or Bust...ed
Who didn’t see this coming? Now, before I start telling this story, I am okay. No stitches, though my ego, arm and leg are bruised – in that order. I woke up this morning, feeling mighty fine. I drank my cup of coffee in my favorite chair and prepared for the maiden voyage on the bike. The rains that have saturated this town had stopped, the sidewalk was dry, and I had the new bike to try out. I had to check in on someone in the neighborhood, so I thought nothing of taking the bike out for a spin while doing my errand. Tehe.
I get less then 5 minutes away from my home. I decided to take the main street down the neighborhood, helmet attached to my head. I felt like that Leo guy from Titanic standing at the tip of the boat feeling the wind on my face and the world below me to command. Then it happened. The ratio is now 5:0. Five bike accidents and zero car accidents. Yep.
This guy suddenly decides to pull into a drive, or at least that is what I thought he was doing. I did what I was suppose to do, push on the breaks, but the breaks were not calibrated right, the front break stopped before the back, and my a$$ went flying. Imagine Leo from the Titanic standing at the helm and the ship suddenly stops front end first and he goes projectile through the air. Well, I’m no Leo. When I went flying I had no water to fall into. As I realized the motion was in place, as my body prepared to fly over the handle bars, my first thought was, “I wish I had wings.” Then as my body and legs crossed the bars I thought, “This is going to hurt.” That was about the most graceful part of the accident. The rest was me crashing on the right knee and left shoulder blade, complete with the instant feel of road burned skin. My final thought as I lay limp on the ground was “Yep, that hurt.”
I immediately started to laugh, mostly out of the relief that I was okay, but partly by the irony of the event. Here I am, the first day, first time for a real ride, and I go down – big time. AND, the guy wasn’t even turning after all.
The thing I appreciate about life is when opportunity knocks at the right time. I crashed in front of this Scuba Diving Shop, and the owner saw what happened. He just so happened to fix bikes on the side and wanted to look at mine. This was after he made sure I was okay. I went back to his “shop”, a mini garage in the back and came across the most beautiful side street bike shop EVER. It was great, fully loaded and ready to check my bike. The bike is fine…I only lost a reflector, which is a common theme with me and accidents. I guess my brakes were not aligned right, the tension just needed to be adjusted a little.
So here I am, the bike is fine. The breaks are great…now. Though I may have to have the shoulder looked at tomorrow, I’m a-okay.
I think this happened…well because sh%t sometimes happen, but because this has been a big fear for me. I thought I was ready to buy a new bike, starting a new era after some mishaps…but now I can ride without worrying about when the next accident was going to happen. Yeah, that’s a whole lotta of mystic BS for yeah, but its what I got.
I can no longer say I am a safe rider…I’m thinking five accidents and 1 on the maiden voyage usurps that right, but I’m not afraid of the accident that is going to happen.
I get less then 5 minutes away from my home. I decided to take the main street down the neighborhood, helmet attached to my head. I felt like that Leo guy from Titanic standing at the tip of the boat feeling the wind on my face and the world below me to command. Then it happened. The ratio is now 5:0. Five bike accidents and zero car accidents. Yep.
This guy suddenly decides to pull into a drive, or at least that is what I thought he was doing. I did what I was suppose to do, push on the breaks, but the breaks were not calibrated right, the front break stopped before the back, and my a$$ went flying. Imagine Leo from the Titanic standing at the helm and the ship suddenly stops front end first and he goes projectile through the air. Well, I’m no Leo. When I went flying I had no water to fall into. As I realized the motion was in place, as my body prepared to fly over the handle bars, my first thought was, “I wish I had wings.” Then as my body and legs crossed the bars I thought, “This is going to hurt.” That was about the most graceful part of the accident. The rest was me crashing on the right knee and left shoulder blade, complete with the instant feel of road burned skin. My final thought as I lay limp on the ground was “Yep, that hurt.”
I immediately started to laugh, mostly out of the relief that I was okay, but partly by the irony of the event. Here I am, the first day, first time for a real ride, and I go down – big time. AND, the guy wasn’t even turning after all.
The thing I appreciate about life is when opportunity knocks at the right time. I crashed in front of this Scuba Diving Shop, and the owner saw what happened. He just so happened to fix bikes on the side and wanted to look at mine. This was after he made sure I was okay. I went back to his “shop”, a mini garage in the back and came across the most beautiful side street bike shop EVER. It was great, fully loaded and ready to check my bike. The bike is fine…I only lost a reflector, which is a common theme with me and accidents. I guess my brakes were not aligned right, the tension just needed to be adjusted a little.
So here I am, the bike is fine. The breaks are great…now. Though I may have to have the shoulder looked at tomorrow, I’m a-okay.
I think this happened…well because sh%t sometimes happen, but because this has been a big fear for me. I thought I was ready to buy a new bike, starting a new era after some mishaps…but now I can ride without worrying about when the next accident was going to happen. Yeah, that’s a whole lotta of mystic BS for yeah, but its what I got.
I can no longer say I am a safe rider…I’m thinking five accidents and 1 on the maiden voyage usurps that right, but I’m not afraid of the accident that is going to happen.
posted by GoGo | 8:21 PM
3 Comments:
Hi GoGo. I so enjoyed this story. I bought a bike two summers ago - a straight ahead, no speed control, old fashion bike. At least 25 years had passed since I rode a bike but how hard could it be???? Well, it took me two weeks to successfully get ON the bike. Then I wobbled all over the place. Managed a few rides to the grocery story and then the tire broke. I think I'm going to sell the bike at my next garage sale. Nice to know that you aren't giving up.
Oh man. What a bummer. I commiserate. I haven't even been on a bike since I was about 13, but I watch my son fall off of his bike everyday, and it sucks.
I'm laughing...not because of your accident...I hope you are well and your injuries aren't serious. I'm laughing because you say "breaks" instead of "brakes". Luckily you didn't break anything but a reflector. Last year my bike went down at the dismount line during a triathlon. Funny how you see these things coming. I was more worried about my pretty bike then myself. Be well.
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