AndyCh
Über Member
Unfortunately, when I was cycling to work this morning I had a bit of a coming together with the road. I was turning left when a pedestrian stepped out into the road where I was turning. I swerved around him, but I had lost my turning arc and the road was wet, so as I tried to tighten the turn around him to complete the turn my front wheel disappeared from under me and I came crashing down in the blink of an eye on to my left hand side.
I was bit too shaken to have a go at the guy who walked out in front of me, he did stop to make sure I was ok though (as did a couple of other people), but I think he was a bit oblivious to the fact he was a major contributing factor to the cause of the accident.
I was going at a reasonably fair lick though (another contributing factor) so it was a heavy fall. I've hurt my left shoulder, elbow, left leg below the knee, ribs of left hand side, and cut my right hand as the handlebars were twisted 180 degrees during the fall and must have dragged my right hand around. There was plenty of blood on show and I must have looked a bit of a sight coming in to work this morning, but fortunately there is nothing too serious (although my ribs are a bit uncomfortable, despite an element of natural padding!).
I felt my helmet smash against the ground and it is has taken much of the force of the fall. The helmet has fractured and crumpled, so I am very, very glad I was wearing it otherwise I'm sure I'd be in a bed at St Thomas' Hospital right now.
After today, I would say never ride without a helmet, ever, even for a short trip.
The last contributing factor is that I still had a Schwalbe Kojak on the front, so no tread at all, which isn't ideal for October roads. Time to change for some tread!
All in all, I'm lucky I'm ok, but given a little less pace and aggression on the road, I wouldn't have come off. I thought after 10-12 years of relatively safe commuting on London roads I was invincible - I was wrong.....
Stay safe out there folks.
Andy
I was bit too shaken to have a go at the guy who walked out in front of me, he did stop to make sure I was ok though (as did a couple of other people), but I think he was a bit oblivious to the fact he was a major contributing factor to the cause of the accident.
I was going at a reasonably fair lick though (another contributing factor) so it was a heavy fall. I've hurt my left shoulder, elbow, left leg below the knee, ribs of left hand side, and cut my right hand as the handlebars were twisted 180 degrees during the fall and must have dragged my right hand around. There was plenty of blood on show and I must have looked a bit of a sight coming in to work this morning, but fortunately there is nothing too serious (although my ribs are a bit uncomfortable, despite an element of natural padding!).
I felt my helmet smash against the ground and it is has taken much of the force of the fall. The helmet has fractured and crumpled, so I am very, very glad I was wearing it otherwise I'm sure I'd be in a bed at St Thomas' Hospital right now.
After today, I would say never ride without a helmet, ever, even for a short trip.
The last contributing factor is that I still had a Schwalbe Kojak on the front, so no tread at all, which isn't ideal for October roads. Time to change for some tread!
All in all, I'm lucky I'm ok, but given a little less pace and aggression on the road, I wouldn't have come off. I thought after 10-12 years of relatively safe commuting on London roads I was invincible - I was wrong.....
Stay safe out there folks.
Andy