Crash, bang, wallop!

guinea

There's a statistic that says most accidents happen near the home. So it's no surprise that my accident yesterday morning was less than a mile from my front door.

I left on a damp morning from Ealing to White City to get to work. I had the Powertap on as I was going training that night and I like to log all my mileage in WKO+. Graph of crash at the bottom.

I was cycling down the Uxbridge Road as usual and had just crossed over the North Circular. I was in the cycle lane and making progress. Just after the North Circular you have to be careful as cars tend to creep into the cycle lane/cut you up when turning left. There was no danger this time so I got on with the cycle.

Suddenly a pedestrian, perhaps fooled by static traffic in the road stepped into the cycle lane about 10 metres ahead of me. I shouted but it was too late. I tried to get inside of him towards the kerb, but I (think) hit me on the right hand of the handle bar and this sent me flying. I remember a couple of impacts and the back of my head hitting the ground. A witness later said I hit and bounced off a tree. I don't remember.

So, I'm on the ground lying on my backpack quite comfortably whilst the guy I hit and another lady are asking me if I'm ok. To be honest I had no idea. However, I couldn't really move my left leg. I asked for a moment to recover but someone called the ambulance anyway.

A passing motorist stopped his car behind me and put on his hazzard lights. He took control of the situation made sure I was ok, guided the ambualnce in, took the details of those involved and drew a diagram of the incident. Top work.

I got helped into the ambulance bye the medics and the dressed up my arm and had a look at my hip. They decided I needed a trip to the A+E department. They kindly took my bike and locked it away in the hospital.

I was in quite a bit of pain, but was starting to feel a bit better. However the consultant decided I needed an x-ray. Unfortunately the results were not good, so I had to get another. Then they needed to send me for a CT scan. In the end they found old damage but nothing conclusive about my current problem. They were talking about keeping me in for the weekend, but they decided to let me go. I have to return to the fracture clinic later.

Here's a few photos...

Helmet - Giro Animas is now dead. Not shown here is the compressed area. This definitely stopped me having a bump and some gravel rash on the back of my head. I don't always wear one, but always do whilst commuting.



Left hand shifter looks pretty bashed up. I think it works, but haven't been able to test.



Even my bike got a wristband



The most valuable thing that got damaged was my watch.



Anyway, this picture shows my powertap data. According to this I went down at 38.8kph (24mph). You can even see the metre in altitude lost as the bike fell over. Class.



So, thans to the witness and the guy who stopped to help. You guys were great. Thanks to the guys in Ealing A+E for letting me play on my Blackberry all day

Here's hoping I can get on the bike soon. I was training for the Marmotte, but that looks pretty dodgy now. I can't afford to lose even a few days of training never mind a few weeks. Didn't get any sleep at all last night. The most pain was from my neck. It's funny I had no pain at all there yesterday.

Red Rock

Guinea, sorry to hear about your crash and hope that you're soon feeling better and back on the bike. Was good to hear how people came to your aid and looked after things for you. For now just rest up and take pain killers if you need them.

Red Rock

Anonymous

Speedy recovery mate! You'll soon be back on it. My whole season was wiped out before it started and you soon learn that there are higher priorities. You'll soon be back on and dialling it up to 400 watts

frenchfighter

Sorry to hear about the incident. The motorist who stopped was very impressive.

Almsot exactly the same thing happened to me a couple of weeks ago. Coming down a busy high street circa 20mph, two pedestrians step out, one slightly ahead of the other. I think I tried to go in between them as there was no time to stop or swerve, yet like you, my bars caught on one of their arms and I came right over the bars.

Damage to bike was minimal thankfully. To me it wasn't so bad - fairly bad road rash on one elbow, slight concussion and bruising to my head. Sod's law that I wasn't wearing a helmet - I ride 99.99% of my journeys but hadn't on this one (only going 2miles from my house to swim and didn't want to leave it in the locker).

I also had the same pains in my neck which also started the day after. It is due to the strain of the impact, so is muscular and dies off after a couple of days.

By the sounds of it, you should be fine to get back on your bike in a couple of days hopefully.

redddraggon

guinea wrote:

Left hand shifter looks pretty bashed up. I think it works, but haven't been able to test.

Those look fine.........

Both my Chorus shifters are banged up way more than that......

guinea

NapoleonD wrote:

You'll soon be back on and dialling it up to 400 watts

Heh, I should have put a bit of an effort into it to make the crash stats look better.

I only made it 1.50 from home.

The Chingford Skinhead

From someone who is on the slow and somewhat painful road to recovery from a SMIDSY pedestrian accident I hope you make a full and speedy recovery

whydoesitalwaysrainonme

I had a near bad crash very similar to that at that sort of speed, i was going down a really steep hill about 40/45 mph and this stupid stupid women thought because she couldnt hear anything that there was nothing on the road, so she stepped out without looking into the middle of the road with her mahoosive labrador. Luckily i managed to avoid her...phew, gets my heart racing just by thinking about it .

fatblokefromwarwick

Shoot man ! f everything else
you damaged your PAM 111 ?

chuckcork

And the papers would have you believe that cyclists are the ones putting peds at risk through their selfish dangerous behaviour?

Lycra clad louts etc.

guinea

fatblokefromwarwick wrote:

Shoot man ! f everything else
you damaged your PAM 111 ?

Another watch nerd

Yup. K series, brand new at Xmas Actually it did look too shiny and I did want it to age a bit, just not with big lumps out of it...

fast as fupp

i am crying inside seeing a wilier in pain!

i hope you have a sppedy recovery too!

Infamous

Thinly veiled "look at my expensive carbon bike, expensive watch and see how I hit 480 watts on my commute" thread imo.

guinea

Erm?

It's not an expensive bike in the grand scheme of things.

Neither is it a very expensive watch.

Frankly 480 watts is nothing more than accellerating from traffic lights.

If any of the above make you jealous enough to write your previous post I feel a little sorry for you.

mmitchell88

guinea wrote:

If any of the above make you jealous enough to write your previous post I feel a little sorry for you.

Ohhh, I thought it was funny! I'm sorry to hear about the off. Hope you're feeling better and can get on the bike again soon.

Infamous

guinea wrote:

Erm?

It's not an expensive bike in the grand scheme of things.

Neither is it a very expensive watch.

Frankly 480 watts is nothing more than accellerating from traffic lights.

If any of the above make you jealous enough to write your previous post I feel a little sorry for you.

Was a joke, don't worry about it.

guinea

Infamous wrote:

guinea wrote:

If any of the above make you jealous enough to write your previous post I feel a little sorry for you.

Was a joke, don't worry about it.

Heh, I'll get back to feeling sorry for me then.

Infamous

You'll be fine, shout louder next time.

el_presidente

and possibly reconsider filtering at 24 mph.

mrushton

Why would you wear an 'expensive' watch when the time is on the bike computer? I always ride watchless as it saves more heartache if I come off. contact Panerai, as they might be able to do something or Mr.Wood at www.theoldwatchshop.com who is a Paneristi and can probably offer some good advice

whydoesitalwaysrainonme

I always wear a watch on the bike (mines an animal one! lol), i dont have a bike computer (apart from a cheap one in my drawer) simply because i'd look at it too much as i do on an exercise bike or rowing machine. That and the fact that i dont need one i just get as many miles in, which is 2 hours on a weekday and 4 on weekend days.

guinea

el_presidente wrote:

and possibly reconsider filtering at 24 mph.

Actually, I've thought about just not comuting on the road bike.

I've always cycled on the MTB to work as it's just as comfy, has far better and more accessible brakes and requires less concentration in terms of road surface.

I've only recently started on the road bike since I got the powertap (so I could log all my mileage) but I've had far more near misses. Mostly cars cutting accross me, but there's a definite increase in potential accidents. It's probably all down to the speed. I didn't really have this issue bumbling along on knoblies.

One more point, I wear the watch as I'm going to work and I need one when I'm there. It's a different one every day. I'm a watch nerd. The Old Watch Shop looks a good lead. I'm going to try Selfridges first to see if they can help since I got it there.

mrushton

if it's Selfridges in Mcr, I think they are really just retailers. Watches of Switzerland on King St are the main dealer. You could also try www.paneristi.com which is a Panerai forum. the OldWatchShop has contacts within the trade and it might be cheaper thro' them for a repair.

el_presidente

guinea wrote:

el_presidente wrote:

and possibly reconsider filtering at 24 mph.

Actually, I've thought about just not comuting on the road bike.

I've always cycled on the MTB to work as it's just as comfy, has far better and more accessible brakes and requires less concentration in terms of road surface.

I've only recently started on the road bike since I got the powertap (so I could log all my mileage) but I've had far more near misses. Mostly cars cutting accross me, but there's a definite increase in potential accidents. It's probably all down to the speed. I didn't really have this issue bumbling along on knoblies.

One more point, I wear the watch as I'm going to work and I need one when I'm there. It's a different one every day. I'm a watch nerd. The Old Watch Shop looks a good lead. I'm going to try Selfridges first to see if they can help since I got it there.

It's not really the bike, just the approach I think. In heavy traffic and city conditions you have to expect the unexpected and that people will behave like idiots; vans laft hooking you, peds stepping out without looking, buses half-overtaking then pulling in on you; cars indicating left then turning right etc etc.

All this is fine and manageable, but I would suggest not really compatible with hard training with a powertap - this means you are superaware that data is being logged so you are trying 100% all the time - I reckon this leads you to take more risks.

IMHO it's not worth it. I've seen too many bike crashes. Take it a bit easier on the commute and train harder when it's safer

guinea

Quick update. I attended the fracture clinic yesterday and it's been confirmed that I have a broken hip. The ball on the top of my hip has a straight crack from side to side. Ugh.

No exercise allowed until my next appointment in 3 weeks. After that who knows?

I'd entered the Marmotte this year and have just sent an email off to cancel.

Gutted.

jedster

Quick update. I attended the fracture clinic yesterday and it's been confirmed that I have a broken hip. The ball on the top of my hip has a straight crack from side to side. Ugh.

ooochh that sounds very nasty.

I think you want to make sure that heals properly - not worth rushing back if it leaves you with an iffy hip. Seriously.

good luck,

J