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The Bad Ride

09.11.2010 by Ray Niekamp // 11 Comments

I really enjoy riding. Even a quick half-hour jaunt through the neighborhood leaves me feeling good.  So I was looking forward to my Saturday morning 25-miler.

About four miles into the ride, I had to stop for a red light.  I moved the bike out of the right turn lane, unclipped my right shoe, and made the fatal mistake: I turned the handlebars to the right.

That caused the bike to lean left, and I was still clipped in on that side.  I frantically tried to wrench my foot loose, but I went down on the left side.  If this has ever happened to you (come on, now — I know it has!), you know your only concern is to get upright again, so all those people at the intersection don’t laugh and point fingers.  In this case, there was only one cyclist who had just crossed in front of me.  When she heard me go down, she immediately stopped and asked if I needed help.

I grinned and said, “No, I just didn’t clip out in time.”

“Oh, that’s happened to me,” she said.

I got moving again, glad that the bike seemed all right.  But in a little while, I felt an odd sensation at the back of my leg.  Blood was pooling in my sock from a puncture wound left by the chainring when I fell.

The blood and the chainring tattoo made an interesting pattern.

It didn’t seem as bad as it was, so I kept going.

Several miles later, I turned onto a four-lane divided street that runs through my neighborhood.  It has a bike lane, but as usual, the lane was littered with debris.  It wasn’t long before I sensed that my rear tire was going flat.

I pulled off onto a side street, in the shade, took off the wheel, and found the problem. A tiny nail, a brad no more than a half-inch long, had made a neat puncture in the tire.  I yanked the nail out with my teeth, and changed the tube.

One move I have always had trouble with is remounting the rear tire after a flat.  I can’t seem to get the cassette and chain to mesh properly, even though I have it shifted into the smallest cog.  I must have done something stupid, because suddenly, my shifter cable popped out of the brake hood on the handlebar.

I fiddled with it and fiddled with it, but couldn’t get it to reattach.  I was a little more than a mile from home, and rode in the big ring and smallest cog all the way.

In the bathroom, I cleaned the wound and put a Band-Aid on it — but in a few minutes, I was back in the bathroom again, when the Band-Aid became saturated with blood.  After putting on several gauze pads and applying pressure, the bleeding stopped.  Sort of.

Then I tried to sop up all the blood spots from the bathroom carpet.  The results are less than stellar.

I like to think that every time I’m on the bike, it’s a good ride.  Not today.

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Categories // Injury, Rides Tags // clipless fall, flat tire, Injury

The Return

08.15.2010 by Ray Niekamp // 5 Comments

You might recall that regular guest poster Don Blount has been out of action for awhile, after a bad fall.  Well, Don’s back. How he handled his recovery could be instructive if any of us find ourselves in a similar predicament.

It has been three weeks since I was cleared by my doctor to begin riding without restrictions.

It’s good to be back.

I was cleared for activity on July 22. On July 23 I was back on the bike. The first full week back I rode a total of 101 miles, the second week it was 103 miles. I expect to be back in that range again this week. I even started doing intervals and plan on heading up to the hills soon.

I think the reason I transitioned back to the outdoor bike world so well was because of what I did during my recovery.

In quick review: On May 15 I took a nasty tumble from my bike, fracturing my left wrist and breaking my left arm. About a week later I had surgery and then spent another nine weeks on restricted duty.

Restriction meant to not do anything that put any pressure on my arm. Of course riding my bike was out. I was allowed to ride a stationary bike but only provided that I didn’t violate that restriction.

I became good friends with a bike at my gym. I think I had about six hours on it during the first week.

Later, a member of my bike club loaned me his Cateye CS-1000 cycle simulator. This trainer had adjustable settings that allowed the resistance to be increased to get a harder bike workout.

I found this time incredibly boring, even if I was watching videos or the Tour de France or listening to music. Particularly when the weather is good, bike riding is most enjoyed when done outdoors. I gained additional appreciation for living in California where I can pretty much ride outdoors year round.

But the time on the trainer helped. I focused on making sure I got saddle time and trying to keep my cardio level up so I wouldn’t suffer from saddle soreness or too much fatigue when I returned to riding outdoors.

And it worked for the most part. My wrist was a little tender initially but the discomfort was tolerable. I have stretches and exercises to help strengthen my wrist and arm. More importantly I gained a greater appreciation for an act as simple as riding a bike and its value to my quality of life.

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Categories // crash, guest post, Injury Tags // Injury, recovery

Is Cycling Dangerous?

05.23.2010 by Ray Niekamp // 6 Comments

Our friend Don Blount got some bad news last week: In addition to a broken wrist from a fall during his first century ride, it turned out that his arm was broken, too.

Don had surgery on the arm Friday, and says it went well, but he’ll be off the bike for six to eight weeks while he heals.

That gives him time to do some thinking. He’s been thinking about his second major crash in the last nine months, and breaking the same wrist in those crashes. On top of that, many of us rode in the Ride of Silence last week, which commemorates riders who died in bicycle crashes.

So Don poses the question: Is cycling dangerous?

Don says some of his non-biking friends are telling him to give up cycling, because it’s “too dangerous.”

A couple of studies done in the 1990s found about 500,000 visits to the emergency room each year in the U.S. as the result of bicycle crashes. Just a small fraction required a hospital stay.  Over half the accidents involved motor vehicles, and road surface and mechanical problems with the bicycle are also common causes of accidents.

That reminded me of a club ride I was on a couple of months ago. We were nearing the end, but had to ride for a short distance on a two-lane highway with no shoulders. The road is hilly and curvy, and we mostly avoid it. When we turned off it to cut across a parking lot to another road, one of the riders remarked how glad she was to have survived another ride.

“Well,” I said, “it seems to me that every time we get on our bikes we’re taking a risk. It could be the car that doesn’t see you, or the car that does, and wants to ‘teach you a lesson.’ Or you could hit some bad road surface and lose your balance, or any number of things. But usually we don’t. We’re smart enough to know the risks and we watch out for problems.”

I guess that’s how I’d answer Don’s question, too. Cycling can be risky, but it’s not inherently dangerous.

Don concurs. “I never thought of riding a bike as dangerous,” he emailed me, “probably because it’s something I learned to do as a child. And if I felt it was dangerous, I doubt I would have taught my children to ride.”

He says his injury occurred because he became overly concerned with one risk factor – cars – and lost sight of another – a railroad track at an intersection bad for riding.

But he also notes that other adults get hurt in sports like skiing, soccer, or basketball, and don’t think twice about getting back to them.

And after his convalescence, he says, “I intend to get back on my bike as soon as I can. After all, I received my new helmet just a few days ago.”

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Categories // crash, Injury, Safety Tags // crash, Injury, Safety

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