I became one with the pavement again

I hit an expansion joint and went down. Scraped up my knee and dislocated two fingers, but I was able to pull them and get them back in place. Bruised some ribs so it hurts like hell to breathe deep. But. I rode 20 miles to get home and then to urgent care. Nothing broken.

Sounds rough man, I broke 2 fingers in one hand a month ago and think I’m back to normal. Very little range of motion but I can confidently grip the handle bars at least.

You put your fingers back into place yourself?

Is the world trying to send you a sign or something?

I’ve known two people who were in serious bike crashes. One had brain damage, the other died several months later.

Yes…the index finger and middle finger on my left hand were both “offset” to the left by quite a bit. The index finger went back fairly easily. The middle finger was way out, and I had to pull it forward and there were a couple of pops and it moved back over. Adrenaline is a great painkiller.

I hope not. It’s a risk I accept and it happens to everybody eventually. And it’s the stupid stuff that gets you…I was looking in my mirror, and in that short period, I drifted over and my wheel went into an expansion joint. When that happens…you’re just along for the ride. While the ego hurts more than anything, my bike group is great. Everybody making sure I’m okay, getting my bike and moving it (it wasn’t damaged) and keeping an eye on me on the ride home. Best group of people ever.

I had one significant spill, years ago. Scrapes from the pavement took a while to heal.

I have some scrapes on my knee, but they are pretty minor. think I went over the handlebars a bit because I fell to the right, but the left side is where I injured my hand and ribs. I landed on my right side, which is the side I broke my shoulder on a couple of years ago. I remember my elbow hit, but I had a windbreaker on and it didn’t cut. Not sure how I went over but I scraped my right knee, but no “impact” feel. I think my knee broke my fall, and I put my left hand out to stop me from face planting, and the bulk of the impact was my left hand.

May I suggest this for biking?

No doubt both riding upright cranial propulsion cycles, instead of recumbents.

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More power to you if you ride them on the road. With SUV’s and pickups being so popular, it makes it harder to be seen. And i think that one of those would result in a similar accident if you hit an expansion joint at just the right (or wrong) way. I’m sure they are fun, but its my understanding that a recumbent is not the most fun way to go uphiill, and while Kansas is “flat” for the most part, northeast Kansas is far from flat.

Glad you’re okay!

I wish we had better bike lanes. I admit I have mixed feelings about bikes. I rarely bike anymore as I don’t feel safe biking in most places. A bike is allowed to use the road like a car but cars expect bikes to ride on the shoulder which isn’t legal or safe.

People are driving faster and more distracted than ever. A lot of bikers love to get on the country roads where visibility is low and the speed limits are high. As such cars hit them fairly often.

I was riding my bike a while back and I was in the turn lane trying to turn. A person got right on my ass, flashed their lights and honked their horn to tell me I am an asshole for slowing them down. Umm… Jackass I pay taxes as well and there is no bike lane. So I am legally riding my bike.

As I said I rarely carry a gun with me. I do when I bike. It is one of the times I have almost gotten into a fight with someone. I have had people pull over and try to start fights.

In California where we had an extensive amount of trails and bike lanes. This was never an issue for me.

We are lucky here. Very few people are assholes here, but there seems to be something about pickup trucks that brings out the worst in their drivers. Even when they have plenty of room - an entire lane on one side, those guys all seem to swoop in close…and then gun the hell out of it. I do have to admit that I smile a bit when they do that, knowing that gas and diesel are over $4 per gallon, and they just paid about four bucks to buzz us and stomp it down the road, I guess to compensate for some part of their body that is “underdeveloped”. We often say that pickup drivers must hate cyclists because their wife ran off with one.

Some people on Facebook say that bikes should be licensed and pay taxes. I tell them that I’ll agree to do that, but since I am now paying taxes for my vehicle, just like they are, then I will happily use the middle of the lane all the time since I am also paying for it.

If they would create real bike lanes, I would agree. They also need to put a barrier between the bikes and cars. Chicago was a lot more bike friendly but still dangerous.

This is why I gave up road riding, lots of boys with $80,000 trucks that daddy bought for them like to roll coal. As I’m laying in a ditch with a mangled body and bike, I wouldn’t be cracking a smile at the $4 gas they paid to run me off the road.

I forget if we covered it here, I remember a story from Texas in 2021 where a 16 year old had a new dually that he rolled up on a peloton with. He meant to scare them and roll coal, instead he hit 15 bikes putting people in the hospital.

That’s a perfect world situation, putting a barrier between bikes and cars would be nearly impossible on a large scale. The bike friendly cities I think of are Portland and NYC and I don’t recall seeing such a barrier.

We also have really good bike trails out here.
I don’t ride nearly as much as KC, so usually go to a trail and ride, not on the road.

They have them in some places in Chicago. It is really nice. A distracted driver is much less likely to hit you with their car. Obviously not every street has them. It is nice when they do through.

And a couple of weeks later, another guy in a pickup just ran over them. That’s why I’ll never ride near Houston.

The trails are fine in the middle of the week, but they are way too crowded on weekends. And depending on where you are, 10 mph can be too fast for a trail. There are several bike lanes on both sides of the state line, but I don’t like the painted line lanes at all. State law says motorists must give cyclists 3 feet when passing. But those white lines on the road only encourage people to ride closer, since they are on “their side” of the white line. KCMO is very proud of the two way cycletrack on Gillham. Going north, it’s great, but going south, you are on the left side of the road and there are always near misses because motorists don’t think to look behind and to their left when making a left hand turn. I saw some videos on youtube about some solutions that I think would work very well here, but it would require drivers to learn and adapt, and they are so preoccupied now that they would never learn.