So I was proceeding west to work in an orderly fashion this morning at 5.40am along QEII Drive, Christchurch on my wee DX Mail Supercub. I was approaching some of the many road cones that are along the middle of that stretch of road when I simultaneously saw a cone in the middle of the opposite easterly lane and a small truck coming towards it out of the fog. I thought to myself "He's going to struggle to get around that", and he did struggle. I was a few metres short of him when he hit the cone a glancing blow which knocked it with some violence into the front wheel of my bike. Literally before I knew it I was sliding down QEII Drive on my right hand side with my bike nestled on top of me. After what seemed to be quite a long time and with me hoping like hell there was nothing close behind me, I came to a stop and quickly struggled my way out from under the bike. I was aware that my right knee was sore so hobbled off to assess the whole situation. A couple of people stopped to help including the truck driver.
The bike was not too badly damaged apart from a destroyed front tray. Yay for me breaking it's fall! Nevertheless, we completed the trip in a DX support vehicle. Summary was a quite badly bruised knee from sliding up the road at 50kph. Nothing appears broken though. My protective gear held up admirably although boots, pants, jacket and helmet all have battle scars with the pants and helmet neediing replacement. I have a week of 'light duties' to look forward to. Conclusion: 60 year olds aren't built for sliding down roads.
My only significant 'off' in 42 years but I think I got off lightly. I kept my hands on the handlebars during my slide so no wrist, elbow or shoulder damage. The knee bruising was actually caused by the bike, not the road, as it landed on me when we hit the ground together. I'd actually seen the possibility of this happening months ago but always assumed it would be a cone wobbling across in front of me that could be ridden around rather than one that came at me like a bullet and just took the wheels out from under me.
Whatever you're doing kiddies, always wear your safety gear!
Bookmarks