Battle Scars
 

Since we here on C&V seem to work on bikes the most, we probably have our fair share of battle scars or at least war stories. I'll give you a funny picture of today.
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_Os80BGPtmH8/S1...20scar%202.JPG
My girlfriend hit the bridge of her nose on the sync chain on our tandem (see, it's hanging on the wall) and it left a nice little boo-boo which she gets to tell all her friends about.
What war stories and battle scars do all of you have to share?
-Gene-

I was riding two bikes at one time down a hill and lost control and got some pretty bad road-rash on my left knee. It is C&V related because I was riding my Ciocc and pushing/holding an old Raleigh I found at the dump....not one of my better moments.

I got my jeans caught in the chain ring, and they got totally frayed!

U08 death-fork related injury, full header. Messed my knee up so bad I couldn't ride for 2 months. My right thumb has also never really felt the same since.
http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=133618
http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=133619
http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=133620


I consider myself lucky though, I had a catastrophic wheel failure that happened literally 20 seconds after a 35-mph hill descent.:twitchy:

That's brutal! Ouch...

I was riding some gas pipe abomination home that I picked up at the dump. Had brand new 27" tires on it that I needed, but I had no tools to remove them or the wheels. When I was nearly home I really hammered it while standing up to go up hill. The rear freewheel stripped out and I slipped off the pedals. Problem was that the bike was a large frame and had a very high standover height. When I came down I missed the seat and hit the top tube with a bad part of my body. It hurt so bad that I fell off the bike and landed on my elbow, leaving a nasty gash. By that point I was only going >5mph since it was uphill, so I didn't get any road rash. Couldn't walk for awhile though.

Oy...so many to chose from.

The worst recent one was really irritating because it was just so stupid and careless of me. I had just put new cleats into my shoes and neglected to loosen the pedal tension. I got to a red light, couldn't get out and just tipped over. I saw it all happening in slow motion and knew I was going to go down before it happened...so I positioned my body to take most of the fall in an effort from saving the bike from damage. That one seriously hurt...both my pride and my hip.

The scar from my road rash 1-1/2 years ago is almost invisible now. Based on history, I'm not due for a crash for another 38 years. :D

One of my best was when I rode thru some broken glass. Riding only sew-ups back in the day, I would take my gloved hand and wipe the front and rear tires as I rode to hopefully brush away the debris. I did it so much it was just habit, didnt really think about it and I could reach down to the rear and front tires with ease. So this one time I reach down to the front tire with my right hand, not looking, just feeling for the fork crown so that I could glove the tire with my palm. All of a sudden my thumb got drawn into the space between the fork crown and tire behind the fork. Couldnt pull it out as the front wheel jammed my thumb in as it spun. I had to reach for the brake with my other hand and bring the bike to a stop. Ahh the smell of burning flesh, the pain was excruciating. My thumb was just a oozing black and red mess. I was about 6-7 miles from home, and the only way to get there was to ride. It was miserable. Neadless to say I have no "fingerprint" on that thumb.

I had a few decent crashes (knock on wood, nothing for a while) but this would probably top them all:

Minneapolis, MN. Grad student. About 1990 or whereabouts. Used to live in Northeast MPLS and commute by bike to the U (a straight forward 5 mile commute in the morning, but I took a good roundabout loop along all 3 city lakes for a nice 30 mile loop on my way back - gotta get that mileage RDA). And I don't remember the street (for my fellow Minnesotans) but it was a nice and traffic busy downhill between Lake Calhoon and Lake of the Isles. March. Sweet downhill. Doing 35 (cars tell me I am not riding a vehicle) Light snow, disguised half a foot deep pothole (thanks scrapers) , front wheel in the pothole, wants to taco. I feel that and bent right lifting my precious front wheel off harm's end. Right knee scraped the pavement for 15 yards downhill, crank digging into it (for some obscure reason I was riding the middle front cog instead of the big one to go downhill, and it is my bad)... but.. I know how to fall and my rear end absorbed most of the action, but dragging a crank stuck to your knee for a while is not a pleasant thought. The kicker was that I was about 10 miles away from home and I had to make it happen after that mess. Bike was ok (fell on me - priorities :) ), my right knee was hmmmmm, but I had 2 feet and one good knee to go (10 miles - a spit in the bucket- but all uphill; heck it's good to be young.) Went to the md next day. Nothing broken, prescribed an amazing quantity of ibuprofen and I was good to ride in a couple weeks (I broke a plastic Kestler a month after that, but that's a different story...)

Gene,

I gotta ask. How did the sync chain rise up to wack your girlfriend right between the eyes? She's got a nice smile BTW.

-Shin

EDIT: Wait, this didn't happen while riding, did it? No, she sat up and wacked it while it was hanging on the wall, correct?

Correct on number 2, Shin. There's a window just behind the bike, and she didn't see the chain and hit her head right on it. She didn't realize it was bleeding till I looked at it.
She jokingly mentioned looking like Harry Potter at one point.

As far as this thread, I only have three wrecks to my name.
Slipped my back tire on sand, dislocated my shoulder. I still have problems with that shoulder from time to time.
Shifted under load and somehow got kickback from my freewheel and the bike threw me. Had some nice marks on my legs and hands from that one.
And the worst. I was riding no handed fixing my sleeves and as I went back down to the bars, I must've shifted my butt wrong or something and somehow I ended up in front of my bike with some nasty road rash (Though nowhere near Oregon Southpaws) on my legs, elbows, and quite a bit on my hands. I have visible scars from this accident, and a dime size scar on my right hand from it.
That was last... March? April? I don't know. I stayed off the bike (aside from commuting) for a while after that.
A lot happened after that, and I've just recently started recreational rides again, though on the rollers.
-Gene-

Some years back, I dropped the heavy aluminum flywheel cover from a Volvo on the bridge of my nose when I was removing it. When I saw that picture it was the first thing I thought of.

I guess I've been lucky so far with only one injury that was five years ago. I was riding in March and there still was a lot of loose gravel on the roads from the winter plowing. I made a sharp right turn, hit the gravel and laid the bike down on the right size, bounced hard with the bike still attached via the clipless pedals, and right off the road and into a ditch. I got up and was hurting pretty good but couldn't see the extent of the injuries because I was wearing winter riding gear.

I had to ride home, 20 miles, with a cracked rear derailleur that would only shift into two gears out of nine, and a lot of pain on my right side. Once I got back to the shop where the ride started, I peeled away the right arm warmer and my skin came with it. I have a nice scar there and another on my right hip. Still, I remember getting out for a ride the very next day, albeit a slow one.

Fingers crossed, I haven't crashed since.

-Shin

I was thinking that this was a story for different type of forum. :innocent:


I was out for a ride:commute: when I got caught in a downpour. :winter2: Keeping my head down glancing up at the road every so often to keep from getting pelted by hail when "WHAMM" I hit a parked car. :bike2:
I was emberassed beyond words and quickly got up and rode off. :speedy: (there was no damage)

Btw, Who puts a car alarm on a 80's buick? :notamused:

Oh haha, she was sitting on my bed on her laptop and stuck her head out the window for some fresh air, and to check out the brewing storm clouds.
-Gene-

I'm pretty lucky, I've been riding for three years, and I only had one significant wreck. I was riding with one of my buddies down a hill, and for some reason he slowed down... I destroyed two wheels, my front wheel, and his rear wheel, and bent my rack and handlebars. I then had to purchase two wheels, I got a match for his, but now my custom 27 speed flat bar road/touring bike has mismatched rims, and no rack...

Oh yeah... he hurt his hip, and I put a nice tear down the leg of my Levi's and got some road rash.

I dare not say when the last time was that I went down on a bike was. But that is counter-balanced by the on-going preemptive skin cancer war that has left me with enough scars to more than make up for that. I have no photos of the former, and will spare you photos of the later.

Sorry to hear about that cuda2k.
I can't imagine what that's like.
-Gene-

11-12 years ago, hit a dog while riding a Technium. Dog died, Technium died, I had a spoke in my calf, bkn wrist, collarbone, some rash.
I had to tote the bike home.....I was riding to rehabilitate from a running injury.

The only real scars I have are from Lebanon 82-83.

Gene, I think you really started this thread to show us how terribly cute your girlfriend is.

I'll offer my war stories anyway.

I had THREE accidents in one year. It was 1982. I had returned from a three-month cycle tour of Europe. Back in New York, my home town, having been away at college in Boston and then a drop-out year. I was riding to work one day and ...

I woke up in the hospital in a lot of pain. The doctor hovering over me said that he saw the accident and called for the ambulance. The woman who hit me was useless. She got out of the car, put her hands on her head and screamed.

I was hit head-on. I don't remember the impact or the ambulance ride! My helmet and bike were crushed. Oddly, I only suffered a concussion, bruises and small cuts. I was in a lot of pain but since I had just escaped death, I was in a very good mood. I was positively jocular, which my father didn't understand or appreciate.

I recovered after about four weeks. It was scary to ride after that.

Another accident I had that year, I was out for a fun ride. I hit a bump which knocked my hands off the handlebars, leaving my elbows on the handlebars. It wasn't long before I lost control. My front wheel turned to the side, and I went over the handlebars. Boy, did that hurt. I landed on my back. The guy driving behind me skidded loudly to a stop. He gave me a ride home.

Then I was horsing around with friends in the park. I tried to give one friend a Madison Sprint style push, but my hand was on the drop of the bar, not near the stem, so I threw myself off balance. This wasn't a bad fall, but I did whack my helmetted head against the ground pretty hard.

Don't make me tell this story again. :)

This picture was taken about a week after the incident, but yeah, it was some pretty gnarly road rash.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...i/roadrash.jpg

My only bad crash was in October 2007. No pics.

I was riding in the right edge of the right lane of a 5 lane street. I hit a seam between the roadway and a curbcut for a driveway while going about 15 mph. I went down in a flash. Luckily, after my initial landing, I bounced into the grass beside the road. My bike, however stayed in the traffic lane. Luckily, no cars were coming along so I scrambled over and picked it up.

My right knee was bleeding, my right thumb was bleeding, my right elbow was bleeding, and my right side was sore. The wounds were mostly just abrasions. Other than some minor scrapes, and some slightly torn bar tape, my bike was OK. BTW, I still had 5 miles to ride to get home, too.

The really part was this happened on a Thursday and my daughter was getting married on Saturday, two days later. So, I had to do all the wedding aisle walking, dancing, etc with sore ribs, bandaged hand, bandaged elbow, and bandaged knee. Ibuprofen and beer can be your friends.

Two and a half years later, I can still see the darkened skin wear the scrapes were.

I went riding with Ms. Cycleheimer on a picture perfect day on a beautiful scenic paved path that passed by a lake. Unfortunately, the dirt alongside the paved path was washed out, leaving a dangerously nasty gully along the blacktopped surface. Ms. Cycleheimer had dropped back to take in the view. When I looked over my shoulder to see where she was, my recently restored 50-year-old Reynolds 531 English touring bike went into the gully at about 10+ MPH. That sent me over the beautifully engraved GB alloy handlebars and onto the pavement where I started to "erase" myself if you know what I mean. I looked as though somebody had ran me several times across a giant cheese grater. I was a bruised, bloody mess. People stopped to help asked me if they should call an ambulance. I stood looking carefully over the bike, which escaped unscathed, and said "don't worry, it looks OK".

- Spoken like a TRUE C&V'er.