No bones about it

It is often said little kids are so pliable they bounce rather than break. I've seen riders hit the pavement and yet pop right up and start walking around. Seeing if the bike is OK seems to be a universal reaction. The stunt riders seem to have no bones at all as they fall and then get right back on. I suppose they may later crawl under a bush and die like an animal hit by a car, but the road and off-road racers have horrible looking endos and "get-offs", then quite often just walk away.

knee cap ground off, I hopped up and wobbled over to pick the bike up before it died, 3 inch mesquite thorn under knee cap, pulled it out and kept riding.

the next day usually sucked but when I was young, I just bounced up and kept going.

my most recent crash I hopped back to my feet after testing extremities for pointing right direction and no spurting but after 10 minutes I was ready for a ambulance and morphine.

I fractured cervical vertebrae and got up walking around.

Until the adrenaline rush subsided.

While traversing a steep incline the ground gave way and then the wheels caught firm ground and I was slowly vaulted another 10 feet or so down the hill. The XL350 landed on my left heel and broke the foot back to front as it drove the toe of my boot into the ground. I really had no choice but to monkey my way back onto the bike and ride home. Upon removing my boot my foot swelled to maximum psi. At that point the discomfort when to agony and I was ready to curl up and die in place wiating for a ride to the hospital. Had I worn proper MX boot and not combat boot I could have prevented that injury.

Ghost Rider said:

While traversing a steep incline the ground gave way and then the wheels caught firm ground and I was slowly vaulted another 10 feet or so down the hill. The XL350 landed on my left heel and broke the foot back to front as it drove the toe of my boot into the ground. I really had no choice but to monkey my way back onto the bike and ride home. Upon removing my boot my foot swelled to maximum psi. At that point the discomfort when to agony and I was ready to curl up and die in place wiating for a ride to the hospital. Had I worn proper MX boot and not combat boot I could have prevented that injury.

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So your saying "don't ride in biker flip flops"!

Alan Jackson sings/says he burns his heel when he rides in clogs, so maybe no to biker flip-flops.

Folks who raced when younger (relatively, I was a 25 year old rookie flat tracker) learn by experience how to crash without breaking bones. When I wrecked last summer on my big trip the old reflexes were still there so my helmet never actually touched down, and no limbs were caught under the bike. Slide out the slide in good gear looking over my shoulder to see if I was headed for the rocks. When the crash was done I took pictures first, then picked the bike up and began roadside repairs. Rode almost 400 more miles that day.

Years earlier I did have an unpleasant kneecap fracture while dirt riding with my sons. Cracked the left one, but both halves stayed attached to the ligament holding it to the bone. Pretty good pain until it went numb. It happened first thing so I was reluctant to load up and go for treatment. Being a guy I took the guy route and sat out for about an hour while my boys rode with friends. Once the numbness set it it didn't hurt any more to ride than to sit still, so I finished the day on the bike. It grew back together on its own and I didn't really limp much. Just had to be careful on how much I extended it, and no twisting motions. So far all of my broken bones have been self treated. Don't know if that is very smart or a bit too Red Green, but so far so good. No lingering ef ef ef effects whatsoever.

I grew up riding and racing cross country, so I always chocked the quick jump up to that. You have so many small get offs where the goal is just to get back on the bike and moving again as quickly as possible. I think it just becomes instinctive from that, and you don't stop to think about whether or not you're hurt until later.

It seems even folks that don't race do the same thing, though. Maybe my hypothesis is wrong.

The flat track I raced on was only a quarter mile and we ran 17 second laps on the 250s. So when you crashed it took a few seconds to stop, then you had between 12 and 14 seconds to get out of the way before the pack came back around. If you were quick and got your bike into the infield in time the race would stay green. Not causing a yellow became a point of pride after a mistake and a crash. Mistakes and crashes went hand in hand a few times during my rookie season.

My last crash hurt but I struggled back on the bike to ride home. I arrived an hour later and had to call my wife out to the driveway to pull me off the bike. I couldn't lift my leg. With my arm over her shoulder I limped
straight to the bed.
The next several days my ears hurt from all the chewing out I received from wife and family.

I've gotten off improperly 4 times that I can remember (and I seriously doubt I'd forget one):

1. - Heading home after leaving the bike at the GFs (now the Mrs) house. It was winter, so that's the first mistake. Head gasket was done (plays a part). Battery was weak. Roads "appeared" clear. Used the MIL's car to jump start it. I drained the battery trying, with the bad HG. got it going, but it wouldn't idle. Had to keep the throttle on a bit or it would die.
Made it about two miles down the road, hit some ice, and spun out. Slid down the center of the road. That was bad, but I was relatively OK - just a bit embarrassed and pissed off at myself for even trying to ride it home. Nevertheless, I was still sliding when a car swerved to go around me. Good job, didn't hit me... Until then second car did the same thing. I had stopped then. Listening to that motor go bang, bang, bang at about 30 RPM, refusing to die I just got more mad - at the bike this time.
4 more cars slowed, went around the bike and me, no one bothering to even roll their window down and ask if I was even alive. I laid there for a few minutes, listening to the bike drone on and on, while more cars went by, none inquiring as to my status of life.
Finally, I just got up, picked up the bike (it did finally die), and pushed if off the road. Walked back, got in the car, and headed home. We were relatively unscathed, just some scratches on both me and the bike.

2. - Was the GFs Kawasaki 250 triple, smoker. It really was a nice bike, Kawa green and everything - until I was done with it. Heading home on a regular road, no biggie. Over a slight rise, with a left bend (this was in England). Guy coming the other way in a car was on my side of the road. I avoided the head-on, but hit the gravel and endo-d. Forks, and a few other things were messed up. Broken wrist (like 10 of those little bones). Still bothers me. Bike was repaired, but never the same.

3. - Again, heading home (again, in England). Heading into a right-hand bend, been on it many times during the day. Truck (rig, not a pickup), with his brights on, coming towards me blinded me for a moment. That moment was enough for me to go off the road, hit the gravel, and end up with the bike upside down, stuck in a huge conifer hedge, about 4 feet above the ground. I was shaken, but OK. The bike was in pretty remarkable shape. Pulled it out - probably caused more damage there - and rode it home.

4. - This was my last get-off on the previous ST. It's detailed here, in the "Rider Down" category.

Here's to knocking on wood that I don't get off again - but that's unlikely.

Ghost Rider said:

It is often said little kids are so pliable they bounce rather than break. I've seen riders hit the pavement and yet pop right up and start walking around. Seeing if the bike is OK seems to be a universal reaction. The stunt riders seem to have no bones at all as they fall and then get right back on. I suppose they may later crawl under a bush and die like an animal hit by a car, but the road and off-road racers have horrible looking endos and "get-offs", then quite often just walk away.

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In the town where I live in one spring:

A primary school kid died when he drove a go kart too close to a pickup, taking the dropped tailgate in the forehead.

An elementary school kid died when hit by a passing train on the tracks next to a city park.

A middle school kid died when a grandmother allowed a small group of kids, the oldest aged 12, to use a car with a mechanical problem to tow fallen limbs.

A high school kid died when she lost control of her pickup while towing a horse in a trailer.

Four deaths in a matter of months in the same town, a town small enough it only has four public schools.

Children don't bounce. Their bodies and bones are more fragile than their parents, but their body masses are way less so most of the time significantly lower forces are generated when children fall than when adults fall. That's the physics of that fantasy. Children, like motorcyclists, often die.

As for self transport with injuries, I rode a bicycle home with a broken arm, and the same bike home with a toe hanging by a sliver of skin, and a motorcycle home with a flopping knee cap held in place with bailing wire, and the same motorcycle home with a forehead and an eye lid both needing sutures after a car wreck, walked my feet home with a finger hanging by a sliver of skin, walked the same feet home after chopping my foot with an axe, walking the same feet home after chopping my ankle with the same axe, driving myself home in a mail cart with a broken window needing sutures to hold the concussion in my head from a flying brick because I had a dear friend who was female and of color, ... . I can show you the scars. Lots of them.

I don't remember ever bouncing. Just getting up, doing self-care and self-rescue, often refusing the help of others because I wasn't sure they knew anything at all about first aid after seeing lots of well meaning people "help" others. I've also seen lots of people make things worse by getting up when the shouldn't have. I saw one guy rip his aorta with a broken rib when he bounced, and dying within 15 minutes from the internal bleeding. Bouncing can be very dangerous. Love yourself.

..........and a motorcycle home with a flopping knee cap held in place with bailing wire, and the same motorcycle home with a forehead and an eye lid both needing sutures.....

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I would suggest you sell that motorcycle!

Neither injury was from the motorcycle.