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Early Thursday afternoon kicked off with a sense of relief as I had just finished the second draft of my thesis. After six weeks of feeling as intelligent as a third grader, rewriting two chapters because my advisor didnt like the structure of them anymore, and debating whether or not ditching school in favor of fleeing to Mexico was a good life choice, I had that fucker all buttoned up and ready to go. My afternoon plans were simple, head home, crack a beer, go ride my mountain bike for a bit, then crack some more beers. It all seemed rather simple, but instead I got make a detour to the CSU health center. I was entering an underpass (coming down a slight hill), when a cyclist traveling in the opposite direction swerved into my lane to get past a pedestrian. I had time to grab the brakes, but knew that we were headed for a crash. I got up off the ground, and when I went to asses the damages, and see if the other cyclist was okay I noticed that my finger didnt look normal.
Yup my well used middle finger didnt know how to bend anymore, and my ring finger didnt look too good either. After determining I sustained all the injuries stemming from the crash I started to make my way to the health center. A good samaritan (actually the pedestrian who was getting passed) was kind enough to walk my bike to the health center with me. The good news was that I didnt have to wait in line, and got to see a doctor ASAP. The bad news was that on top of the messed up fingers, I had a deep cut to my left elbow, a dinged up right shoulder, cuts and scrapes on my right leg. X-rays were ordered, cuts were cleaned and stitched up, and I got a full once over to make sure there weren’t any other injuries that had been missed. My helmet didnt show any signs of a major impact, but I was fucking happy to be wearing that thing. The x-rays came back negative, nothing broken in my fingers or hands, but I had “mallet finger“. Basically the tendon in my finger got torn and that’s why it looked all fucked up.
Right now I get to wait until Wednesday to see a hand doctor who will decide if any sort of surgery is needed, or if the tendon should be able to heal on its own over the next six to eight weeks. With that I was sent on my way home with a bag full of medical supplies, a bottle full of pain pills, and an immobilized middle finger. Walking home while holding a bike next to myself is my equivalent of the “walk of shame”, my bike was the pair of heels the 19 year old girl carries in her hand, and my bandages were the equivalent of her ruined makeup from the night before. While I wished no one had seen, I knew that plenty had and through a reasonable thought process they were able to figure out what had happened to me. As far as my personal stuff, only my helmet was a casualty, everything that had been in my pockets and in my Dank Bag (computer, charger, orange, beverage, etc) survived.
My bike was another story, looks like the carbon fork on my old cross bike is weaker than the bones in my middle finger (not surprising when you consider I’m from New Jersey), and the handlebar got bent to a point that it is only good for hitting someone I dont like in the kneecap. Not sure what the future will hold for this dear bike of mine, I’ve ridden that Jake the Snake for countless commutes to work, pedaled it on paved bike paths, back country New Jersey roads, back woods Montana logging roads, ribbons of singletrack, and on trips to more liquor stores than I can count. The debate begins as far as whether or not to fix this baby up, or scrounge together some funds for a replacement steed. Now read Dirty’s post below, chock full of boobies and skatepark radness.
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…ouch, 40 hands (somewhat damaged)…glad that it wasn’t more serious to you physically & sorry about the bike but what about the clown that swerved into your lane…
…did he/she/it get dumped also, ride away unscathed, stop to see if you were okay, what, what ???…
…seems like they oughta be fronting for a new fork &/or your medical…
…not that it’s likely to happen that way but that would be the righteous conclusion…
I might just start rocking a helment.
Like I got anything worth saving up there.
Shoot me a message and I’ll get that bar situation handled. Sorry to hear about the WOS. :)
Wow that sucks. Doing the math, I make you out to be 36 hands now. Heal well, brother.
Impressed you were able to type this. Hope you have a speedy recovery!
enjoy the painkillers. no fist fucking for a while tho.
Ouch. Use the time to catch up on your reading, so that when your advisor wants you to change your thesis again (and he will), you will have the info if you need to talk him out of it (or not get frustrated because he’s right). You should be getting close to done, no? Power through. Then go to Mexico.
Send a photo of the fork to the guys at busted carbon. From now on the finger will always be extra special.
I think 40 was deep into that bottle of pills when he wrote this. First we get: “My helmet didnt show any signs of a major impact,…”
And then we get: “As far as my personal stuff, only my helmet was a casualty,…”
Drugs… better living through chemistry.
(PS- Judi’s comment wins the day.)
I feel your pain.
Six years ago I got a Mallet finger in a surfing wipe out at Piha beach.
(yes, stupid old fart, let’s take a day off work & go surfing with my daughter).
No surgery but 2 months in one of those funky plastic splints followed by 3 months of therapy.
My finger still only has half the range of motion that it had, but you know what, absolutely no regrets, it was a magic day with my daughter, seeing her carving up a wave is a memory that I’ll treasure.
I can only think of a couple of under passes with downhill entries…the one on college is almost totally blind and if you were going faster than a jog heading in to it…well that would partially explain things.
Unlike a lot of whiners, you seem to be taking it well and only doing a small amount of reasonable finger pointing.
Heal fast.
Rule # 5 !
On a semi-related notes, this right here is ALL fucked up:
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/upshot/cyclist-accident-makes-waves-181534779.html
I’m getting to where assholes on bicycles piss me off more than assholes in cars. We live in fucked-up times.
My Good Friday wasn’t a Good Friday…
Took my 6 yr old to the park so she could ride her bike and practice the monkey bars. Instead of taking my bike I decided to take my newest toy….a longboard. While my daughter was monkeying the bars, I proceeded to go too fast on the longboard….had to jump off the thing before I crashed….unfortunately my legs couldn’t keep up with the speed I generated. When I finally scrapped my body off the ground my knee was killing me. After 15 minutes of trying to walk it off we went home. After being home for 25 mins my knee was so swollen….when the wife got home from work and saw my knee she told me to go to the urgent care center to have it checked out. After 3 x-rays the Dr. came in and explained I fractured my tibula plateau. They put me in a temp cast/splint and told me I have to go to the orthopedic Dr. on Monday to see if I need surgery or just go straight into a hard cast. At least they sent me home w/ a RX for some pain meds.
Needless to say, anyone in the market for a longboard?
@13-Mikey, ain’t it peculiar how all those outraged commenters wouldna had a single thing to say if it had been a cager hitting a cyclist.
…alright, i’ll re-post my comments about the story mikey linked to ‘cuz i think it’s important & it’s a twist on those depressing ‘cyclists down’ posts we haven’t seen in a while…
…two pedestrians have died in san francisco in the last year from having been plowed into at speed by cyclists running red lights…both the woman hit last summer & the elderly man hit last thursday died in hospital from injuries related to the collisions…
…on top of the decidedly “not fun for anybody but the participants” critical mass rides, the city of sf, which honestly seems to be trying it’s best to accommodate cyclists is now taking extreme heat from every direction ‘cuz of idiot cyclists…
…granted, a lotta the heat is likely coming from equally idiot locals who do stupid shit like jay walk without thinking or text or talk on phones while driving but the bottom line is simple…
…‘two people have died in “the city” from having been hit by cyclists in the last year’…
…while the number of car vs pedestrian or cyclist related fatalities will always be higher, that is two people way too many…take pretty much any city & we’re held accountable by a different standard but we ARE the ones asking (rightfully so) for better, more lenient or accommodating riding conditions but this kinda situation sets organized cycling agendas way back…
…& joe, you’re wrong…when a car hits a cyclist out here there are as many ‘outraged’ letters by the same clowns saying basically that the cyclist was undoubtedly doing something wrong & likely deserved it…
…this is the prevalent attitude amongst the general pop’ in sf ‘cuz no matter how much the city gov’ accommodates cycling & no matter how much good work is being done by groups like the ‘sf bicycle coalition’, there is enough moronic behavior by other cyclists that the divide remains huge…
“…two people way too many…”
I’m sure the straw men that we both invoked would agree. Wonder how many dead cyclists it would take before these same straw men cried “Enough!”.
may your recovery be as speedy as muskrat reproduction, and love. and god bless the garden state, a land of glacial rockiness, briars and black bears, and grand oil slicked swamps and marshes!!!
Thanks Palm Coast Council members who voted this down! Your vote spoke for the people! 1 likes
Seriously,
Fuck those Kona forks. My fork broke spontaneously. I tried to send itback and they wouldn’t replace it. I have purchased three of those asshole’s bikes.Luckily my next door neighbor works for Specialized and I got an aluminum prototype fork to replace it. Kona suck a liter of Yak load.
Nate