p2000

I've fallen a couple times with little more than a few bumps & bruises. Today I pulled the big dummy. I was going home from work, thinking about a few things I needed to do. I hit the wrong button on my Cat Eye (I wanted to swap and cadence/rpm display) so I was going through the matrix to get it back to my screen. The avenue I was riding down has a lot of potholes so I guess I was looking ahead just enough to see the street. As I got back to the mph display everything went horribly wrong in about a nanosecond.

I saw the mph of 21.3 and thought 'Cool. Not too bad since I have been basically coasting.' Immediately something else came into my periphery from the front. It was the trailer of the guy who was pressure washing the bus stop. I pulled left even though it was too late. The bike missed the bumper but hit the fender. My shoulders went right and popped off the back of the pressure washer. Landing knocked the wind out of me. I tacoed the front wheel. I thought I broke: my right shoulder and forearm, right knee and shin.

Needless to say I think I am fortunate. No broken bones, nothing other than a bent rim (full carbon bike) and a severely bruised ego from realizing I just hit a parked object. I picked up a new Krysium (which I wanted to do anyway, just not right now) and one other thing I have never worn. A helmet. That is how I know I am lucky. I didn't hit my head on anything and I'm not sure why. But it scared me enough to not tempt fate again. Anyway I just thought I'd pass this on. I guess maybe a little humility is good for a guy.

KyTrekrider

Glad your safe and are going to start wearing a helmet. Hopefully, that will be the last time you come close to needing one. Thanks for sharing.

dsilver668

Ouch that so stinks.. Yup good to hear you are warring a helmet now. I hate the thought of crashing. It does go to show you with all the new fangled technology it is easy to get distracted. I use my Blackburn for three things. Time, MPH, and heart rate if I ware my chest strap. thats it, I don't have to touch a thing.

rjs0702

hope you went out and got that helmet man. You don't want to not be so fortunate next time.

Szczuldo

whats with all the helmet threads today. Did I miss something in todays stage of the Tour? I don't see any other reason for the influx of helmet related posts. And come on it's the 9th, there is no way everybody decided to crash on a Wednesday the 9th, Friday the 13th would've been acceptable but Wednesday the 9th doesn't have that ring to it.

But glad you are ok. Something similar happened to a friend of mine many years back. First time on a bike in years for him and luckily he was going slow and all that happened to the parked car was a broken taillight, and of course a pissed off owner of the car.

Tulex

Stupid thing is, some idiot will post days from now the same thing. I don't get why people have to "be lucky" to get it. Idiots.

saintsfan342000

Actually, this came first:
https://www.bikeforums.net/road-cycling/439058-bad-crash-w-story-some-pix.html

But two no-helmet crash threads in the same day...amazing.

Camilo

This and another thread today involved pretty significant crashes for people not wearing helmets.

How come whenever people crash with helmets, and the helmet is in some way marked (scratched, cracked, etc) it is nearly universally accepted as evidence that helmets are important to wear.

How come whenever people crash without helmets and do not receive serious head injuries, it is not universally used as evidence that helmets aren't all that important?

Just curious, and showing why using anecdotal evidence is worthless.

Camilo

People kind of disparage them, but this is an example of why I think my Flight Deck computer is the best I've ever owned in 15 or so years of using several differnt brands: the hood buttons. Absolutely the safest design available, and well worth it if you have Flight Deck compatable shifters. You can easily do this sort of thing (go through the display functions) with both hands on the bars and at least one eye, if not both, on the road.

gregf83 

Don't really want to turn this into a thread about wearing helmets but anecdotal evidence of a helmet successfully preventing an injury illustrates that there is a non-zero probability that you will hit your head in an accident. It does'nt tell you what your odds of hitting your head are just that there is a chance you will have an impact. Given the trivial effort it takes to put on a helmet that is reason enough for most people to wear helmets.

On the other hand, anecdotal evidence as provided by the OP simply illustrates that there is a chance you won't bump your head in an accident. That tells us that not every accident results in an impact to your head. Interesting but not a sufficient reason to go helmetless.

ejm876

I went down today as well.

p2000

Well today I was the idiot. I guess I didn't have to "be lucky" to get it. Fact is I know I was lucky up to this point. It was more of an epiphany. A realization of that previous luck coupled with a sudden lack of desire to test the theory of what might happen next time. That's all. Plus I'd hate to dent up that guys real nice pressure washer with my forehead.

Beaker

To be definitive, you'd need to know what proportion of people who crash sans helmet don't injure their head vs the number that do; and there's probably a good reason why we don't hear from many people in the second category.

LanceFanBoy

Just thinking the same thing, wake up guys! Glad you're ok tho OP.