One Nasty Fall or Revenge of the Trike

My children, a couple of Christmases ago, gave me a "walker" as a gift after they realized I was serious about getting into cycling. I enlarged the note that was attached to the walker. We all had a good laugh... until now...

I have been riding the new bike (two-wheeler) for the past couple of weeks without incident. I did finally get new pedals on it that would allow me to use my regular bike shoes (with clips) that I have been using on my trike. So just last Thursday I went on our short morning ride with my feet clipped in. I had practiced getting my right foot out quickly and did not have any problems with that (the pedal clips are somewhat loose, which for now I thought would be good). As we came to our second stop, I had my right foot out of the clip and was coming to a stop. At the last moment I lost my balance and went down on my left side. OUCH!! I scraped up bloody just under my left knee and hit my hip pretty hard (very sore). The chain had come off, so I had to put it back on. I got back up and off we rode. That day and Friday I was limping about.

Well, Saturday we decided to go on a longer ride (about 30 miles). I decided to wear my sneakers instead of the bike shoes, which turned out to be fortuitous. We had gone about 13 miles up the Indian Bend Wash bike path and were just crossing over a pedestrian bridge over a small street, with my wife in front, when we encountered a jogger going the same way as us. My wife went to the left around him. I started to follow. Unfortunately, the seams in the concrete bike pathway there are quite large and my front tire got caught in one of those seams. It seem to act like a catapult and shot my bike and me sideways (I was now leaning about 45 degrees to my left) through the air. There was nothing I could do but yell "Look out!" My head and back slammed into the back of the jogger. I then fell straight down on my left hip again! DOUBLE OUCH!!!! Thankfully the jogger was a stout young man and was not hurt. Indeed he and another man jogging right there were most concerned about how I was.

Well, I wasn't too well for a few minutes. I think I actually was knocked out for a second or few before sitting up. When I went down, I had hit my head on the hard sidewalk, cracked my poor left hip again, put a new and worse bloody scrape on my left knee (next to the one I got on Thursday), scraped my arm, and cut my lower leg where it collided with my gears. I also wrenched most of the muscles in my shoulders and neck and lower back. I had been going about 15 miles per hour.

After the Good Samaritan joggers (including the one I fell into) were sure I was "ok", they jogged off. The chain had come off my bike, so I had to put it back on (this is a reoccurring theme with this bike, even when I don't fall off of it). The shifters were not quite right, but after playing with them for a bit, I was able to get them working again. Now my hands were black with grease on top of being sore...

We probably should have called one of my sons and had him come pick us up (or we should have at least walked our bikes over to a hospital which was only a couple blocks away), but instead I insisted that we ride home. IT HURT ALL THE WAY HOME.

I am still bandaged up and will likely forego cycling for a few days. And when I do return to riding, I think I'll start on my old friend, the trike.