Road rash

I've been pretty lucky over the years: my personal experience with wrecks in general, and road rash
in particular, has been fairly limited. There have been a few notable exceptions over the years,
though: an invisible pothole in '95 that broke my clavicle; the jogger back in '84 who zigged left,
then crossed in front of me as I was passing right; and there was last Tuesday, April 1.

I had taken the new-to-us Moulton AM16 to work. I'd bought the bike over Christmas, mostly for my
wife, and partly so I could ride it as a travel bike. Gilbert at North Road had set me up with parts
so I could swap handlebar/stem/control assemblies back and forth, and this was the first time the
bike was on the road with the new gear.

Coming off the 14th Street Bridge, the front tire split at the bead with a Bam! and in less than a
second the bike cut hard left, leaned over at about a 45 degree angle, and I augered into the
pavement at about 15 mph. I was rather surprised - I've had plenty of tires blow, but I've never had
a sidewall separation right at the bead in front. The sudden yaw and roll to the left came out of
nowhere. And I was surprised, too, at how hard that pavement felt when I slammed down on it.

I came down on my left elbow, left shoulder and left knee, and as I learned when I got home,
abrasions ranging from some fairly superficial to a few that were moderately deep. Nothing
particularly horrifying or fear-factor-make-you-puke, mind, but enough that it would have been
rather uncomfortable had we used old-fashioned bandaging materials.

Back in 95, vaguely remembering something I'd read in Bicycling magazine, I tried some Spenco Second
Skin. This is a gel bandaging material made primarily for burns, and still available for that
purpose. It had worked amazingly well on ordinary road rash too, much to my wife's surprise - fast
healing, no pain, no scarring. So off she went to the drug store.

While there, she found another new bandaging material, this one made specifically for road rash:
Johnson & Johnson First Aid Advanced Care "advanced healing adhesive pads". You clean the wound and
dry it, warm the pad between your hands for a minute, stick it down on the wound and hold it on for
a minute, and then leave it on for "several days". No need to change the dressing; and no need to
bandage it on - it's on there, believe me.

These bandages are simply marvelous. I have felt absolutely no pain from these abrasions other than
washing them off in the shower. Even the doctor I visited this morning (didn't like how it felt when
the seatbelt was on my clavicle and I thought I'd check it out - just bruising, kind of like having
been punched in the arm and the shoulder and along the back of the neck) was impressed.

For better or worse, road rash is a part of the life we have chosen. These things literally take the
sting out of it. They're about six bucks for a pack of four, and worth every penny and then some.

One other observation: not to start any kind of helmet flame war here, but there was no doubt at all
I came down fairly hard on the side of my head. The foam inside the helmet was damaged, and the
outer skin of the helmet was scratched up. I felt pretty fuzzy headed for a minute or two after the
wreck - I even briefly entertained the thought of lying there on the pavement while I inventoried my
parts - but the worst of it was a slight headache, and that was probably from the slam along the
back of my neck.

I can't claim the helmet saved my life, and I make no statistical observations or generalizations
about anybody else's life. However, I will say, I was damned glad I had it on when I hit. Better it
got the impact and the scrapes than my head. This may not be meaningful in a statistical sense, but
frankly I don't care.

 

"Steve Palincsar" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> I've been pretty lucky over the years: my personal experience with wrecks in general, and road
> rash in particular, has been fairly limited. There have been a few notable exceptions over the
> years, though: an invisible pothole in '95 that broke my clavicle; the jogger back in '84 who
> zigged left, then crossed in front of me as I was passing right; and there was last Tuesday,
> April 1.
>
> I had taken the new-to-us Moulton AM16 to work. I'd bought the bike over Christmas, mostly for my
> wife, and partly so I could ride it as a travel bike. Gilbert at North Road had set me up with
> parts so I could swap handlebar/stem/control assemblies back and forth, and this was the first
> time the bike was on the road with the new gear.
>
> Coming off the 14th Street Bridge, the front tire split at the bead with a Bam! and in less than a
> second the bike cut hard left, leaned over at about a 45 degree angle, and I augered into the
> pavement at about 15 mph. I was rather surprised - I've had plenty of tires blow, but I've never
> had a sidewall separation right at the bead in front. The sudden yaw and roll to the left came out
> of nowhere. And I was surprised, too, at how hard that pavement felt when I slammed down on it.
>
> I came down on my left elbow, left shoulder and left knee, and as I learned when I got home,
> abrasions ranging from some fairly superficial to a few that were moderately deep. Nothing
> particularly horrifying or fear-factor-make-you-puke, mind, but enough that it would have been
> rather uncomfortable had we used old-fashioned bandaging materials.
>
> Back in 95, vaguely remembering something I'd read in Bicycling magazine, I tried some Spenco
> Second Skin. This is a gel bandaging material made primarily for burns, and still available for
> that purpose. It had worked amazingly well on ordinary road rash too, much to my wife's surprise -
> fast healing, no pain, no scarring. So off she went to the drug store.
>
> While there, she found another new bandaging material, this one made specifically for road rash:
> Johnson & Johnson First Aid Advanced Care "advanced healing adhesive pads". You clean the wound
> and dry it, warm the pad between your hands for a minute, stick it down on the wound and hold it
> on for a minute, and then leave it on for "several days". No need to change the dressing; and no
> need to bandage it on - it's on there, believe me.
>
> These bandages are simply marvelous. I have felt absolutely no pain from these abrasions other
> than washing them off in the shower. Even the doctor I visited this morning (didn't like how it
> felt when the seatbelt was on my clavicle and I thought I'd check it out - just bruising, kind of
> like having been punched in the arm and the shoulder and along the back of the neck) was
> impressed.
>
> For better or worse, road rash is a part of the life we have chosen. These things literally
> take the sting out of it. They're about six bucks for a pack of four, and worth every penny and
> then some.
>
> One other observation: not to start any kind of helmet flame war here, but there was no doubt at
> all I came down fairly hard on the side of my head. The foam inside the helmet was damaged, and
> the outer skin of the helmet was scratched up. I felt pretty fuzzy headed for a minute or two
> after the wreck - I even briefly entertained the thought of lying there on the pavement while I
> inventoried my parts - but the worst of it was a slight headache, and that was probably from the
> slam along the back of my neck.
>
> I can't claim the helmet saved my life, and I make no statistical observations or generalizations
> about anybody else's life. However, I will say, I was damned glad I had it on when I hit. Better
> it got the impact and the scrapes than my head. This may not be meaningful in a statistical sense,
> but frankly I don't care.

ouch! I feel your pain. (rain wet-painted crosswalk) I will try gauze for the next time....

 

"Steve Palincsar" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> I've been pretty lucky over the years: my personal experience with wrecks in general, and road
> rash in particular, has been fairly limited. There have been a few notable exceptions over the
> years, though: an invisible pothole in '95 that broke my clavicle; the jogger back in '84 who
> zigged left, then crossed in front of me as I was passing right; and there was last Tuesday,
> April 1.

You deserved that last one. What were you doing passing on the right?

>
> I had taken the new-to-us Moulton AM16 to work. I'd bought the bike over Christmas, mostly for my
> wife, and partly so I could ride it as a travel bike. Gilbert at North Road had set me up with
> parts so I could swap handlebar/stem/control assemblies back and forth, and this was the first
> time the bike was on the road with the new gear.
>
> Coming off the 14th Street Bridge, the front tire split at the bead with a Bam! and in less than a
> second the bike cut hard left, leaned over at about a 45 degree angle, and I augered into the
> pavement at about 15 mph. I was rather surprised - I've had plenty of tires blow, but I've never
> had a sidewall separation right at the bead in front. The sudden yaw and roll to the left came out
> of nowhere. And I was surprised, too, at how hard that pavement felt when I slammed down on it.
>
> I came down on my left elbow, left shoulder and left knee, and as I learned when I got home,
> abrasions ranging from some fairly superficial to a few that were moderately deep. Nothing
> particularly horrifying or fear-factor-make-you-puke, mind, but enough that it would have been
> rather uncomfortable had we used old-fashioned bandaging materials.
>
> Back in 95, vaguely remembering something I'd read in Bicycling magazine, I tried some Spenco
> Second Skin. This is a gel bandaging material made primarily for burns, and still available for
> that purpose. It had worked amazingly well on ordinary road rash too, much to my wife's surprise -
> fast healing, no pain, no scarring. So off she went to the drug store.
>
> While there, she found another new bandaging material, this one made specifically for road rash:
> Johnson & Johnson First Aid Advanced Care "advanced healing adhesive pads". You clean the wound
> and dry it, warm the pad between your hands for a minute, stick it down on the wound and hold it
> on for a minute, and then leave it on for "several days". No need to change the dressing; and no
> need to bandage it on - it's on there, believe me.
>
> These bandages are simply marvelous. I have felt absolutely no pain from these abrasions other
> than washing them off in the shower. Even the doctor I visited this morning (didn't like how it
> felt when the seatbelt was on my clavicle and I thought I'd check it out - just bruising, kind of
> like having been punched in the arm and the shoulder and along the back of the neck) was
> impressed.
>
> For better or worse, road rash is a part of the life we have chosen. These things literally
> take the sting out of it. They're about six bucks for a pack of four, and worth every penny and
> then some.
>
> One other observation: not to start any kind of helmet flame war here, but there was no doubt at
> all I came down fairly hard on the side of my head. The foam inside the helmet was damaged, and
> the outer skin of the helmet was scratched up. I felt pretty fuzzy headed for a minute or two
> after the wreck - I even briefly entertained the thought of lying there on the pavement while I
> inventoried my parts - but the worst of it was a slight headache, and that was probably from the
> slam along the back of my neck.
>
> I can't claim the helmet saved my life, and I make no statistical observations or generalizations
> about anybody else's life. However, I will say, I was damned glad I had it on when I hit. Better
> it got the impact and the scrapes than my head. This may not be meaningful in a statistical sense,
> but frankly I don't care.

 

"Robin Hubert" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> "Steve Palincsar" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> > I've been pretty lucky over the years: my personal experience with
wrecks
> > in general, and road rash in particular, has been fairly limited. There have been a few notable
> > exceptions over the years, though: an invisible pothole in '95 that broke my clavicle; the
> > jogger back in '84 who zigged left, then crossed in front of me as I was passing right; and
> > there was last Tuesday, April 1.
>
> You deserved that last one. What were you doing passing on the right?

Man, thats cold. He paid, let it rest.

>
> >
> > I had taken the new-to-us Moulton AM16 to work. I'd bought the bike
over
> > Christmas, mostly for my wife, and partly so I could ride it as a travel bike. Gilbert at North
> > Road had set me up with parts so I could swap handlebar/stem/control assemblies back and forth,
> > and this was the first time the bike was on the road with the new gear.
> >
> > Coming off the 14th Street Bridge, the front tire split at the bead with
a
> > Bam! and in less than a second the bike cut hard left, leaned over at about a 45 degree angle,
> > and I augered into the pavement at about 15
mph.
> > I was rather surprised - I've had plenty of tires blow, but I've never
had
> > a sidewall separation right at the bead in front. The sudden yaw and
roll
> > to the left came out of nowhere. And I was surprised, too, at how hard that pavement felt when I
> > slammed down on it.
> >
> > I came down on my left elbow, left shoulder and left knee, and as I learned when I got home,
> > abrasions ranging from some fairly superficial
to
> > a few that were moderately deep. Nothing particularly horrifying or fear-factor-make-you-puke,
> > mind, but enough that it would have been
rather
> > uncomfortable had we used old-fashioned bandaging materials.
> >
> > Back in 95, vaguely remembering something I'd read in Bicycling
magazine,
> > I tried some Spenco Second Skin. This is a gel bandaging material made primarily for burns, and
> > still available for that purpose. It had
worked
> > amazingly well on ordinary road rash too, much to my wife's surprise - fast healing, no pain, no
> > scarring. So off she went to the drug store.
> >
> > While there, she found another new bandaging material, this one made specifically for road rash:
> > Johnson & Johnson First Aid Advanced Care "advanced healing adhesive pads". You clean the wound
> > and dry it, warm the pad between your hands for a minute, stick it down on the wound and hold it
> > on for a minute, and then leave it on for "several days". No
need
> > to change the dressing; and no need to bandage it on - it's on there, believe me.
> >
> > These bandages are simply marvelous. I have felt absolutely no pain
from
> > these abrasions other than washing them off in the shower. Even the doctor I visited this
> > morning (didn't like how it felt when the seatbelt was on my clavicle and I thought I'd check it
> > out - just bruising, kind
of
> > like having been punched in the arm and the shoulder and along the back
of
> > the neck) was impressed.
> >
> > For better or worse, road rash is a part of the life we have chosen.
These
> > things literally take the sting out of it. They're about six bucks for
a
> > pack of four, and worth every penny and then some.
> >
> > One other observation: not to start any kind of helmet flame war here,
but
> > there was no doubt at all I came down fairly hard on the side of my
head.
> > The foam inside the helmet was damaged, and the outer skin of the helmet was scratched up. I
> > felt pretty fuzzy headed for a minute or two after the wreck - I even briefly entertained the
> > thought of lying there on the pavement while I inventoried my parts - but the worst of it was a
> > slight headache, and that was probably from the slam along the back of my neck.
> >
> > I can't claim the helmet saved my life, and I make no statistical observations or
> > generalizations about anybody else's life. However, I will say, I was damned glad I had it on
> > when I hit. Better it got the impact and the scrapes than my head. This may not be meaningful in
> > a statistical sense, but frankly I don't care.
>

 

On Thu, 03 Apr 2003 22:12:41 -0500, Robin Hubert wrote:

> "Steve Palincsar" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
>> I've been pretty lucky over the years: my personal experience with wrecks in general, and road
>> rash in particular, has been fairly limited. There have been a few notable exceptions over the
>> years, though: an invisible pothole in '95 that broke my clavicle; the jogger back in '84 who
>> zigged left, then crossed in front of me as I was passing right; and there was last Tuesday,
>> April 1.
>
> You deserved that last one. What were you doing passing on the right?
>

Excuse me - I was on the bike trail, he went off onto the left shoulder of the bike trail, leaving
me on his right. I passed him, and as I was doing so, he cut across the bike trail in front of me.
So no, I didn't deserve the last one.

And incidentally, if you're passing a runner and he goes off to your left, would you propose going
even further left to pass him?

 

Steve:

Glad you are basically OK and only scraped up. Hope you heal quickly and are back at.

Wonder if the small tires of the Moulton had anything to do with the quick fall.

>One other observation: not to start any kind of helmet flame war here, but there was no doubt at
>all I came down fairly hard on the side of my head. The foam inside the helmet was damaged, and the
>outer skin of the helmet was scratched up. I felt pretty fuzzy headed for a minute or two after the
>wreck - I even briefly entertained the thought of lying there on the pavement while I inventoried
>my parts - but the worst of it was a slight headache, and that was probably from the slam along the
>back of my neck.
>
>I can't claim the helmet saved my life, and I make no statistical observations or generalizations
>about anybody else's life. However, I will say, I was damned glad I had it on when I hit. Better it
>got the impact and the scrapes than my head. This may not be meaningful in a statistical sense, but
>frankly I don't care.

My thinking is that helmets are designed for situations exactly like this. Your head hits the ground
in a quick tumble and you did not hit anything else. That forward speed is converted into road rash,
the vertical fall results in a knock on the head. Dropping something from a height 6 feet results in
an impact velocity of about 13mph which corresponds nicely to the 14mph figure which is used in
helmet design.

Glad you are OK.

Jon Isaacs

 

"Steve Palincsar" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news[email protected]...
> On Thu, 03 Apr 2003 22:12:41 -0500, Robin Hubert wrote:
>
>
> > "Steve Palincsar" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> >> I've been pretty lucky over the years: my personal experience with wrecks in general, and road
> >> rash in particular, has been fairly limited. There have been a few notable exceptions over the
> >> years, though: an invisible pothole in '95 that broke my clavicle; the jogger back in '84 who
> >> zigged left, then crossed in front of me as I was passing right; and there was last Tuesday,
> >> April 1.
> >
> > You deserved that last one. What were you doing passing on the right?
> >
>
> Excuse me - I was on the bike trail, he went off onto the left shoulder of the bike trail, leaving
> me on his right. I passed him, and as I was doing so, he cut across the bike trail in front of me.
> So no, I didn't deserve the last one.
>
> And incidentally, if you're passing a runner and he goes off to your left, would you propose going
> even further left to pass him?

Well, I would slow down and vocalize something to the other individual, then decide what to do after
they recognized my presence.

This is the danger of the multi-use path ... not everyone knows or cares to follow the same rules.
When I ride them, and someone is passing "on yer left!", I answer, "That's the only way!".

 

On Fri, 04 Apr 2003 10:40:04 -0500, Robin Hubert wrote:

> Well, I would slow down and vocalize something to the other individual, then decide what to do
> after they recognized my presence.

Did that. Evidently he changed his mind. Just like a squirrel.

>
> This is the danger of the multi-use path ... not everyone knows or cares to follow the same rules.
> When I ride them, and someone is passing "on yer left!", I answer, "That's the only way!".

Amen. In fact, what side of the trail _are_ joggers supposed to use, anyway? Pedestrians are
supposed to be on the left facing traffic, right? Or is that only on highways?

Worst part, of course, is joggers are so often high on their own endorphins they're hardly in the
same space-time continuum. God only knows what was in this guy's mind.

 

"Steve Palincsar" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news[email protected]...
> On Fri, 04 Apr 2003 10:40:04 -0500, Robin Hubert wrote:
>
> > Well, I would slow down and vocalize something to the other individual, then decide what to do
> > after they recognized my presence.
>
> Did that. Evidently he changed his mind. Just like a squirrel.
>
> >
> > This is the danger of the multi-use path ... not everyone knows or cares to follow the same
> > rules. When I ride them, and someone is passing "on yer left!", I answer, "That's the only
> > way!".
>
> Amen. In fact, what side of the trail _are_ joggers supposed to use, anyway? Pedestrians are
> supposed to be on the left facing traffic, right? Or is that only on highways?
>
> Worst part, of course, is joggers are so often high on their own endorphins they're hardly in the
> same space-time continuum. God only knows what was in this guy's mind.

There is a multi-use path (actually a road that is blocked off for cars) near here that I ride on
occasionally because it has such beautiful scenery. I don't mind the many deer and squirrels and
occasional bobcat. But I have had more near-disasters on it than I have ever had on the road. Kids
darting in front of me, runners making a sudden U-turn, and always path-blockage by groups of
walkers. I have learned not to yell out "passing on your left" because too many lurch the wrong way,
half because they come from countries where they drive on the left, half because they don't speak
English, and the remaining half because they don't know left from right.

In my experience, we are safer out on the road with the other vehicles.

 

"Steve Palincsar" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news[email protected]...
> On Fri, 04 Apr 2003 10:40:04 -0500, Robin Hubert wrote:
>
> > Well, I would slow down and vocalize something to the other individual, then decide what to do
> > after they recognized my presence.
>
> Did that. Evidently he changed his mind. Just like a squirrel.

Yeah Stevve, I believe that but you should've slowed enough for it to have not been an incident.

> >
> > This is the danger of the multi-use path ... not everyone knows or cares to follow the same
> > rules. When I ride them, and someone is passing "on yer left!", I answer, "That's the only
> > way!".
>
> Amen. In fact, what side of the trail _are_ joggers supposed to use, anyway? Pedestrians are
> supposed to be on the left facing traffic, right? Or is that only on highways?

They ought to stay to the right. I haven't seen a trail rule in the USA at least that says
otherwise.

>
> Worst part, of course, is joggers are so often high on their own endorphins they're hardly in the
> same space-time continuum. God only knows what was in this guy's mind.

Oxygen debt.

 

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Robin Hubert wrote:

>
>
>>Amen. In fact, what side of the trail _are_ joggers supposed to use, anyway? Pedestrians are
>>supposed to be on the left facing traffic, right? Or is that only on highways?
>>
>>
>
>They ought to stay to the right. I haven't seen a trail rule in the USA at least that says
>otherwise.
>
There's a trail near here that is split into ped/jogger and bike lanes, with a grass median. Great
idea. Fantastic idea. Then the designers lost their minds and left the final 1/2 mile as a single
path (same width as the 2 lanes plus median). Guaranteed to generate chaos. Westbound riders
generally continue right, westbound joggers instinctively veer right now that they're not restricted
to the "left side" Eastbound riders may be on the left or right, depending on whether or not they
saw the 1 lane marking indicating bikes to the left as they threaded through the gateposts. Runners
like to hop on and off the bike lane so they don't get slowed down by peds. Parents take their
wobbly 4-year-olds to ride a 2-wheeler for the first time 'cause it's "a safe place to ride". The
vicinity of the split comes right after a curve. Walk your dog. Reminds me of a Calvin and Hobbes
strip where Calvin sets up his perfect disaster scenario with his toys.

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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <meta
http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1"> <title></title> </head> <body>
<br> <br> Robin Hubert wrote:<br> <blockquote type="cite"
cite="[email protected]"> <pre wrap=""> </pre> <blockquote
type="cite"> <pre wrap="">Amen. In fact, what side of the trail _are_ joggers supposed to use,
anyway? Pedestrians are supposed to be on the left facing traffic, right? Or is that only on
highways? </pre> </blockquote> <pre wrap=""><!----> They ought to stay to the right. I haven't seen
a trail rule in the USA at least that says otherwise.</pre> </blockquote> There's a trail near here
that is split into ped/jogger and bike lanes, with a grass median. Great idea. Fantastic
idea. Then the designers lost their minds and left the final 1/2 mile as a single path (same
width as the 2 lanes plus median). Guaranteed to generate chaos. Westbound riders
generally continue right, westbound joggers instinctively veer right now that they're not restricted
to the "left side" Eastbound riders may be on the left or right, depending on whether or not
they saw the 1 lane marking indicating bikes to the left as they threaded through the gateposts.
Runners like to hop on and off the bike lane so they don't get slowed down by peds.
Parents take their wobbly 4-year-olds to ride a 2-wheeler for the first time 'cause it's "a
safe place to ride". The vicinity of the split comes right after a curve. Walk your dog.
Reminds me of a Calvin and Hobbes strip where Calvin sets up his perfect disaster scenario
with his toys. <br> </body> </html>

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