 On July 29 , 1966 , Dylan crashed his <unk> Triumph Tiger 100 motorcycle near his home in Woodstock , New York and was thrown to the ground . Though the extent of his injuries was never disclosed , Dylan said that he broke several vertebrae in his neck . <unk> still surrounds the circumstances of the accident since no ambulance was called to the scene and Dylan was not hospitalized . Dylan 's biographers have written that the crash offered Dylan the chance to escape the pressures around him . Dylan confirmed this interpretation in his autobiography : " I had been in a motorcycle accident and I 'd been hurt , but I recovered . Truth was that I wanted to get out of the rat race . " Dylan withdrew from public and , apart from a few appearances , did not tour again for almost eight years . 
