Crashed today (bath)

zanes

Well, looks like my number came up today.
Coming down prior park road in bath (gentle hill) I let a car out of a side turning. About 400 yards later she slows down for a queue I hadn't seen. Slows down quite quickly. I brake hard, go to go around her and see a car oncoming. Brake even harder, lockup on damp surface and glance off her rear drivers side corner. Damn! I guess I was doing about ~15-20mph @ time of impact.
Anyway, I pick myself up (flew off, hit road. I still can't work out which part of me took the impact with the road, I guess my helmet might have- I don't know), she's very shook up about it all, very worried if I was ok, do I want to go to hospital, etc. We swap details, she says she'll get a quote for the damage and we'll go from there.
Damage;
Smashed rear light cluster of her car (put my fist and brifter through it) a honda something or other- I thought estate but now I can't remember tbh.
Bent my left brifter to hell, right bent a little as I hit the road
Slightly knocked my front wheel out of true (Easton Vista SL- New on Wednesday)
New helmet needed to be on the safe side

The real reason for this post is, to thank the lady out running who stopped, put me and my bike in her car and took us upto uni. She said her husband (engineer) commutes by bike in bath so I was wondering if he was on here, if so please pass on my thanks--- It was GREATLY appreciated.
In her words "It was a BIG crash"- I feel very lucky to have walked away. Not too bothered about the money.

Also- 3rd party Insurance for cyclists- does someone do it?

Slow Downcp

Join the CTC for third party insurance inlcuded

graeme_s-2

I've had one or two close calls where I've narrowly (and luckily) avoided doing something similar. It's such an easy thing to do but at the end of the day it is our responsibility to leave a safe stopping distance to the vehicle in front. It's actually one of the reasons that I joined the CTC so I'd be covered if I did get it wrong.

iain_j

Sheesh sounds like you were lucky to come off lightly. Hope you and your bike make a full and speedy recovery :P

3rd party insurance? Yes, lots do it, I'm with E&L but CTC do it in with their membership too.

Had a close call myself this morning actually, my own fault. In a rush and going too fast, car pulls out of side road on the right through a gap in the snarled-up roadworks traffic. We're all vulnerable but we don't help ourselves sometimes :?

Mayhemwmb

A little of topic but.........

This reminds me of an incident I had many moons ago as I cycled into Uni. I lived in the halls of residence at the top of Marlow hill in High Wycombe. I used to cycle down the dual carraigeway of Marlow hill to uni. If you don't know this hill it's fairly steep and fairly long.

On this particular day there was a police car trying to force his way through the traffic with his blues illuminated. I thought he was going quite fast so took advantage of the clear road he was making.......... :shock: :shock: HOW WRONG WAS I !!! He was going about 5-10mph. By the time I realised I was going too fast it was nearly too late I locked up and skidded to a stop sideways about 8" of his back bumper. In fright he had stopped- I Iooked down and saw his scared expression in the interior mirror. I absolutely cacked myself. Anyway he kept going I went very steady into uni from there. It took about an hour before I saw the funny side of it.
I've had other cycle/car crashes but none of them make me gigle like this incident

mookiebaylock

I had my first road bike crash in Keynsham the other week.....greasy road, corner and possibly too much speed!

more concerned about the grinding noise that my bike made as it slid across the road than my own safety!!
lost a fair bit of skin on my thigh...ripped my glove open and the ratchet thing from my shoe.....oh and my dignity took a bruising.
the quick release skewer and brake/shifter took the brunt of abuse and frame was undamaged though.

on reflection...i was lucky that i wasn't hit by a car

insurance is something all of us should consider i guess

Mr_Cellophane

Check your House Contents insurance for 3rd party liability. Mine covers me for such eventualities.
Might even be able to include your clothes in that.

fossyant

British Cycling as well.

Their solicitors are chasing a 3rd party who drove into the side of me at 25-30 mph...

Worth doing folks - rear light cluster - possibly £150 notes or more... :shock:

lost_in_thought

I'm with British Cycling too for the 3rd party cover.

And yes, a rear light cluster on a japanese car where you have to buy the whole thing can be pricey...

prawny

Mr_Cellophane wrote:

Check your House Contents insurance for 3rd party liability. Mine covers me for such eventualities.
Might even be able to include your clothes in that.

I was going to say that the Norwich Union one definately does I'm pretty sure it's just included as standard with all insurers, read your policy books kids 8)

Crapaud

Glad you're all right, Zanes. Sounds like it was quite an event.

zanes wrote:

Bent my left brifter to hell

I can't be the only one left wondering what part of the anatomy the 'brifter' is, can I? :?

alfablue

"Brifter" = Americanese for sti shifter (Brake / Shifter. Quite clever really :?

zanes

Graeme_S wrote:

I've had one or two close calls where I've narrowly (and luckily) avoided doing something similar. It's such an easy thing to do but at the end of the day it is our responsibility to leave a safe stopping distance to the vehicle in front. It's actually one of the reasons that I joined the CTC so I'd be covered if I did get it wrong.

Yes, unfortunately I was totally at fault on this- I didn't read the road ahead properly, and paid for it.

Bike on inspection looks ok- The brifters should bend back out ok, and I'm a little hacked off about the new wheel but I'll take it home with me and let noahs ark take a look at it. I've been feeling pretty crappy all day tbh.

Oh, and yes, I'm looking forward to the bill :roll:

Headhuunter

alfablue wrote:

"Brifter" = Americanese for sti shifter (Brake / Shifter. Quite clever really :?

I was wondering what that was too! I thought it was some bizarre typo of "shifter"!

I don't crash v often, but so far it has always been me hitting things rather than things hitting me. I ran hard into the back of a bus a couple of years ago. I was cycling behind a different bus which started to pull into a bus stop so I pushed on the pedals, flicked a glance behind and shot past, only to find that another bus in front of the one I was passing had just pulled slowly out of the stop, so I promptly ran into the back of it. No damage to bus or bike as far as I could tell, but I was a bit bruised.

Ran into the back of a car last year. Bus pulled out in front of car, he braked suddenly, so did I but my brakes not as powerful so I crashed into back of the car. Again no damage really.

Other than that I have crashed into the odd pedestrian wandering into traffic without looking. Mostly they are apologetic as they know they should've been looking but last time some American woman started mouthing off at me even though she simply walked out in front of me to get through stationary traffic without even a glance! Sorry my dear, but ever heard of stopping distances? The Green Cross Code?

always_tyred

I am totally opposed to the term "brifter". It sounds too much like a slang term for a joint.

iain_j

Well it's either that or 'shake'

I was only thinking this morning what's the general name for a combined brake/gear lever, without being STI/Ergo specific?

Crapaud

Always Tyred wrote:

I am totally opposed to the term "brifter". It sounds too much like a slang term for a joint.

I'm opposed to it 'cause it's crap. I just hope nothing goes wrong with his 'drain'.*






* (drive chain)

zanes

Ok, an update on the situation;

I'm fine, absolutely fine. The *only* injury I had was a tiny bit of skin on my elbow where I hit the road (I think), no aches, no soreness, nothing. It makes me think that either it wasn't my time to go or someone/thing was watching me on friday. Moving on....

My bike is ok, noahs ark checked it over, moved the brifters back into line- the consensus on the wheel is it's slightly out of true, enough to annoy me but not enough to be easily re trued.

I'm fairly sure my helmet took the hit as I flipped over, I know from past experience just falling onto the road stationary hurts- I don't have any of that and I don't think my rucksack took the impact- fruit I had in the outer compartments was unbruised. But, as ever, Your Mileage May Vary.

I can't remember the impact/hitting the road, I can remember seeing the car brake, me braking to go around it, seeing the headlights of the car coming the other way, braking to stop, feeling the bike start snaking under me. Next image I remember is having hit the car, bike is starting to go down, and there's a piece of the cars light cluster halfway to the floor. After that I remember being on the floor looking back up the hill from where I have come from, and hearing the cars engine switch off, and me thinking "oh f***, what have I done?" After that the memory is pretty contiguous.

The driver called me on friday night, still very concerned if I was ok. She'd taken the car to Honda, they've quoted £133 pounds to fix it, and she's insisted on paying half. I have no idea why. But, the money doesn't really matter. I know it's clichéd, but until it's happened you really don't know how true it is.

I still cannot see how I walked away from this- looking at it numerically I hit a car at at *least* 15mph, probably 18mph+, smashed a rear light cluster with my fist, went over the handlebars, and hit the road.

Petromyzon

Glad you are ok, sounds like an impressive war story! Perhaps you have had that little recalibration of your personal risk tolerance that we all need (well certainly I feel I do :?) from time to time without the corresponding stay in A+E. Lady sounds lovely as well, heartening story