Thread: What's more dangerous... Road biking or DH mtb

road biking way more dangerous. total loss of control - you can be hit and killed within a split second of driver inattention, text message, spilled coffee, fighting kids in backseat, blah blah blah

1) vast majority of drivers are on the road are idiots --> single biggest factor totally out of your control
2) pavement is way fucking harder than dirt if/when you go down
3) flats free you from the bike when you do go down
4) speeds attained on a DH bike are *usually* lower than road bike
5) margin of error in a slide/washout/flat/mechanical failure/name your situation is greater on a mtn bike (larger tires, 6+" travel absorption, beefier components, etc...)
6) you will most likely be wearing more protection/gear on a DH bike

I would be willing to bet that if hospitals kept stats on road vs DH injuries that severity of injuries in road crashes would be significantly worse.

Originally Posted by sierraskier

2) pavement is way fucking harder than dirt if/when you go down

In my experience this just isn't true. The world of MTBing has way more hard sharp pointy things than a typical road.
And road rash sucks, but it sucks a whole lot more when you need to get all the dirt and rocks out of a wound.

It's really about whether you can accept the perception of risks being out of your control or not, and nothing to do
with the absolute level of risk. Every stat I can find suggests Recreational Road riding is actually safer than driving,
while MTB riding has injury rates comparable with skiing.

Originally Posted by bbense

In my experience this just isn't true. The world of MTBing has way more hard sharp pointy things than a typical road.
And road rash sucks, but it sucks a whole lot more when you need to get all the dirt and rocks out of a wound.

It's really about whether you can accept the perception of risks being out of your control or not, and nothing to do
with the absolute level of risk. Every stat I can find suggests Recreational Road riding is actually safer than driving,
while MTB riding has injury rates comparable with skiing.

I have a hard time believing that it is safer than driving per-hour. That graph suggests that your are roughly 11 times more likely to die in a car accident vs. a bike accident, but I would wager that people spend more than 11x the amount of hours in a car on average. Still, way better than driving. We all have to die at some point.

Originally Posted by bbense

It's really about whether you can accept the perception of risks being out of your control or not

Question is, what are the odds of being fatally hit by lightning while drunkenly riding a cargo bike full of fireworks away from a swarm of angry bees during a heat wave?

vibes
http://www.tahoebonanza.com/article/...120719963/1002

TRUCKEE, Calif. — A 57-year-old local man died Friday after an apparent bicycling accident during a group ride on Old Highway 40 near Donner Lake.

Police found the man — identified Sunday afternoon as Truckee resident Larry Sage — near the South Shore Drive intersection, west of Donner Summit, at about 9:35 a.m.

He suffered “massive head injuries” despite wearing a helmet, according to a report from police. He was declared dead upon arrival at a Reno hospital. No one else was hurt in the single-bicycle accident.

According to a report by the Reno Gazette-Journal, two officers working the investigation Friday patched a pothole within several hundred feet of the accident scene.

“I can tell you that there is a pothole near the scene of the accident,” Truckee Police Sgt. Allen McKay told the newspaper. “Whether that pothole was involved has not been determined yet.”

In a Monday phone interview, Truckee Police Capt. Rob Leftwich said the investigation continues.

“We're still talking with a few witness, riding partners of his who were near him but did not see the actual cause,” Leftwich said.

Anyone who may have witnessed the incident is asked to contact Truckee Police Sgt. Robert Womack at 530-550-2323.

Originally Posted by Jethro

[...]

My point is that I think too many of you are quick to blame the car driver and assume the cyclist is not at fault. That can be the case, but too often we do ourselves in.

Having said that, on a street bike or road bike, you learn pretty quickly to drive like you are invisible.

^^^ quoted for the MFing truth.



Are you that guy?

Bump just because this is a perennial argument I'm having with my friends.

I do both, used to put down thousands of miles on the road bike and now I rarely touch the thing. Never ridden DH, but wondering about what kind of close calls I'm going to have if I keep pushing speed on the trail bike. My primary conclusion about what is more dangerous is:
doesn't fucking matter because riding a full suspension bike on buffed swoopy trails feels way more like skiing powder than road biking does!


Seriously, that is the main reason I'm hardly on a road bike these days. That, and bombing canyon roads at 50 mph feels a lot scarier to me now than it used to be, knowing how a serious injury can take out an entire ski season, or having friends get killed in road bike incidents. I will still road bike, but definitely appreciate the danger of road biking more now than I used to.

One thing I'll say though: my incidents or close calls that I can recall on my road bike came when I was riding solo. I feel a lot better with a small group, where we can dominate a lane, be seen by cars, and keep everyone in check (multiple sets of eyes, calling out cars and road hazards, etc). I bet well-coordinated small group rides are significantly safer than road biking solo.


A couple of callouts though:

Originally Posted by Benny Profane

I wear pretty obnoxious colors, like bright orange and, what Pearl Izumi calls "screaming yellow". The latter I know pops out from a great distance.

I can tell you with firsthand experience getting hit by a car that this doesn't do shit. I was in my bright yellow and blue Cal jersey, and the lady turned left right into me because she was distracted and I didn't look like a car. Just calling you out in the interest of keeping you as defensive a rider as possible and assuming nothing about drivers. Getting flipped by a car sucks.

My new thing to deal with this in the daytime is to wave, then point at and make eye contact with any car in my vicinity that's looking to make a change in direction - turning into my lane, or about to turn across my lane, etc. I think the arm movements activate some kind of subconscious response, because I think that this postulation has some kind of truth to it:

Originally Posted by frorider

conclusion was that advanced roadies, who tend to ride in a perfect, smoove straight line, are much less noticeable than a beginner rider who weaves and wobbles. Anecdotally I've noticed this tends to be true -- our eyes pick up on horizontal movements from far away.

and also:

Originally Posted by bbense

I feel pretty confident that road biking is a reasonably safe sport for me WHERE I RIDE ... I'm lucky enough to live somewhere where drivers generally see bikers.

Wait, don't you live in Berkeley? Where do you ride?
a) I got tagged on College and Haste, in the middle of a lane by an oncoming car that didn't notice me because I was riding in a perfectly straight line
b) I have read about enough head-on collisions with cars on Oakland Skyline, Canyon Rd., etc over the 9 years I've lived out here to assume nothing about the relative safety of the general area
c) my friend and teammate was killed while stopped at a red light by a driver coming from a perpendicular direction of travel out by Rossmoor. Completely random and freak accident ... but vehicle collisions overall are much more probable than a treefall or rockslide while out riding local singletrack.


and finally, old one I know, but Fixied it For You.

Originally Posted by blunts

Road biking is also allegedly not so great for your boner density...

I've been on every type of bike a lot. Whistler bike park will hurt you if ride it enough. Road riding hard will catch you out when you push. The risk is not in the sport but the persons willingness to accept risk. Choose your perimeters wisely...

Eventually you are going to crash whether on the road or on the trail so in a lifetime of riding I'd say you are 100% guaranteed to crash. The degree to which you are injured depends.

I always take responsibility for my riding. I love riding on the road and do so like nobody can see me. It is impossible to expect every driver to be able to see a rider. It drives me fucking crazy that people I share such an intimate experience such as riding bikes with expect some sort of special leeway because they are on a bike, like they are handicapped or something. As a driver, I look out as best I can, but in certain scenarios, don't expect my attentive ass to swerve over a double yellow into oncoming traffic to protect you, as a rider I wont expect you to.

But you are going to crash and you are going to get hurt no matter what, maybe even just trying to rip through a berm or down a flat paved hill with no traffic for miles.

Might as well compare rockets and moto.

Downhilling is the least dangerous IMO. I had a stupid wreck this year trail riding that had my ribs jacked up for almost 2 months. Had I been DHing, I would have had my pads on and had no injury at all.

I came off my DH bike this year head first into the dirt/a fallen tree. Gouged the shit out of my helmet, broke my gopro mount, and destroyed my jersey. I wasn't even remotely sore the next day.

As far as road biking, I've almost completely quit it. I have an 18 mile loop from my house that has very minimal traffic and good shoulders that I still enjoy riding, but now that I have a daughter it's just not worth the risk to do big climbs on the mountain roads anymore.

Originally Posted by SchralphMacchio

Wait, don't you live in Berkeley? Where do you ride?
a) I got tagged on College and Haste, in the middle of a lane by an oncoming car that didn't notice me because I was riding in a perfectly straight line
b) I have read about enough head-on collisions with cars on Oakland Skyline, Canyon Rd., etc over the 9 years I've lived out here to assume nothing about the relative safety of the general area
c) my friend and teammate was killed while stopped at a red light by a driver coming from a perpendicular direction of travel out by Rossmoor. Completely random and freak accident ... but vehicle collisions overall are much more probable than a treefall or rockslide while out riding local singletrack.

I've lived and ridden all over the country and the east bay hills and SF Peninsula are some of the most bike friendly roads I've ridden on. Are they perfect? No. Do people get killed? Yes. But just look at how many people are riding every weekend. I've had one, maybe two bad experiences in thousands of hours of riding. And those were because people didn't see me, not because they were actively trying to harass me, which has happened in every rural area I've ever lived in. If you think Berkeley is bad, you have no clue how bad it can get.

My rule for all sports these days is to never ride/ski faster than you're willing to crash, because you are going to crash.

http://303cycling.com/cyclist-hit-in-deer-creek-canyon

This is a super popular climb about 20 mins from my house, and one that I quit riding this year.