Was it always this dangerous?!? When I was younger, one of my favorite activities was riding my bike. Granted, I never really got to go far with it. I think the furthest my mom let us ride our bikes was to the Beavercreek Store (it was this little store about 2 miles from my house), but every bike ride seemed like an adventure to me!
Recently, I traded in the spin bike at the gym for some good old fashioned regular biking again. Mostly, because I acquired a bike when my friend Charlie moved away and gave me his! This was probably the best and the worst thing to happen to me....because soon came the many bike misadventures that have led me to my home away from home - urgent care.
Now, I remember the occasional spill as a kid on my bike. A few scraped knees and elbows and some minor head injuries, but I never remember near death experiences! The worst I can remember was once coming home from the dentist with my mouth all numb and drooly from a filling and I was riding my bike and hit the breaks to avoid our dog (Ruffles) and I slid in some gravel. The gravel was the little pebbly kind and it embedded into my knee. My mom had to use tweezers to get the gravel bits out. In hindsight, she probably should have taken me to the doctor to get that cleaned up. I still have a little oval scar from that. Again, it was no near death experience.
Now fast forward to my adult bike riding adventures in San Diego....and the craziness begins! I don't know if it's because I'm rusty on the bike or if it's the city streets I'm not used to, but every bike excursion (which is daily) seems to end in some "incident" that is much more than some gravel bits in the knee.
First was the hammer dropping on my head, which really wasn't an issue with my biking skill, and more related to my unfortunate luck. My first couple rides were nice. I remembered what it was like as a kid and the old adage was true "you never forget how to ride a bike." My confidence may have been prematurely high. On about my third bike ride, I ventured a little further out into unknown territory. I wasn't quite comfortable riding on all the streets yet, so I stuck to the sidewalks. I was biking along feeling all happy and then WHAM! It happened so fast, I was laying there a little scraped and stunned, and wasn't really sure what just occurred. Then I looked down at the sidewalk, which was anything but flat...and realized I ran into a very raised portion of the sidewalk and flipped right off my bike. That's when I learned lesson #1 - pay attention to where I'm riding! That crash didn't really send me to urgent care though, I self diagnosed and tended to my own wounds :)
After that I got a little bolder and decided I really should be riding on the streets. That and people were always yelling at me for being on the sidewalk, apparently it is bad bike etiquette. So, I went on a ride to the mall. I actually had done the ride a couple times before, but usually during the week when it was uneventful (not a lot of people on the road) and both times had been via the sidewalk. This time I was riding on the street like I was supposed to, I guess. However, there was some kind of convention going on and there were cars in droves and people everywhere. This one Jeep was creeping up on me as I rode along and clearly was trying to send me the message he did not want me on the road and was going to do what he could to get me off of it. I was feeling really uncomfortable with him approaching me the way he was, so I went to get off the street and back onto the sidewalk. Somehow as I went to go on the sidewalk I managed to line my front tire up parallel to the lip on the driveway I was riding onto and it was just enough to fling me over and slam me onto the concrete, with the bike landing on top of me. As I landed my head hit hard on the concrete, but thankfully I had my helmet on. My elbow was bleeding a little and my leg hurt, but it seemed I had survived with minimal injury...or so I thought. I had been on my way to the movie theater, so I continued since I thought I was ok. As I was sitting watching the movie, my leg was hurting more and more, and I could see it swelling before my eyes. The bike ride home was unbearable. By the time I got home my leg was twice the size it should be and every part of my body hurt. Plus, I was visibly crooked. My right side was actually a few inches forward of my left. When I went to the chiropractor, she told me she had seen people in horrific car accidents that were in better shape. It took some time to heal from that one! Lesson #2 - approach sidewalks head on or stay off entirely!
I could write an entire novel about the incidents I've had, but in summary I've had a bird fly in my face and cause me to crash, I've hit a tree limb that knocked me right off the bike, I've passed out on the bike and rode right into a building, I got my jacket (tied around my waste) caught in the tire and flung off the rear of the bike, I've been hit by a car, I hit a car.....and those are the highlights of about the first month of biking.
I think the most embarrassing of the incidents was riding into a persons car door. I was riding along 6th street heading into Hillcrest and I was riding on the street, because that section of sidewalk is too small to handle bicyclist and pedestrians. I had always kind of feared someone might open their door in my path, but I hadn't seen it happen to anyone else, so I figured I was safe. The problem is that the street is fairly narrow, so as a rider you try to stay pretty close to the parked cars so you are not impeding traffic, but then that puts you at risk if someone does happen to open their door and not see you you coming. That's what happened to me! That section of road is actually downhill, so I was going a pretty decent speed. I always look to see if there are break lights or any signs someone may have just parked, and I didn't observe that in this case. I think the guy had been sitting in his car for a bit. Anyway, as I approached the door opened and I was right in the path to hit it and couldn't swerve out because there was a oncoming car right along my side that would have hit me if I swerved. So, I ended up slamming right into the guys car door. I actually didn't really get that hurt. Yes, I did crash the bike, but I think I had some magic fairy dust that day, because I managed to land well...that never happens! I thought the guy would be concerned about me, but he was just really pissed. It wasn't my fault though, that is a designated bike area and he should have been looking! At leas that's what the cop said :) Lesson #3 - keep my distance from parked cars!
Until recently, the only accident that caused me severe injury was the "curb" incident. However, in true Debbie fashion, I had to outdo myself and go for the gold. The other night I was riding home from a long ride and I was on the street not the sidewalk. There were cars parked all along me on the right side and then on the other side of the cars was sidewalk, so I didn't have visibility really to what was happening on the sidewalk side of things. As I biked along, all of a sudden this other bike came out of nowhere in between two cars coming off the sidewalk and jumping out in front of me cutting me off. I had no time to divert and crashed right into him. I landed in such an odd way (of course!) that my leg actually landed on the pedal of his bicycle and the pedal embedded itself into my upper leg. It was in there so deep, everyone said not to even try to pull it out, because I could start bleeding out. It hurt so bad! One of the bystanders that saw what happened called the police and the EMT's. They had to pry the bike pedal out of my leg and then they wrapped my leg up and I went to urgent care. I had to get stitches, about 15 of them (not so bad). Of course, being as stubborn as I am, I didn't listen to the doctors orders of not riding my bike for at least a week or two and went out the very next day. I popped a stitch...oops! Although, I think it was a good thing, because after they fixed me back up and I went home my wound was throbbing and burning, which I didn't think was normal. I returned to urgent care (my 3rd visit in 3 days...a record!) and found out that a piece of the bike pedal had actually broken off in my leg and the doctors stitched over it. So, maybe popping the stitch was the best thing I could have done :) Lesson #4 - be a defensive rider!
So, needless to say, it has been very adventurous on the bike thus far, and I've only had it for about 4 months or less. Yes, all these things happened in 4 months!! Nothing keeps me from getting right back in the saddle though. I do have trauma every time I get on the bike, I see visions of me crashing, I fear doors opening, and now I'm always looking in all directions just waiting for that random pop-out...which makes me lose my concentration and crash anyway. Despite the trauma, there is no greater feeling than coasting down a long hill with the wind in my face or pushing myself to get up a steep hill and feeling very accomplished when I get to the top. I love my bike and even though it has caused me pain and suffering, I will never abandon it!
I am hoping to enhance it soon with a bell, basket, and side view mirrors! It'll be very "special".
This post is dedicated to Charlie, for whom I owe all my many bike adventures, and without whom I would have never become the mayor of Kaiser Vandever Medical Offices (urgent care). Thank you, Charlie!
Happy riding!
Random Acts of Debbie asks that you take a moment and comment, good or bad, I welcome it all!
