[Djinn8]

Had my first crash today.

I was driving in the South Peak District, on my way to the race track. On a twisty bit of road a car over took me and was really gunning it. "Ah hell no", I thought, and chased after him. Driving as fast as I was was pushing my abilities a bit, but I kept up. At the end of that stretch of road the car hung a right and I carried straight on. I slowed down to a more relaxed pace. But the change of pace, combined with reflecting back on the little "race", made me complacent and suddenly I noticed that I was late with my cornering.

I could have quite easily swerved and corrected my course, but instead my instincts failed me and I hit the brakes ensuring that I was going to crash, just 10mph slower.

I remember looking down at my front wheel and seeing grass and even as I said "Oh $hit, $hit, $hit!", I had a little zen moment and a voice in my head said, "well, this is happening now, accept it."

I hit a dry-stone wall doing about 40mph. My radiator and crash bung took the brunt of the impact. I cartwheeled over the handlebars. My chest hit the fly-shield and tore the dash loose, while my knee hit the handlebar and tore my mirror and clutch off. I hit the wall head first, smashing the top of my helmet apart, then came to rest on my back. I sat up instantly and looked down the road where I saw two cyclist coming towards me from about 100m away. I think I must have blacked out for a moment because the next thing I knew they were right in front of me asking if I was OK.

End result was a swollen knee. Impact shock to my wrists and elbows. Minor cuts to my nose and forehead. Bruising on my chest. A bit of concussion.

The bikes in a worse state, but it can probably can be fixed. With the exception of the radiator (which is completely wrecked) it's just a bunch of little things and some cosmetic damage.

Interesting experience really. Didn't hurt as much as you'd think. In fact it didn't hurt at all until about half an hour after the crash.

My helmet saved my life, that's for certain. Looking at the aftermath of the crash site, I'd headbutted my way through the wall.

[LiteraryLark]

Lesson learned? Don't be an A-hole to other A-holes.

[fishin fool]

Try to take it easy for a bit your body will probably be full of aches and pains
for quite a while.

[Moose72]

I see people around here not wearing helmets all the time. Glad you had yours on.

[eskielover]

Glad you had your helmet on. We all have out times of being brain dumb & doing some not smart things. Good thing is we usually learn some critical life lessons from them especially while we are hurdling during recovery.

You're going to be sore for quite a few days. I have bailed off horses in similar fashion & it hurts for awhile....once the muscles say, hey what did you do to me?

Safe healing

[StarGazingFish]

i love the peaks,i can understand why you wanted to race it,but its just a good job you had a helmet on and im assuming you had leathers on otherwise you woud have been 'degloved', i see a lot of idiots in manchester on bikes who dont wear helmets nor leathers,i think wow- your going to pay for that.

[Djinn8]

This is such a pain in the arse to fix. Because I tore the dash off, some small wire retainer that holds the headlight frame in place got bent and torn loose. In order to reattach it I've got to straighten it out and fit it into into holes in the top and bottom yokes of the steering stem - which means removing the top yoke - which means removing the forks - which means removing the wheel - which means removing the brakes. I've basically got to take the whole front end of the bike apart just to put one tiny bit back in place.

One of the rear indicators broke and shattered the plastic mounting, but the indicator mounts, license plate holder and rear fender are all one single big bit of plastic, so for the sake of putting a new indicator on I've got to replace the whole underside of the tail which is going to cost a fortune. Such a stupid design.

The radiator, while taking the most of the damage and being relatively expensive to replace has turned out the be the easiest part of the repairs.