Thursday, May 25, 2006

Best Laid Plans of Men and Potholes

Hi all,
Well, for the third time in about 4000 miles, I crashed. Sigh, yes 'tis true. The Little Red Bike is now officially broken in. Thankfully, not very broken. Our story starts where all good stories start: It was a dark and stormy night....

Well, one fact in that it was dark. In fact it was 4:45 in the morning! I had planned to rise early and commute the 26 miles to work, and enjoy the lovely warm morning and have a nice peaceful ride into work. Sadly, it wasn't to be. As I headed down the first hill (Gentile St. for you Utahns) I hit a pothole. Not a big one, nor a deep one. The fact that I was going almost 30 miles an hour might have been a causal factor in the festivities. Well, right after the pothole, the front tire flatted, and before I could get control of the LRB, things got exciting as a standard crash and burn occurred.

The results:
Nice jogging tights: Trash
The seat cover of the Rans Seat: Torn.
Front Rim: Intact, with a bit of a hop. The tube however is trash. My new Conti GP tire survived. They make good tires!
Road rash: In full bloom. Yowee it feels special.

Pics below:








For now it appears the bike is intact, all important moving parts appear to be working fine. Seriously, it could have been a lot worse!The FAA Doc says I will be sore as heck for a bit, then heal just fine. I will take the rim down and have it checked. So, that's the news of the day. Hope you all enjoy the holiday weekend and get some fresh air and sunshine.

Happy Riding

JIm

3 comments:

Paul said...

Dad,

Sorry you crashed, hope your road rash dies down.

When I read your post I had one silly question I thought of...

How did you hit a pothole that Layton City hasn't filled in 10+ yrs?

Or is it a new one?

Seriously, I hope you feel better, and I'm glad the bike is OK.

Jim said...

Paul: Well said! Not a big hole, smallish actually. It's a hole I would never see as it is out on the middle part of the road. I had moved out there to enjoy the road as it was 0445 and no cars in sight....silly me, should have stuck to snady gravel on the side I usually ride through!

Anonymous said...

Never mind photos of the bike.

We want photos of the bruise!!