Man Down - Me

prawny

Riding along a straight main road at about 25mph bike suddenly went from under me and plonked me in the middle of the road. Bike is scratched up a bit but road home again ok, will inspect over the weekend

Clothes and skin are torn, going to write to the council as they admitted via twitter they'd decided not to grit at all last night, which was just daft. It's going to cost me a few quid, which I dont have. Has anyone succesfully claimed against the council for ice on the road? It's a primary road so should have been gritted, but thought better of it, after a week of drizzle then forecasted temps of around freezing.

london-red

prawny wrote:

Has anyone succesfully claimed against the council for ice on the road?

I would try claiming against God. Or Zeus.

london-red

But regardless, sounds nasty - hope you heal quickly!

keef66

My tight fisted Ex Not Brother-in-Law (long story) successfully extracted compensation from the council when he drove off an icy bend one morning. I just assumed it was because he's a dickhead...

I was out for 90 minutes last night and got gritted twice! For the most part the roads were nice and dry, but for some reason one stretch between Stetchworth and Woodditton was damp / wet / icy, and I was half expecting to come off but didn't thankfully.

jgsi

Worth a try , you might a 5% rebate on your social care.

N0bodyOfTheGoat

Hopefully you and the bike will survive, sounds a bit scarey! :shock:

Which bike is all scratched up? Your bargain Tenet (from last year?)?

prawny

Yeah the bargain tenet, as long as it works I'm happy, it's a workhorse beast.

Shoes, helmet, gloves and tights are gutting though, properly skint after Christmas.

Edit - video for the lolz
https://youtu.be/KnFAJu8WUzc

veronese68

Ouch!
Not sure how much luck you'll have claiming. Did they say they wouldn't be gritting although they knew it would be below freezing? That might help. Glad you're not too badly hurt.

N0bodyOfTheGoat

Watching the video, I couldn't help but think it could have been so much worse, suddenly all grip went and you were at the mercy of the vehicles around you!

wolfsbane2k

That's pretty scary, looks like you where going quite a pace. Glad your ok, especially considering the emergency stop of the car behind you that had to break the solid white line!
I've got similar video, but never shown it out of embarrassment...

prawny

Veronese68 wrote:

Ouch!
Not sure how much luck you'll have claiming. Did they say they wouldn't be gritting although they knew it would be below freezing? That might help. Glad you're not too badly hurt.

Almost, it had been forecast to be around freezing all week after steady drizzle for the previous 4 days, apparently they said they'd consulted various meteorologists and decide it would be fine.

Sore today, road rash is weeping and sticking to everything. Bike looks ok, but turns out I've holed my aldi jacket as well as my tights gloves and toe covers.

itboffin

its annoying when you add the cost of all the damaged kit, i came down a few weeks ago on some diesel, ripped glove, castelli alpha jacket, castelli overshoes, rub marks on my bibs and lots of scratching on the bike.

Get yourself some hydrocolloid dressings for the road rash, that stuff is magic and it'll stop more crap getting into the wound.

meanredspider

itboffin wrote:

Get yourself some hydrocolloid dressings for the road rash, that stuff is magic and it'll stop more crap getting into the wound.

+1 these are great. Just put them on and leave them for days. They work on the basis of keeping the wound wet as it heals better if it doesn't dry out.

prawny

Covered myself in hydrocolloids and tegaderm today, edges are lifting a bit on my knees, do love a good hydrocolloid though, need to restock now, I've used 3/4s of the stash

meanredspider

prawny wrote:

Covered myself in hydrocolloids and tegaderm today, edges are lifting a bit on my knees, do love a good hydrocolloid though, need to restock now, I've used 3/4s of the stash

Id keep that news from the council - they might be keen to show that you have a track record of leaving skin on tarmac

thistle_

Didn't try for money but tried complaining after a road wasn't gritted when it's on their gritting route.

They said it had been gritted twice overnight. The grit eating pixies must've been out overnight because there were bits of grit all along the non icy road I had just turned off and nothing on the icy road where I hit the deck.

I think they have GPS trackers on the gritters so they know where they have been, but I'm not sure it records the amount of grit coming out the back of it.

MrSweary

prawny wrote:

Covered myself in hydrocolloids and tegaderm today, edges are lifting a bit on my knees, do love a good hydrocolloid though, need to restock now, I've used 3/4s of the stash

They aren't quite so great around knees in my experience as they naturally fill up with wound juice (this is what its called right?) due to movement and then leak and hence don't work as well. I think I may have freaked out quite a few commuters on the trains over the summer with shorts on and gory tegadermed knee on display.

I'm assuming it was the knee and not my bronzed guns that were causing the distress...

davesnothere

MrSweary wrote:

prawny wrote:

Covered myself in hydrocolloids and tegaderm today, edges are lifting a bit on my knees, do love a good hydrocolloid though, need to restock now, I've used 3/4s of the stash

They aren't quite so great around knees in my experience as they naturally fill up with wound juice (this is what its called right?) due to movement and then leak and hence don't work as well. I think I may have freaked out quite a few commuters on the trains over the summer with shorts on and gory tegadermed knee on display.

I'm assuming it was the knee and not my bronzed guns that were causing the distress...

wound juice

keef66

thistle (MBNW) wrote:

Didn't try for money but tried complaining after a road wasn't gritted when it's on their gritting route.

They said it had been gritted twice overnight. The grit eating pixies must've been out overnight because there were bits of grit all along the non icy road I had just turned off and nothing on the icy road where I hit the deck.

I think they have GPS trackers on the gritters so they know where they have been, but I'm not sure it records the amount of grit coming out the back of it.

When I was gritted twice last week by the same gritting lorry, it didn't seem to be chucking much out of the back. I'm usually pebble dashed by the bloody things and can see an obvious sprinkling on the road, that time not so much. Presumably they have control from the cab over what comes out the back ? But do they have any way, apart from looking in their mirrors, of confirming that it's all working? Cameras?

bompington

Around here they frequently pause the spreader when they pass me. I don't know if that leaves an icy bit but I do appreciate the thought.

rolf_f

Last week it was well forecasted that we'd potentially have some snow in Leeds. We did. It snowed, partly melted, partly froze. The council appear to have used up their salt budget for the cycle super highway for the year. It was lethal. Today I avoided that route entirely.
It's actually a total pain. When they do salt it, there is so much salt sat on the ground that it crusts the bike up in no time. The crunching sound is a bit Ice Road Truckerish. Plays havoc with the componentry yet unless you can see the stuff it is difficult to believe it has been put down. You can at least trust them to grit the roads.

prawny

The wound juice is causing me grief today, I've put tegaderm around the hyrocolloids and it's still oozing out.

I need some of them tubular nets they have on the tour and some gauze over the top

ugo.santalucia

If it's of any help, on the same morning (last friday), I found that no local council in the Midlands had bothered to grit overnight... luckily I was on my studded tyres

I did complain about it, but still to get a reply

mudcovered

prawny wrote:

The wound juice is causing me grief today, I've put tegaderm around the hyrocolloids and it's still oozing out.

I need some of them tubular nets they have on the tour and some gauze over the top

That might work. Last time I came off (just before new year on some frost) I did find that the first hydrocolloid dressing oozed like that. However I replaced them after 24 hours and then I was able to leave them for days without trouble. Mind you the road rash I had from that incident was small enough that one large dressing just about covered it.

Other possibility is a larger dressing over the hydrocolloid ones perhaps?

Mike

apreading

If you are getting that much exudate (would juice) then hydrocolloid can be dangerous if you are not careful. It can cause infection and even maceration of the would, which is not pleasant...

http://woundcaresociety.org/long-can-hy ... ssing-stay

• If the hydrocolloid is fully saturated and requires to be changed in daily basis, it may be a sign that the dressing is not suitable for the wound site. The wound might ooze too much and thus, produce excessive exudate. This will cause leakage and make it unable for the hydrocolloid dressing to attach and adhere to the wound bed properly. Do not wait too long to change the type of dressing you are using if this happens, as hydrocolloid dressing that is not fully mold to the wound can easily be infested with bacteria and other external dirt, making the wound more prone to infection.
• Hydrocolloid is strongly not recommended for the wounds showing any signs of infection. Thus, if you have just applied the dressing and find some infection signs of the wound bed, immediately remove the dressing to prevent further wound infection and delayed healing. With wounds that ooze very much, hydrocolloid may worsens the condition by adding too much moisture to the already-moist wound bed, so that the signs of infection may occur within 2 to 3 days after the application of the dressing. Some foul-odor discharge may leak, which is an initial sign that the dressing should be removed.

mudcovered

apreading wrote:

If you are getting that much exudate (would juice) then hydrocolloid can be dangerous if you are not careful. It can cause infection and even maceration of the would, which is not pleasant...

Good info there. Much more sound advice than mine. I have to admit if the oozing hadn't stopped on mine after the first day then I'd probably have switched to a different type of dressing.

Mike

MrSweary

mudcovered wrote:

apreading wrote:

If you are getting that much exudate (would juice) then hydrocolloid can be dangerous if you are not careful. It can cause infection and even maceration of the would, which is not pleasant...

Good info there. Much more sound advice than mine. I have to admit if the oozing hadn't stopped on mine after the first day then I'd probably have switched to a different type of dressing.

Mike

Indeed. I actually did switch my knee dressing after a few days because the wound juice wasn't stopping. Put on a conventional dressing and let it dry out.

Was fun goring out all the commuters though.

prawny

Ooh missed this, cheers.

Will have a bath and re dress today. Oozing has slowed down, but still a fair bit around the elbow.

I think the main problem is the size of the abrasion and lack of size of the dressings but better safe than sorry