Veloduo,

After riding a Trek T200 for a couple years, we bought a new Santana TeamTi700 in March of 2001. Two weeks later we T-boned a dog that was going for my ankles and changed it's mind at the last second. Being Michigan, and March, we were well dressed. We both ended up with very sore ribs, shoulders, and heads. The couple we were riding with were on the maiden voyage of their new Santana Sovereign. They were able to avoid us, and being only a couple miles from their house, they gave us a ride home.

We were traveling about 17 mph when we went down and suffered equal injuries (the dog was uninjured). The homeowners insurance of the dog's owner was responsible for replacing our broken helmets, damaged clothing & damaged components.

Since that day we have put almost 20,000 miles on our tandem without incident. I believe that you simply had some bad luck. If it were possible to prepare completely for any event, we wouldn't need helmets.

Rick