of the game.
My experience is pain, adrenalin, euphoria.
It is also that one can learn more in a crash than in a hundred successfull laps.

Prevention and knowledge comes from this crashing experience. You learn to better balance and anticipate, learn to better tune your suspension, learn to chose and build a bike that fits your size and riding style. You also learn not to fear the crash as you get used to it, for nothing makes you crash better than fear and ignorance.

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+1

lol.. fact of life. sooner or later you end up crashing. Learning to bail gracefully is an art, try to roll and not stop yourself too harshly, when possible try to seperate yourself from the bike imo...

Helmet and GLOVES always help ! first thing that takes a beating are the hands and gloves speep up recovery significantly by reducing carnage.

100v and 50+ amps on a BMX is tricky !

id have to say i did not fear it!!! its like it was a mental thing, being so light and being a push bike.. AND DEAD QUIET


How ever, i cant remember a time when something has given me such a thrill and HUGE GRINS as my ebike
not even a new car.. or my old 250 cc motor bike...


It feels more powerful than my car taking off...(mazda 3) :/



Yeah i have to agree with learning the bike... knowing everything about it...
i was like that with lower voltage i knew how it handled.. now its gonna take some getting use to

its just crazy power..


i could not think how 90 volts or more would go...

100 VOLTs @ 100 AMPS

SMALL BMX WHEEL
man that must be some crazy ass torque

2 years ago I went down going around a corner in a park. the front wheel's traction just let go and I landed on my side. I tried to brace my fall with my left hand. That was a mistake.
I broke my wrist, 4 ribs, and cracked my collar bone. tore the skin off the palm of my hand, sprained my other wrist, 1 elbow, shoulder, double groin pull, and sprained knees and ankle.
I didn't have a cell phone. Don't remember if thats the ride I smashed it in, or if it was a previous one, but I didn't have one. Someone came by and asked if I was ok. I said no. they walked off.
The bike was a bit smashed too. the derailer was shot. I've forgotten what else, but the motor worked and the wheels rolled.
After a while I recovered enough wits to crawl back up on the bike and dragged my self home. I'm still recovering from some of those injuries 2 years later

6 weeks later, the braces came off. I was still to busted up to even hold tools, so I took my 9C equipped bike out, and without full mobility I manager to launch the front wheel at an intersection, and drop my on side hard. Lost another cellphone in that crash.

6 months later, on some single track. I woke up in a ravine looking up at my bike dangling above my head from it's brake cable, stuck in a tree.

Same season and bike park, I managed try to run threw a gully, but when the bike started up the slick wet clay path on the other side, the hookworms slid out from under me and I face planted. Bent the bars, among other things. no injury to me, but the helmet was toast. I think I killed a cell phone in that wreck too. I rebuilt what was broke in the parking lot and was back out 3 hours later

Wreckin's part of life. If you don't wreck, you're not pushing your limits enough.

was going around one corner and accelerated to fast where the front wheel picked up maybe half a foot off the ground

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Do you have a picture of your ebike? I assume RWD because of the wheel lift. After a similar accident, I came to the conclusion that front lift is a problem with rear hub motors with rear rack / pannier mounted batteries and controllers. The mass on the back unloads the front wheel, so while you may turn, the back of the bike doesn't, so the wheel comes up. Curious if you fit this mold.

I want suspension, so front motors were out. I ended up putting the battery weight over the front wheel.

Ypedal said:

Helmet and GLOVES always help ! first thing that takes a beating are the hands and gloves speep up recovery significantly by reducing carnage.

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One thing I do ALWAYS wear is gloves. I've found out the hard way, your hands usually take the brunt of any wreck. Not to mention a skinned up elbow sucks but no skin on your palms is pain you have to deal with every time you need to use your hands.

2008 Christmas I was riding my homebuilt tadpole trike down a mild hill at about 20mph when the rear wheel locked up (chain caught in gears?) and it spun and flipped me over and off. I managed to get back on and ride the block to the ER where I waited 4 hours bleeding and hurting. I knew I had broken ribs. Holiday weekend short staff. Finally the ER Physician got to me and really did the right stuff. A shot of morphine and xrays reveale 6 broken ribs. He prescribed lots of painkillers and said " You can't put ribs in a cast as you know". Just keep breathing deep and take the pain meds." I healed up and put jocky wheels on the chain but I kinda lost my gusto for my own homebuild and got the Steintrike in August 2009.

My wife went down on her Bike-e electric in November 2009 and decided she too needed 3 wheels also. She split her knee open down to the articular capsule and took about 12 weeks to heal! Hence the Suntrikes USX Underseat steering for her. Crashes are no fun for us older folks!
otherDoc

Wanna know what sucks...
rotator cuff sucks... all my bones are ok but I can barely move my arm. -.-

I'm about to start back up on my throttle interface which should solve some of these issues, but realistically it's going to be a little while until I have something to actually sell because I need to do a lot of testing to make sure it's safe.

Crashing, did it twice at grange, 1st time armored motorcycle jacket, mc gloves and jeans, skinned my knee. Second crash was in full leathers, high power mode around a corner hit the tiniest bump while leaned over causing a very tiny throttle twitch... low side slide. Slightly skinned knee inside the leathers, scratched my mc helmet, jammed or dislocated my right thumb (not sure which since my joints are hyper mobile, but it hurt), messed up the phase and hall wires going into the bike, blew a hall sensor, and just got it all working again last night. Almost all healed up, but I'm also on a steady daily dose of pain killers due to my spine problems so that probably means the thumb was probably worse than it felt and I now have about 95% range of motion back in it.

For the record, low side is almost always better for you than a high side if you are going to crash. I've done both on dirt bikes and high sides are the ones that usually put you in the hospital.

zombiess said:

For the record, low side is almost always better for you than a high side if you are going to crash. I've done both on dirt bikes and high sides are the ones that usually put you in the hospital.

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HaHa!
With big trees around, it sure is.

Anything above 48v is not safe. I was hit once by some idiot driving in the bike lane. Back wheel was bent and that was it.

Jason27 said:

Anything above 48v is not safe. I was hit once by some idiot driving in the bike lane. Back wheel was bent and that was it.

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One can be hit by an idiot with 0v

Safety level has nothing to do with volts, but sure has alot to do with idiocy. :wink:

My wife was riding her ebike that tops at 18 mph. We were cruising the old shutdown military base looking in all the old buildings and stuff. Anyways there's no cars so its easy to get careless on watching surroundings. I pulled over to peek in a window. When I turned around I see her looking towards me and there's parking curbs in front of her. She hit the curb at full speed causing her feet to go back. The tops of her feet slapped the curb then dragged on the pavement. It was ugly, the road rash was black, no blood just black burns. I told her that wearing sandals is bad, she didn't listen. Now she won't wear sandals on a bike.

Jason27 said:

Anything above 48v is not safe. I was hit once by some idiot driving in the bike lane. Back wheel was bent and that was it.

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That's like me saying anything below 74V isn't safe. I've never been hit by any idiots or non-idiots either, not really even close, but apparently plenty of people riding slower at lower voltages are getting pretty banged up, even just walking across the street. Sure those idiot cagers make plenty of mistakes, but with appropriate speed you're far less likely to be near and if you are near they're typically easier to anticipate and avoid. You can't let your guard down for even a split second WRT to all turning cars though. The right mix of aggressive and defensive riding can be both fun and very safe. eg I feel far safer mixing it up with cars than I would riding on a bike path at any speed.

Keep in mind that my statements are qualified based on level of road experience. I recently had to take the ebike keys aways from my 16yr old daughter, because she insisted on riding at speeds that weren't commensurate with her experience, and her lack of respect for ever changing conditions meant too hard a lesson was headed her way.

Just this week i had my first trike crash.

I was testing the trike with a accelerometer program on the iphone the cruise control feature of the infieon controller locked on full throttle 15s lipo at 40mph

I did my first G test run up the usual flat street hit about 38mph then turned around to do a faster one on the way back. Heading in this direction the flat straight street ends In a very sharp 90 deg left hand turn. I kept my throttle pegged until the last moment then holy frock I just kept accelerating with my hand off the throttle. I twisted again at the throttle to reset cruise but nothing I still had 9000rpm of 80-100 rc motor pushing forward at 40mph all the while quickly running out of road.

I resorted to just fighting against the motor with the front Brakes in the last split second and few meters of road. Perhaps scrubbing a few mph off the speed before launching the trike up in some ones driveway at close to 40mph. Not wanting to crash straight through there garage roller door at 40mph I turned and rolled the trike in there front yard . I went flying but my right foot didn't unclip the clip less peddle and my ankle got levered against the crank arm as I went one way and the trike another.The twisting forced drove the 52 tooth chain ring teeth into into my ankle .The ankle was bruised and a little swollen/sprained for a few days.had some nice stab holes that were a pain to stop leaking for a while.

Agree emphaticly with Mad Rhino, Zombies, and Oatnet.

There are crashes and there are accidents. Big difference. Crash is generally self induced, and you have that nanosecond moment of uh oh, when you may get to choose high side or low side. Over the bars can be done well by those who practice it. Any kind of entry level judo course, or just lots of snow skiing helps a ton. Gotta know when to rag doll, and when to roll into a ball.

Accidents are another thing, such as my fumbled water bottle into the forks, or a stuck throttle. You get zero time to react, and nearly always get hurt.

A car driving in the bike lane is your problem to deal with. Better either be fast, or able to dive for your life to the ditch or curb. A 20 mph dismount is not a bad thing to have in your bag of tricks.

I used to ride a motorcyle to school in sandals. I rode so good I never had to put a foot down. Then one day I had to put a foot down. Yeow, that smarted when the sandal peeled right off my foot.

The wheelie accident.

I suspect if it wheelies that well, you have the battery on a rear rack. I built a wheeliemobile on one of my early builds. 24" frame, 5304 motor, forks swapped from 24" hard to 26" shock. Even with the heavy nicad carried in the frame this bike wheelied everywhere. You got a nanosecond of steering here, andother nanosecond of steering there, totally sketchy. But fun! Real fun on thin loose dirt over hardpack clay. Pretty much did all steering with your ass. You bet I crashed that thing constantly. Took it back apart pretty soon.

Crash or accident I dunno but I both times I hit pavement were result of large hole in pavement, going too fast for my lighting/vision and wheels too small to handle the sudden change in road surface.

1st crash/accident was Goped ESR, no helmet - suffered semi-serious concussion. 'bout a year later 20" wheel kickbike with helmet, no symptoms of concussion but unfortunately that didn't help with Level 3 shoulder separation. Gloves are good, leather jacket and sturdy shoes even better. While a helmet might not matter in every dire situation it sure made a difference 'last time I got tossed over the bars.

Since going to FS 26" wheel bike with a decent light 'managed to avoid kissing any pavement in recent year.

I do miss the days of m/c dirt riding where you could fly around, fall off, over and over - the worst that usually happened was bent brake levers or foot shifter.

Could you define low vs. high side. I was thinking it was traveling horiziontly on a hill, thus you have a low and a high side. Now after reading more I don't think thats what is mean't.

cassschr1 said:

Could you define low vs. high side. I was thinking it was traveling horiziontly on a hill, thus you have a low and a high side. Now after reading more I don't think thats what is mean't.

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An example of a low side crash is when the tires slip out from under you. High side would be falling from a sideways force and the tire doesn't slide, so you go up and over with the bike launching you similar to a pole vault. On your traveling along a hill, a low side would be almost nothing because you'd fall to the uphill side of the bike, but a high side on a hill falling over toward the downhill side would be much worse.