Topic: I just wrecked my bike!

[mmtsquid]

HOLY CRAP!
77 CB550K - I ride about 35 miles each way to work and back, most of it interstate.
Was nearly at work, and needed to gas up.  I slowed down, started to turn in to the gas station, and CRASH! Down goes the bike.
apparently, there was some "silt" at the station entrance, and as soon as the tires hit it the bike went down.
The first part of ME to hit the ground was....wait for it.........my head!
Left a nasty gouge in my helmet, but no damage to me whatsoever.
As for the bike - well, nothing major.  Broke off the right rear turn signal, scuffed the end of the grips, scuffed the mirror.
NO damage to paint or anything else on the bike - thank goodness!
I was doing MAYBE 5 MPH when this happened - if I hadn't been wearing a helmet, it would have scalped me!

ALWAYS WEAR YOUR HELMET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[cbass*gxc]

Sorry to hear you wrecked it but good to hear you are alright and the bike is not messed up too bad. 

[gerhed]

Glad you're O.K.
Have done that myself at very low speed while turning.
--right after first rain in a few days.
--got everything out from under the bike, but my hand !

[bill440cars]

          Man, sorry to heat about that. Like the others, I'm glad you are okay and that your bike wasn't hurt much either. Odd how things like that can slip up on a person and nothing you can do but try to go with it. Sure am glad you had a helmet on too!


                                   Take care, Bill

[heffay]

monumentalsquid... lose the nickname because you are better than that 

thanks for the dose.

[mmtsquid]

Heffay, I darn near cried when I read that!

Actually, the username came from things completely unrelated to motorcycles.
It was a log in from a previous job - mmt, for Meridian Medical Technologies, and squid as I was a sailor back in the day.

But monumentalsquid seems VERY appropriate right now!

[Shenanigans]

1+ for the helmet. Glad it was not serious.

[Johnie]

+++on the helmet.  And +++ that you and your bike are OK.  I was in EMS for 22 years and amazed at how a helmet can protect.  Also saw many bikers that would have been alive if they had it on.  One snap to the head like you had and your riding days could have been over without that helmet.  Good luck to you getting the bike back on the road.

[Klark Kent]

way to be ok man.  it sucks.
but you live and learn and what doesnt kill us gives us cool looking scars.

check the bars for straight and get a new helmet, and i bet you will never take a narrow approach to an edge trap again. 

[DammitDan]

I agree, just another reason to always wear your helmet.  My father was on a bicycle through Memphis trying to videotape a marathon (while riding of course), came up on a curb and slammed on the front brake.  He pinwheeled over the handlebars and hit the edge of the curb with the top of his head with a sickening CRUNCH.  Fortunately he had a helmet on, and besides some stiffness in his neck that went away after a few hours, he was just fine.  The helmet wasn't so fortunate..  It had a nice long curb-edge-sized indentation right in the middle.  I don't even wanna think what would have happened had he not been wearing a helmet!

DO be sure to replace the helmet though, MMT.  They're only made to go down once, and once the shell is compromised it will provide significantly less impact protection in a crash.

[azuredesign]

Sorry to hear it. Get it fixed up and get back on ASAP!!
All best,
Ben

[chrislib]

bummer, glad yer OK, helmets=good!

[mystic_1]

Glad to hear you're ok.  Machines can be fixed.  Brains, not so much.

DO be sure to replace the helmet though, MMT.  They're only made to go down once, and once the shell is compromised it will provide significantly less impact protection in a crash.

+1 to this - retire this one to a place of honor to commemorate it's saving your life, and buy a new one.  Pull the old one out on occasion to show friends, and evangelize about the merits of head protection.

Once again, glad you're ok.

mystic_1

[nickjtc]

Ditto the helmet thing.....it wasn't a beanie, I assume......

Look at this unfortunate occurence as 1) a learning experience and b) an opportunity to get up close and personal with the bike while you do the necessary to make it spanky again.

[754]

So you guys seriously think the helmet actually saved his life or made a huge difference??

Lets see a pic of the helmet , I.am not saying you cant get hurt at that speed but it was 5 mph.

Some of us have gone down at multiples of that speed wlthout a helmet, and survived..

[nickjtc]

Hang on a sec. I feel a helmet discussion coming on. Off to the fridge and pantry.

[mystic_1]

So you guys seriously think the helmet actually saved his life or made a huge difference??

Lets see a pic of the helmet , I.am not saying you cant get hurt at that speed but it was 5 mph.

Some of us have gone down at multiples of that speed wlthout a helmet, and survived..

Maybe, maybe not.  Let me ask this, if you KNEW you were going to go head-first into pavement, at ANY speed, would you want to be wearing a helmet?

mystic_1_who_doesn't_wear_a_helmet_nearly_as_often_as_he_probably_should.

[754]

That may or may not be necessary, however, there has certainly been a lot of conclusions posted, with no evidencve shown..

[754]

I have ridden helmetless in a lot of states, and up here at times.

If I was asked the question is there a possibility I could go down, I would answer yes.

And have I gone down without, the answer would be yes, including a pretty violent highside (ME, not the bike) at at least 20mph..

Do I wear a helmet most of the time, I would have to say yes..

[nickjtc]

Why should a person wear a (full coverage) helmet? Because they have a brain that they wish to protect. If a person chooses not to, that is their choice.

[super pasty white guy]

While in pharmacy school I worked at a rehabilitation hospital.  We had a woman admitted for therapy who had suffered brain damage from hitting her head on the fireplace mantle while standing up.  The right angle with the right surface can totally f you up, I don't care if it's 5mph or not.  I'd rather pad my odds on the side of being able to feed myself.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents.

spwg

[DammitDan]

It doesn't matter your speed when you go down, as you can get severely injured at any speed.  It's all about momentum and bad luck.  Did the helmet save his life in his slow speed crash?  Well if he says he hit head first, then there's a possibility that it did.  It only takes a small amount of force in the wrong place to make you a vegetable or paralyzed for life.  A helmet has a possibility of absorbing some of that force and possibly saving your life.  Just take the story I told about my Dad...  He was going less than 10mph and hit the edge of the curb full-force and head-first.  He would likely be dead of paralyzed if he hadn't been wearing that bicycle helmet.

Of course in my meeting with a ditch at 40mph my cheap modular full-face slipped off my head before I hit the ground, and the worst injury I suffered was a broken nose and an A-C separation.  The helmet may not have been the factor in saving my life, but it at the very least would have kept my nose from being broken.

When you get down to the bottom of it, helmets can help far more than they can hurt.  If you want to take the risk and not wear a helmet be my guest.  It's your life, not mine.

[TwoTired]

So you guys seriously think the helmet actually saved his life or made a huge difference??

Lets see a pic of the helmet , I.am not saying you cant get hurt at that speed but it was 5 mph.

Some of us have gone down at multiples of that speed wlthout a helmet, and survived..

Are you saying your head is harder than most everyone else's?
Have you been tested for brain damage?

A brisk walk is about 3 mph.  What's 5MPH, jogging speed?  Headlong into a brick wall?  ...And, you wouldn't get a concussion?  Maybe if you practiced breaking bricks with your forehead for 5 years....

[dustyc]

Glad you're okay. 

[Hush]

We don't get the choice here in New Zealand, caught without helmet the fine is probably $200 and with the idiots we share the road with why would anyone not put on a lid?
My most damaging prang happend at scooting speed, you know that strange occurance when you and a dozen mates on bikes are at the lights and you want to drift forward to chat to another rider.
Just as I skated forwards on my boot toes, a total loser came gunning his bike in from behind and hit me like a set of bowling alley skittles.
Knocked me into a couple of mates who weren't expecting it, two dropped their bikes and bend H bars, my rear chrome fender folded under and the tail light was wrecked, girlfriend ended up under long chrome pipes and melted her pantyhose onto her legs.
All this at under 5mph!
Speed might kill but the idiots amongst us will probably knock more of us off in the long run.