Anyone ever donate flesh to the Queen's Highway?

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PaulB

Legendary Member
Location
Colne
Road-rashed to buggery today after a high-speed fall in the Ride with Brad yesterday. Everything was going well until we rounded a bend on the way towards the Trough when I hit a long stretch of dried grit/cow-shoot. I was about to roll down my arm-warmers but luckily I still had them on so they reduced the hideous-looking hole near my elbow from more severity. I literally lost control of the front end and hit the ground at some speed. It's a first for me but seems to be a cyclist's lot. There were people at the finish who looked like they'd been fighting in the trenches. One guy crashed and dislocated his thumb but the guy immediately behind him was a surgeon who pushed it back in and the guy rode the remaining 50 miles on that!
 

asterix

Comrade Member
Location
Limoges or York
Well if you will try and race Bradley Wiggins..

Must say I'd have liked to have been there but on 2nd thoughts..
 

fossyant

Ride It Like You Stole It!
Location
South Manchester
Quite a few times. :laugh:

Donated a rather large patch of my ass to the Cat and Fiddle on the way down to Macclesfield. Rounding the first bend on the 'flat bit' in the middle, saw what looked like spilt milk, front end went and I landed on my back side. Slid over the wrong side of the road, jumped up sharpish (cars coming) and legged it to the side. Massive hole in shorts, huge 6" square patch of my ass was now very red ! Stones in my palm, side taken off pedals, bar tape massacred, scuffed up Sidi shoes.

Rode 15 miles home with my butt hanging out - must have looked well 'ard with all that blood. :laugh: Didn't half sting in the shower ! Wife shot out to chemist as we didn't have any patches big enough. :wacko: It was rather 'gooey' for a few weeks.

Worse of all was the ruined shorts (brand new) and damaged shoes !
 
I came off rather messily, and the next day decided to drop into a NHS - um - drop in centre to have it properly cleaned up. She did a good job, put a lovely moist dressing on, packed up enough of the stuff to redress it myself in a few days ("don't tell anyone", bless her) and gave me a prescription for some kickarse antibiotics. As there was no sign of an infection so far, I asked her why. Standard practice for road rash, apparently as "roads are dirty"

FWIW

(edit: this was low speed, accelerating on gravel)
 

yello

Guest
What would happen in you come off a bike at 40mph, would you die?

I think it would depend on what you hit.

Pro-cyclists have come off at such speeds and only (I say 'only', it's bad enough) suffered pretty nasty road rash.
 

2PedalsTez

Über Member
It's not the speed, more what you hit or how you land that's the problem*
I crashed at 24mph and broke my collarbone along with bruising to hip and ankles.


* I imagine crashing at over 40mph will smart somewhat at the very least. I don't plan to test any of the options.
 
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PaulB

PaulB

Legendary Member
Location
Colne
I refused to go to the scab-lifters and dressed the wounds myself. My hip is grazed and feels like a bad sunburn, my knee has an ugly open sore but the arm just below the elbow is gruesome. Really deep and a vivid red/black colour that seeps through the packs I put on. My Casteli bib-shorts that I love are ruined, my gloves saved my hands from some abuse but they are both ripped through and my jersey is threadbare down one side. I have a pain in the right shoulder and an ache somewhere vague in the abdomen area.

A wonderful woman stopped and helped me enormously. Without her, I'd have been standing on a narrow verge bleeding and in pain on the roadside for an hour and a half as it was that long before the organisers got someone to me. My bike is a bit wrecked and was definitely unrideable as the wheel points one way and the handlebars another so I wasn't going anywhere on it. She insisted I get in her car and she took me to her nearby house which kept me out of the rain and a bathroom to wash the blood and gore off my limbs.
 
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PaulB

PaulB

Legendary Member
Location
Colne
I maxed 47.2mph on my last run, and im getting very VERY scared of a blow out or somthing.
I had my first and so far only blow-out doing approx 30-35 downhill on the Lancs/Yorkshire border and it was pretty uneventful. It was a bit of a shock with the sound but it didn't affect the bike handling in any way.
 

Peter Armstrong

Über Member
I had my first and so far only blow-out doing approx 30-35 downhill on the Lancs/Yorkshire border and it was pretty uneventful. It was a bit of a shock with the sound but it didn't affect the bike handling in any way.

I hope thats true, if its ever to happen.
 
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PaulB

PaulB

Legendary Member
Location
Colne
I hope thats true, if its ever to happen.
True to me as it's how I experienced it. It wasn't just an inner blowing out, either, but a patch of tyre worn through to reveal a weak spot which blew. I was not best pleased when the young couple riding uphill towards me at the time were amused at the situation and laughed out loud, needless to say not even asking if I needed help.
 
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