I used the word ‘finally’ because of the old saying you’ve either been hit or going to be hit. Hopefully that’s it for me!
I was riding along a relatively quiet backstreet when on oncoming car turned across my path to enter the driveway for their place of employment. They obviously didn’t see me. I had my head down momentarily (had been glancing up and down after breaking away from group of friends on social before work ride. Anyway looking down I heard a toot and looked up to see a car right in front of my path. Knew I was a goner. It stopped at 45 degrees so I slammed into it and then deflected to the back where I cart-wheeled onto my back. I would have been doing about 35 km/h at the time. No apparent breaks, lots of grazing, bruised left knee, left shoulder, left wrist and right buttock/tail bone (where I somersaulted onto). This morning my ankles/achilles feel very sore (outside of foot between the ankle bone and heel).
I was riding my SLC-SL unfortunately! Front WH-535 training wheel had the hub busted open (skewer got snagged on the rear door seam), 3T funda fork cracked right through, Deda Alanera bars cracked right through at the hood, Arione saddle scuffed up, DA pedal scuffed up. The rest of the bike appears to be ok. My question is, what else should I look for? My whole left side absorbed a lot of the impact so possibly the rest of the bike did fare ok. I thought that perhaps if the fork snapped right through that load would have transferred through the head tube. If the pedal took quite a belting then perhaps the bottom bracket? I have a DA wireless SRM which fortunately was on the non-impact side but I was wondering how fragile it could also be?
I’m hoping I can get someone to pay for the damage!
Did you exchange insurance? Cops show up, police report? How badly hurt were you?
If you didnt exchange insurance or get any info from the driver, I’m not sure how your oging to get it paid for except out of your own pocket or own insurance possibly.
Sorry, didn’t clarify that part. My friend got some details that I didn’t check at the time. Turned out he got rego, driver’s name and mobile(cell) number and eployee number (it happened in the driveway to his work). Friends also took lots of phone pics at the scene (car with panel damage/ paint marks, scratches etc and my bike’s busted wheel, fork and bars etc).
Another friend called the cops but over here (Oz) they are reluctant to attend unless it’s major and as we advised I didn’t appear to have broken bones (no ambulance called they said just to record details and come lodge a report later. As I mentioned no broken bones but lots of cuts and bruising. Still hobbling around in a lot of pain today (day after).
Speaking from unfortunate experience: photograph everything, document everything (keep a log of your healing, pain, etc.). See a doctor and make sure there are no fractures. You could easily have soft tissue injuries that will require thousands in chiropractic/PT. I got lateral whiplash from a collision with an SUV that ran a stop sign…just like the stereotype, my neck felt fine at the scene but was a trainwreck 24 hours later.
As for the bike, have a shop check it for cracks…you don’t want to heal up just to have a crash from the frame breaking on a later ride.
Speaking from unfortunate experience: photograph everything, document everything (keep a log of your healing, pain, etc.). See a doctor and make sure there are no fractures. You could easily have soft tissue injuries that will require thousands in chiropractic/PT. I got lateral whiplash from a collision with an SUV that ran a stop sign…just like the stereotype, my neck felt fine at the scene but was a trainwreck 24 hours later.
As for the bike, have a shop check it for cracks…you don’t want to heal up just to have a crash from the frame breaking on a later ride.
great advice
Bring the bike to your local/favorite shop. Have them inspect it. You will have to provide the insurance company a estimate for repairs or replacement of damage parts.