On Apr 9, 2012, at 8:51 PM, Jim wrote: > > I was interested to see the thread on knee issues, as I have a similar > question about hips. Unfortunately, last Friday night I was riding a bike > lane downtown, and a car door opened up suddenly in front of me, which threw > me and Homer to the ground. Homer came out fairly well, but I ended up with > a broken femur that was surgically repaired the following day .Police > investigated and the driver was cited, and I expect to be compensated by his > auto insurance.
Slightly good news in a bad situation. > Being in Boulder, nearly everyone taking care of me, including the surgeon, > are avid bikers, and are assuring me that I will make a full recovery from > this injury, probably back on the bike in a couple months. But I'd be > interested if there are any of the "folks like us" out there (i'm 54 years > old) that have gone through this and if they have any wisdom to provide, A local guy in his 50s broke his hip in a rash up at the velodrome back during my racing days and he made a full recovery. That's the only such case I know about personally. > Also, when your bike is in a crash like that, I assume you should have a > competent mechanic give it a through inspection to make sure things are ok. > Any other words of wisdom for assuring the safety of a crashed bike? The only thing, with a metal bike, that I would be concerned about is the handlebars. If they got bent they got weakened. Even if the frame and/or fork were bent, the odds are they can be put back without permanent damage or weakening. > I'm finishing up day 2 after surgery and am doing well and feeling fine. > Other than the hip, just a touch of road rash and a bruise from where my > shoulder hit the door. This was a case where wearing the helmet probably > saved me from a closed head injury. Maybe, if the helmet was mangled by coming between your head and a hard object. Maybe not if it appears unscathed or barely dinged. Our reflexes do a pretty good job of trying to keep our heads off the pavement during a fall. We should all be aware, though, that we can get brain injuries in accidents without our heads hitting a thing (and this may happen as often as impact injuries; non-impact injuries tend to apply less energy to the brain although that doesn't predict clinical outcome all that well), like shaken baby syndrome but for adults. Helmets can't help with those, no matter how good the design and manufacture. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
