Thanks everyone for your prayers, good wishes, and offers of assistance. Cindy and I truly appreciate it. Right now our adult kids and my brother are helping with the immediate needs.
Even though I’m new to the club, I’ve been riding dirt and street bikes most of my life. Saturday, I found myself in a situation that I shouldn’t have been in in the first place and I freaked out. I hit the brakes hard which wasn’t the right move. It changed the bike’s trajectory out of the turn into the shoulder. At that point I lost control of the bike. The next thing I remember was coming to in the middle of Ortega Highway flat on my back.
The paramedics took us to Riverside University Hospital Trauma center. I was rung through the ringer but only had 3 broken ribs (If you’ve never had a broken rib, they hurt like a mother). Cindy is a little worse off. She has 5 broken ribs, a broken shoulder, and possibly some internal chest bruising. She was admitted for observation and pain management. Not a good ending to a pretty good day.
It certainly could have been worse. One positive thing I can say is we had state-of-the-art protective gear on from head to toe. Cordura pants with armor knee and hip inserts, leather riding jackets with full armor, high-end full face helmets, steel toed boots, and leather riding gloves. The pants wore through on my left side but hardly scratched the armor. The leather on my left boot wore down to the steel. Cindy’s helmet took a hard hit to the face that wouldn’t have been protected by a half or open face helmet. The only road rash I got was because I left my jacket half way unzipped because of the afternoon heat. That allowed it to roll back over my shoulder on impact, exposing my shoulder to the mercy of the road. Similarly, Cindy’s jacket was compromised by a faulty zipper which I think might account for her more extensive injuries. The zipper broke when we were suiting up after lunch. It zipped up but didn’t pull the zipper together. Then it got stuck and we couldn’t get it back down. We said forget it, we’ll fix it at home. Bad decision. The jacket was much less functional.
I’m sure my bike is AFU. I remember seeing it upright on the side of the road as I was getting in the ambulance. Kind of surreal. Some good samaritan’s righted it and moved it off to the side of the road. So, it might not be a total loss. A little touch up paint might do the trick.
Then, on the way to the hospital this morning, I see a couple riding on the freeway with half helmets & tee shirts going at least 70 in the carpool lane. Kind of made me shutter.