Let's see...just recently we had a beautiful 60 degree day and I went out for a ride on my Bottecchia Gran Turismo. On my way through Manitou Springs I came upon a shady spot with uneven pavement covered with water. The water was from the melting ice beneath. Too late I saw it and went down so fast I didn't have time to react. Fortunately it was so slick the only damage was a bit of bruising on my right hip and shoulder from the impact and a very minor bit of roadrash on my hip. The bike was fine, not a scratch on it but my white cotton bar tape was a dirty, stained mess. Lucky for me I had shellaced it but it was still a lot of scrubbing to get it clean.

More serious was the accident that took out my original Bottecchia back in '96 - I was on my way to class after work, right in the middle of rush hour, when the light turned red. Traffice was bumper to bumper and moving really slow as I coasted along the side of the road to the intersection. Before I got there the light turned and traffic started moving again. I was doing about 20-mph when I reached the intersection. Immediately to my left and slightly ahead of me was a tow-truck. He turned right at the intersection and took me out. I must have looked like a bug on his passenger side window. That all happened so fast I didn't have time to think but after I was on the ground I could see the big dually rear wheels comming at me. He stopped just in time. My helmet was crushed, my collarbone broken, and the right side of my chest and shoulder sore as hell. Initially I was pinned by my backpack pulling on my broken collar bone so I couldn't move until the paramedics cut the backpack off of me. IIRC now the Bottecchia suffered a crushed front wheel, bent handlebars, and the fork was jammed so I would guess there was some frame damage but that is just a guess. It didn't see any obvious damage so who knows.