So I have been planning a couple days of some scouting with a buddy up in the hills. Been all excited and at the same time telling myself I need to behave and not get hurt. Too many things going on to be off my feet. So normal old day leaving work. Stop at the intersection right in front of my fire house. Look left, right and then roll out into a right turn......BAM! I am on the ground with my right foot sucked up under my bike and pannier. Ok so I do the clutch thing and stop the bike. I thought I shut it down... then had to try and wrestle my way out from under it. Roll over quick systems check seems to be ok let's stand up and....uh oh...."Jello foot" This ain't good. Meanwhile my GS is doing a lovely piroette on the right crash bar and pannier about a foot from my head...Let's see can't stand up need to stop this beast before it clobbers me...so let's crawl over to the bike and hit the kill switch. Whew excitement over. Now for the really bad part...calling over my crew to take me in my departments own aid unit to the hospital so I can see how bad my foot is busted. Well needless to say it was broke. Fibia fracture right at the ankle. Not sure on surgery till I can see the Ortho guy tomorrow, but I am hoping not. It looks like a spiral fracture right at the head so I am prepared for the worst. New jewelery for my foot that only me and the Doc will get to see. Moral of the story..... Watch out for the crosswalk stripes and manhole covers on these cool fall mornings. Best I can figure I hit the crosswalk stripe with the rear and maybe a manhole cover with the front. I was on the ground so fast I think both ends had to have washed out. The bike is just fine. Couple scuffs on the pannier and the crash bar of course. Thanks BMW for building such a tough bike...oh and I will have to do some hard left handers to balance out the wear on the tires. So I am figuring about a week or so of being cooped up at home then I can at least go back to the station for some limited duty work. Otherwise I am going to go NUTS. Wife and kids are already dreading this. They are shopping for baby sitters so they can escape me once I start getting grumpy.
About 2 hours after Wife would not let me try and talk the Doc into wrapping it up really good so I could ride home. I have ABS and interlinked brakes I don't really need to use my right foot much.
Ortho doc says I get a plate. Cruising around in a walking cast till Friday. Good news is I seem to have put it back into place by accident this morning. The x-ray got me out the door with just a walking cast and see you in 6 weeks. Then the surgeon looked at it and called me back in to schedule the surgery. Oh well I want it fixed right need to be back on the bike ASAP.
Crosswalk stripes are treacherous. Not only is the paint slick but they collect an oil film in dry weather. Dew or the first few minutes of light rain make them unbelievable. I crashed a bicycle on one; my first indication of a problem was when my hip, head, and shoulder hit the pavement. It was so quick there was no sensation of sliding, except of course spandex on the street.
Yeah the sad thing is I know all that and constantly tell my students that. Funny how a bit of inattention and it drives the point home. Really bad timing for me though. I did not need to be laid up like this right now. My part-time job is just getting going for the season and my boss is one short of drivers already. Now he is two down.
fitenfyr<SCRIPT type=text/javascript> vbmenu_register("postmenu_11225747", true); </SCRIPT> Hope the leg is healing OK. Last year I broke 5 bones in my tibia and right ankle. The Orthopod is an amatuer photographer and I am a professional one. He took a lot of still photos of the operation and the rods and screws he put in my leg. I will show them to you if you show me yours. Just a joke. Last week I hit a deer going 70 MPh and the epic starts over. High ankle sprain, 5 cracked ribs, punctured elbow and broken shoulder plus lots of road rash. This accident although one-in-a-million has shaken me and I will weigh pretty darn well my riding future. BTW, I am 71 years smart.
"Look left, right and then roll out into a right turn......BAM! I am on the ground with my right foot sucked up under my bike and pannier." Hi Jason: Long time lurker, first time post. I was wondering what your thoughts are on the use of hard cases on the bike? I have read different opinions on this and based on what you shared above, I'm wondering if this might be an example of how hard cases can trap the leg or foot in a crash. I would think the hard cases also provide space between the ground and your body with the bike in a fall. Thanks, Brad
Rapid, Yep I already asked him to take pictures. The wife thinks I am crazy. I will remind him on Friday to snap a couple for the scrapbook. Brad, Funny you bring this up. I have been going over in my mind the "what if's" of the panniers being there. I think it is a 50/50 shot. In this case if the bag had not been there I might have not gotten my foot so hung up under the bike. Looking at my boot we figure my foot was compressed between the bike and the road then pulled backwards toe down towards the bag and rotated outward sometime during the incident. Only marks on my boot are the outer heel area (chunk missing from the edge of the sole) and some road rash on the big toe area to the inside. Now the flip side is if the bag had not been there then I would have bore the full weight of me and the bike directly onto my right leg. I think I would have seen a lot worse break up high and probably knee damage. It wouldn't have surprised me if I came away with a broken Femur out of that scenario. So I think the reality of it is hard case or not a crash is going to be bad. I think in the future I am going to keep riding with my bags. However I am going to invest in a pair of the BMW G2 boots or something similar. I think had I been wearing a very rugged motocross type boot I probably wouldn't have broken anything.
"However I am going to invest in a pair of the BMW G2 boots or something similar" What kind of boot/shoes were you wearing when you tipped over?
Not only that, when they do the new reflective ones, for the first week or so, they shed thousands and thousands of glass bead, which act like little ball bearings. I actually have come upon little piles of glass bead on the road where the people applying them have tried to sweep up the excess . . . unsuccessfully, I may add. :eek1
Can't tell what size you might wear from that deformed foot in your photo, but I do have a pair of GS 1 boots I'm looking to get rid of: size 43. Only basic difference between these and the GS 2 is the color. Shameless pimp, I know; but if you're interested let me know. Your ankle will be about as protected as a pair of ski boots. Hope you heal quick. I hate turning across that shit, any paint for that matter, glass bead filled or not. I've never hit with speed, but in my few experiences of low speed dumps my side cases have helped (I think) save other areas of my bike and have (I'm fairly sure) allowed me space to get my foot out as the bike was hitting the ground. Just thought I'd throw that out there.
Same thing happened to me a little over a year ago; just after sunset + right turn + slightly wet road + crosswalk stripe = me on the pavement watching my bike slide up the road in front of me shooting pretty and expensive sparks. I broke my left thumb. I managed to pick the bike up and ride it home (about 5 min). I could not pull the clutch anymore when I pulled in the driveway, I just had to stall it.
I am a size 13. I think that is a Euro 48 if I recall. So I don't think those will work. It is going to be awhile before I go boot shopping. Yeah the bag and I have a love hate relationship on this one. I think it helped and I think it hurt. Just not sure which was better at this point. These are not the reflective paint type which makes it worse they are the thick rubber kind that actually stick up a 1/8th inch or so above the ground. They are like walking on a rubber RV roof if you have ever done that. Not real fun. I usually dodge them guess I was not on my game this time.
Wow digging through some old threads of mine and I just realized I never answered this... I was wearing a ICON Field Armor boots. Pretty rugged boot, but the ankle has a bit too much flex I think. I went out and bought a pair of Alpenstar Tech 3's that will be my boot of choice from now on. I am back on the bike as of middle of December. Started back to work on the middle of January (got a not so good infection on Christmas day that cost me another 2 weeks off my feet). Back to "normal" now or at least what I think normal will be from now on. I lost some mobility in my ankle, but nothing I can't live with and it will probably get a little better down the road. Last visit with the doc he noted some calcification on my ligaments which he said is to be expected and may go away or maybe not. Either way he did a great job and I am happy to be doing well.
Good to hear you're back in the saddle..... again. Just in time for the beginning of the good riding season.