After reading about broken femurs and people being airlifted to hospital, it got me wondering as to what accidents and bike-related injuries others have had. For my part, I have a left upper arm that is about an inch and a half shorter than my right one, as a result of a major collision with a car on a Yamaha RD200 (this was in 1979, just before all learners got downgraded to 125cc - back then learners could ride up to 250cc bikes). I was overtaking a line of parked cars outside a church on a late August evening in '79 and I had allowed for someone opening a door, as I was just to the left of the centre line of the road. What I didn't expect was a bell-end in a Vauxhall Viva that just pulled out of the line of cars without doing a rear 3/4 glance first, I must have been the blind spot that his mirrors couldn't see. The only bit I recall about the accident was looking down at the roof of the car... Apparently, I went almost clean over the car and as I headed back to earth, I threw my arms up to protect my face as I had an open-face helmet on. The witnesses said that I landed fell weight on my left elbow, my arm crumpled up and I went out like a light. I had also smashed off the left side of the helmet as my head hit the ground. I woke up in a room that was warm and quiet. I wasn't in pain and I couldn't see out of my left eye. I really thought that I was in the Waiting Room to see Saint Pete, but then a Doctor came in and spoiled the scene. "How do you feel?" he asked. "OK, I suppose" I said. "I can't see out of my left eye though". "That's because we bandaged your head up", he said. "You've made a bit of a mess of your arm and you need to go to Theatre". I was puzzled for a second, then I realised it must be the left arm that I couldn't see due to the bandages. I looked to the left and my arm was hanging in a sling that was suspended from the curtain rail of the bed. Some surgery, pins, screws and a lot of physio later, I can't turn my left palm out flat if I put my arms out in front of me, it's about 45 degrees to the left instead of 90, but that's the best that they could do for me. If I get out of bed the wrong way and use my left arm, it cracks and it feels as though 50,000 volts have been fed up it - not nice. My eye was fine after I have wore some corrective glasses for a while as I had slightly dislodged the lens in my left eye. it hasn't stopped me riding bikes though. Does anyone else want to share old war wounds?
Don't think this site has the bytes to cover them all. ., Last recce into waking up in a pure white room for me - waking up an thinking i'd labelled the saints with having to put up with me happened at the end of the 90'$, Almost took me out!, Just finished a 16hr. shift in the city ,an was parked up at the end of Tooley St. just a cpla 100 yards 'fore the Tower Bridge turn-off, Remember carefully packing a £13.00 chinese takeaway in my side bag......., Woke up in St. Thomases 3 days later,opened my eyes to see my Mother looking down at me an wondering 1st off what the f..k you doing here?, Apparently i'd been pushed an crushed up against a wall by a drunk driver,he was only doing 'bout 5mph/lights out - but according to about 100 witnesses,i'd just caught him outta the corner of my eye an tryed kissing pavement, Unfortuneatly too late!!, Shattered my right leg where it was resting against the engine bat retaining bokt, broke 3 ribs,2 fingers,shattered jaw/teeth,compound fractureed right arm an also came within an - inditerminate % of a millimetre of loosing my right eye....... (took my lenses out awhile after wake-up/right lense was split down the middle)., Years of physio,braces that made me look like a bit part extra in mad max, ability sometimes to be able to tell changing weather in your joints on occasion, slightly but not too noticeable shortening of right leg an loosing the best paying job I ever had!, Came through it like before,never stopped riding/never will, Would say my eyes are a bit more wide open mind!. .
They never teach young bikers to 'abandon ship', when things are about to turn really ugly, do they? Most bikers get hurt by trying to stay with the machine, bracing for and getting tangled up in the impact. Back in the early '90s, I had a Yamaha V70 (2-stroke again ) and I was going 26 mile trips to Wigan and back every day. I was going through Sale, Salford and up the A6, then turning off near the Reebok Stadium to head into Aspull, where I worked. One winter, it was snowing heavily and the Council had gritted the A6 fine, but the slip roads somehow got missed; I came onto the filter lane, to turn left onto Dicconson Lane to head towards Aspull and the bike suddenly went into a mix of a tail-slide and a tank-slapper, so I kicked the bike away and ended up doing a 'one man luge' event down the filter lane, sliding on my back. When I had stopped, I casually got up, checked the bike over, kick started it again and rode off. The drivers expressions on their faces were priceless!
fly in my eye once... thats it... as for working on bikes.... thats a differnt story, got impaled on an exhaust stud last week.
Believe me, you have never known true panic until you've seen something crawling up the inside of your visor that you can't quite focus on as it's so close to your eyes, then you've realised that it's a wasp!
that happened to my mate actually, he was on the back of my bike and the wasp landed on the padding bit then crawled across his glasses
