I had a crash about two weeks ago… on my bike. (Yes, crash not accident.) It sucked, but it’s all my own fault, so at least no one else was involved. Luckily, I caught it all on video!
On the way to work I had cut through the cemetery to avoid taking the lane on Burleigh where it’s currently down to one lane due to construction, and coming out of the cemetery I turned a little to tight into the bike lane and went down. Now, since the bike lane is not 100% completed, there’s dirt/mud on either side of it as no grass has been planted yet.
Basically when I made the turn (probably going a bit too fast) I had two options: Ride into the mud, which probably would have caused me to slip/go down, or take the tight turn. If I had gone into the mud and kept going straight I would have gone off the curb and into the street. No choice was a good one, really.
And yeah, too much speed was definitely a factor in the crash… as it often is.
After the crash I got myself up, surveyed the damage, wrapped up my scraped/bleeding hand, and continued to work. My handlebars were completely banjaxed, and I didn’t realized it until later, but my fender had gotten knocked loose. Bike people said I should definitely not try to bend back the handlebars, so I replaced them a few days later, got my fender back in place, and most importantly, I got gloves.
The handlebars were a pain to deal with, and the fender was just fiddly to get back to normal… but my hands were hurting for over a week, I had to keep the left one bandaged up for about five days. Honestly it’s been about a week and a half and my hands and wrists are still not back to 100%. (I mean, I did hurt them again doing something else stupid, so…)
I went to two different bike shops for gloves, with no luck, ordered a cheap pair online that I returned because the XXL was still to small/tight, and finally I got the Pearl Izumi Elite Gel Bike Gloves (XXL). They were not cheap, but why should I cheap out on hand protection!? I should not. I’ve been meaning to get gloves for a while now, as longer rides can cause a little bit of hand pain, and I really like when my hands are not in pain.
Enjoy this brief crash footage from my new “Bike Bits” video. Also, Three Ouches? Yes. Besides both my hands, I skinned up my shin, but honestly the hands were so much worse I totally forgot about the shin thing.
I will be riding with gloves from now on… every time… all the time.
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