I had my first non-solo geared ride today (I've only been riding about a month and so far only on a fixed gear). I borrowed my friend's Raleigh with 8 speed downtube shifters and he was on his S-Works. I needed to swap out the pedals (Crank Brothers Candy SL) from my fixed gear over to his Raleigh. Man, those littles buggers were on there pretty snug, I ended up busting my knuckles a bit on the chainring when I was finally able to get the first one free. A quick cleanup later and we were on the road by 11am.
The plan was a leisurely 12 mile ride. About 3 miles in, I got a little antsy being on his back wheel and decided to hammer past him mainly as a joke since I'm quite certain he could drop me at any time with little effort. So, off I went and he just kept his pace. I let up a bit at the top of a short climb and he got back on my wheel. I noticed he was breathing fairly heavily but I didn't think too much of it.
After a few minutes he yelled out that he might have to pull off and "open the purge valve" since he has a weak stomach. I kind of thought he was joking but since I've never ridden with him before I took him at least a little bit seriously.
Another slight climb was ahead of us and I held my pace and he was right with me. A couple minutes later I take a glance back and notice my buddy way back. Sure enough, he had pulled off to the side of the road. I doubled back and when I got to him he was just about finished yacking up his morning coffee.
I asked if he was ok and he said he was fine. In fact, he said he was feeling better so we continued on. I decided to let him lead and set the pace and he seemed fine with that. Off we went.
We are now at about mile number six and cruising at about 18-20 mph in a very low traffic older residential neighborhood. I'm on my friend's right side, maybe five feet off his front wheel. I noticed that he was turning his head towards me as though to tell me something. Just as he did this, I noticed a speed bump maybe three feet in front of his wheel. I started to yell "look out!" but it was too late. He never even saw it and plowed right into it. Up and over his bars he went. He managed to unclip in the air and his bike went off to the right a bit and he went off to the left. I was able to slow down just enough and got over the speed bump without much of a problem. I stopped right beside him and he was just laying face down and groaning. He said his shoulder was hurting and I began to look him over for any obvious road rash being sure not to move him at this point just in case he had any serious injuries.
He continued to lay there and eventually looked like he was trying to roll over and sit up. This didn't last too long and he returned to his face down position. He then asked me to help him roll over and when he got himself righted he immediately grabbed his left shoulder with his right hand. At this point I thought to myself broken collar bone. A few seconds later he said that he also thought it was a broken collar bone.
I found my friend's cell phone in his jersey pocket and asked him who he wanted me to call. I was about to call an ambulance when he stopped me and said to call his wife instead. I didn't argue with him about it and gave her a call. I calmly explained to her what happened and she said she would be right there.
In the meantime I had managed to fashion a sling out of my friend's jersey in order to get his arm and shoulder as stable as possible. All I could do was stay there with him and keep his as comfortable as possible and give him water and whatnot. It sucked, I felt so helpless.
About ten minutes later his wife arrived and I loaded the bikes in the back of their pickup truck as she got my friend in the passenger seat. Off to the hospital we went.
After doping my friend up with some painkillers and taking some x-rays, sure enough, it was a broken collar bone. They said it was a clean break that shouldn't require surgery, just plenty of time to heal.
That's about it for my (first) "Sunday Ride Report". Hopefully I'll fare better on future rides than my friend did on this one.
I guess it's back to riding solo for me.
