starla

I got a good taste of it for dinner. I'm riding home, barely a mile or two into my commute. The road turns to gravel and there is one turn (nearly 90º if not) where the surface gets very bumpy, very rough and the gravel is very large and loose. I normally go sedately around the corner, not wanting to risk anything. Well tonight for whatever reason, I decide to try it a little faster. The bike slides right out from under me.

Face meet gravel.

I get up. I'm a little shaky, clearly hurt, but the injuries don't seem too bad. I know my name, can walk, talk, and think. So I decide I'll just turn around and go back to work and clean up. As I'm turning around, at all of about 3MPH, I get scared of the turn and fall again. Knocked the back of my head clean against the road. Hurt. I can only imagine not having a helmet. I decided to ride home. My left thumb was very painful, but I made it okay. I'm sure my bloody face ensured that people pretty much left me the hell alone.

I just got home after spending four hours in the ER to get checked out. I'm okay. Thought I might have broken my thumb but it's just bruised really bad. My right side is scraped all to hell...glad for my shorts or I'd have road rash all up my thigh instead of some cuts and bruising and A LOT of swelling. My elbow has pretty serious road rash, and there are some cuts on my hairline and under my nose and on my lips. I got prescriptions for Keflex for infection and Vicodin for pain.

As I was leaving work, a guy I'm kind of flirty with told me jokingly not to fall. He felt really bad when he saw me.

Am I a cyclist now?

gascostalot

Went to the ER for a little fall? Man, you would think I should be dead for some of the things I went though.

starla

I went for the thumb. I wanted to make sure it wasn't broken. I can't help that they check everything out.

koffee brown

I once heard there were two types of cyclists- those who have fallen and those who haven't fallen... yet.

Congratulations! Welcome to my group! I've fallen several times, and some of it because of this screwy DC weather. Recently, there was an unexpected ice storm. I had no idea DC was in the middle of an ice storm and I was out riding to my second job. I was turning a corner going over the bridge and BAM! Down I went. I was so stunned that I fell (didn't know why at the time- I didn't realize what was coming down was ice!) that I just laid there for a minute. When I tried to get up, I started falling all over the place, and that's when I realized we were in the middle of an ice storm. Uuuuugh. A five minute bike ride into DC turned into a 20 minute slippery, sliding misadventure. :-(

Again, welcome to the club...


koffee

hxzero

I get taken out at least once a week, it seems like, on the bike paths on campus. Usually by someone on a beach cruiser who thinks it's okay to slow to a screeching halt while swerving into the left half of the bike path.

aley

Sorry to hear about your crash - hope you recover quickly!

ironhorse3

Starla hope you're OK. Might be more achey for a few days. funny how when you get up you feel OK at first, then a few hours later or the next day it can hit you.

Hickeydog

I fell while learning to use clipless. Does that count?

girljen

Ow! Tell Mr. Flirty that he owes you lunch for jinxing you.

SingingSabre 

Welcome to the club, Starla!

I'd get a small ACE bandage and wrap up that thumb during the day for a few days. Take some tylenol or your favorite non-steroidal anti-inflammatory of your choice. Deep bruising like that with some excess movement can really screw up your thumb...it's an interesting joint and can be quite fragile at times.

HardyWeinberg

Bummer.

I had that same kind of wipeout a couple yrs ago. I was riding into the sunset (blinded), couldn't tell that what I thought was a new stretch of chipseal was actually just big chunky gravel filling a looooooong hole, braked at a bad time (maybe like front wheel bounces up, I hit the brake, wheel stops, forward moving bike goes over when stopped wheel touches down). Just some roadrash, no broken parts at least, for me.

thehum

Heh i had the same exact type of crash a few weeks ago after coming down a gravel road and hitting the front brake way too hard. My bottom Lip took most of the beating from the gravel though. A driver stopped and called an ambulance so I ended up going to ER to check for concussion. Also knocked loose my front tooth for which I got a root canal yesterday.

hehe, everyone I saw for the next few days commented on my face because it was all scraped up lip swollen to hell. The janitor at the hospital just went "DAMMMN what happened to you?". Every assistant/secretary at the dentist's office the next day just went "DEAR LORD!" and children in the waiting room just looked terrified.


This crash happened literally 20 minutes after buying a helmet for the first time since I was a kid. Thank god I was wearing it. Havn't rode without one since.

Doesn't make you any more a cyclist than before, just a more "weathered" cyclist

Glad you're OK though.

bhchdh 

Starla, yes you are a cyclist. Heal well, and soon.

Az B

Gravel got me in my last serious crash. Flying around a corner on the way to the pub, and there was some gravel right in my line.

Crashing sucks. I hope you feel better soon.

Az

Dzrtrat

Glad you're all right. I fell a couple of times while clipped in..........not a whole lot you can do about it, although I tried like hell. Now I keep the straps loose enough that I can get out of them if need be.

huhenio

Yes.

I am saying it in a flirty kind of way.

overed

Welcome to the club.
Tuesday, 6/10, comming around a corner on the street in the rain. BAM.
Got up, did quick assessment. Seemed OK. Little road rash. Had gloves and jacket on because of the rain.
Lazy pedal home.
Wife made me go to doctor on Friday because of pain. Took pics. Three fractured ribs.
Vicodin is a wonderful thing. Off the bike for a while. I'll be back.

Aquajag

Glad to hear you're okay.

On a different note, caught a decent size rock under my back tire while I was stopping at a light on my way into work Friday. Rock stayed under the back tire and made my bike fishtail a bit. Kinda scary but I was slow enough at that point to maintain control and stay upright.

Heal quickly!

MrRamonG

So do you have a gravel tattoo? If so, welcome to this club as well.

koffee brown

Yep. If I had to count the number of times I fell while riding clipless, I think I'd be at least on the board of directors of the club. Uuuuugh... the early clipless days- NOT worth rehashing!

koffee

EricJ

If you were taking the Vicodin like the doc told you, you wouldn't care.

Eric

starla

Thanks for your stories and well wishes! I am feeling fine, a little sore, especially in my right hip. The worst part is cleaning out the road rash on my forearm. One more time tonight before I put one of those tegaderm like dressings on it and keep that there for the next several days.

And I had just gotten a new helmet last week! Oh well. Guess my noggin is worth another $50.

starla

Ouch. I've heard that broken ribs are about the worst pain you can go through. Hope you heal up fast and feel better soon.

starla

Hahaha

Mr. Flirty (thanks, girljen, I like that moniker -- very accurate!) seemed sincerely surprised when I was standing in front of him with blood running down my nose and arm and he told me I'd better start driving my car again, and I was all "No way!" No. It's not even tempting. I have found something I really like to do, and I'm not letting a little spill stop me. I'll just be more careful from now on. It could have been SO MUCH worse.

You guys who share your stories about crashes and other incidents and then getting back out there and riding are honestly doing a wonderful thing in sharing. Not that I blame anyone who's been in a serious accident for thinking twice about their riding future -- that's an extremely personal decision.

I'm taking at least the weekend off. Tentatively plan to ride to work on Monday, but we'll see how I feel.

stevage

>I once heard there were two types of cyclists- those who have fallen and those who haven't fallen... yet.

Heh, in my year as an exchange student in Grenoble, I had 17 crashes - I was counting them. I suspect not having any lights was a big factor. The two most memorable were hitting a totally unseen kerb at high speed, and hitting black ice at medium speed - in both cases I went from on the bike to on the ground in milliseconds.

My recommendation is to dispense with the whole "am I concussed" check, and just jump back on and start pedalling as fast as possible before the pain catches up with you.

Steve