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Faceplanted; don't be an idot like me and wear a full face helmet


Hsiang

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Face planted hard this afternoon, right on a concrete curb and chiped a tooth as a bonus.

I wasn't planning to go fast on the ride today, But decided to stop and setup a camera in an open area to test out the brake assistance feature on the Z10. straight run with a slight curve in the beginning and a straight section where I practice braking.

First 5 run went fine but on the 6th run as I lean in to accellerate something went wrong and the z10 went flying and since I was in the curve section I flew face first into the curb.

I had fallen plenty snowboarding, rollerblading and mountain biking but the speed of this caught me completely by surprise.

Also had no idea what caused the fall. I checked the surface before hand and it was level and clean, the 6th run was no faster than the prior 5. and I was well under the speed limit of the Z10 with an 80% battery.

learned my lesson and won't be riding without a full face now. 

20181110_131408.jpg

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Ouch. Glad you survived with only minor injuries. but I think you were lucky.

I had a faceplant/cut-out almost the same time of day today, but walked away without a scratch, thanks to a full-face helmet and full gear. I probably would look like you (or worse) right now without it.

 

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Sorry to read about your accident. Get well...buy more gear when your up for more riding. Good luck with a dentist. Maybe your tire lost its grip.

Since dicombobulating my Monster's axle (replacement motor, axle, wheel = $400) I've taken up non Monster EUC riding challenges like:

1- riding my old Ninebot without pushing it too fast

2-low ride risk non-euc activities like flying my new drone with non-warranty-indursnce voiding software that does autonomous flight (ie. Hands free).

Personally I think that the concept of riding an EUC to it's limit for 'testing purposes' is for the birds.

Misery lives company....This was posted on Facebook recently

https://www.facebook.com/groups/ElectricUnicycle/permalink/1888785254552762/

When the Shiggy dance hit the pop news a few months ago I tried to do the Shiggy on the Monster.....it felt like grooving on stilts....and was dorky & sick... maybe leading to axle discombobulation on a bumpy trail ride a few weeks later. 

 

 

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There is a video of Chooch testing the Z10 around downtown Denver. He goes around the corner and his tire looses grip as it rolls across a small circular metal access plate in the street. He says too high of tire pressure was the culprit. The video is here and the crash is at 2:20... 

 

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2 hours ago, Hsiang said:

Face planted hard this afternoon, right on a concrete curb and chiped a tooth as a bonus.

I wasn't planning to go fast on the ride today, But decided to stop and setup a camera in an open area to test out the brake assistance feature on the Z10. straight run with a slight curve in the beginning and a straight section where I practice braking.

First 5 run went fine but on the 6th run as I lean in to accellerate something went wrong and the z10 went flying and since I was in the curve section I flew face first into the curb.

I had fallen plenty snowboarding, rollerblading and mountain biking but the speed of this caught me completely by surprise.

Also had no idea what caused the fall. I checked the surface before hand and it was level and clean, the 6th run was no faster than the prior 5. and I was well under the speed limit of the Z10 with an 80% battery.

learned my lesson and won't be riding without a full face now. 

20181110_131408.jpg

I hope you got it on Video at least! ;) 

Glad your (relatively) ok.

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5 hours ago, Michael Hernandez said:

There is a video of Chooch testing the Z10 around downtown Denver. He goes around the corner and his tire looses grip as it rolls across a small circular metal access plate in the street. He says too high of tire pressure was the culprit. The video is here and the crash is at 2:20... 

 

I saw that too. Lame to blame the circumstances though. No, it wasn’t the tire pressure. The reason for the fall was that he wasn’t minding the circumstances, and accelerated too fast, considering the tire pressure amongst others. He made a mistake. Not the tire.

I hope the OP will eventually find out the reason for his fall. I’m glad it didn’t take more to realize the importance of good protective gear.

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9 hours ago, Hsiang said:

Face planted hard this afternoon, right on a concrete curb and chiped a tooth as a bonus.

Sorry about your injuries! Scary moment indeed. Unfortunately your accident will replay over and over in your mind until you can determine exactly what happened.

Many of us have ridden without full face helmets or no helmets at all. Every time a story like your’s emerges along with a depiction of the injuries it sends a subliminal message to members about the importance of wearing safety gear. Best wishes and be well! 

 

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11 hours ago, mrelwood said:

I saw that too. Lame to blame the circumstances though. No, it wasn’t the tire pressure. The reason for the fall was that he wasn’t minding the circumstances, and accelerated too fast, considering the tire pressure amongst others. He made a mistake. Not the tire.

I hope the OP will eventually find out the reason for his fall. I’m glad it didn’t take more to realize the importance of good protective gear.

I find it so weird that the reflexive blame for injury is always so often focussed on failing to have worn proper protection gear and never rarely on failing to have adapted the riding to the circumstances.

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7 hours ago, meepmeepmayer said:

Am I a bad person for thinking this as well?:efeebb3acc:

Oh no, I was thinking exactly the same thing and was relieved when he stated "camera setup". If you and I both think that then it's ok.

Helmet and protective gearing should be the last layer of protection, and it merely reduces the level of injury instead of eliminate it.

This is a "good" crash in the sense little damage was caused, even with the chipped tooth. I doubt I could avoid hot dogging it with a new wheel, as past experience has shown.

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2 hours ago, Mono said:

I find it so weird that the reflexive blame for injury is always focussed on failing to have worn proper protection gear and never on failing to have adapted the riding to the circumstances.

A riding mistake doesn’t cause injury. I make mistakes every time I ride. A crash is what may cause injury, and not being prepared for one is a knowingly made decision, which is the mistake that may cause injury.

Of course to ride smart is best in avoiding a crash. But we all seem to fall at some point anyway. Hence protective gear is strongly recommended throughout the forum (and in many if not all wheel manuals). What I find so weird is that yet so many ride without. Everybody understands what happens if you crash.

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13 minutes ago, mrelwood said:

Hence protective gear is strongly recommended throughout the forum (and in many if not all wheel manuals). What I find so weird is that yet so many ride without. Everybody understands what happens if you crash.

No, they don't. I certainly did not. Sure, I was aware that protective gear was a good idea and I should wear some, but I didn't want to (if only for not knowing which gear to choose, costs and effort, ...) and didn't really think about how a crash would actually look like.

Took me harmlessly falling on my hands from frying my wheel at very low speed (luckily in winter, damaged my gloves instead of my hands) to wear wrist guards and a real crash (also harmless in hindsight) to get knee guards. Took me another 10 months and taking a hard look at the flimsy (and in my case already heat damaged) electronics in my ACM to realize I don't wan't to have a crash where I find out I should have worn a (full face) helmet, and finally got one. One and a half years, 5000+ km after starting.

I guess it's knowing vs. actually understanding. Theory vs. experience. Delay vs just getting some damn gear. Etc.

Many people (only) learn the hard way on such ambivalent topics (meaning things where they don't have a strong preconceived opinion). I did. The worst part is, if the wheel electronics would have been better (like with today's wheels) and I didn't have my really-bad-luck-didn't-look second crash, I might still be riding incident-free and therefore without any gear.

EUC crashes are also different from other crashes (like with a bike) and the effect of speed will also be a surprise to many (abrasion). The "let's see how it goes" approach doesn't work for EUCs like it does for other vehicles. It's either "no problem" or ☠️ with not much in between.

Hence the more experienced riders (which just means they had some kind of incident) urging the new ones (no incident yet) to wear gear.

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8 hours ago, Rehab1 said:

Sorry about your injuries! Scary moment indeed. Unfortunately your accident will replay over and over in your mind until you can determine exactly what happened.

Many of us have ridden without full face helmets or no helmets at all. Every time a story like your’s emerges along with a depiction of the injuries it sends a subliminal message to members about the importance of wearing safety gear. Best wishes and be well! 

 

That was my hope in making this post. I knew that I needed a helmet but thought that as long as I rode in a controlled manner then the risk is minimized.

But then I got sloppy when I setup the test, I brought pads but didn’t wear them, and did not have a helmet on either. Bad idea.

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14 minutes ago, meepmeepmayer said:

EUC crashes are also different from other crashes (like with a bike) and the effect of speed will also be a surprise to many (abrasion). The "let's see how it goes" approach doesn't work for EUCs like it does for other vehicles. It's either "no problem" or ☠️ with not much in between.

Hence the more experienced riders (which just means they had some kind of incident) urging the new ones (no incident yet) to wear gear.

This, I had plenty of crash before and thought that I would have been able to react and protect my face. But speed + being surprised + landing on a curb means that there weren’t enough time.

I had crashed riding a motorcycle before and this was a lot like it. You barely have enough time to recognize that something had gone terribly wrong and bang! You are on the ground. I still remember being surprised and facinated at seeing the asphalt sliding across my visor (had a full face for that crash).

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3 hours ago, LanghamP said:

Oh no, I was thinking exactly the same thing and was relieved when he stated "camera setup". If you and I both think that then it's ok.

Helmet and protective gearing should be the last layer of protection, and it merely reduces the level of injury instead of eliminate it.

This is a "good" crash in the sense little damage was caused, even with the chipped tooth. I doubt I could avoid hot dogging it with a new wheel, as past experience has shown.

Ha, the first thing I did when I got home was to download watch the footage, it wasn’t an optima angle so I can’t really see what caused the crash.

Probably going to be a bit late with my video this week but will certainly include it.

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The best crash is where you're doing an over lean and the wheel can't keep up. You get a lot of hang time to consider what a shitty rider you are, and move your limbs so it doesn't quite hurt so much. It'll still hurt but no more than falling down a single step.

The worst is catching a footpads or, presumably, a cut out. Zero preparation time to realize you've crashed. 

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6 hours ago, Mono said:

I find it so weird that the reflexive blame for injury is always focussed on failing to have worn proper protection gear and never on failing to have adapted the riding to the circumstances.

Not everyone that’s suffered an injury pontificate a ‘lack of protective gear’ attitude.  I certainly didn’t! I believe @Hsiang realized his mistake and prefers to take additional precautions if another disastrous situation arises. He also wanted to share his experience so other members are educated about the cause and effect of a miscalculation.

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14 minutes ago, Rehab1 said:

Not everyone that’s suffered an injury pontificate a ‘lack of protective gear’ attitude.  I certainly didn’t! I believe @Hsiang realized his mistake and prefers to take additional precautions if another disastrous situation arises. He also wanted to share his experience so other members are educated about the cause and effect of a miscalculation.

Agreed, I was overgeneralizing, I apologize.

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21 hours ago, Hsiang said:

I had crashed riding a motorcycle before and this was a lot like it. You barely have enough time to recognize that something had gone terribly wrong and bang! You are on the ground. I still remember being surprised and facinated at seeing the asphalt sliding across my visor (had a full face for that crash).

I thought the exact same thing when I had my first big crash on my Z10 last week. I had no time to think about anything at all in my instance either. I was cruising at 20mph+ and then the next second I'm scattered on the concrete. I had a full face motorcycle helmet and jacket on as well as knee pads and wrist guards. All items worn that day did their job well. I'm glad I took the protection first stance with my wheel purchase. I think it is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED to research safety equipment as closely as you research the purchase of your wheel if you're a beginner. Common sense and past crashes on other motor vehicles made me realize that I need gear to wear once my wheel finally came in.

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EUCs are not bicycles but we are fooled initially because they handle quite similar to bicycles and so the same level of protection we wear on a bicycle is the same level we wear on an EUC.

Again, EUCs are not bicycles.

Rather, pretend you have a bicycle that has a metal rod pointed into your front wheel along with a random number generator. Should you be so lucky,

the expected number shows up and then the metal rod is rammed through the spokes of your front wheel, thereby tossing you onto your face, except instead of falling for a nubile teenager you're going face first into concrete.

(100% of that song's words applies to EUC faceplants)

 

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Hope you heal up fast.

Is there a specific reason people faceplant as opposed to landing on their knees? So far, the several times I have fallen off, I go straight forward and my knees or hands catch my fall. That is very bad news for my knees, but good news for the rest of my body. I am still healing from my last fall 2 weeks ago (not wearing knee pads!!) , but it was relatively minor. However I have now landed on my knees enough to have several scars and downtime. Luckily, knee injuries enable one to get back on the EUC fairly quickly while healing. My last dismount at ~15 mph had me flying through the air, but both my knees hit the ground and my body remained upright.

I don't quite understand the dynamics of the faceplant. From what I can tell, it is when someone is standing perfectly straight up, and tries to keep their feet on the pedals while falling. Is this a correct assessment? 

I make a conscious effort , especially when I speed up, to bend my knees, specifically for this option. Am I correct in thinking this will help? So far, that has seemed to mean I go down mostly on my knees.

Safety 1st!

 

 

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