Originally Posted by
quicktrigger
First, the fear. Sounds like you have gotten slapped in the face with the suddenly inescapable truth, that you REALLY ARE GOING TO GET OLDER AND ......
I think that is definitely a factor and may even be at the root of it. I'm not exactly at an age anyone would really consider "old" but I'm in my late '30s and the signs that mortality has been slowly beginning to creep up on me are becoming more apparent. (The most disturbing signal has been the steady retreat and thinning of the ranks in my hairline, but that's another story. lol)
Originally Posted by
knobster
As soon as I was able to get out to the garage, I sold the bike.
Oddly enough, the bike that the accident happened on was involved in every other crash I'd had in the previous decade. It may have been coincidence since I was riding it more than my other bikes for a while because they were usually in some state of rebuilding or restoration. I was more of the mindset at the time that it was jinxed.
To be fair though, I've never had a serious crash on my Sekine 10-speed, and it's been under my butt for many tens of thousands of kilometres. The mountain bike I was riding in the accident had only seen at best half the distance but had managed to find a way to fail, flip or otherwise dump me onto pavement every so many years.
TL;DR - Not long after the accident I stripped it for parts and relieved myself of the frame. Good riddance.
Originally Posted by
Retro Grouch
I did some serious soul searching about whether I wanted to post this for everybody to see. Normally I'm a bit on the introverted side and prefer to let experiences like this pass unnoticed by others. What goes through my mind, however, is if my experience can somehow benefit somebody else. Thanks for your story. It makes me feel better to know that I'm not the only one.
I'm glad my story helped you. I too am usually fairly introverted about such things and wasn't totally comfortable displaying quite this level of vulnerability on a public forum. I was hesitant about hitting that submit button after writing it.
I was hoping that it would not only be therapeutic for me to get it out, but would also encourage others to share their stories of getting "the fear" put into them from an incident and talk about how they got over it.
Your willingness to share your experience is also encouraging to me. It didn't really occur to me at the time I wrote the post that it might also help others in a similar situation, but I'm glad it has - even it's just a small amount. Now I have to get riding more not just for me - but to help encourage you as well.
To everyone else that I might not have directly responded to - thank you for your encouragement, stories and insights. The overall positive response I've received here so far has been very touching and is helping me to steel my nerves to commit to this.
To be completely honest, I was afraid this thread would immediately sink to the bottom of the forum and I would discover that I was entirely alone in this headspace I'd gotten into.
Although I did not ride today or yesterday, I will be doing so tomorrow with my wife and hopefully on the weekend as well if the weather is cooperative. I needed to take a day or two off to allow my saddle-region a break. The seat on my main ride is fairly new (or at least barely used since it was put on) and I'm not sure yet which one of us is getting broken in.