As easy as falling off a …Bike?

You would think that I was done with bike crashes. The last major bike crash I remember was the day before second grade. I’ve crashed while rolling down a hill in my wagon, but I haven’t had a fall-off-the-bike, skin-up-your-hand-and-knee, tear-your-pants crash in a LONG time. The picture is what I did to my pants (luckily, my oldest pair I have here).

I was riding back from lunch at The Cove, and had purchased a bottled juice. I finished it, and filled it up with water. I was riding back witht he bottle in one hand, and just resting on the handlebar, when I encountered the speed bumps. Unfortunately, because of the bottle, I didn’t have a very good grip, and just had to hit the bumps straight on. Because one hand was pushing on the handlebars a lot harder than the other, when I hit, the wheel turned. and I put my foot down. I was still going too fast to stop, and my foot wasn’t in the position to brace myself, so I fell over, skinning my right hand on the pavement, and totally ripping out the right knee of my pants. I skinned up my knee pretty bad, but my hand was surprisingly uninjured, considering it slid a few feet along the pavement. Just a few cuts. This took place behing Mehling, about 100 yards from the back door of Villa. I walked back, put my bike away, and wandered upstairs, where I examined the extent of the injuries. I cleaned up as best I could, then got some Hydrogen Peroxide and gauze from the First-Aid Kit at the front desk. I had saved the strechy bandage from the blood drive, so that’s the green thing visible through the hole in the jeans. I also managed to scrape my elbow through the sleeve of my fleece sweater, but didn’t hurt the sweater.

The lesson: Use two hands to ride your bike, and slow down before you get to the speed bumps.

One thought on “As easy as falling off a …Bike?

  1. Sound advice, my friend. I usually have to carry bottles with two fingers while I’m riding so I can have most of my hand on the handlebar. The poor fingers get a little sore if I’m riding for any length of time, though.

    Glad you’re okay. Nifty bandage.

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