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I think I may have mentioned here back in the summer that I was heading to Colorado and the high plains for a 2-week solo tour in August. Well, I didn't make it. 550 miles into day 1, halfway between Lexington and Louisville, KY, my brand new tire picked up a screw, puncturing the tube and blowing out the rear tire while I was traveling 75 mph on I-64. I kept the bike up for a bit, slowed it down some, and got it over to the shoulder before it threw me into a grassy ditch. I walked away (literally) with a broken shoulder blade (scapula) and three broken ribs. Except for one saddlebag and some cosmetic damage, the bike came through pretty well too. (BTW, I'm pretty much healed and am back in the saddle.)
But these weren't the pictures I hoped to be posting here. In the first, you can see the phillips screw head, which doesn't look too threatening. In the second, you can see that the point of the screw penetrated about a half inch into the interior of the tire. In the 3rd picture you can see where the screw head is and the damage that the tube blowing at that speed did to the tire. This was a freak accident that could not have been avoided. I credit my riding skill in controlling the bike and my martial arts training (I instinctively tucked my head, turned my shoulder and rolled) with avoiding far more serious injuries.
One of my riding buddies picked my wife up in his truck at 4 AM the next morning and drove 9 hours out to pick up my bike and me and then drove us back to Virginia. It's situations like this that show you who your Brothers are!
Wow, sorry to hear about the accident and the trip being cut short, but glad you are able to type this post on your own and that you are back on the saddle.
One of things I often think about is screws amd debris on the road.
Be safe!!!!
you are a lucky man ! one to have survived the crash and another because you have such good friends. people tend tp throw junk on the roads all over this country. screws, nails, ladders all the time on out the roads. i watched a guy drop a bunch of little tech screws that came out of his truck on the ground in a bar parking lot full of bikes. nitwit didn't even attempt to pick them up.
Wow! Sucks that you were hurt and your trip was cut short; however, I suppose the bright-side to this story was the extent of your injuries in comparison to what they might have been. I know you believe this was a freak, unavoidable accident (and I tend to agree). However, I wonder if a product such as this might have prevented your blow-out. It's certainly something I'm going to consider. http://www.ride-on.com/
you are a lucky man ! one to have survived the crash and another because you have such good friends. people tend tp throw junk on the roads all over this country. screws, nails, ladders all the time on out the roads. i watched a guy drop a bunch of little tech screws that came out of his truck on the ground in a bar parking lot full of bikes. nitwit didn't even attempt to pick them up.
You're absolutely right about the friends! I hope someday I have the opportunity to be there for him when he needs me!
But I facillate between thinking I'm lucky (an accident like that certainly could have killed me) and thinking I'm incredibly unlucky to have hit a screw in just the right way to have it stick and be driven into the tire.
This was on a beautiful stretch of road, not construction nearby and I had ridden about 2 hours since my last stop. No way to anticipate a problem at all.
Wow! Sucks that you were hurt and your trip was cut short; however, I suppose the bright-side to this story was the extent of your injuries in comparison to what they might have been. I know you believe this was a freak, unavoidable accident (and I tend to agree). However, I wonder if a product such as this might have prevented your blow-out. It's certainly something I'm going to consider. http://www.ride-on.com/
I don't think ride-on has any application to tires with tubes. (My bikes a Road King Classic.) If I'm wrong on that, let me know.
Glad you are safe - I want to know more about that tuck and roll technique! That's good info around here.
It's a very simple and seemingly obvious technique but it needs to be instinctive, which means you have to practice it thousands (or tens of thousands) of times. Most people's natural reaction when they fall will have their had up to look where they are going and will try to stop their fall with their hands and arms. Had I done that, I would have broken both my arms and perhaps my neck or otherwise suffered some head trauma. (The ER doctor said to break my scapula, my body had to have been going about 50 mph when I hit the ground). I instinctively tucked my head to my chest, turned my shoulder into the point of impact and rolled when I hit the ground. As a result, my head and helmet never hit the ground, I didn't lose consciousness nor even get a concussion, and stood right up after I came to a stop.
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Freak Accident
