helmets save

I seriously didnt know what happened. I was so excited to go this morning; finally there was a warm day in december, and I headed out early to take advantage of it. It recently snowed here in Rockville, MD or there was alot of salt and gravel on the road still. I was just going straight down this local neighborhood road and before i knew it. My front wheel hit a small pothole, well what I thought was a small pothole. The front wheel and handlebars got kicked up out of my hands. The handlebars started to move sharply on their own. Before I knew it, I was thrown onto the side of the road, with tore up clothes. It all happened so fast, I was going roughly 25 mph last time I looked at my computer before the crash.

The only damage is my front wheel tacoed and rip cycling clothes. I know the wheel can get repaired, but what about the cycling clothes. Just try to sow up the clothes and head out again??? In addition, the more important reason why I am posting is that, I was not quite sure if i hit my head against the ground. Should i play it safe and assume I did and purchase a new helmet. Or just check the condition of the helmet. There are no scraps on the helmet but i want to play it safe. What is your take on this? Its a fair nice Giro Monza, I know not the top of the line, but still cost some money.

In addition, how do you handle potholes, in the road. It looked so small and I have been down that road so many times. This has never happened before. It just looked like a small indent in the road.

euphoria

Who made the helmet? I know Trek will inspect the helmet as long as you pay postage. Check the manufacturer's website.

WD_40

I'm sorry to hear about your bad luck. I hope you heal quickly!

I usually make it a point to avoid any kind of irregularity in the road, if at all possible. Once I caught a pothole out my peripheral vision at about 30mph. I couldn't get around it, so I bunnyhopped it at the last second.

Granted, you can't always avoid things like that. I guess my point is, avoid them when you can... hang on and hope for the best when you can't.

As for the helmet, if it were me, I wouldn't worry about it. In my head-hitting experiences, I have clearly remembered them, and that includes hitting my head hard enough to be knocked out through a full-face motorcycle helmet. If you hit your head hard enough to forget it, then I'm sure there would be visible damage to your helmet's shell.

Once again, I hope you heal quickly!

DocRay

If you didn't hit your head or even scratch the helmet, it is likely ok. Bell will inspect a helmet for free, I don't think Giro has this policy.

Check for any deformation or cracks in the foam, if it fits the same, etc. Bike helmets are not like other sports helmets, they are designed to work well, once only. Since you can't detect a scratch, you likely did not impact your head.

Sounds like you tweaked the front wheel and did an endo -you got off lucky. There's your xmas present for 05.

Barcelona rider

Dude ou got off luckily. You could have been killed. Road rash is great cos you know you are alive if you can feel it. Good riders anticipate pot holes or know how to ride through or over them. Maybe you flew up cos your bike is set up incorrectly. We all go down sooner or later. Just we hope it is with a helmet. Learn from this ad be a smoother rider. Look at risk limitation esp in the winter where noone should ride too fast or take risks. Better to live a longer life and go less rapidlthen to be a stupid risk taker and pretend we are riding some pro race all day. Get well soon fella.

craign04

bell and giro are the same company so if bell will inspect helmets i would assume giro would as well

SF Biker

I look out waaay ahead. If I am in a paceline I will go around it and point it out to others.

If all else fails I have bunny hopped them You have to commit and it must be like a reaction, not thinking about it.

Caution: land it short and ouch to the rear wheel and/or your body.

Raleighman

I have cracked two helmets and each time I did not recall my head hitting the road until I had inspected my helmet. Sounds like you were lucky as far as injuries goes. Check the outside for scrapes or scratches and the inside foam for cracks. They should be fairly easy to find if they are there. If in doubt, buy a new one. Your worth it.

Serpico

arrr! that sucks you taco'ed the wheel

glad you're okay though

msheron

Avoid any road object..............your lucky at 25 mph. I had my first some time back but at a much slower speed. Still have a bruise on my left hip!

Hipcycler

...did someone say hip?

To the OP:
Slow dow!
Seriously....when you have poor conditions 25 is pretty quick to react to all kinds of potential hazards in the road at this time of year.

Try to look farther ahead, but that's not always a given either.
You said you had just looked down at your computer. See...it's all about timing. Maybe had you not looked you would have seen the pothole and avoided it.

Who knows....but this could have been MUCH worse for you. Learn from it and move on.

And oh yeah...get your helmet checked.

chimivee

********************!

helmets save

I just stopped by at the LBS they tried to true the wheel again. There is no hope in saving it. The rim is dead perfect but there is just one point where it just totally rubs against the inside of the fork. So it is an early xmas present, a new wheel. I guess thank god I wasnt riding a really high bike, becuase I am sure damages would have been alot.

Acutally, you guys are right about being lucky. There could have been a car behind me and I think that could have caused some serious injury. I guess now after a crash it just takes some riding to get back into things???

Thanks for the input.

Bob S.

I did not start riding with a helmet until very recently. What caused me to start using one was that I became aware that my sons were watching me. I have always detested those that say, but not do. So, I started wearing a helmet & have been tough on my 2 boys requiring that they use them.

Last week, my younger son biked down the street to a buddys house. The boys started farting around on Pogo sticks. My son hit a spot of wet leaves on the sloped driveway and went down hard, right on the back of his head. Fortunately, he had not taken off his bike helmet yet. Simply, it cracked & distorted the entire back end of it.

Talk about luck. I am sure glad that I didn't cheap out when I bought those helmets. I have already given him my spare helmet to use till we can get him a new one. Bob