Kevin I am sorry to read about your accident, the damage to your bike & body. I too have gone over the handlebars, actually a couple of times in 45 years of riding. Once from hitting a large rock and another when my wheel went into a sewer grate. I have also had the experience of discovering my front QR had been pried open during a mass pit stop on a club ride. I do think there is a better, more important lesson in this than going to lawyer lips, which seem to me to complicate QR setup and increase the risk of failure, all be it not catastrophic failure. Do not take your QR for granted. Check it. Make sure it is tight. Replace old QR's with solid new ones - Ultegra, Paul's, PW. Yes they are expensive, but then so are good brakes & tires and none of us would ride a bike with a worn front tire or flimsy brake.
Take some time; let your body heal; get back in the saddle. blessings, michael On Wednesday, April 20, 2016 at 8:22:15 PM UTC-4, Kevin Lindsey wrote: > > This is on-topic. > Aside from being a Riv fanatic, I also love old steel racing bikes. Over > the past three months, I rebuilt a 1972 (i.e. pre-lawyer lips) Peugeot > PX-10, using all original equipment (Simplex transmission, Mafac brakes, > Campy hubs, Brooks Swift, etc.) and took it out for its maiden voyage two > days ago. On my way back from the 40-mile jaunt, I approached a slight > curb and jerked the front wheel up a bit to clear it. My next memories are > a flash of me going over the handlebars and hitting the pavement, then > being surrounded by concerned runners (I was on the Mount Vernon bike and > running trail in Alexandria, Virginia) tut-tutting at my broken bike and > bleeding knees, shoulder, and face. Fortunately, I was able to walk the > bike about three miles to the nearest bike shop and called my wife to come > pick me up. > Looking at the bike and my injuries later that evening, I believe what > happened was this: the old Campy quick release skewer on my front wheel got > loose and, by jerking the bike up at the curb, I pulled the wheel out of > the left fork, causing the wheel to pop off, digging my now wheel-less fork > into the pavement, and flipping me for a 180. I hit on my knees and hands > (fortunately protected by riding gloves), and my head (fortunately > protected by a now-gashed helmet). I will eventually heal (assuming that > my wrist is not actually broken, but only banged up, and that the slight > headache I've had since will eventually dissipate), but the right tine of > my fork is permanently bent at about a 15 degree angle. Otherwise, thank > God, my bike is almost unscathed (except for the Brooks, which was deeply > scored and which led me to conclude that I flipped the bike over completely > during the crash). > Although we often grouse about lawyer lips and helmets, this accident > wouldn't have happened on my Hunq or Bleriot, graced as they both are with > those annoying lips demanded by liability lawyers to prevent incidents like > this. Also, if I hadn't been wearing my helmet, it's likely that I would > have had a full-blown concussion, not to mention a deep road rash on my > head to match the relatively light stuff on my face. > Lesson learned. > In the meantime, does anyone out there have a spare white fork for a 56cm > PX-10? > Kevin > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
