Chrisc
Guru
- Location
- Huddersfield
Out on a clubrun last Sunday enjoying the Derbyshire countryside I experienced a speed wobble for the first time ever on the descent into Charlesworth village. This quickly developed into an uncontrollable wobble and sad to say I was unable to avoid crashing. Hit the chapel graveyard wall a glancing blow with my left shoulder travelling at about 40mph and went down sliding about 25 yards down the hill to a stop.
Destroyed the left shifter on the bike but remarkably the rest seems fine.
I wasn't so lucky myself. Took two hours to get to hospital, an hour of which was trying to get me enough morphine in so I could be put on a spinal board properly.
Upshot is four displaced fractured ribs, broken collarbone, separated shoulder and a nice two piece shoulder blade plus road rash to left leg, hip, shoulder and knuckles. That said I'm so lucky not to have suffered a head or neck injury. Helmet hit the road and is scuffed and cracked from the impact so did the job it's paid to thanks very much. New one required.
Lots of new kit was out that day that is now trashed, either in the accident itself or scissored off in the Manchester Royal. Been looked after brilliantly over there before discharge and now face months of healing and probable surgery to plate things up.
As I said I never experienced this wobble before and the combination of that lack of experience in how to deal with it, extreme downhill section of road, a bend with a high wall and a gravelly corner right at the point where I really needed to be hard on the brakes but couldn't all conspired to put me up the creek without as it were. Apparently its 'common to assume that something has failed on the bike, wheel or head bearings as this is what it feels like This reaction creates a 'never going to save this' attitude at the outset. The thing to do is to level the pedals and clamp the top tube between the knees to stabilise things and hopefully bring things back under control. My descending in future is going to be a little more circumspect....
Anatomy lesson.
rash
jersey
forgot this one, CT scan image of my new two piece scapula, floating lower section highlighted.
and a last juicy CT image looking up and out of my ribcage at the shoulder , bit gruesome seeing your own internals like this but what a picture!
Destroyed the left shifter on the bike but remarkably the rest seems fine.
I wasn't so lucky myself. Took two hours to get to hospital, an hour of which was trying to get me enough morphine in so I could be put on a spinal board properly.
Upshot is four displaced fractured ribs, broken collarbone, separated shoulder and a nice two piece shoulder blade plus road rash to left leg, hip, shoulder and knuckles. That said I'm so lucky not to have suffered a head or neck injury. Helmet hit the road and is scuffed and cracked from the impact so did the job it's paid to thanks very much. New one required.
Lots of new kit was out that day that is now trashed, either in the accident itself or scissored off in the Manchester Royal. Been looked after brilliantly over there before discharge and now face months of healing and probable surgery to plate things up.
As I said I never experienced this wobble before and the combination of that lack of experience in how to deal with it, extreme downhill section of road, a bend with a high wall and a gravelly corner right at the point where I really needed to be hard on the brakes but couldn't all conspired to put me up the creek without as it were. Apparently its 'common to assume that something has failed on the bike, wheel or head bearings as this is what it feels like This reaction creates a 'never going to save this' attitude at the outset. The thing to do is to level the pedals and clamp the top tube between the knees to stabilise things and hopefully bring things back under control. My descending in future is going to be a little more circumspect....
Anatomy lesson.
rash
jersey
forgot this one, CT scan image of my new two piece scapula, floating lower section highlighted.
and a last juicy CT image looking up and out of my ribcage at the shoulder , bit gruesome seeing your own internals like this but what a picture!
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... speedy recovery there Chris 
(He'll do anything to have a day off work that lad) 
