James Deuce most unfortunate event!

[<G>]

Baaaad luck, best wishes for a speedy recovery.

[Hitcher]

We visited Mr Deuce yesterday (Saturday). He's out of hospital and at Heather's folks place near Carterton. Jim's a bit sad and sore, to be expected with several bust ribs, and twisted ankle and other technicolor contusions. He's also taken a bang to the head. Broken ribs are a bit of a bugger as there's no escaping the discomfort until they're healed. His rehabilitation will take some time.

The status of the sheep-shagged Buell is not yet known. It's still awaiting an assessor's report.

[Quasi]

Thanks for the update Hitcher. We dont like hearing that one of our own has gone down, so its good to know he is on the on the road of recovery,

[Robbo]

Hey Jim, sorry to hear of your unfortunate misshap. All the best for a speedy recovery.
Cheers

[gijoe1313]

Hope you heal up fast and the bike gets sorted toot sweet. Thank gosh you can be mended! I think its a conspiracy to take you out of action ... government sponsored hit sheep

[rainman]

Sorry to hear about the off, and get well soon.

[caseye]

Hell James Deuce, I sure hope that the sheep was totally shagged.Get well soon man.Many thanks Heather, while "rider down" posts are never received favourably I think it would be fair to say that to hear that James is OK(yes injured) is damn fine news.

[StoneY]

Im still waiting for the invite to the spit roast!

[MSTRS:Me]

Of the sheep - or the careless farmer?

[StoneY]

Of the sheep - or the careless farmer?

Both I can do canabilism in the name of revenge
This godamn sheep robbed me of my no.1 journo!

[StoneY]

Of the sheep - or the careless farmer?

Both I can do canabilism in the name of revenge
This godamn sheep robbed me of my no.1 journo!

[Swoop]

There are something like 10m sheep in NZed (Ok, I'm guessing) and you found the one with your name on it!

The problem is far greater if the sheep has "to whom it may concern" on it...

[James Deuce]

Thank you EVERYONE for all the kind words. I'm allowed back on the computer for a short while.

Brand new bike. First decent weather in ages. Need to put 600 miles on it at comparatively dawdly speeds before the first service.

It's awesome. Better than what the label says. Dawdling around on it is no trouble and having fun will be no trouble either. Beautifully built, more P47M than Spit XIV, but if you know what you're doing then Spit XIV pile-it is never going to see which way you went.

All ended badly by a sheep.

Farmers in this country have 0 legal responsibilities if their stock cause an accident. On the stretch of road I was on I spotted 4 loose sheep and a large bull on the side of the road at different points. Naturally I took it easy. Coming back I'd noted the places where there were animals and was careful to watch out for them, especially the bull. Someone had put the bull away, but let out three sheep in the process. I rode past them and accelerated away, not neeooooow away, just gently. As I hit 100km/hr a sheep erupted from the grass to my immediate left. I braked, hard, immediately elevating the rear wheel 45 degrees in the air. I missed it. Phew. As the back wheel touched the ground the sheep darted back in front of me twice striking the left side of the front wheel, turning the bars to the right. I've lost about a quarter of my foward velocity by now, but the sheep has artificially induced a high side accident. I get thrown through the air and wake up in the ditch. I landed on my head and left elbow and my right foot got hooked up under the bike.

Bike is probably written off. My wife was really proud of it, liked how it looked, how she'd organised a dream bike for me and some lazy farmer has ended it all. I took years earning my wife's trust and that's gone now. I'd just been in discussions with some UK bike magazines for freelance work and talking to Cycle World in the US about something a bit more permanent. That's all gone now.

I can't sue the farmer and now have 5 broken ribs and ankle twice the size it should be and yet another head injury and possible career change wrecked and a bunch of scared, misbehaving kids to calm down and sort out.

I got lots of praise for the gear I was wearing from all and sundry, the cop who was first on scene was awesome and thanks to some procedural changes instituted by a friend of mine whose partner died due to call centre incompetence had a helicopter to me within 20 minutes of him getting there. He found a likely field and transmitted exact GPS coords to the Helicopter crew. They were thrilled to see me. They'd been having a boring day.

It's taken seven days to get my pain relief working right.

I'm not saying no more bikes, but I am saying no more road riding. No more cruising about with friends on the weekend for a coffee and an ice cream somewhere different. I'm going to build a race bike a year in my garage and do the NZ Hillclimb champs in the "250cc class" (i'm making that up, but you know what I mean) and I'm going to use the least likely machinery I can find for it.

When the insurance money comes through, I'm going to by a convertible for my work car/going away for the weekend with the wife car, and try to repay her trust by spending actual proper time with her.

I'm NOT an ATTGATT Nazi, but I wear gear I think relevant to the task. Quasi's leather gear saved my left arm and shoulder from being broken, without a doubt. I have no road rash, just armour/skin interface damage. My Oxtar TCS boots, especially the right one saved me a broken ankle. Seriously. It's sprained and swollen from toes to mid-calf. The worst injuries are the 5 broken ribs.

I'm not OK. I'm not happy to be saying any of this. It's an event that shouldn't have happened, but I am thrilled to see at least one person take note of the fact that sheep are an actual threat on the road.

I can't overstate how awesome the Ekatahuna cop is. You people treat him with respect, you hear? He turned up, checked my neuro-obs repeatedly and wasn't happy with my head injury and got the ambo crew to make me stat2 to get the helicopter justified. I don't think I could have lived through an ambo trip to Palmerston from the wops.

Kari is directly responsible for the new accident victim location procedures and making my life easier and I am tremendously grateful to her. The cop got his GPS locator out of the patrol car, found the best paddock for the helicopter and transmitted the exact coordinates. The locals who found me were incredibly helpful, but not all that good from the first aid perspective or describing where they were, but by golly I'm grateful for their time, that they took the time to help. The cop followed up with Heather, organised the CVIU to quickly establish cause and whether or not charges would be laid. He was professional and super-concerned at the same time and tried to keep Heather apprised of the situation and potential outcomes at all times. If he charged me for anything I'd accept the judgement and say thanks. I spent a lot of time at the site apologising for wasting people's time and the cop listened and determined to be helpful based on my attitude.

Thank you again for all the offers of help and support.

I can't spend much time at keyboards at present, and so probably won't get to you all. I'll be pretty out of it until the end of next week too so just remember that if you visit and expect sense from me.

[Big Dave]

>>expect sense from me. <<

As if.

[pzkpfw]

Lessons for us all, in there.


(Paragraphs, punctuation, capitalisation, spelling, ..., this guy writes better from a "hospital bed" (yes, I know) than most people who are all in one piece...)