[mandown]

I know all y'all must have a war wound or two you are proud of the marks left by you pedals when you forgot your shin-guards, or the ones left by mother earth when you become disconnected from your bicycle, or even the ones left by a tree you came a bit too close to. Pix are super good here; before and after are the best.

I've got a few:
My chin (my first)- At age 18 (15 years ago) I went over the bars because my bike lock was dangling from my handlebar and the padlock, which had never come close to my front tire when doing this before, was able to reach out and grab my front tire as I was doing at least 20mph down a side street. I went over the bar and landed face and shoulder first. I was knocked out and kept waking up and passing out. I found myself in the hospital with lots of relatively minor surface abrasions; they weren't little scrapes and I'd pass on having them again, but they weren't that bad in the grand scheme (I forgot how many stitches I needed). I kept asking for a miror and the nurses kept saying "no." After they were done with me, I found myself without a ride home. My bike was rideable, but tweaked, but the hospital wasn't going to release me without a driver. I ran through all the phone numbers I had memorized and nobody was answering (long before cell phones)... except one number. My freshly broken up with ex-girlfriend; I didn't want to call her, but she was my last hope. She wasn't thrilled to hear my voice, but was kind enough to come and give me a lift once I told her what happened. She dropped me at my mom's house, just as my mom was pulling in the driveway. My mom's jaw hit the floor as she saw me getting out of my ex's car, with my bike scratched and beaten, my shirt cut open (the medics needed to do that to do their job - I was out cold and they had to strap me to a board because of my obvious head/neck trauma), and bandages everywhere (face, shoulder, elbows, knees) all starting to bleed through. To this day , I still have a scar on my chin from it. I grew a goatee for years to avoid shaving over it, but I don't mind it anymore.

I've got a few others I might share stories about, but I'll give others a chance to chime in first.

 

[jerseydirt]

Once I did a 360 off a curb and put my foot down. My pedal made a gash about the size of my knee cap through my jeans.

 

[geargrrl]

I have a big nasty scar on my knee that I got when riding in the backcountry of McCall Idaho with a bunch of my friends from the former usenet group, Alt.mountain-bike. A whole group of us interenet mtb freaks used to meet annually to ride the Idaho backcountry, an annual get together for quite a few years. There was a tree across the trail that must have been 4" diameter so it was a real hump to climb over it and hand bikes over it. I ripped my knee up pretty good on the bark and never did much with it after that so it's a pretty good scar with great memories.

 

[Brian HCM#1]

Upper lip, over the bars. Lucky that rock was there to brake my fall.

 

[Wumpus]

I still have a scar from this:

Did a superman and landed about 7' feet below where I took off.


I still have dents/scars in my shin from a missed foot and some Suntour Beartraps about 25 years ago.

 

[DirtMcGirk]

My favorite one right now is this one:

(open wound)

(healed)

Got it on Tyrolean, took 22 stitches to close me up. Damn you flat pedals!

 

[pinkshirtphotos]

I have one on my knee pretty nice. I used to ride downhill on a xc bike with just an xc lid. The first day I had my dj frame I crashed pretty bad putting my knee into a rock. Next day I had a full face and knee pads. My left knee still bothers me to this day.

 

[sstalder5]

I've got a few:
My chin (my first)- At age 18 (15 years ago) I went over the bars because my bike lock was dangling from my handlebar and the padlock, which had never come close to my front tire when doing this before, was able to reach out and grab my front tire as I was doing at least 20mph down a side street. I went over the bar and landed face and shoulder first. I was knocked out and kept waking up and passing out. I found myself in the hospital with lots of relatively minor surface abrasions; they weren't little scrapes and I'd pass on having them again, but they weren't that bad in the grand scheme (I forgot how many stitches I needed). I kept asking for a miror and the nurses kept saying "no." After they were done with me, I found myself without a ride home. My bike was rideable, but tweaked, but the hospital wasn't going to release me without a driver. I ran through all the phone numbers I had memorized and nobody was answering (long before cell phones)... except one number. My freshly broken up with ex-girlfriend; I didn't want to call her, but she was my last hope. She wasn't thrilled to hear my voice, but was kind enough to come and give me a lift once I told her what happened. She dropped me at my mom's house, just as my mom was pulling in the driveway. My mom's jaw hit the floor as she saw me getting out of my ex's car, with my bike scratched and beaten, my shirt cut open (the medics needed to do that to do their job - I was out cold and they had to strap me to a board because of my obvious head/neck trauma), and bandages everywhere (face, shoulder, elbows, knees) all starting to bleed through. To this day , I still have a scar on my chin from it. I grew a goatee for years to avoid shaving over it, but I don't mind it anymore.

ive done something similar to this.
except i had a shirt tied to my bars that decided to come untied and fell into my wheel. i went over my bars and was out for about 5 mins, chipped a peice of bone off my elbow, had a big scrape across my chest, (the shirt i was wearing that day was now in my wheel) scraped my elbow down to the bone, and had a busted head. the only longterm damage is a floating bone chip in my left elbow and a spot about the size of a half dollar on that same elbow with no feeling at all.

another good story is from a beach trip. there was a 10-flat-10 stair set on the boardwalk to the beach that i was wanting to hit all week. the only problem is that the boardwalk was about 4ft wide so there was little room for error. So i finally gained the courage to attempt it. it didnt go well. I cleared the first set, but cased the first step on the second set, started to go over the bars and made a desperate turn to the side, i almost made it over the side railing but my legs hit it pretty hard and i flipped over the railing and landed on my back in the sand. Besides some large splinters that took some time to get rid of, i have a lump in the muscle on the front of my right thigh that will never go away. but the worst part was that the right side of my bars bent 90 degrees back and destroyed my shifter and lever.

and this one is a scar in progress. last weekend i decided to try a crank flip off a drop. (ive done plenty on the ground but this was my first in mid-air) i caught the left pedal first and the right one did a half revolution and slammed into my shin and two pegs stuck in. then when i landed the pegs slid up my shin and took of chunks of skin about 1'' long 1/8'' wide and 1/8'' deep. There was a peice of my shin hanging from my pedal by leg hairs that were still attached to it! i'll try to post a picture of this soon

 

[strangeland2]

Road rash from when I was a kid 9- 12 maybe not exactly sure how old I was. Riding no hands down a back road in a town I was never supposed to be in on a friends borrowed GT Performer with a lose front end. Naturally I didnt know it was lose till I was going as fast as possible and coasting down the hill... Fortunately it only shook about 3 times before I was flying through the air. Slide down the side of the road on my head no helmet of course cause who the hell ever wore those. So I spent my entire summer going to the doctors for bandage changes every day they take the bandages off the scabs go with it... Great fun. Still have scars on both hands and one on a wrist... I occasionally find scars on other body parts mostly shoulders but cant pick them out regularly.

 

[moxie in a can]

bet you can't guess what that is from! It's still a pretty easy to see scar and I get comments all the time in the summer. love it.

 

[Sghost]

When I was 2 was ripping around our stone patio on a multi-colored plastic fisher price bike. This one spot where a stone was missing had a garden hose lined right up with the edge also. Wheel couldn't make it over but I did, over the bars face planting leaving a scar on my upper lip.

At 13, was sessioning my track all afternoon until my foot slipped back on pedals on the take off, which cut my speed causing me to case it, causing my foot to slid all the way off exposing quite a bit of the white good stuff. It was smarting, but there was so little left it took a while to bleed. So I wandered in, smoothed out the ribbons best I could, and strapped a bunch of toilet paper on with rubber bands, and headed back out. My visiting grandmother was pretty horrified when I cruised back in at the end of the day.

Platty around 2000ish, whatever day it was that Evil was testing their new stuff. Bit it in slalom practice, hamburger meated my hip of course, it being the only unarmored area. Didn't even know it until someone pointed out my yellow jersey had a red spot forming.

Platty again. Scorching hot day, didn't feel like wearing some pads. Sky opened up as I was getting off the lift, pointed myself to the right. Came into one of the V chutes on Hardcore waaaaay too hot. Completely sideways and trying to scrub speed, wheels scrapping on either side of the edges, bottom bracket not even close to proper height of the actual trail. Rear tire caught a rock, and the bike folded over, and I'm airborne. Layed there a sec face down, took stock to make sure everything was there, got up to get my bike. Was in good shape, hopped on and went to power off when it hit me. Knee was split open like a banana peel. Discovered its actually harder to climb down the cliff drops busted up with a bike than huck em. Got to the bottom, stuck some gauze on it, wrapped in electrical tape, and spent the rest of the day pumping rather than pedaling.

 

[Sghost]

bet you can't guess what that is from! It's still a pretty easy to see scar and I get comments all the time in the summer. love it.

Chainring

 

[eric strt6]

I don't remember the finer deatails but I was riding down a street in Santa Monica and a VW swung left across the centerline to turn right into his driveway. My friends tell me I went through the winshield face first. I came to with an old lady holding a rag to the left side of my face then I blacked out. The next time I came to there was a moto cop asking me questions. I came to for a minute in the ambulance and I vagely remember being wheened into OR. I got really lucid while on the table and had the ER doc tell me that a plastic surgeon was on the way to fix up my face. I was fairly out of it and doped up so I said it can't be that bad, it doesn't hurt. He handed me a mirror, Oh crap my face was flapped open from the hariline , mid face down through my left eyebrow and around the eye past the corner of my mouth and halfway down my neck. The doc Flapped it open and I could see 2-3 inches back from the cut. I came to 2 days later in a hospital bed with IV's in my arm and strapped down in a restraint to keep me from damaging the wounds. 24 external stitches and 100 internal ones fixed me right up.

I was back on a brand new bike a week after getting released [old bike looked like a pretzel]

 

[strangeland2]

When I was 2 was ripping around our stone patio on a multi-colored plastic fisher price bike. This one spot where a stone was missing had a garden hose lined right up with the edge also. Wheel couldn't make it over but I did, over the bars face planting leaving a scar on my upper lip.

Thats awesome. I was about 4 or 5. Riding my bike around a stone patio set the benches and tables all had these pointed angles. Apparently I was riding to fast and leaning to much and on the way around I smacked my temple on one of the corners of the bench. I do still have a scar there but I dont remember if its from the bike incident or smacking the other side of my head on a screw on a jungle gym two week earlier. Both got stitches and the second one had the doctors questioning my parents about child abuse... Some times I feel bad for my parents.

 

[ronan]

i think i must of been about 6-7 i dont really know

i was at a friends house and one the people on his street had a big bike and i really wanted to ride it, even though it was far too big for me, but he let me ride it anyway. i got like 2 pedal strokes and then started to wobble and started falling so i tried to jump off

i landed on the top chainring on my shin with all my force and then it ripped the skin more as i hit the ground

now i have a cool scar, but it's not really noticeable anymore

 

[w00dy]

It's a toss-up between the one pictured below and a big one on my shin.
This one came from a pedal. How I managed to stab myself in the gut with a pedal is still a bit of a mystery.
The shin scar came from trying to chop wood in the Platty parking after too many refreshments (my name is Wood, I kinda succeeded).

Both required two stitches, which I did myself.

 

[moff_quigley]

One on my chin from losing it on a set of steps riding my Hutch back in high school. It kinda overlaps the the scar I had there from falling in the tub when I was 1 or so.

4" vertical scar on the outside of left ankle. Tried to knock away a bunch of vines hanging over the trail. I missed and my bars caught the vines and bike and my right side went 90 degrees to the right while my left foot planted in the trail. A 90 degree dislocation and broken tib/fib was the result.

 

[Jimmy_Pop]

threw the bike away over a jump, landed wrong and crushed my heel. compound fracture. plate, lots of screws, pain and staph infection. more surgeries and a muscle/tissue transplant to fill the void after cutting out all the infection. sucked. all better now just a super long scar up my leg. enjoy.

healing up nice

 

[I Are Baboon]

Mmmm....sausage....

 

[norbar]

Jimmy uhh that must have hurt but it kinda looks like you had some alien paracite on your leg

Well my most memorable scar would by my first. I had worse accidents and much bigger scars but this one is probably connected with the best story.
I was doing XC only then and I was 13 or so. We went to San Marino with my Father to ride the mountain with plans to go down using the main road (2 lanes quite big but twisty and fairly steep with 16km descent). When we started going down we've noticed that a storm is coming so we decided to hurry before it catches us. Unfortunately we were not quick enough (at 60-80kph) and we ended up riding in extremely heavy rain (there was more water than could be taken by the drains which in short time meant the road was a river deep up to the top of the curb). My father was riding in front but suddenly I see him stopping on a petrol station and what I though then telling me to stop. As I good son I listened to my concerned parent and started braking. The problem was than on 1.9'' XC tires it meant loosing any grip and I want into full moto GP slide on the side of my back(fortunately no burns from the road as I didn't touch it with my tigh). What I didn't realize was that I was sliding head on a sign that said aperto (open). It had a hard metal frame but by that time I've already had some mild blackout and had no idea what was going on. I've hit the sign with my back wheel (fortunately) which resulted first in my tube blowing up and then completely destroying my rim. Fortunately I it ended at this. The only scars I have from that time are rather small but quite funny as they are done by the pieces of exploding tube sticking on the inside of my tigh (some pieces stayed there for quite long ). There was also a scar on my knee but now it's covered by a different scar so I don't count it Also from what my dad told me - at the time of the accident there was a guy on the station starting to fuel his car but when he heard the noise from the blow he started running with the distributor hose in his hand. You can imagine what happened after a couple of meters
I also remember that the first thing I asked was If my bike is okay. I still keep the broken rear wheel as a piece of modern art in my apt.

 

[profro]

Damn Jimmy Pop, it only took me years to get that site out of my head and now you post it up again. Such a freakish thing. I was there that day, such a little jump to have such a horrible outcome.

 

[moff_quigley]

Holy unholy whatever that is!!! Did you lose any mobility and/or strength after all that?

 

[mandown]

Jimmy Pop FTMFW!!! Not that this was meant to be a contest, but DAMN!!!

 

[SkaredShtles]

Nope. No scars from biking.

 

[Leppah]

Does the scar from the little jewish dude count?

 

[Leppah]

That thing on the ankle reminds me of Leviathan.

 

[mandown]

Does the scar from the little jewish dude count?

not unless you were riding a bike when he did it. believe me, it is tempting to let "all scars" get in here, but this place would be a horror show (i'd love another excuse to pull out the hook-suspension pix)... of course, the biggest problem would be that i couldn't post pix of what is on the inside of me.

 

[MMike]

My scars are all emotional

 

[ultraNoob]

Thankfully nothing too major like ol' jimmy pop up there... just a puncture would from my chainring. I see it everytime I put my sock on. It's a reminder.... QUIT CRASHING.

 

[mandown]

Nice! Wish I could find the one a bud of mine had from a heli-drop ride we did on Rainbow Mountain, near Whistler. About 1/4 of the way into the ride, he caught a tree brach with his forearm (no pads) and it razor-sliced the skin/flesh down to the muscle; it was like he was hit with a filet knife. He was lucky that no major vessels were hit so he didn't bleed out too badly. He rode quite a way with his arm bandaged before we were anywhere near civilization and a doctor. They stitched him from the elbow to the wrist.