So who's actually taken a tumble in London then?

Does forgetting to unclip from new spud's count?
If so, three times.
In a week.

I've yet to crash.

I ride with the attitude it's going to happen at some point though.

I was doored by a passenger as I filtered through 2 lanes of stationary traffic almost 6 years ago. Still have the 2 inch scar between my shoulder and armpit. It was on my (now) wifes birthday. All she was worried about was if I was going to be able to make it round to giver her the present I had bought. I should have taken the hint....

That and when I rode straight into a metal bollard while trying to be clever as all I've been involved in. Luckily.

i voted no (as i haven't really had a serious accident) then remembered being doored about 10 years ago... nothing too serious really.

i don't really count running into peds as long as i managed to avoid hitting the deck. minor bumps into hapless peds happen all the time.

the only time i've really come a cropper was just my chain coming off while hammering it away from lights on my old road bike. ended up bloody and sprawled in the road but again, nothing broken.

generally i ride super defensively so i've been lucky so far. 13 years of riding in london and that's the extent of my crashes.

crazy!
i've never really crashed before. certainly never in London, but then i haven't lived there that long. but i've been riding for as long as i can remember and my only tumbles have been when trying to jump off/on/over various things while drunk.
i've had my fair share of near misses though.
@ mikec: i did a very similar thing a while ago in newcastle. i was riding down the road exchanging smiles with a pretty girl on the pavement and didn't see the open car door in front of me. but i was on my old jump bike with pretty good brakes and managed to stop about an inch away from it. my body was fine, but yeah, the pride took a hit. haha.

I hit a lil hoodie going 2mph (after skidding and braking) after he rode out in front of me awhile back and went over the handle bars.
Almost been hit to many times to count.

oh and trackstanding at the lights once and just falling like a chump

get thrown onto the curb by a lady drifting to far over to the left and clipping me.

I made a ped take a tumble by shoulder barging him because he was standing out in the street on a corner tryin to get a cab,
it was hitting him or the car next to me he lost

now im just thinking of more every time i edit this...

I kind feel tempted to get some of the new D3o body armour from work, works better than the plastic stuff without making you look like a complete muppet as it can be worn under a long sleeve t without being seen. except the fact it costs £199

http://www.velouk.com/proddetail.asp?prod=64987

1st: hit by private cab on Great Eastern St on BMX, skinned my chin, arms, knees and broke a finger
2nd: hit a ped on the cycle path by euston underpass, snapped my wheel, and skinned some limbs again
3rd: caught wheel on curb on Mare St Hackney, handlebars spun round, i stacked and my forearm landed on a sign post that had been cut off at ground level, took 2 inches of meat out of my arm. Should have sued the council, but i couldn't be arsed.
4th: Foxton's cunt turned left in front of me. I lent through the window and spat on the wanker.
5th: Woman pulled out and drove into the side of me, and i landed on the bonnet of a car coming the other way on New North Road, luckily the car i landed wasn't moving that fast, still broke 4+ ribs and have had serious back pain ever since. Woman was drunk (she admitted it) and i did nothing cos I was in shock.
6th: pedal strike on a roundabout recently, slip-slided and fucked my knee pretty bad.

All of these, I only made it to hospital once, and never got seen. Gotta love the NHS. Guess I have been lucky that none of my injuries have been too bad.

I fell off on Friday night and fucked my hand up. Trying to skid stop (OK, and buggering about a bit) in a bike lane, one of the painted ones. Road was a little greasy, I tried to skid ot the side and pull it back, only it kept going. Next thing I know, I'm on the floor and my paw hurts.

Alcohol did play a part.

A white van went into the back of me at Kings Cross one morning. Smashed rear wheel and a bit of a headache but otherwise remarkably well

A pedestrian wiped me out by stepping out from the gap between buses whilst looking the wrong way - again, walked away from that (she was OK too, just dropped her shopping)

Fell off through stupidity cornering too fast in Richmond Park - no walls, pedestrians or cars.

I think that's about it - and touch wood I've got it out of my system with the hat-trick!

Cycling into a parked car wasn't exactly my finest moment. Picked up my bike and got out of there before anyone saw (I punched a wing mirror off with my hand on the bars).

Did the pedestrian two step at the junction of Kingsway and High Holborn - almost missed her but clipped my shoulder which threw me out into the middle of the junction. One of the few times there was no traffic (hence the jaywalking peds) - don't like to think what could have happened if it was busy...

Oh yeah, I forgot, leaving the Eagle one night on city road, rode off, pedaled hard, chain jumped off (geared bike) pedals span, lost balance, hit my eye on the wing mirror of a police van outside the cop shop!

1. Came off after a kid ran out in front of me. Would have been very messy if I'd hit him.
   
2. Got punched off by inept muggers who failed to relieve me of anything.
   
3. Just kind of threw myself off in the middle of Balham high street a couple of years ago. Saturday afternoon, not pissed or anything, got out of the saddle to find that one foot wasn't clipped in properly.
   
4. Rubber necking the cops stopping a car on the evening of 7/7, my front wheel dropped into groove/rut in the road - sudden loss of steering, off I came. My pride hurt more than anything else that day.....
   
   

I've hit a couple of peds, both in King William Street (where they look straight at you as they walk into your path) but no-one really hurt so that doesn't count.

Can we add another poll vote for falling off in an stupid/embarrassing manner? ie No pedestrian/car/wall involvement?

Twice in London over the course of 17 years or so.

• parked car door (I hit the narrow edge of it, somersaulted over bars, landed facing back up the road, no traffic behind me thankfully, driver jumped out and immediately started checking paintwork on door).

• black ice at the hook up spot for a club run; great start to the ride.

Not in London, but 11 years ago was cycling down the A30 near Basingstoke. Woke up with two police offcers next to me and my bike sticking vertically out of a hedge! Seems an 18 year old Escort driver had driven into the back of me at about 60mph. Had taken out his front bumper and lights with my legs, smashed my back on the pillar between the bonnet and windscreen and taken out his windscreen with my head. Broke three of my teeth, nearly severed a tendon in my leg and had a stress fracture of my back. Was working as a personal injury lawyer at the time and sued the bastard...

I took a bad nudge off a pot-hole and piled straight into one of those black iron fences that they have to stop pedestrians crossing the street. Fortunately, I was only going full whack to get through an amber light. And even more fortunately, it was at Bank junction at lunchtime, so there was hardly anyone around to see me apparently cycle straight into a fence for no good reason.

Even better, the only things that were damaged were a written-off front wheel, mangled forks and the skin on my left arm.

Not in London, but 11 years ago was cycling down the A30 near Basingstoke. Woke up with two police offcers next to me and my bike sticking vertically out of a hedge! Seems an 18 year old Escort driver had driven into the back of me at about 60mph. Had taken out his front bumper and lights with my legs, smashed my back on the pillar between the bonnet and windscreen and taken out his windscreen with my head. Broke three of my teeth, nearly severed a tendon in my leg and had a stress fracture of my back. Was working as a personal injury lawyer at the time and sued the bastard...

Fuck!

1. Rode into the back of a bendy bus just after rounding a corner near the Castle pub in Angel. My fault, thought I'd broken something in my foot but it was fine.
   
2. U turning car sends me into the floor in the centre of the road - broken elbow, 7 months rehab - sued and won, even though the dangerous driving charges I pressed ended in nothing because the driver dodged court appearances until my other witness eventually lost interest.
   
3. Crashed into the pavement twice after about 15 beers in the sun watching the tour prologue last summer. Could barely move for a week, but totally deserved it.
   
4. Rode into a parked car in the middle of Elgin Avenue on the way home from the first ever West End Beers. Wasn't even that drunk but was on my shitty MTB after my bike got nicked and was hating it so much that I stopped paying attention to where I was going. Idiot.
   

1. A stupid lady drove out in front of me from a junction. I braked hard but smashed into the rear of her car and bounced off my bike into the road - bloody hurt but nothing beyond bruises.
   

jinx

no crashes in london but i've only been here 9 months (no illegitimate children yet, either).

haven't crashed in years - my last one was when i was about 16 and forgot to tighten up the quick-release on the front wheel. went over a bump, lost the front wheel and headbutted the road. luckily i was wearing a helmet (they are compulsory in Aus) and i only suffered a mild concussion. still, haven't made that mistake again.

bmmf: what about the black ice on the l2b?

I've run into a ped, run into a parked car, run into the back of a few moving cars, been hit by numerous cars (mostly turning, one driving through roundabout and not seeing me), crashed in numerous road races (concussion, blood, etc) one getting me an interview for local newspaper, crashed mountain biking (a lot, once smashing my collarbone), crashed on the track (still got scars), i've done the trackstand collapse and the 0kph-forgot-i'm-clipped-in stack, drunk wheelie up curb that failed when bars came back with me and front wheel just plowed into curb and I flew, jumping water channel on bmx and chain came off (missed school coz i couldn't walk), same thing caused large blood loss in a race against my brother (still have the scars on most limbs), smashed a couple of helmets thanks to fscked headset and missing a downhill corner in a race, got my bmx wheel stuck under car bumper when not looking, smashed my phone (but not ipod) in head-on with a motorbike in Luxembourg, etc, etc...

...good thread this.

My favourite crash has to be.... I had just jumped a red light (and was going pretty fast) turning left off parliament square onto parliament street, when of all things the bolt that held my saddle to my seat post sheared. Thankfully i had just taken my hands off the bars and had flat pedals, because the next thing I knew my arse was hitting tarmac while I was watching my bike crash itself into a van about ten metres ahead of me. Thank fuck the RLJ meant that the road was free of any other vehicles. But it was about 11am in July....so the streets were lined with a ridiculous amount of really excited tourists.
I picked myself up and sat down on the kerb to try and bodge my saddle back on, and a guy on a rusty old MTB approached asking if I was ok. It turned out he was a builder off work after getting knocked off his bike by a bus. He was getting the whole Harley Street treatment, but fair play to him. As I was leaving he offered my a drink...from the can of special brew in his bottle cage. It put a huge smile on my face and even riding off in search of a bike shop (and not ever sitting down) wasn't too bad ;-)

i guess my crash free days are numbered then...
had my fair share of falls, slips, etc. including the classic slow-motion failed trackstand, but it looks like i'm certain to meet with the windscreen of a car before long...