Hi there =]
I'm Lyle and I hadn't made a new post until now. I figured I would make it good and desribe my wipeout in traffic today.
Going South downhill on Thurlow, towards Pacific. I had merged into the left lane, and was trying to scrub off enough speed to make it around the corner. The road surface towards that intersection is oily with a few cracks. I'm guessing that the pads grabbed after cleaning the rim enough, shooting the front end out from under me.
Internally I sighed, as I watched my bar end grind the pavement.
Was I in the intersection yet?
How far have I slid?
Why does this all happen so slowly?
I managed to unclip and kick the bike out from under me, and I hopped to my feet at the end of the slide. I quickly grabbed the bike from just past the crosswalk and went to the corner.
The person in the car behind me stopped at the corner and asked if I was alright. "Yeah, its cool!" I yelled as I started to do a quick systems check on the bike (funny how thats the first thing on your mind).
He then asked me about my hip, and I had to think about it.
Damn.
I did go down on my hip.
So I'm now a little bruised, and my knee and ankle are cut up (along with my MEC Samuri pants). On the bike, the spd pedal recieved the most of the damage/street cred.
In a way, its not so bad. This should give me some downtime to build my new wheels... and really its what I get for playing in traffic in the rain.
Comments
Ouch! Man I know how you feel... I had two crashes on the same hip last week and it still hurts. I just keep riding, it seems to keep the muscles limber.
The expression "keep the rubber side down" suddenly seems much more profound!
Yeah, I think I'm going to get back on the horse tomorrow.
I did a fair amount of walking today, and I'm not doing too bad.
This whole event makes me want a disk brake more and more. I've heard they don't require a two revolutions to grab in the wet =D
braking is instant... I still have that disc wheel assembly to build up and put on my fixie... maybe after comps
I always had problems on Granville Island. I kept slipping and sliding (and falling sometimes!) on the train tracks that criss cross every part of that sorry excuse for a tourist trap.... But the worst was one early morning going to work and taking a low turn I hit a patch of black ice? and demolished my pedals and my cycling pants. Ouch. Biking to work with one pedal... Wheee... Fun.
Mat, you wrecked the pedals I gave you? Good on ya!!!
I remember the first big crash I had when I first started commuting back in the late 90's. I was working out at the PBS in Nanaimo and I hit some black ice while making a left going down hill. I slide on my hip through the intersection and into a pole on the other side.
It all happened so fast that when a motorist asked if I was okay, I jumped up, said I was fine and continued one. Afterwards I had trouble walking for about a week.