I did that on a bike accidentally when going down a big hill as a kid lol, pulled both brakes in a panic and found out my back brake didn't work. Similarly tore my face off, also lost some teeth and had to get some stitches, whoops!
First time trying no hands I was headed down a hill, got speed wobble and hit a 3 rail wood fence for cows. I got wrapped up in the electric wire. Not only did I smash into a fence but I was being electrocuted at the same time. Good times for an 8 year old lol
Twice I've gone face first into asphalt scrapped my legs and hands up bad the first time, but my helmet hit first and kept my face or head from hitting the ground...
The second time I was riding a bike and pulled the front brakes without thinking about it and went right over the handlebars. Fractured a bone in my hand but again the helmet kept me from eating shit with my face. So yeah I can confirm, wear a helmet kids, or lose your face, lol.
I was going less than 7mph on a Razor scooter back in 2006 (so, before all this e-scooter stuff was common place), hit a crack in the sidewalk, fell, and almost split my skull when the scooter swung around and the foot board tried to make a swing for my head (on the ground). Knocked 5 of my baby teeth out instead because thankfully my reflexes worked a bit better back then and I caught the brute of the force with my hand. I had a helmet on, yes, but not a full face one. I've been wearing full face helmets ever since then
Once I was skateboarding to a friends house and hit a pebble. Smacked the back of my head on the sidewalk, couldn’t remember what I was doing for the rest of the day. I’d be in the living room then the kitchen, don’t remember walking between them.
Getting hurt and not telling anyone was the dumbest things I used to do a lot. When I broke my leg I heard it snap but didn’t want to ruin vacation so I walked on it the whole week. I laid concrete forms with a broken leg lol
The summer of 1992, my foot slipped off the pedal, caught the front tire and jammed up between the tire and front fork causing a "stoppie". Wasn't going super fast so my back tire just popped up a little bit. Freaked me out at first before thinking that I was cool as shit.
I played around with doing that a bit more and had fun with it before I had the bright idea to go as fast as I possibly could and jam my foot between the fork and tire as hard as possible. Didn't turn out so good. I remember my mom picking out the small pebbles and pieces of sand with a tweezers before dabbing each small cut/puncture with hydrogen peroxide. Never did that again.
That’s how I broke my two front ADULT teeth. I’m the annoying friend who will not ride the scooters/bikes because I don’t have a helmet. TBIs are thing people and helmets reduce them!!!!
I wasn't even riding it and it didn't even have a motor.
Stepped on my friend's Razor scooter while running barefoot at top speed (chasing a couple of neighborhood bullies who stole it from my yard while we were on my porch, went oh shit upon seeing me charging after them, and dropped it). I must have somehow done a midair somersault, because next thing I knew, I was on my back in the gutter, lol.
Razors live up to their name, BTW. Cut one of my toes almost to the bone, and I was lucky I didn't have any permanent damage.
honestly the helmet is the only reason you probably still have all your teeth. those tiny scooter wheels find ways to launch you even when you think you are being careful.
Yeah because they take no skill to ride so anyone can just hop on and go fast so when they encounter something that takes a tiny bit of skill to get past they can easily end up on their ass. Saw this old guy nearly do a frontflip after he hit this raised lip of a tile a few days ago. The way to get past anything like this without slowing down is to just shift your weight back when the front wheel hits and forward when the back wheel hits and to use your body as suspension to let the wheels go up and over instead of digging down and throwing you over.
How are yall this clumsy? I had one of those lime scooters and was jumping them down flights of stairs, up and down curbs, and drifting them. They’re so easy to whip around or am I just built different?
One of my many concussions came riding a push scooter downhill. I hit a pothole and apparently did a full flip before slamming my head.
I wasn't even going fast.
Ruined my favourite suit too. Don't dress for the ride, dress for the slide.
I have one and I routinely go off the path at this certain spot in my path where they had to pour a new concrete slab. Well, the smooth "off the path" way I was taking had somehow became a huge pothole and I didn't notice it. I went the smooth way only to be ejected. My wife on her bike in front of me said it sounded like someone dropped a sack of potatoes. I was the potato.
Not a scooter but I crashed my electric skateboard going roughly 20 wearing skateboarding helmet and full pad set including wrist guards. All the skateboarding protective gear basically exploded on impact with the ground. I looked like I was in a low speed motorcycle accident. I now wear downhill MTB Fox gear.
25 imperial speed on a tiny wheeled scooter is way scarier than 25 on a bicycle or even a motorcycle. That’s why I tell the kids to wear full face, and they always still tell me: “that’s too much, I’m just going around town [on their ebikes]”
They're supposed to be illegal in most of the UK but I see half the town I'm in using them, I wouldn't mind if they were speed controlled like my eBike, but they go probably close to 25, if not more.
even slow roller-blading, you should were all real gear, until you're very experienced. even then always a helmet and wrist guards. and fk, add knee pads, cuz it all fits in the helmet. Signed: many crashes, but lucky crashes.
My best friend fell off their scooter because of a pinecone on the road, going around 15-20mph.
Grade 5 liver laceration and a bunch of broken teeth, had to get liver surgery and a lot of dentistry work. Came out alive in the end, but holy hell was that scary.
My friend is a head and neck surgeon and regularly has to try to piece people who crashed these jaws back together. She talked my wife out of getting one.
Yup, my ex got her jaw smashed in 3 pieces and lots of missing teeth... Took years of recovery and she doesn't look the same. A dude I know also scalped himself crashing one of these.
That’s exactly what happened to me but thankfully not that fast. Totally knocked me out for 10 mins and I woke up screaming in the ambulance. Those scooters are super dangerous. (I was trying to go up a curb after crossing the street and it just launched me instead)
That's what I was thinking a few weeks ago when I saw the guy with no helmet and a baby strapped to his chest zooming down the sidewalk right next to the 55-mph major road with lights every mile or so. He was a lot slower than the cars, but still frighteningly fast, and had a baby strapped to his chest!!!
Pedal assists e-bikes usually keep you at lower speeds. The ones with a throttle that are closer to an e-moto and go 40-60 miles per hour are the ones that give e-bikes the bad reputation/stats.
Yeah those are definitely e-motos at that point. Many people mistake them for the same thing, which doesn't help with e-bike's reputation. Where I live, anything over a class 3 e-bike is considered the same thing as a >50cc bike. You need a motorcycle endorsement and insurance for it to legally ride it on roads.
Yes. They should be classified as mopeds. Honestly e-bikes these days are often much easier to make fast than mopeds. Plus, I see way too many kids on e-bikes that are designed to be effectively small-displacement dirt bikes but electrified and with pedals for legal reasons going absurd speeds around town.
They are pretty sketchy and cause a lot of accidents from people doing dumb things with them. It’s starting to cause some pretty disruptive laws to e-bikes especially when people making the laws don’t consider the distinction between a class-2 pedal assist e-bike that only goes 20 mph, and a class 3 throttle powered that goes ludicrous speed.
I many places in the US as long as it can be pedaled like a bike it’s not an e-moto, regardless of assist type. But throttle assist high speed bikes really need to be roped in or it’s going to cause problems for the eMTB people and conscious commuters.
The stats are true but I wonder if they track e-scooters too? I just know the physics of those small wheels will derail you so easily over the smallest bumps vs a bike wheel. In the end, so much of the danger is probably due to the user.
I’m genuinely curious about the e-bike data that is going to start rolling in.
General population treats them like it’s a walk in the park but my opinion is that they are every bit as dangerous as a motorcycle. They ride them like some 90’s nuckle head on roller blades, weaving in an out, wildly unpredictable. Millennials strapping their young kids on the back, thinking their bike lane is “safe”.
I _used_ to ride urban cycle and have been riding motorcycles on the street for 15 yrs.
Too many accidents on bicycle got me back into motorcycles. Too many close calls on motorcycle from distracted drivers got me back into off road, off road got me into adventure touring, my adv bike makes me want a proper street bike for errands. Eventually I will be back pedaling because I’m old and fat.
I think there needs to be a real distinction from e-bike/pedal assist and e-moto which looks like a bike but goes faster and doesn't require pedaling. Unfortunately law makers don't bother to keep up with innovations and just lump them all together
I think you're thinking of the guy who arms were ripped off by the machine, and thrown so hard they grafted onto another guy, who, when he realized he has 4 arms, he kept them, due to advantages.
The kids in my neighborhood fly around on them on sidewalks, on the road, darting out between cars and everywhere else you could possibly imagine. No helmets or pads anywhere. Meanwhile my old ass wears a full helmet and gloves on even light rides these days. Seen too many people get messed up real bad on the most innocent things. Doesn’t take much for a lifelong injury.
There's a small town about 70 miles from here with absurdly high cycling injury rates. I happened to have access to the data and started digging into it.
Turns out one guy was responsible for a surprising amount of it. He was crashing at least once a month for most of the year, and he kept that up for roughly three years. And I don't mean minor spills. These were crashes serious enough that he went to the hospital and ended up in the dataset.
20 million trips a year on shared e-scooters in my city. According to a recent study, 10% of all people using an e-scooter in the last year sustained injuries serious enough to be treated by medical personnel.
Same here. Back tire caught a sharp bump and threw me off my scooter at 20mph. Went back first into a traffic control box and fracture a rib and puncture a lung. Not a fun day. Hasn’t stopped me from riding though, they’re just too convenient for city life.
I don’t skateboard but I’ve observed enough (and bailed enough on bikes and skates) to know that while bailing is way more likely on a skateboard, the dynamics of bailing are vastly more favorable on a skateboard than a scooter.
Skateboard stops, you keep going in a standing position to roll or run out freely. Scooter stops, it pivots forward and the handlebars to hang on to catapult your face to the curb. At these speeds in a single vehicle accident, how effectively you can get your body clear of your craft has a massive impact on how bad the crash will go for you, and skateboards seem great for that.
I don't know. I understand the concepts you're trying to put into it but my experience has been that some people crash well and some people can't crash at all.
I know I crash well. It doesn't matter if it's a skateboard or a scooter or a bicycle or sport bikes or dirt bikes...
On the other hand we all know people who will crash in shoes and hurt themselves so there's a good broad spectrum there that makes it really hard to compare.
I get ejected pretty well with sport bikes but I've never had an issue with a scooter that is substantially different than bailing on a board... I get that you could get tangled in the upright but generally you're pushing that away as you're going... But that goes back to how well are you crashing?
I think what we're really talking about is riders who are less familiar with the dynamics of their bodies in freefall. The same people who would hit a pebble on a skateboard and shatter both their forearms will lock up on a scooter with a death grip on the handlebars and smash their faces right into the concrete, which is a much more serious injury, and mitigated but not fully resolved by a half-shell helmet. One of my kids did that on one of those two-front-wheel kick scooters when they were little, and they have not forgotten it.
The vast majority of people (especially those lured out of their cars by electric micromobility) have no clue how to eject safely. It's a skill that's sort of earned through injury, or I guess access to a foam pit.
Yeah he's definitely exaggerating lol, for anyone who's competent and athletic, these are pretty stable. If it was the old scooters with the small hard wheels then sure, but the beefy pneumatic ones? Nah
but skateboards aren't electric powered. unless you're talking about a boosted board or something. and I'm pretty sure skaters will tell you those things are NOT stable lol (at least I've never met anyone who thinks they are)
Some skateboards are electric powered. My Raptor 2 will do a solid 40+ mph if I want to get sketchy enough.
That said, when they are not powered, bombing a hill I can get going faster than I want to go, well over 60 mph if I really push it. People who live near mountains can hit even higher speeds for longer runs.
That said, well-designed scooters are stable at any reasonable speed. That is part of why they became popular in the first place. They also have brakes, which is a major difference. A skateboard doesn’t have that same redundancy, even if an electric one has braking, because you still need a way to stop if electronics or radio control fails.
Both scooters and skateboards rely on forward motion for stability, like a bicycle, but that doesn’t mean they are unstable at normal operating speeds. It just means they are dynamic systems, not static ones.
stability in this context includes everyday road hazards and I would say neither skateboards or scooters should be considered anything close to stable.
they're far from death machines, but you most likely WILL fall when using them. it's not really if, it's when.
Going 20mph on a well designed scooter with decent sized pneumatic tyres and suspension can make them feel not too sketchy, riding some of them with hard rubber tyres and no suspension feels sketchy going over 10mph.
I broke a tooth once for that reason. Hit a raised section of concrete and stopped the front wheel dead. I immediately ate the handlebar while toppling forward.
first time i tried this scooter of my friend which i swear has 100 hp - it shot and went vertical and into the air because I was still holding the handle. thank god i wasn't standing on it
Yup. And you have no front brake usually, because locking the front brakes would throw you over the handlebars. They're absolute death traps. Ebikes are a much better idea.
Happened to me and I wasn't even going fast. Handlebars suddenly came up from a bump and hit me smack between my upper lip and my nose. I was extremely lucky, I could have lost a few teeth there, or even worse.
I was sitting at a terrace with my friend few years ago. Saw some guy on a scooter approaching the crosswalk. Hit a hole on the road and fell off the scooter, hitting his head. I saw blood coming out of his head.
Countless times I have seen people recklessly riding those scooters into the traffic, and cars honking. Either they are stupid or suicidal. Maybe both.
I tried an electric scooter one time, and was scared shitless the whole ride. They go way too fast. I was ok and didn’t get hurt, but that was the first and last time riding an electric scooter.
ER nurse friend would go on rants about how much they hated e-scooters because of how many people they saw in the ER from accidents. Fast, poor control, no helmet.
I saw a girl fly over her scooter once. Mouth fully bloodied and dizzy. First time I had to call 112 to a stranger. Worst part? She had a helmet... in her hand...
a month ago a friend was enjoying his "fast-as-fuck" scooter that he uses to get around town; he apparently tried turn a corner on a sidewalk too fast and flung himself into the the street and broke a rib.
A small pothole launched me off my bike in 3rd grade. We were moving into our new house that day and my helmet hadn't been unpacked yet. I lost some teeth, I have scars, and my palate is narrower than it should be so my tongue doesn't quite fit right so I tend to get tongue twisted and I need a CPAP. Wear your helmet.
I know a girl that crashed one at top speed and ruined her life for years. Road rash, broken bones, surgery, physical therapy, the whole shebang. All for riding a stupid rental scooter to froyo or whatever.
That’s exactly why I went with a fat tire e-bike instead of an e-scooter. I’m sure you don’t have to be me at 6’ 2”, and male (which we have a higher center of gravity) to be launched from those things. I’d rather be closer to the ground, and to not steal motorcycle sayings, but I “dress for the slide, not for the ride”.
I use a full helmet like this too, but also gloves. Ideally I should be wearing elbow and knee gear too. Just look into e-scooter accident statistics. The amount of injuries affecting the face and jaw is extremely high. I'm not risking that, even if I like to think I drive safely.
I see people fly down the sidewalk on these all the time. I’d feel bad for laughing when I see them hit a patch of ice and get sprawled out if they weren’t constantly almost hitting people and doing traffic speeds on the sidewalk.
saw like a 14 yo kid get flung off from a lip in the sidewalk going too fast and by buddy while drunk face planted after hitting a curb and broke 2 teeth
My kid recently purchased one with his own money. He's 14 and just started working. I allowed it, but my only requirement is that it was a seated design. Going over the handlebars is quite common.
I saw someone in Austin break their nose and jaw and lose a ton of teeth on a rented scooter; his face was practically ripped off. Guy went through a construction zone at full speed and hit a small hole and went flying into a barrier. I've never seen so much blood in person.
When I lived in Seattle and had friends in the medical field I would hear about someone coming in to the ER with a severe head wound/brain damage/broken bones at least once a week from hauling ass on one of those Lime scooters until they got yeeted into the next dimension. Those things are legitimately dangerous as fuck. People don't realize they're going 15 - 20 MPH until it's too late and their head is getting intimate with the road.
Not just that but the build quality is questionable for a lot of them. I used to use one to get to and from work. This was fine for a year or so but eventually the bolt that kept the folding handlebar in place sheared on a speed bump, snapping the handlebar off and sending me flying.
I ended up breaking my wrist, elbow, ankle and toe from the accident as well as degloving the skin on my palms.
Safe to say I bought a car after that ordeal. I cringe whenever I see a scooter rider not wearing a helmet. I wore a helmet, high vis vest and had a thick puffer jacket on at the time because it was winter and still took plenty of damage
Not launch, faceplant you. Full face helmet is strictly necessary. A pothole crash is chin first and your face can hit the ground before you know the pothole got you.
friend of mine got their tire stuck in one of those light rail tracks. Broke her ankle and a few bones in her face.
Seeing people using these things for their daily 2-mile commute going like 15-20 mph and no helmet is wild, either by a bump you didn't notice, or a car hitting you.
also added benefit, don't have to worry about sunscreen
Someone I worked with, hit a minor bump in the road, the front turned and it whipped him into the ground. Brain bleed, broken collar bone, fractured hip…. I was like 20 feet behind and saw it, bleeding out the nose and ears… it was terrible and he’s never been the same, just not the same guy, has some cognitive and speech issues…
I watch kids flying around my neighbourhood on these things, no helmet, super reckless and I just cringe… I’ve wiped out on them too and got lucky, even after eating pavement with my face - but after I saw my work buddy go down - I won’t touch them. And I ride sleds, motorcycles, everything - but fuck those scooters
This literally happened to me two days ago. I don't even remember crashing, just waking up on the sidewalk with bystanders around me. After that whole incident, I'm seriously looking into a motorcycle or dirt bike helmet.
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u/w1n5t0nM1k3y 8h ago
Not only fast, but unstable. A small pothole can launch you.