Mountain biking safety

DebbieLyn63

The mountain biking community lost a member this weekend in Grapevine Texas. A group of cyclists were mountain biking together. One of the men crashed, but seemed to be ok. Later he somehow got separated from the group. After 2 days of searching, they finally found his body in a ravine.

I don't know all the details, but my husband is an avid cyclist, both road and mountain, and he has seen too many cases of someone going down, and thinking they are ok, only to find out they had a concussion or internal injuries later.

If someone in your group goes down, please watch them carefully for the rest of the ride.
If their helmet is cracked, get them out immediately and urge them to see a doctor.
Even if they seem to be perfectly fine, don't let them be at the back of the group.

Try to avoid mountain biking alone if possible. If you must go alone, let someone know where you will be. Get a Road ID, or other identification bracelet, etc, with an emergency contact number on it.

Always ride with a cell phone. The rider who died, left his phone in his car. That may have cost him his life.

After this weekend, my husband updated his Road ID with my cell number, and he also downloaded an App that sends a text message to someone if your phone does not move for 5 minutes or longer.

Cyclists are known for riding hurt. Not sure if it is the adrenaline, or just the fact that the only way to get to the end of the trail is to keep riding. Or perhaps it is just not wanting to look like a wimp to your buddies.

As in any sport, there is risk for injury. Just ride smart, and realize that you are not invincible, and there are people in your life that depend on you.

Ride safe.

CharbyOttawa

I am sorry for your husband's loss. This is excellent advice for everyone, whether a mountain or road cyclist. Ride safe, ride smart, stay in a pack if possible.

DebbieLyn63

He left behind 2 young children.

http://www.wfaa.com/news/local/denton/Missing-mountain-biker-found-dead-in-ravine-264300591.html

I apologize to anyone reading this that may know him personally, if this adds to your grief, but I felt that sharing this story might help save someone's life.

acloern1985

Thanks for posting this. My boyfriend frequently rides downhill alone, or does some mountain biking trails solo. It scares me to death. I really like the idea of that app that notifies if the phone hasn't moved.

Jannalicious

Thank you for posting this. Scary for sure. I think they continue to ride for the love if it. As a female who not only loves the ride but, rides the majority of rides alone, I will be looking into an app like you mentioned. Thank The Lord I haven't wrecked, yet that's a concern I do have. We all must think of safety first and foremost!

yankeedownsouth

Thank you for sharing. I live in the DFW area and have been hoping for the best since Sunday when I saw he was missing. I think you made some good suggestions as far as the bracelet and the app. Although I always take my phone and drivers license, I ride alone a lot so I think I'm going to implement these suggestions.

Tragic events like this really remind us that even though we love riding so much, it can be so terribly dangerous.

Oh, and I never really realize how hurt I am until later. I've ridden through injuries that didn't hurt much at the time but ended up being much worse than I thought later. (And I'm a slow, cautious rider, not a racer, so I imagine those folks are even more so like this...)

mikeyrs

I was very saddened after reading your post. Wilderness activities like hiking and mountain biking really dictate practicing the buddy system, where everyone is paired up with a partner and both have a working familiarity with emergency first aid and wilderness injury treatment practices. Nobody should ever be left unmonitored in the wilderness following a spill or a crash, regardless of obvious evidence of a head injury.

bcattoes

How sad! Thanks for sharing all the great pointers on safety. Lots of good info there.

MYhealthyjourney70

thanks for sharing... i ride a bike but i am not into the mountain biking or any kind of extreme biking... safety is important no matter where you ride..

prayers to cyclist's family...

StrongAtLast

Thanks for sharing. It doesn't even have to be extreme. My husband wiped out on a straight away flat trail and got conked out for a few minutes/seconds. ALWAYS tell someone where you are going and when you expect to be back. We think it's silly to do this , because we are not in some remote location, but it can happen.

Unknown

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SapiensPisces

Heartbreaking. My condolences with his family and friends.

ashenriver

I don't mountain bike often, but I do hike in the mountains more. I would also recommend to also carry bear spray (depends on your area). I also bring a jacket, first aid kit, and fill my water bladder (2L) in my pack.

Also most paramedics are familiar with the Road ID bracelet.

DebbieLyn63

Sad story but... if I was the victim's family, I would have some serious questions as to why his "friend" left him on the trail. I have been the guy, and been with guys, who wreck and we've always stuck together and ridden at the fallen rider's pace/comfort level. Our groups never go far off from one another either. We will always wait for slower riders to catch-up or go back to make sure they are OK. I cannot imagine just leaving somebody like that, especially when you know they have taken a fall and you say he "may have had a head injury".

According to one of the comments on that article, the rider who died was apparently in the lead, and was the stronger rider, ahead of his friend. He had fallen earlier, and had assured the other rider he was fine to continue riding, so it wasn't like the other rider left him.

On narrow parts of paths, it is quite easy to get separated from your riding buddies for a few minutes. It is possible that the front rider had gotten far ahead of his friend and slipped off an edge, without him realizing it. Not sure of the details of exactly how it happened. The earlier crash may have had nothing to do with it at all, but it may have. Will probably never know for sure.

My husband coaches some teens, and one of his kids is a very strong rider, and will sometimes ride away too far. They both have bells on their bikes, and they use them to keep track of each other, so they don't get too far away. Kinda like a game of Marco Polo. Can never be too safe.

TheBrolympus

This is so sad. I am in the Dallas area and have been following this story since Saturday. I was hoping they would find him safe and sound.

Be safe out there.

TheBrolympus

Cyclists are known for riding hurt. Not sure if it is the adrenaline, or just the fact that the only way to get to the end of the trail is to keep riding. Or perhaps it is just not wanting to look like a wimp to your buddies.

I ride with my brothers and we had a long discussion about this at lunch today. It's hard to tell sometimes with head injuries if someone is really okay or not. Better safe, than sorry.

hill8570

Good reminders. As someone who has had his share of road and trail rash (and a couple of cracked helmets), I can attest it's really hard to tell how badly you're hurt while you're in the moment. Sorry to hear that this ended badly.

SapiensPisces

Good reminders. As someone who has had his share of road and trail rash (and a couple of cracked helmets), I can attest it's really hard to tell how badly you're hurt while you're in the moment. Sorry to hear that this ended badly.

I wonder if there are any field medical tests that could be useful in this situation. Something like this that is used for sports injuries may be useful:

http://www.thedacareorthoplus.org/wp-content/uploads/UPMC_Concussion_Evaluation.pdf

DebbieLyn63

I have had a few people ask about the app my husband just got for his phone. It is by Road ID and is only available for iPhones at this time. If you go to the App store and look for Road ID, you will find it. They are working on a version for Android.

Here is the link to their site:
https://www.roadid.com/ecrumbs

It is in Beta right now and they are working thru some bugs, but they released a version today that seems to be working well.

How it works is that a rider activates it when he begins a ride, and it sends a text message to the person or persons that you designate, that says something like, "I am going out for a ride". If the rider is stationary for 5 minutes, it will sound an alarm on his phone for a full minute, and the rider can respond so the alarm goes off, and the app knows he is ok. If he doesn't respond to the alarm within a minute, it will send a text message to the designed people, saying that he has been stationary for 5 minutes and provides a link to a google map showing his location.

The recipient doesn't have to have an iPhone to receive the msg/location link. A smart phone is necessary to receive the active link, but even a dumb phone (mine) will receive the message.

This will be very helpful in the event someone crashes and loses consciousness, or is unable to call for help for some reason.

Of course this means that you must carry your phone on your rides, but you should be doing that already!

OliTheGnome

This is tragic for sure! I run a mountain bike group here in Tucson, and I always stress the leave no man behind policy. It's a dangerous sport for sure. Not to blame his friends, but they should have never left him.

Thanks for the post, I posted the story to my group page as a lesson for all.

Oli

DebbieLyn63

This is tragic for sure! I run a mountain bike group here in Tucson, and I always stress the leave no man behind policy. It's a dangerous sport for sure. Not to blame his friends, but they should have never left him.

Thanks for the post, I posted the story to my group page as a lesson for all.

Oli

Just to clarify- the rider who died was the stronger rider who knew the trail well, and was actually in the lead, and road too far ahead of his friend, who was riding the trail for the first time. So in this case, the friend was in no way at fault. Apparently the lead rider went over the edge, and the others rode past him, not knowing he can gone off the trail. That part of the trail is very heavily wooded.

There is strong evidence that the rider may have been dehydrated, as he has emptied his camelback on the first half of the trail.
He also had left his cell phone in his car. Had he been conscious at any point after going over the edge, he could have called for help if he had taken his cell phone with him.

So 2 points to remember- watch out for dehydration, and ALWAYS carry your cell phone with you, no matter how well you think you know the trail.

Thanks for sharing this story with your cycling group.

CallMeRuPaul

Thanks for the post. I run and bike alone and I'm in the process of getting a road i.d. be careful out there!