First Off - Elephant and Castle

Hairybuddha

Had my first off after a year of commuting the other day.

Approaching Elephant and Castle from Bricklayers arms, I'm filtering in the bus lane and the traffic clears approaching the pedestrian footbridge a few hundred metres from the roundabout.

A bloke on a fixie with a BMX helmet passes me on the right and now I need to get into the middle lane to get in position. Quick shoulder check to make sure all is clear and as I look ahead again I've got a face full of fixie rider and I'm going down. Turns out that he braked heavily anticipating traffic up ahead. There was a brief moment of: "I'm going to save this! I'm a cycling genius!" Before I realised I wasn't and face met tarmac. Luckily I landed on the bike which I think took most of the impact and thankfully the bloke I ran into stayed up and was fine.

Was pretty scary, there was blood everywhere! I hobbled off to Guys and St Thomas and 7 stitches later I was in the office and back on the road that evening.

Thanks to fixie bloke for stopping and thanks to the Scottish lady for giving me your pack of tissues to stem the blood! Oh, and apologies to the Mrs who found out I was in hospital from a colleague and assumed the worst :oops:

mudcow007

glad your ok dude!

chicks love scars anyways

kelsen

That means you'll get some tonight. Result!

Glad you're ok.

jonny_trousers

Glad you're essentially ok mate. I guess it's one of those tricky situations where the fixie rider caused the accident, but technically you were at fault. Mend soon (both you and the bike)!

Hairybuddha

I can't really blame the bloke on the fixie. If I hadn't been throwing a 'life saver' (oh, the irony) then I would have seen him brake and avoided or braked myself.

EKE_38BPM

I've often thought that life savers can be anything but.

Someone should invent a device where you can see what is behind you whilst still facing forward? With cameras and small LCDs so cheap these days I'm sure it can be done. Battery life may be an issue so maybe a hub generator would be needed? Or solar cells to save on cost.

Pufftmw

Those bloody life-savers :evil:

Coming down Marylebone Road on a motorbike and traffic ahead is slowing in middle/outside lane. I do a safety check onto the inside lane, which is clear, turn round and :shock: :shock: :shock: Rover SDi has had to brake a lot harder than previously and I was just about to hit :shock: :shock: Literally laid the bike on the ground and jumped off and ran (because I was still going 15mph when I jumped) into the inside lane and over to the curb! Bloke in SDi heard a bang and sees a courier running past his car LOL! No damage to me or his car but pedals levers on the bike

Glad you've survived ok - story for the grandkids

Pufftmw

EKE_38BPM wrote:

I've often thought that life savers can be anything but.

Someone should invent a device where you can see what is behind you whilst still facing forward? With cameras and small LCDs so cheap these days I'm sure it can be done. Battery life may be an issue so maybe a hub generator would be needed? Or solar cells to save on cost.

Mirror?

EKE_38BPM

Pufftmw wrote:

EKE_38BPM wrote:

I've often thought that life savers can be anything but.

Someone should invent a device where you can see what is behind you whilst still facing forward? With cameras and small LCDs so cheap these days I'm sure it can be done. Battery life may be an issue so maybe a hub generator would be needed? Or solar cells to save on cost.

Mirror?

Joke?

kelsen

EKE_38BPM wrote:

Pufftmw wrote:

EKE_38BPM wrote:

I've often thought that life savers can be anything but.

Someone should invent a device where you can see what is behind you whilst still facing forward? With cameras and small LCDs so cheap these days I'm sure it can be done. Battery life may be an issue so maybe a hub generator would be needed? Or solar cells to save on cost.

Mirror?

Joke?

Didn't somebody once invent a helmet with a prism mirror inside it that allowed you to see what was behind you? What happened to that?

Hairybuddha

I went past a guy a on the Thames path near Richmond a few weeks ago who had a small mirror attached to the front of his helmet.

sketchley

kelsen wrote:

EKE_38BPM wrote:

Pufftmw wrote:

EKE_38BPM wrote:

I've often thought that life savers can be anything but.

Someone should invent a device where you can see what is behind you whilst still facing forward? With cameras and small LCDs so cheap these days I'm sure it can be done. Battery life may be an issue so maybe a hub generator would be needed? Or solar cells to save on cost.

Mirror?

Joke?

Didn't somebody once invent a helmet with a prism mirror inside it that allowed you to see what was behind you? What happened to that?

http://www.reevu.com/leisure.asp

Headhuunter

I've had a few close shaves like that, flowing with slow traffic, quick shuolder check to move out to overtake, look back round and car in front has stopped... have managed to hold it together each time so far....

7 stitches! Sounds nasty... I only had 6 stictches in my leg when I had my major crash...