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First crash! Woo.
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 2009-09-06 3:28 PM |
Member  63  Milwaukee, WI |  Subject: First crash! Woo.I got to experience my first real crash today. My first non-real crash involved railroad tracks and me going about 7 mph, so I don't count it. My friend and I were about 15 miles into our 40 mile ride today on a nice little country road. We were riding on the shoulder and I subconsciously knew that at some point, the shoulder suddenly stopped and gave way to gravel. I was not paying attention and missed the point where I should have turned onto the road slightly and instead went off onto the gravel shoulder. No big deal, I thought, and made sure to not make any sudden movements and to slow down. We were going about 20 mph when I went into the gravel. Suddenly my back wheel slide out to the right and my front wheel went sliding to the left and hopped back onto the road. I lost complete control, toppled over into the road, and began the wonderful slide down the road. My skewer ends, handlebars/handlebar tape, and left pedal took all the damage from what I can tell. I have some weird squeaking now that I need to get checked out. Otherwise, the bike is fine. I got my first case of road rash on my thigh (woooo), some lovely headaches, and some cuts up and down my legs and arms. I now understand why cyclists shave their legs. I also ended up cracking my helmet all the way through. This only helped cement the idea that helmets save lives, so wear those helmets! I'll be keeping the helmet and using it to show my 70 freshmen residents why they need to wear helmets when commuting around campus! This may be weird, but after I looked over my bike and didn't see any really bad damage... I was sort of excited to get my first crash out of the way. Woo, cycling. Edited by JRL 2009-09-06 3:36 PM |
| 2009-09-06 3:32 PM in reply to: #2392413 |
Pro 4828   The Land of Ice and Snow | Subject: RE: First crash! Woo. Pictures of aforementioned rash please!!! |
| 2009-09-06 3:43 PM in reply to: #2392413 |
| Extreme Veteran 664 Minneapolis | Subject: RE: First crash! Woo. Sounds eerily similar to what just about happened to me this morning during my race... I was hammering down a flat stretch, and distracted by an annoying rattle that just developed (turned out to be my CO2 cartridge coming loose on its rack attachment) - when I glanced back up, I was right on the edge of the road (literally!!!) - there was a ~1 inch drop-off from the asphalt down to gravel, and I was right on the edge of it, flying along... It was one of those moments when time slows to a crawl... Somehow, I managed to to drift back the right way and carefully eek away from the edge. |
| 2009-09-06 4:20 PM in reply to: #2392413 |
| Extreme Veteran 532 South Park, PA | Subject: RE: First crash! Woo. eesh. glad you are ok.
you could also show those freshman this video http://news.aol.com/article/video-shows-wisconsin-lawmaker-fred/650758.
you may want to show it to the scooter riders too. I remember thinking how crazy they are to ride around without helmets up there. |
| 2009-09-06 4:41 PM in reply to: #2392413 |
Expert 770 Long Island, NY | Subject: RE: First crash! Woo. I had my first one this week, too. Flying up a bridge overpass and started moving to the right as the road got wider, I moved between two concrete plates right where the filler in the expansion joints disappeared. My front wheel dropped in and, being in aero at the time, I couldn't pull it up. Within a split second the wheel wedged and catapulted me over the bars and on to my head. The helmet smashed, and I rolled hard on my right shoulder and hip and slid to a stop. Bike has a scrape on the brake lever and derailleur. I took it worse, but nothing is broken but the helmet. Bumps, bruises and road rash to heal up are my only issues. Glad you made it out OK, too. |
| 2009-09-06 4:59 PM in reply to: #2392413 |
Expert 1690 | Subject: RE: First crash! Woo. I had a friend go through the windshield of a car head first, only thing that saved his life was his helmet. ALWAYS WEAR IT! Glad your ok |
| 2009-09-06 8:23 PM in reply to: #2392413 |
Regular 72 Lancaster County, PA | Subject: RE: First crash! Woo. I'll add my cheers that you are well. And my own incident from today. I'm three weeks into a field trip (work slang for a business trip which in my profession actually takes place in fields - in this case fields of corn in SEMO) and have finally been able to get a good ride in. An hour and a half in I find myself headed back to town on the same road I headed out. Not paying attention to the actual riding of the bike, I'm checking out the scenery (it is quite nice around here) when I smell the strangely familiar smell of burning wood. Hmm. With one swing of the head (like a swivel from many, many bilateral breathing exercises in the pool), I notice flames licking up the side of a telephone pole! With no obvious regard for my own safety (actually, it was very stupid to do this on a road that I have no experience with and I was wearing earbuds) I took a sharp left across both lanes and into the first driveway I see. Gravel, of course. (I see a trend on this thread) Miss Adeline can't handle the sudden loss of friction and pushes into a sideways two wheeled slide at the freefall rate of crazy fast. Somehow, my still tight and tender (from a stupid curb incident) left ankle subconsciously twisted out of the pedals and landed flat enough for me to get my hands down to keep from face planting and requiring EMT's in addition to the Firefighters. Miss Adeline survived with on a couple scratches on the left pedal and will need new bar tape. I got the homeowners out and we were able to douse the fire before it could spread. No injuries and no pictures, unfortunately. What a way to put a first crash on the books. To quote the OP, "Woo, cycling." |
| 2009-09-06 8:51 PM in reply to: #2392413 |
Champion 7136 Knoxville area | Subject: RE: First crash! Woo. |
| 2009-09-06 9:42 PM in reply to: #2392413 |
Master 1890 Cypress, CA | Subject: RE: First crash! Woo. I don't think you really understand about road rash until it scabs over. I had a smallish patch on my knee this summer (from a really stupid fall), and it wasn't bad while I was riding for the next couple of days and it stayed kind of open, but once it got a scab on it it hurt when my pants hit it and I could hardly bend my knee. That sucked. |
| 2009-09-13 9:52 PM in reply to: #2392413 |
Member 13 Northern Illinois | Subject: RE: First crash! Woo. I had my first crash earlier this summer as well but I got taken out by a Harley and then hit the ground. Every part of my bike had to be repaired/replaced except the frame. Both wheels, both pedals, bars, sprocket, and rear derailleur was junk. The frame was untouched and was the only thing that didn't need work. I got scrapped up quite a bit and it took six weeks for the rash to go away. I was pretty lucky. |
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