ran into a go kart...
08-01-05, 07:36 AM
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ogre
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ran into a go kart...
okay, so it was more like a three wheeled moped.
it was at the beach. i had switched my eggbeaters out for platform pedals, since it was the beach and i just wanted to hop on and go, wearing sandals. in any case, i have a brake.
i was going through a toll-booth park entrance. the lady on the moped was making a u-turn, i pop out from between two booths and go tumbling over her at about 15 mph. my legs started hurting a lot but it turns out i didn't break anything, just contusions. my bike, surprisingly, is fine -- front wheel out of true, but nothing more that i've noticed.
i had about a second to react (no i don't mean one-mississippi). i had a brake but i didn't squeeze it. i virtually never need to use that brake, so it wasn't wired in my brain to grab it.... when my mind thought "STOP" it didn't think about reaching my left hand forward, etc. now i'm wondering, if i had had my eggbeaters, would i have performed the knee-jerk reaction (literally) of locking into a skid? with the ability to skid, could i have slowed or stopped in time to make this accident a lot less dramatic (we had to drive an hour to a hospital to check for broken bones)?
i'll never really know, but the whole experience taught me that a brake isn't very effective if it isn't part of your "knee-jerk" reaction.
it was at the beach. i had switched my eggbeaters out for platform pedals, since it was the beach and i just wanted to hop on and go, wearing sandals. in any case, i have a brake.
i was going through a toll-booth park entrance. the lady on the moped was making a u-turn, i pop out from between two booths and go tumbling over her at about 15 mph. my legs started hurting a lot but it turns out i didn't break anything, just contusions. my bike, surprisingly, is fine -- front wheel out of true, but nothing more that i've noticed.
i had about a second to react (no i don't mean one-mississippi). i had a brake but i didn't squeeze it. i virtually never need to use that brake, so it wasn't wired in my brain to grab it.... when my mind thought "STOP" it didn't think about reaching my left hand forward, etc. now i'm wondering, if i had had my eggbeaters, would i have performed the knee-jerk reaction (literally) of locking into a skid? with the ability to skid, could i have slowed or stopped in time to make this accident a lot less dramatic (we had to drive an hour to a hospital to check for broken bones)?
i'll never really know, but the whole experience taught me that a brake isn't very effective if it isn't part of your "knee-jerk" reaction.
08-01-05, 12:37 PM
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you just need to learn how to bunny hop REALLY high
Glad to hear you are okay. I was riding a quad bike last week and did a 30km/h crash into a bramble thicket. I got pinned between the heavy quad bike, the ground and the thorny thorny thicket. I have some nice lacerations and haematoma to show for it but nothing serious. I always feel lucky when I have a minor accident that I didn't kill myself.
Glad to hear you are okay. I was riding a quad bike last week and did a 30km/h crash into a bramble thicket. I got pinned between the heavy quad bike, the ground and the thorny thorny thicket. I have some nice lacerations and haematoma to show for it but nothing serious. I always feel lucky when I have a minor accident that I didn't kill myself.
