Wow, this topic needs a good splitting..
Anyways, I've had a couple falls on my bike, always my own fault. I should have a lot more, I've committed myself to running into cars that pull out in front of me while I'm riding on the road, since I hate slamming on the brakes, but that hasn't happened lately. The way I figure, the cost of replacing my front tire is a lot cheaper than his door, and it's 100% his fault, so it's all good.
Anyway, four incidents where I've ended up on the ground come to mind, and I think that's all of them since I can remember:
- Was riding across a bridge that has both a sidewalk and a road. The road and sidewalk are separated by a metal railing that comes up out of the ground on a fairly small angle (30 degrees to the ground, I'd judge). I went from the road to the sidewalk, and didn't judge it right, so my back tire hit the metal. Since it was slippery, my bike went sideways and I went straight, to the ground. Wasn't a bad fall, just scraped my hands a bit.
- Tried climbing a steep grassy hill (probably about 45 degrees), but didn't start with enough speed. I got probably 2m up before coming to a stop. I made the call between rolling backwards and probably falling bards or holding down my brakes and going sideways. I put my brakes on and went sideways. It was the right choice. I didn't get hurt at all, and I managed to save my take-out food that I had in my hand.
- Riding down an icy path, very very slowly. I was having trouble balancing, and figured it was because I was going too slow (to quote South Park, "dumdumdumdumdummmm"). So I tried going faster, and ended up on the ground. Falling on the ice isn't so bad, I just got a little arm scrape. I think I posted that one here.
- Finally, it was 3am, and I was riding through a stop-sign, right across from my house. I wasn't really paying attention. It was the middle of winter and the intersection was a sheet of ice. I tried to make the left turn, and totally wiped out. Again, it was a fall on the ice, so there was no injury.
In terms of tires, I don't have winter tires. But I don't inflate my tires as high in winter, so they have more surface-contact with the road. I rode most of last winter like that, and I only fell twice, and both were my fault.
In terms of accidents, I've never seen or heard of one on campus, and I rode my bike there a lot.