Joined: 22 Mar 2008 Posts: 117 Location: Kansas City, MO
Posted: Tue Dec 30, 2008 8:35 am Post subject: Bicycle wreck
I realize this isn't very tactical, but it is about bike riding which is something that will probably become more and more popular in an emergency as gas gets scarce. Goblin, feel free to move to a different forum if you feel the need.
I was out and about doing some errands on my bike when I came upon a RR intersection with the street I was on. It was the type of tracks that were recessed into the road, and there were 2 train lanes. For those of you that don't know, you need to ride over grooves exactly perpendicular to them if you want your tires to avoid getting stuck in them. This is especially true for road bikes since their wheels are so skinny. I went over the first three rails fine, but I failed to hit the fourth one at a 90 degree angle. It was probably more like 75-65 degrees. I'm not sure, but I believe this was due to my making a tiny micro-adjustment turn to correct balance. Anyway, the wheel turned sharply to slide into the groove made by the rail. Due to this, it veered off sharply to the right and rapidly decelerated while I continued forward at speed. I flew forward over the handlebars, the bike followed me since my legs were grabbing it. However, I let go of the bike in midair and it dropped and slid behind me. I tucked and rolled off of my left shoulder onto my back and slid a good 10 feet, keeping my head up so it wouldn't hit the pavement (I don't wear a helmet). I got up quickly so that I wouldn't be run over and got my bike. The driver behind me looked concerned, so I gave him the thumbs up sign and said "I'm ok." Then I got off the road to a sidewalk as quickly as I could.
Lessons learned:
I'm glad I was wearing what I was wearing. I had jeans, boots, and an under-armor top with a T-shirt over it. As a result, I only got minor scrapes on my elbows and one on my knee. Had I been wearing biker shorts and a lycra T-shirt, the abrasions would have been much worse and I would have had to debride them of dirt/gravel.
Funny as it sounds, I'm glad I wasn't wearing a helmet. When I was sliding on my back, my head was only a couple centimeters from the ground. If I had been wearing a helmet, I believe that it would have hit the pavement and snapped my head up due to drag, possibly causing neck damage.
Learn to work on your bike beyond changing a tire! Somewhere during the flip and slide, the bike's chain had completely fallen off the rear sprocket. Also, the gear shift cable's tension was thrown off. I was able to put the chain back on and ride back home in 3rd gear, but I couldn't shift to any other gear without the chain going in between gears or going off the sprocket entirely. I have a lovely day of retensioning to look forward to tomorrow.
I'm glad that the tuck reflex was ingrained in me enough that it kicked in when I needed it to. The tuck and roll protected my head and transferred a lot of the energy into the ground. Had I done the untrained thing and stuck my arm out to break the fall, I doubt I would feel like typing right now if you know what I mean.
Even though I didn't need it, I was glad I keep first aid equipment in my backpack that I was using. If the accident had been worse and I had gotten cut more badly, those bloodstoppers could have saved my life.
Joined: 22 Mar 2008 Posts: 117 Location: Kansas City, MO
Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 8:33 am Post subject:
Oh that I had the money for a motorcycle...
Anyway, back to reality. As an update, it turns out that the bike landed pretty much directly on the rear derailleur (the mechanism that shifts the gears). As such, there's minor frame damage and the derailleur is pretty much irreparable. I'll be checking the bike into a shop soon. Sigh...
As for wound care of road rash and similar abrasions, I would focus on irrigation. Luckily, my clothing stopped my skin from coming into direct contact with the road. Had that not been the case, my scrapes would have been much worse and filled with small particulate matter to boot. Letting this dirt and other junk into your wound is asking for infection. First aid kits should have irrigation syringes that can apply the right amount of pressure (about 15 psi). For space reasons, I keep an empty 10 ml irrigation syringe in my kit. However, I believe the consensus among the EMT and paramedic community is that 30-60 ml is ideal.
Since I didn't have my full size kit on me and only a few bloodstoppers, I would have irrigated with water from my water bottle (those "sport cap" bottles can get pretty good pressure when you give them a nice squeeze) and then wiped the water and blood off with some gauze if the bleeding was minimal or put pressure on it and tied it in place if the bleeding was enough to worry about.
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