Reading about all of these injuries and browsing X-rays makes me realize how lucky I've been in my 45-50 years of riding a bike. In all that time, I've only been in 3 crashes (all, of course, involving cars with clueless drivers).
In the '80's, I bought my first really nice "Italian" bike at a sidewalk sale in Huntington Beach (1/2 price!). I'd been out of college for a year or so and hadn't owned a bike since my last one was stolen freshman year. It was an '86 Bertoni Corsa Mondiale in metallic lavender (in Italian they called it, "God-awful purple"). Loved that bike but thought it might have been cursed. Within a month or two I had two crashes in the same weekend! The first happened as I was riding down in the Newport/Balboa area. I was probably cruising at 25+ mph when I was passed by a van. The van barely went another city block when it took a right turn in front of me. I hit the brakes and slid the bike sideways like I was doing a hockey stop. I must have hit the side of that van at 10 mph. The whole incident seemed to happen in slow motion. I even remember the fear in the elderly woman's face as I slammed into the van right next to her. Looked like a couple driving their in-laws around the area. I'm sure this incident made an impression as I did given the huge Wile E. Coyote-shaped dent I put in their side. They slowed and saw that I was still on the bike and, I guess, assumed I was OK and drove off. I quickly unclipped and put a foot down and then heard the lunchtime host at the restaurant on the corner where it happen say (in a fantastic Jeff Spicolli voice), "Du-u-u-de... I can't believe you stayed on the bike!" The next day I went out for an easy ride to loosen up my severely bruised hip and shoulder and was right-hooked by a pick up truck. That time, I was not so lucky. I flew over the handlebars onto the pavement as I heard the squealing of tires as they tore off. My rear wheel was completely taco-ed which I didn't bother repairing for at least a month since I thought the bike was cursed. Fortunately, because of the previous day's accident, I was wearing a helmet that second day. Could've been a lot worse. I loved that bike and kept it for another 25+ years. Wish I'd held on to it for riding Eroica. Still had all the original Shimano 600 gruppo (obligatory bike-geek statement). John Niles, CA On Sunday, March 15, 2020 at 3:40:10 PM UTC-7, Bicycle Belle Ding Ding! wrote: > > On a recent thread, we veered off topic things that might cause crashes. > Stories began pouring in, and they were fascinating and useful. I think we > should have a new thread here where you can contribute your experiences and > the rest of us can learn a thing or two. For instance, I didn’t know a > fender unsecured at the seat stay could cause a crash and now I do. I’ll be > fixing mine forthwith! > > I feel fortunate not to have any stories to contribute here, but please > share yours with us. Some of them might even be funny. (We’ll be laughing > WITH you.) > Leah -- 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 view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/ab862540-d996-436a-8eab-a5df8c5a8419%40googlegroups.com.
