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From my website, here's my wreck account, verbatim:
Wow. As you probably saw on the main page, I dumped my bike. Saturday, 24 July at appx. 20:43hrs, I exited the vehicle. Here's the story.
Around 2040hrs, I left Mike's (ACE750) after doing around a 75 mile pre-flight run for the upcoming Beginner Bike's Bug Bash in early August with him and Melissa. I turned left from Possum Run onto Feedwire Rd., behind a slower moving pickup truck. I knew there was a passing zone beyond the bridge crossing US 675, so as I pulled up on the truck, I set myself up for a pass once I cleared the bridge. There was one car turning about a half mile+ up the road onto Feedwire, so I had plenty of room to pass once the passing zone appeared. I had been winding first coming up behind the truck, so I grabbed second and proceeded to signal and pass. I cleared the front of the truck, signaled and started back right, and then things went bad.
Some combination of the bad pavement that's right there (I saw it flash up as I began banking right), the banking itself, and being on it hard in second caused the front wheel to hop. Immediately the hop turned into a violent headshake, then almost immediately into a tankslapper. I had the presence of mind to grab the pegs with my feet and squeeze as hard as I could with my legs, and since I couldn't get the bars under control, I grabbed as much throttle as I could. Throttle, Throttle, Throttle, Please God come up, Please God come up!!! No luck. The front tire kept skipping instead of lifting, (if it had lifted I'd have been able to straighten it, and drop onto a lined-up wheel) so all the throttle did was manage to get me away from the front of the truck I'd just passed.
At this point, I lost spatial orientation, as I left the bike. From looking at pics of the damage and where I ended up, I think I low-sided pretty hard. I apparently slid down into the ditch and hit the bottom, because the next motion I do remember for sure was a hard jolt, then a complete ass-over-teacups flip, then a landing on my butt. My helmet had come open, and the chin-guard was behind my head. My left knee was trashed, and my right ankle didn't feel too hot either. The first lady down the ditch side said she'd called 911, and I had the presence of mind to get the next person down there to call Amanda at home, so she'd know. The ambulance arrived very quickly, and the EMTs commenced with cutting off my gear. They tried to just take my left boot off, but after I cursed them loudly and thoroughly, they decided it was better to cut it off. They managed to get my exploded glove off over my left hand, and had to cut my jeans off. I got the standard "What day is it?" type questions, but all I could think about was "why the hell wouldn't that front tire lift and let me un-fuck myself?" or "Which way did my bike go?" Shock sucks. I got the ambulance ride to the hospital (Miami Valley), and then spent a couple of hours in the trauma ward since surgery kept having care-flight guys come in at a higher priority... Guess they were really messed up.
Amanda made it to the hospital before I did, and I actually didn't lose consciousness until I was in the ER. To sum up all the injuries:
Right Ankle: Minor ligament tears, currently in a cast. Approved to bear weight as much as I can stand, in order to get in and out of bed, into my wheelchair, etc.
Left Knee: When they went to stabilize it, they found that my femur had actually punched through the bag that holds all the cartilage and fluids in place in the knee. They had to make some incisions in order to move the femur back through and to realign everything. They don't know if the exterior ligaments are very inflamed or torn at this point. Pretty much all the other ligaments are shredded. I've got a scar to the right of my kneecap where they went in to stabilize, and have an external fixator to keep the knee from moving. Basically, I've got two stainless screws in the top of my shin, and two stainless screws in the side of my thigh, and a series of carbon fiber bars and titanium clamps holding everything in perfect alignment. Carbon fiber bike accessories are cool. Carbon fiber leg accessories are NOT cool.
Left side/ Left Hand: Minor road rash. The Joe Rocket Phoenix jacket did its job very well, and the only real road rash I've got is where the cell phone I had clipped to the outside of the jacket pulled it up when I augured in. My left hand has some nice gashes, probably from getting caught up in the left handlebar as it beat the crap out of the tank. The skin is all tight, but at least nothing's broken.
What's planned: Surgery on Friday, 6 August to fix the right ankle, and to scope the left knee. If the exterior ligaments have just been inflamed, they'll just scope the knee, but if the ligaments were torn, the doc said he's going to go ahead and repair them at the same time. Then it's another 4 weeks in the external fixator, wherein I'll still be confined to the house.
Here's some links to pics:
Flip Face Helmet
Flip Face Helmet Faceguard
Leather burn on my hand (Road Rash Alert)
Laid up in the hospital, with pins in my leg
I've got bike pics if anybody wants to see them.
Lessons learned:
1. Tankslappers suck
2. See #1
3. Think about where you are and what you're doing, not which way you're going to get back to the house. Save route change decisions for that time waiting on a stoplight
4. ATGATT!!!!
5. Flip Face Helmets have their drawbacks. I wouldn't steer anybody away, as mine did its job in the initial bump, but I've got a new full face now...
Questions, Comments, Snide remarks?
Wow. As you probably saw on the main page, I dumped my bike. Saturday, 24 July at appx. 20:43hrs, I exited the vehicle. Here's the story.
Around 2040hrs, I left Mike's (ACE750) after doing around a 75 mile pre-flight run for the upcoming Beginner Bike's Bug Bash in early August with him and Melissa. I turned left from Possum Run onto Feedwire Rd., behind a slower moving pickup truck. I knew there was a passing zone beyond the bridge crossing US 675, so as I pulled up on the truck, I set myself up for a pass once I cleared the bridge. There was one car turning about a half mile+ up the road onto Feedwire, so I had plenty of room to pass once the passing zone appeared. I had been winding first coming up behind the truck, so I grabbed second and proceeded to signal and pass. I cleared the front of the truck, signaled and started back right, and then things went bad.
Some combination of the bad pavement that's right there (I saw it flash up as I began banking right), the banking itself, and being on it hard in second caused the front wheel to hop. Immediately the hop turned into a violent headshake, then almost immediately into a tankslapper. I had the presence of mind to grab the pegs with my feet and squeeze as hard as I could with my legs, and since I couldn't get the bars under control, I grabbed as much throttle as I could. Throttle, Throttle, Throttle, Please God come up, Please God come up!!! No luck. The front tire kept skipping instead of lifting, (if it had lifted I'd have been able to straighten it, and drop onto a lined-up wheel) so all the throttle did was manage to get me away from the front of the truck I'd just passed.
At this point, I lost spatial orientation, as I left the bike. From looking at pics of the damage and where I ended up, I think I low-sided pretty hard. I apparently slid down into the ditch and hit the bottom, because the next motion I do remember for sure was a hard jolt, then a complete ass-over-teacups flip, then a landing on my butt. My helmet had come open, and the chin-guard was behind my head. My left knee was trashed, and my right ankle didn't feel too hot either. The first lady down the ditch side said she'd called 911, and I had the presence of mind to get the next person down there to call Amanda at home, so she'd know. The ambulance arrived very quickly, and the EMTs commenced with cutting off my gear. They tried to just take my left boot off, but after I cursed them loudly and thoroughly, they decided it was better to cut it off. They managed to get my exploded glove off over my left hand, and had to cut my jeans off. I got the standard "What day is it?" type questions, but all I could think about was "why the hell wouldn't that front tire lift and let me un-fuck myself?" or "Which way did my bike go?" Shock sucks. I got the ambulance ride to the hospital (Miami Valley), and then spent a couple of hours in the trauma ward since surgery kept having care-flight guys come in at a higher priority... Guess they were really messed up.
Amanda made it to the hospital before I did, and I actually didn't lose consciousness until I was in the ER. To sum up all the injuries:
Right Ankle: Minor ligament tears, currently in a cast. Approved to bear weight as much as I can stand, in order to get in and out of bed, into my wheelchair, etc.
Left Knee: When they went to stabilize it, they found that my femur had actually punched through the bag that holds all the cartilage and fluids in place in the knee. They had to make some incisions in order to move the femur back through and to realign everything. They don't know if the exterior ligaments are very inflamed or torn at this point. Pretty much all the other ligaments are shredded. I've got a scar to the right of my kneecap where they went in to stabilize, and have an external fixator to keep the knee from moving. Basically, I've got two stainless screws in the top of my shin, and two stainless screws in the side of my thigh, and a series of carbon fiber bars and titanium clamps holding everything in perfect alignment. Carbon fiber bike accessories are cool. Carbon fiber leg accessories are NOT cool.
Left side/ Left Hand: Minor road rash. The Joe Rocket Phoenix jacket did its job very well, and the only real road rash I've got is where the cell phone I had clipped to the outside of the jacket pulled it up when I augured in. My left hand has some nice gashes, probably from getting caught up in the left handlebar as it beat the crap out of the tank. The skin is all tight, but at least nothing's broken.
What's planned: Surgery on Friday, 6 August to fix the right ankle, and to scope the left knee. If the exterior ligaments have just been inflamed, they'll just scope the knee, but if the ligaments were torn, the doc said he's going to go ahead and repair them at the same time. Then it's another 4 weeks in the external fixator, wherein I'll still be confined to the house.
Here's some links to pics:
Flip Face Helmet
Flip Face Helmet Faceguard
Leather burn on my hand (Road Rash Alert)
Laid up in the hospital, with pins in my leg
I've got bike pics if anybody wants to see them.
Lessons learned:
1. Tankslappers suck
2. See #1
3. Think about where you are and what you're doing, not which way you're going to get back to the house. Save route change decisions for that time waiting on a stoplight
4. ATGATT!!!!
5. Flip Face Helmets have their drawbacks. I wouldn't steer anybody away, as mine did its job in the initial bump, but I've got a new full face now...
Questions, Comments, Snide remarks?
Comment