I was warned it could be dangerous
I have never learned how to fall correctly (to prevent injuries) and it made a difference yesterday. It was also caused by a poor decisions by myself and on the driver in front of me. "It" being an incident where I got into an accident with my motorcycle and sustained a serious injury. Let me back up though.
I went out riding yesterday about 1pm with no clear destination in mind. I was trying to stay on back roads, and was sort of on the way home on a nicely twisty road when I got slowed down by a pickup truck hauling a horse trailer. After a bit, the guy waved me forward to pass him. My mistake was not having clear sight lines for enough distance by my own view but was relying on his view. As I started to pass and was at the back edge of his truck (just passing the horse trailer), he started waving me to slow down (my bike doesn't have the greatest in raw power) and I saw a car zooming around a bend towards me. I had a choice of slowing down and trying to get behind him (he was going maybe 20-25mph) or veer left into a gravel driveway. I didn't think I had time to slow/move right so I went left.
Motorcycles have zero stability on gravel. The bike went out from under me and I fell stomach first, with arms splayed out. I was fully suited up, but in trying to break my fall, most of my weight fell on my right wrist first. Bad. The pickup guy pulled over and was very apologetic, but I told him it was just as much my fault as his. A woman living in a house/farm right there saw the accident and tracked down her husband who VERY generously offered to drive me back home with my bike in the back of his pickup. The left side of bike is scraped up but not sure if I bent the front forks. My right wrist was already hurting at that point.
After dropping the bike off home, the farmer also graciously dropped me off at the 24-hour health center on his way home. I got to the center about 3pm, didn't get x-rays until 5:30pm, and didn't get seen by a doctor until 6:30pm (they were really swamped yesterday). When the doc finally saw me, it wasn't just bad, it was super bad. I had managed to completely break a piece off of the end of my radius bone (bone from elbow to wrist) and compress the bones around the wrist. Sitting around a waiting room for hours where moving my fingers/wrist at all caused severe pain was a less than ideal way to spend a Sunday afternoon. My wrist/arm was wrapped in a splint and I have an appointment to see an orthopedic surgeon tomorrow because I will need surgery.
All of that was bad enough, but I had to call my parents to come pick me up after 8pm to get pain meds filled and drive me home. I would have had a very good friend (Tina) do so, but she was in bed with what she initially thought was food poisoning (now she thinks it was just a bad virus). My mom was very apprehensive about me getting a bike (not that I can blame her now). I would have liked to only tell them after everything was done so they would not be worrying for days. So here I sit, at home, off from work at least through tomorrow. I am not sure when my surgery will be scheduled, and whether after it I'll have a hard cast that will allow me to drive my stick-shift Mini Cooper. Tina has graciously offered to let me borrow her automatic car and I might just take her up on it, letting her drive my Mini if she wants.
Will I ride my bike again? I am sure hoping I can, and I might just try to find a place that will teach me how to fall correctly.
I went out riding yesterday about 1pm with no clear destination in mind. I was trying to stay on back roads, and was sort of on the way home on a nicely twisty road when I got slowed down by a pickup truck hauling a horse trailer. After a bit, the guy waved me forward to pass him. My mistake was not having clear sight lines for enough distance by my own view but was relying on his view. As I started to pass and was at the back edge of his truck (just passing the horse trailer), he started waving me to slow down (my bike doesn't have the greatest in raw power) and I saw a car zooming around a bend towards me. I had a choice of slowing down and trying to get behind him (he was going maybe 20-25mph) or veer left into a gravel driveway. I didn't think I had time to slow/move right so I went left.
Motorcycles have zero stability on gravel. The bike went out from under me and I fell stomach first, with arms splayed out. I was fully suited up, but in trying to break my fall, most of my weight fell on my right wrist first. Bad. The pickup guy pulled over and was very apologetic, but I told him it was just as much my fault as his. A woman living in a house/farm right there saw the accident and tracked down her husband who VERY generously offered to drive me back home with my bike in the back of his pickup. The left side of bike is scraped up but not sure if I bent the front forks. My right wrist was already hurting at that point.
After dropping the bike off home, the farmer also graciously dropped me off at the 24-hour health center on his way home. I got to the center about 3pm, didn't get x-rays until 5:30pm, and didn't get seen by a doctor until 6:30pm (they were really swamped yesterday). When the doc finally saw me, it wasn't just bad, it was super bad. I had managed to completely break a piece off of the end of my radius bone (bone from elbow to wrist) and compress the bones around the wrist. Sitting around a waiting room for hours where moving my fingers/wrist at all caused severe pain was a less than ideal way to spend a Sunday afternoon. My wrist/arm was wrapped in a splint and I have an appointment to see an orthopedic surgeon tomorrow because I will need surgery.
All of that was bad enough, but I had to call my parents to come pick me up after 8pm to get pain meds filled and drive me home. I would have had a very good friend (Tina) do so, but she was in bed with what she initially thought was food poisoning (now she thinks it was just a bad virus). My mom was very apprehensive about me getting a bike (not that I can blame her now). I would have liked to only tell them after everything was done so they would not be worrying for days. So here I sit, at home, off from work at least through tomorrow. I am not sure when my surgery will be scheduled, and whether after it I'll have a hard cast that will allow me to drive my stick-shift Mini Cooper. Tina has graciously offered to let me borrow her automatic car and I might just take her up on it, letting her drive my Mini if she wants.
Will I ride my bike again? I am sure hoping I can, and I might just try to find a place that will teach me how to fall correctly.