Urthwhyte

Went out yesterday afternoon planning to do some intervals; instead, I was rewarded with pain and suffering of a new sort, with my first crash of any significance.



To get out to anything worth calling a hill in the area you have to descend a small set of switchbacks that cut through a local park. The road is a little beat, but generally it's a safe, fun bit you can look forward to on your ride. Speed limit is 10mph, cars generally obey it, and drivers on the whole are OK around cyclists in the Seattle area.

I had just started descending and was coming into the first turn when a motorcyclist thought it would be a good idea to gun it past the car he was following. I (stupidly) grabbed brakes to avoid crashing into him and locked up the rear, performing a probably-cool-to-onlookers powerslide before ending up on my side. Motorcyclist kept going, oblivious

After a few moments on the road trying to work out what happened, I picked myself up and rode back to uni

Total damage to bike and kit: Left brifter topcap/indicator window popped off in the crash. Team jersey side panel shredded, bibshorts going to need some stitching.

Damage to person: Plenty o'road rash along my left side, some nice abrasions on my hip, and some great cuts on my left arm, including this



Follow-up appointment tomorrow afternoon to check the swelling and wound around the elbow, but outside of that I should be back on the bike as soon as I sort out the front shifting, having learned to turn your elbow in towards your body when you crash.

P.S: Anyone know how to get blood out of mesh?

TrojanHorse

try hydrogen peroxide on it before it dries. Scrub it around with a little toothbrush.

Urthwhyte

That ship has sailed - still worth a shot?

Roasty

if you havent gotten one in the past 5 years, might be a good idea to get a tetanus shot..

JustinHorne

Hydrogen peroxide is useless.

It is SOMEWHAT good at cleaning out dirt/etc in the wound, but really no moreso than water. People have this impression it's antibacterial; it's not. It can technically only kill anaerobic bacteria (Bacteria that are killed by oxygen,) but those are likely already killed by the air anyway.

The more you know.

Urthwhyte

Wound is all set, I'm just trying to get my shoes back to (somewhat) white. No one wants to ride behind the guy whose shoes look like they came from the set of Kill Bill

a1penguin

Oh man, that looks painful. I'm glad it wasn't worse. Smart move seeking medical attention. I learned my lesson the hard way.

Essex

Nasty elbow injury. Glad you are seeing a doctor. I had a similar injury and the nurse scrubbed the wound to remove all dirt and debris which had been embedded into the wound. This was on a downhill skateboard race. The cleaning hurt more than the injury itself.

As per removing blood stains. I would try dish soap, a little club soda on your shoe???

Fiery

All oxidants are antibacterial, no matter if the bacteria are aerobic or not; free oxygen is very toxic to all living things. What did you think makes bleach a disinfectant?

ColinL

1. don't touch the rear brake during hard braking. if you endo or lose the front, then you've done all you could. sliding the rear is super easy to do when braking hard, so train yourself not to do it.

2. blood in mesh - I would fill a bucket or sink with water and your preferred pre-wash cleaner such as oxyclean, shout, etc. soak the mesh (shirt? glove? shoe?) for at least an hour. do not dry in dryer. if it doesn't come clean on first attempt, you can try again as long as you haven't tried the item.

renton

The shot is good for 10 years.

https://www.medicinenet.com/script/ma...ticlekey=47225
https://www.canada.com/reginaleaderpo...d-49237b6e89ee
https://coldflu.about.com/od/vaccines...usvaccines.htm

PhotoJoe 

Whether hydrogen peroxide is effective or not, it's fun to watch it bubble on the site!

Glad you're (relatively) ok. Still....ouch!

RT

'Don't land on your elbow.' Sounds like the conclusion of one of those [hilarious] DirecTV ads.

Heal quickly, leave the blood in the mesh. Nothin says HTFU more than blood on your gear.

thump55

I cannot completely agree with statement #1.

I am perfectly OK with statement #2.

cicatriz

Excuse the naive question but, wouldn't you rather learn to partially control a slide then clamp down hard enough on the front brake to somersault into an intersection? Or just pull both...

ColinL

if you condition your instincts to not use the rear brake you'll be better off.

if, during a long descent, you want to intentionally choose to use your rear brake that is awesome.

but in an emergency, your instant reaction needs to be very light or zero rear brake. zero is much easier to manage.

another thing you can do is set your rear brake farther from the rim than the front, essentially building in more sensitive and more powerful braking at the front than rear. if you absolutely must grab both levers, this will help. and it's not a bad thing to do anyway.

ColinL

no.

you can slide the rear with very little braking, which ruins skinny road tires and causes crashes. unhook your front brake and give it a go.

meanwhile, if you use your muscles properly to maintain body position and weight balance, you can brake very hard on the front. it's not even comparable, more than 10x as effective as rear braking.

if you don't use your muscles during hard front braking, then yes, you'll endo quickly.

DropDeadFred

DO NOT do this. hydrogen peroxide on an open wound is the worst thing you can do. Thats such an old way of doing things.
https://www.epinions.com/content_1742577796?sb=1

but I assume its too late.

adclark

If nothing else, hydrogen peroxide can be helpful to get blood out of cloth. I used it on dried blood in my team jersey and shorts earlier this season and it worked like a charm.

OP, I am guessing you weren't obeying the 10mph speed limit? If you were, you sure know how to get a lot of road rash from a slow fall.

San Rensho 

Agree completely. Train yourself to never use the rear brake. It provides essentially no braking effect and the only thing it will do is lock up your rear and cause you to lose control. Once the rear is locked, you cannot steer, and if you start to get sideways, your first reaction is to release the brake, which is the worst thing you can do as now you will high-side.

I have my rear brake set so loose that from 25 mph, I can just barely get it to lock up with the lever all the way to the bar.

The only time to use the rear brake is in really slippery conditions, like when you get onto gravel or wet grass. In those situations, then use ONLY the rear brake and very sparingly. Even in the rain, use only the front, just use it very judiciously.

AlphaDogg

+1 Don't use your rear brake. When I was a noob, riding my MTB, I would always use the rear brake because I had no modulation abilities. Recently, I learned how to modulate with my old hybrid and when I got my roadie, I transferred that skillset and now I can stop on a dime. The sweet spot is getting it so your rear wheel is just before the point where it lifts off the ground.

Just be careful not to pull it too hard in a panic stop. The other day, I was coming down a small hill on the local MUP at about 25mph. There was a jogger on my right and a jogger on my far left (right side of the oncoming lane). A couple of cyclists were trying to pass the jogger in the oncoming lane, coming towards me. Of course, there was only enough space for me to go through and I was travelling much faster than them, so they should have let me go through without any problems. Then one of them decides to turn into my space and I almost hit him. I hit on the front brake and decelerated to about 10mph in about 75ft. I got it to the point just before the rear wheel lifted above the ground. This should be a good example for how good modulation with the front brake is much more effective than locking your rear wheel.

saintsfaninks26

I completely disagree with the statement "don't touch your rear brake". On a motorcycle 10-30% of your braking power comes from your rear wheel. That number should be similar on a bike even taking in the account the suspension. In a previous hobby I spent quite a bit of time on the track with a motorcycle. Even though locking up the rear wheel on the track could cause you to lose control, the answer was never just don't use your rear brake. If you are really pushing your machine (motorcycle or bicycle) to its limits, you want to use everything you have.
I recommend practicing to use your rear brake properly over ignoring it. You never know when you may need that extra 10-30% of braking power. Also, I can't imagine the pro-riders (who we all aspire to be) are ignoring their rear brake.

Velo Vol 

Yes.

alexfboyle

Hydrogen peroxide will kill all the cells that are helping your body kill the things that got in. The best thing to do is really just wash it, or use some sort of alcohol based disinfectant. Or have an ER doctor scrub it out with a little toothbrush. Blood will wash out with just regular soap and water. Just don't put it into the dryer before the blood is gone. Also, there will be traces of blood unless you use bleach, but you need luminol and a black light to see it.

Rx Rider

Have to agree with the disagreeer, if locking up your rear wheel "causes" a crash, why aren't there more youtube vids of those fixed gear weirdos crashing after they've laid down a half a block of rubber? I would lock up my rear much more often just for fun, but it does trash tires. doesn't anybody do those "dukes of hazard" turns? lock up the rear, slide out, pedal like hell? no just me? can't be . . .
you don't need a doc to scrub out a wound. if everything works, don't need stitches, no huge amounts of swelling, no crunchy noises when you move things, the only thing a doctor can do is clean you up and over-charge for the lollypop. unless you have great insurance and want pain meds, doctors are useless for boo-boos. of coarse debriding your own wound is not very fun, but what's that they say? htfu?