Damn, Damn that slippery wet sand!

Today I had my first crash/fall in about 20 years. It was the first decent weekend day we've had in
RI in about 3 weeks, after about 3:00 this afternoon, when the sun finally came out after the rain
had stopped earlier in the afternoon. I waited until about 4:00 to let the road dry a little, then
headed out for a short 12-mile ride to the beach to check out the waves. There was still some
standing water on the shoulders in places, but traffic was light so I was mostly able to take a lane
and avoid the water. I got a few splashes, but nothing big. The sun was out, it was about 60°F and
(miracle of miracles) there was no wind, which is very unusual for coastal RI. It had been blowing
up to about 35 mph early in the morning. The ride was mostly uneventful except when I almost
rear-ended a car which came to a sudden stop just after I had moved over into the lane behind him in
order to go through an intersection where the marked shoulder is only about a foot wide and full of
sand. He was turning left into the gas station, but like most RI drivers, neglected to put on his
turn signal. No harm done, but I had to hit the brakes harder than usual.

At the beach, the waves were rolling in pretty strong and the surfers were out in force in full wet
suits, with the water temperature still in the low 40's. I watched for a few minutes and then turned
around to head back home so my wife could go for her walk without leaving the kids home alone.

The ride back was uneventful until I was about two blocks from home. There an s-curve which first
makes a 90° turn to the left and then about 50 feet later makes another 90° curve back to the right,
and it's a steep downhill all the way. In a car, I usually slow to about 20 mph or less for the
curve, and do about the same on the bike when road conditions are good. Unfortunately, I had
forgotten about the water and wet sand I noted here on the way out. I started into the first part of
the curve about my usual 20 mph, and immediately realized I was going too fast for the amount of
traction I had available. However, I figured some careful use of the brakes, and using most of the
road would allow me to negotiate it safely. Unfortunately, I then noticed that there was a SUV
coming the other way so I could see right away it was going to get interesting. I stuck to my wet
lane using the brakes as hard as I dared, trying to get slowed down before I hit the sand which
builds up part way around the first curve. I estimate I was down to about 10 mph by the time I got
to the sand and had to ease up on the brakes some more, but I figured I was still going too fast to
make the turn in the sand. I had a choice of running up the shallow curb into the mud and weeds, or
trying to tighten the turn to stay on the road. Because of the trees only a few feet from the edge
of the road, and there being nobody behind me, I decided to take my chances on the road. As I
expected, I couldn't hold the line, and the tires went out from under me. I bashed my left hip on
the road, leaving a nice road rash and a slightly warped back rim, but no other significant damage.
The SUV was right across the road from me at this point, and slammed on her brakes to ask if I was
ok. I told her yes and she went on.

I got back on and rode the last two blocks home, remembering that the last time I crashed, when I
was in college back in the early 80's, it was also from taking a turn too fast and losing traction
on the front wheel. I guess if I go another 20 years before having another crash, I won't be doing
too bad, though I'll probably be a little more brittle by then <GG>.

Take care out there!

--
Dave Kerber Fight spam: remove the ns_ from the return address before replying!

REAL programmers write self-modifying code.

 

David Kerber wrote:

> As I expected, I couldn't hold the line, and the tires went out from under me. I bashed my left
> hip on the road, leaving a nice road rash and a slightly warped back rim, but no other
> significant damage.

Sorry about your fall, glad there's no major damage. It's been 4 months and 3 days since my hip
surgery, and it still gets a little sore on long hilly rides.
--
terry morse Palo Alto, CA http://www.terrymorse.com/bike/

 

In article <[email protected]>, [email protected]pamcop.net says...
> David Kerber wrote:
>
> > As I expected, I couldn't hold the line, and the tires went out from under me. I bashed my left
> > hip on the road, leaving a nice road rash and a slightly warped back rim, but no other
> > significant damage.
>
> Sorry about your fall, glad there's no major damage. It's been 4 months and 3 days since my hip
> surgery, and it still gets a little sore on long hilly rides.

Was that surgery because of a biking accident? That would suck, to say the least <GG>. I hope it
gets better before the season gets into full swing.

It's now 3 days after my little incidnet, and the hip feels fine, though my shoulder is still a bit
sore. There's going to be a nice yellow and blue bruise over my hip bone for a while, though. I
trued up the wheel last night (it needed it even before I crashed it) and discovered that the spokes
were pretty loose, so I tightened them all up about 3/4 of a turn. Now I'm ready to go out for a
short ride tonight when I get home from work, since it's nice and warm today.

--
David Kerber An optimist says "Good morning, Lord." While a pessimist says "Good Lord,
it's morning".

Remove the ns_ from the address before e-mailing.

 

archer wrote:

> Terry Morse says...
> > It's been 4 months and 3 days since my hip surgery, and it still gets a little sore on long
> > hilly rides.
>
> Was that surgery because of a biking accident? That would suck, to say the least <GG>. I hope it
> gets better before the season gets into full swing.

Yep, a biking accident. My front wheel slide out on a slightly wet curve, and my hip took the whole
impact. One bone broke into four pieces, but they screwed me back together well enough. I've gotten
most of my strength back now and did a century two weeks ago and a 200K last week. I just can't stay
in the saddle up a 15+% grade without pain, so I'm out of the saddle on most climbs.

Ride careful, especially on those wet curves.
--
terry morse Palo Alto, CA http://www.terrymorse.com/bike/

 

Terry Morse wrote:
> archer wrote:
>
>> Terry Morse says...
>>> It's been 4 months and 3 days since my hip surgery, and it still gets a little sore on long
>>> hilly rides.
>>
>> Was that surgery because of a biking accident? That would suck, to say the least <GG>. I hope it
>> gets better before the season gets into full swing.
>
> Yep, a biking accident. My front wheel slide out on a slightly wet curve, and my hip took the
> whole impact. One bone broke into four pieces, but they screwed me back together well enough. I've
> gotten most of my strength back now and did a century two weeks ago and a 200K last week. I just
> can't stay in the saddle up a 15+% grade without pain, so I'm out of the saddle on most climbs.
>
> Ride careful, especially on those wet curves.

That doesn't sound like any fun at all. Hope you get well real soon, even though you sound like
you're doing fine. One thing that does make me curious is why your hip would take such a hard
impact. I did pretty much the same thing as both of you describe, front wheel slipping when going
through a sandy curve too fast and all I had to show for it was roadrash. I was going about 40
km/h ( 25 mph) Where you going slower or faster? Was there anything that brought you to a sudden
stop on your hip?

--
Perre

You have to be smarter than a robot to reply.

 

In article <[email protected]>, [email protected] says...

...

> That doesn't sound like any fun at all. Hope you get well real soon, even though you sound like
> you're doing fine. One thing that does make me curious is why your hip would take such a hard
> impact. I did pretty much the same thing as both of you describe, front wheel slipping when going
> through a sandy curve too fast and all I had to show for it was roadrash. I was going about 40
> km/h ( 25 mph) Where you going slower or faster? Was there anything that brought you to a sudden
> stop on your hip?

I was slowed down quite a bit (<10 mph at a guess; maybe 5 mph), and I guess my hip bone was just
the part sticking out the most, so it hit first. It wasn't that hard of a hit; I think the sand
padded it a bit, so it was just a small road rash and an underlying bruise. I wasn't going fast
enough to slide far after I fell, so maybe that's the difference. My shoulder also took a bang, and
it actually bothered me more the next day than my hip did, but they are both fine now.

If I had been able to get my left foot out of the clips faster, I might have been able to catch
myself before falling, but that's the risk you take for more efficient pedaling.

--
David Kerber An optimist says "Good morning, Lord." While a pessimist says "Good Lord,
it's morning".

Remove the ns_ from the address before e-mailing.

 

Per Elmsäter wrote:

> One thing that does make me curious is why your hip would take such a hard impact. I did pretty
> much the same thing as both of you describe, front wheel slipping when going through a sandy curve
> too fast and all I had to show for it was roadrash. I was going about 40 km/h ( 25 mph) Where you
> going slower or faster? Was there anything that brought you to a sudden stop on your hip?

I was only going about 15 mph at the time. My hip hit first, hard enough that I bounced. Then I slid
to a stop, about 6 feet total. The curve was banked, which probably contributed to the hard impact.
I had farther to fall. The roadrash was substantial, but only on the hip. The skin is still red
after four months.
--
terry morse Palo Alto, CA http://www.terrymorse.com/bike/