WEAR YOUR HELMETS, Bikers!

[jane jane]

I feel lucky to even be typing this...I just had a close call.

After my last post around 1:30, I dressed in my workout clothes and hopped on my bike to ride to the gym, about 4 miles from my house. Luckily there are sidewalks 90% of the way, so traffic is not really a danger. However, there is some construction going on for about one block of the busiest commercial areas, and the sidewalk was roped off, forcing me to ride with the cars for a few hundred feet. No problem, until my front wheel caught the curb, and I flew over the handlebars headfirst into a concrete pillar. WHACK. I lost consciousness for a few seconds, and came to facedown in construction mud. The sunbrim of my helmet was cracked off and lying a few feet away. But the helmet took the full force of the blow---without it, my skull would have been cracked, no doubt about it. As it is, I have a sort of grisly-looking chin gash, and a really ugly left knee, but no other injuries.

If you bike---never ever forget your helmet!

(As this is a drinking website, let me just add that I am SO proud to say that alcohol had absolutely nothing to do with my near-demise! Many is the time in the past I could not have said that...)

[Guest]

WEAR YOUR HELMETS, Bikers!

So glad to hear you`re O.K. jane.

Starlight Impress x

[betty boop]

WEAR YOUR HELMETS, Bikers!

Jane Jane, so glad that you are OK........

OMG it certainly makes you think .........

[jane jane]

WEAR YOUR HELMETS, Bikers!

Thanks all. Other than a headache and the scrapes, I'm fine. Janie, good question---it's always hard to know how long we've been blacked out (wow, most of us HERE can testify to that, huh? but a very kind young guy stopped and ran back to help me up, and I asked him how long I'd been sprawled out...he said less than a minute.

[dexterhead]

WEAR YOUR HELMETS, Bikers!

Thank you JaneJane .. I love biking also (although in my climate, will not be doing it for another several months!!!) and sometimes skip my helmet if it's hot. Thank you again!!

[memarcie]

WEAR YOUR HELMETS, Bikers!

Thank goodness you are ok Jane Jane and you were wearing a helmet.

[MDBiker]

WEAR YOUR HELMETS, Bikers!

Glad to hear you are getting better. You just never know
bear

[Mags]

WEAR YOUR HELMETS, Bikers!

Jane Jane

I am so glad you are OK and soooo glad you were wearing your helmet. I bike a lot also and always wear a helmet but always hate the way they look. I am really not a vain person at all - dirty crappy jeans in the grocery store all the time and all that. But I think I have about 6 bike helmets! I keep buying them because I keep trying to find one that will make me look cool. Haven't found one yet - guess I should give up on that. But I ALWAYS wear one. Great advice Jane Jane. Thanks for reminding us.

[bald headed old guy]

WEAR YOUR HELMETS, Bikers!

So gald you are OK! Close call! Wife and I ride a lot, always wear our helmets. She has been crashed into several times, and has gone thorugh a few helmets. You should change helmets as soon as possible after a crash, they are not designed for repeat beatings.

[AAthlete]

WEAR YOUR HELMETS, Bikers!

Also glad that you are okay, and I can second the motion.

I was out on a training ride a few months ago in the rain, and went to switch my hand position on the bars because I was coming up on some pedestrians. In that split second my hand slipped and over the bars I went.

I landed on the side of my head and right shoulder on the ashphalt. I suffered a grade 2 shoulder separation and a hell of a headache, but the helmet took the brunt of the impact and has dented in a half an inch. If I hadn't had it on -- well let's just say the shoulder separation would have been the least of my worries.

Also, remember that once you dent, scrape or otherwise impact your helmet it is time to get a new one. The integrity of the old one will be compromised and won't protect you as well next time.

[Determinatrix]

WEAR YOUR HELMETS, Bikers!

When I took my motorcycle safety course they shared a test about how a research clinic began recording where on the head impact happened most and actually it was the jaw area. So for bikers of the motorized kind, the wrap around the jaw helmet is the one that will save you from most head injuries.

Dx

[Tigger1]

WEAR YOUR HELMETS, Bikers!

Jane Jane

So glad you're ok, must have been a hell of a fall to knock you out....

Makes you realise how important the helmet is..... You're a great advert for the cycle helmet, you never know when you'll need it.

[Hovercat]

WEAR YOUR HELMETS, Bikers!

oh my....I had a very similar sounding accident to yours, but I didn't have a helmet...my forehead was grazed down to the muscle along with other scrapes, I chipped my elbow bone and gashed my knees. Annoyingly I had some bottles of wine that were on the handlebar (we were going out that night. I also bought a small bottle of secret voddy which I was going to have before bloke got home) which smashed and made me stink like I was pissed....I wasn't, ironically.
As they took me away in the ambulance my one concern was that bloke would find my secret vodka in my bag which I'd left behind. Not that I'd be permanently scarred or need surgery, but my drinking would be rumbled.

He didn't find it but because I was on antibiotics it meant I couldn't drink for a while, which was the only good thing to come out of the whole affair!!

[lookingforhope]

WEAR YOUR HELMETS, Bikers!

Jane Jane, hope you are feeling okay. Having blacked out for even less than a minute, hope you are not experiencing headaches and such. Thinkin' of ya....

[jane jane]

WEAR YOUR HELMETS, Bikers!

Thanks for reminding me about possibly needing a new helmet! My husband, who mountain- bikes, looked at mine and said he thinks that the sun-visor attachment may have absorbed enough of the blow that the helmet itself remained intact. No crack visible, but I might get a new one anyway. Taking no more chances! Thanks all for "babying" me a little.