Triathlon - Totaled My Two Month Old P2C

Avoiding a dumb lady in a car who made an unsafe left turn into a shopping center with no indication so she might save like 30 seconds. Locked up the brakes to avoid her hood, flipped, broke both wrists, separated my shoulder, and cracked my helmet clear through (thank god).

Was riding with my Jet 60s and Powertap, which i think escaped okay.

Worst part? Once I realized I was going to be okay (hear about surgery on the wrists tomorrow), I got bummed that I'll never find 2008 P2C Dura Ace build in 54. How sick is that? And, I'm a bop'er 7 hour 70.3 finisher who took up the sport post knee surgeries. Love that paint job, and would sleep with my bike if my wife would let me.

I figure when I get the hard casts, I can put my roadbike in the trainer and drop those bad boys right in the pads.

http://i213.photobucket.com/albums/cc181/dsweingard/wrist.jpg

ouch!!

What's a p2c?

Glad you're alive!

Any photos of whats left of the bike?

What's a p2c?

A very sweet carbon frame made by Cervelo.
www.cervelo.com
Dwayne

Better the bike than you. Now that you survived a near death experience, go out and treat yourself to a P4 all done up.. Glad you are relatively OK.

Sorry to hear about the accident. Can you replace the frame and use your existing DA gruppo? I'm sure there are P2C framesets to be had out there.

look into crash replacement if your interested
you may circumnavigate some red tape and lbs hustle going that way

Thanks.

I reconstructed the damage, jfk-style. When I flipped over, the bars took a hard left as I went hard right (evidenced by the crack in the front right of the helmet). The Vision base bar end went straight for the top tube, hitting it with such force that it cracked nearly all the way through, and in fact riding over the top.

The Gruppo looks salvageable, though i probably wouldnt risk the carbon cranks. Aero bars, Hydrotail, wheels look okay. Been hearing the DA frameset not widely findable in 54, anywhere.

No evidence of a shooter in the grassy knoll.

Glad you made it out alive - How about the role of the insurance companies in this situation?

DA Frameset? Maybe I'm missing what you mean.

Are you getting any compensation for your bike and injuries? That's an awful accident - you're a trooper for keeping smiling!

First, I'm glad to see you are alive, and thinking about things in a somewhat good light. I can't imagine getting hit by a car.

Second, your local bike store is a great resource for these types of things. They can help you with replacement(yeah it probably won't be the exact same colors but will be the same design), giving estimates of replacement and probably support from the local bike community.

Also, I hope this lady has insurance. I don't think lawsuits are the answer but make sure an accident report is filed and that you receive it.

Best of luck with your recovery. I've seen wrist casts that are suitable for bike riding once you are further along in the healing process, I'll search for the link. I will be looking forward to your updates.

Stay positive and best of luck!

Number one, I'm glad you're okay. Thank God, really. Good attitude you have, that will come in handy through recovery. I'm not a lawyer, I don't even play one on television, but as I understand it from friends in the insurance biz, and who have been in your shoes on the receiving end, if the driver is ruled to be at fault the equation should be pretty basic:

Car hits you = new bike

Since it's new I would think you would get total replacement cost, but that's just me trying to be logical :)
I'm sure she wasn't gunning for you and I'm definitely not saying you should get a new custom Guru out of the deal, but it seems reasonable that the insurance company should give you enough to buy exactly what you had. I've seen sunrise cyclery recently say they had all sizes of 08 in stock.

Get well soon (at least it's the off season!!!)

Thanks again. When I said DA Frameset, what I mean is that I bought the DA build (and then upgraded the wheels, the aerobars) and in repacement, my pref would be either the DA build or just the frameset (white, black and red). I'd rather not build it up completely, but I would if forced to. I really don't like the 2009 Frameset color, the red, gray and black. I only want a P2C, Plainsman. I like the Guru, but I loved my bike, I loved everything about it.

She had insurance. That is good. I will have to fight them probably. I am still waiting for the police report and when I get it, I will start the process. The worst thing for my "case" is that I never actually hit her car. I stopped short of hitting her right fender and going over the hood and into the windshield. Because I was forced to evade, she will argue that I caused my own injuries. But, she made an unsafe left turn, I had the right of way, she forced me to take evasive action to avoid hitting the car, and I had no alternative (veering right, I would have gone into the curb, veering left, I would have gone into other oncoming traffic). In retrospect, I would always take flipping my bike over and stopping short of hitting the car then the alternative. We shall see.

I still have work to do on my recovery, may still need an x ray on my neck which is still hurting, but I will get on the recumbent bike this weekend, and they say (neck permitting) I will be able to run in 3 weeks.

Look, if I have to get the yucky white, red and gray, I'll deal. There are worse things. Heck, I don't even "rate" a P2C, I'm too slow.

One possible alternative is getting a raw (unpainted) frame from Cervelo and having it custom painted. The guy who won my age group at IMAZ did that and it was one of the coolest bikes I've seen. There was a photo of it in Triathlete. It may cost you a few hundred $ more but it's a very cool option.

Maybe the way to go if I get a sense the woman's carrier is going to do the right thing. There was recently a custom painted R&A Cervelo in Slowtwitch that looked amazing. (and it was a simple blue and white).

Hey, I found a 54 frame in 2008 paint job with the Funda fork (mine had the Wolf CL), get this, at my neighborhood LBS. Not the place I bought my frame (cause I got 10 percent off frame, and another 15 percent off the DA upgraded brake calipers), but the place I go to service my bike. And, he had two! I put a deposit down on it so they cannot sell it out from under me, while I wait for Dumb Lady's insurance to surface.

Feel lucky now.