On my way back from an errand at the bank,
I suffered a single-bike crash.
I was riding on the sidewalk alongside Strickland Rd (a busy east-west road in northern Raleigh),
When suddenly my bike became a bucking bronco!
As background, I should mention that I was standing while riding;
I always stand when riding for / during short errands -- one-way commutes of a couple miles or less.
I tried to get the bronco back under control.
I was desperate to NOT go down into the street, where I could get hit or run over.
The rear wheel came off the ground,
Probably made easier because standing, my weight was shifted onto the front wheel.
The bike lurched to the left,
I think from the dynamics of me being in the midst of a left downward pedal stroke
When the rear wheel came off the ground.
I thought I had gotten the bike under control, but suddenly I was thrown into the roadway.
No road-rash resulted.
I must have landed with my weight on the fleshy area of the palm side just below my thumbs.
I was EXTREMELY lucky that there were no cars alongside me when I crashed.
I was also EXTREMELY lucky that there were no vehicles for a couple hundred yards.
You can guess that because I had no road-rash that I wasn't too badly off.
I looked up, down the road, and saw traffic coming.
I was standing and off the road within seconds.
More embarrassed than hurt, I thought.
I got back on the bike and continued the errand commute ride to my abode.
I took a shower, put on fresh clothes, and then rode the 1.1-miles to work.
The bike seemed undamaged.
Then I realized that the chain was skipping as I pedaled along.
It was especially prone to skipping if I stopped pedaling and coasted for a bit.
When I got to work, I called my mechanic at TLC-4-Bikes.
[He spells out the word "for," but I think using the number "4" would be better marketing.]
I arranged to go by the TLC shop at approx 7:30, to see if I could get the drive system fixed.
Turned out that 3 of the 8 or 10 teeth on one of the jockey wheels were BADLY bent.
And the teeth on each side of the three was were also bent.
My mechanic indicated that the only times he's seen bent jockey wheels is as result of a crash.
However, as I think about it, I think the jockey wheel didn't bend as a result of the crash,
Instead, I think the bending of the jockey wheel cause the crash.
The thing that makes sense to me is that a pebble from the sidewalk was "kicked up"
Into the chain, and when the pebble reached the jockey wheel,
The pebble became jammed between the chain and the jockey wheel,
With the result that the "weak link" of the plastic jockey wheel gave way, 3 teeth bending, and
The jamming resulted in the chain suddenly stopping its travel,
And since I was still trying to pedal,
And with my weight well forward,
There was nothing holding down the rear wheel, and
VIOLA!! CRASH.
The jockey wheel was replace by 8 pm, and the bike was fine.
My hands, particularly my thumbs, were a different story.
No visible damage, such as road-rash.
But the trauma of landing heavily landing on my hands
Messed up the soft-tissue of fleshy area of the palm side just below my thumbs.
The traumatized area combined with the usual arthritis / tendonitis in my thumbs
To make considerable pain and discomfort.
[By the next morning, bruising appeared on the aforementioned fleshy areas, and
Within a couple or three days, the bruising had spread up to my wrists.]
So that's the condition I was in come the morning of Saturday-the-10th.
A day on which I had scheduled a ride my friend Bob on the Denny's Store Sortie,
The 138-km perm-pop that I've mentioned more than a few times is my favorite route.
Bob and I met for a start time of a quarter past the 6 am striking of the clock.
While Bob took care of some before the ride business,
I snapped a photo about which.he was unaware -- at least for a few days.
 | |||
| I later arranged to forward the above photo to Susan Notorangelo, tagged with the line "Bob trying to intimidate me, again." [For the new readers out there, Hahaha Hohoho, new readers? Anyway, for anyone that might read this, Bob intimidating me by wearing a PacTour jersey or his PacTour cycling cap has been a running joke for at least a couple years -- perhaps since the day I was doing the "3M" perm-pop with Bob and Sridhar and realized that Sridhar was wearing his Northern Tier PacTour jersey and Bob was wearing one of his Taste of Carolina jerseys.] |
23-miles into the route, just after climbing up the "Range Wall,"
Which, as I understand it, is likely one of the more noticeable places to see the "Fall Line."
Anyway, at the 23-mile mark, just as one begins to ride past Camp Butner,
There is a decommissioned self-propelled artillery gun.
Over the years, several ride companions used that gun for a photo opportunity.
- The first to do so, in my presence, was my friend Harvey, on a 2009 non-rando ride.
- Next BradW, in late May-2013, riding either the "Bahama Beach" route or the "Denny's Store" route.
- A long hiatus, then Aug-06, just four days before this Denny's Store ride, Brad repeated, but he must have not liked the over-the-head photo because he didn't publish it.
- So, perhaps to give my aching hands a rest -- if you've forgotten why my hands were aching, see the long introduction to this blog post -- I suggested that Bob take a turn reproducing Harvey's pose. [At 67 years of age, or is he only 65?, Bob was not entirely at ease as he clamored aboard the artillery gun nor was he at ease while posing, and most assuredly, he was not at ease as he eased himself off the gun and back to the ground. I learned a lesson.]
Resuming our ride after the Camp Butner photo session, I again searched for a comfortable hand position.
Traditionally, although I move my hands around quite frequently while I'm cycling,
I typically don't ride "in the drops" very much.
But this day, the combined impact of arthritis and injury trauma, made for a lot of hand discomfort.
I eventually found that getting into the drops, and staying there, resulted in the least discomfort.
So, I went to the drops, which also slightly modifies my position on the saddle.
Maybe it also modifies your position, but I won't assert that because I don't know "for sure."
So, I'm in the drops, perhaps effectively better transferring energy to the pedals,
Perhaps reducing the weight on my hands,
Leading Bob for the entire ride.
Now that last, "leading Bob for the entire ride," used to happen quite frequently,
But in the last few years, with Bob in great shape, and me not,
I've lead very little, or if I led a lot, it was with a tailwind.
And Bob would end up doing virtually all the leading into the headwind.
So, on this ride, to minimize the hand discomfort,
I'm in the drops for 50-miles or more of the nearly 86-mile course,
Leading,
Perhaps more effectively transferring power to the pedals,
More aerodynamically positioned on the bike,
Riding faster than I've done for quite some time.
We kept the control stoppage times (there are only two intermediate controls) somewhat short.
But we stopped at the Denny's Store crossroads to take a usual photo.
 |
| [Hmmn, nearly cloudless sky. Compare that to the sky seen in the photos of Bob atop the Camp Butner artillery piece. It appears that, early-on, there had been a typical almost not noticeable thin overcast, but a few hours later, by the time we got to the Denny's Store crossroads, the thin overcast had almost disappeared. I did not notice small things such as that on this ride; instead I was concentrating on minimizing the discomfort in my hands.] |
We finished the ride in fine fashion.
That is my story, and I'll be sticking to it.
| Permanent Route Name / # | Distance | Date | Finishers | DNF |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NC: Denny's Store Sortie / 1795 | 138 | 2019/08/10 | 2 | 0 |
| Cert# | RUSA# | Name | Club / ACP Code | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| RUSA-T91844 | 5843 | B__, Bob | Randonneurs USA / 933095 | 06:26 |
| RUSA-T91845 | 6218 | S__, Martin | Randonneurs USA / 933095 | 06:26 |
This was my 37th time doing the Denny's Store route.
And was Bob's 11th circuit.
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