Ouch...

Gwyn Oakley said:

The flying isn't the problem - the heavy landing is!

Came off my bike today for 2nd time in 30+ years. Doing about 30-35mph
downhill in a roadworks section and I missed the ramp sign
between two levels of new but temporary surface because there was a 4x4
parked on the path obscuring the ramp sign from view. Lucky there was no
cars following.

Destroyed a nearly new pair of leggings and top, bruises and gravel rash
to left hip, leg, arm and shoulder. Good job I wasn't wwearing a helmet
- might have hit my head if I had been.

Nurse has patched me up and doctor recommended paracetamal for 4 days.

For all you wondering about the important bit - bikes ok apart from
a damaged campag brake lever, it still works but the lever bade is
*badly* scraped and the rubber hood destroyed.

Vin rouge is a fine anesthetic!

Oooohhh that sounds painful, hope you make a fast recovery - roads hurt
quite a bit more than off-roads, im fortunate enough to have never come
off on the road yet!

In message <[email hidden]>

Coyoteboy said:

Gwyn Oakley said:

The flying isn't the problem - the heavy landing is!

Came off my bike today for 2nd time in 30+ years. Doing about 30-35mph
downhill in a roadworks section and I missed the ramp sign
between two levels of new but temporary surface because there was a 4x4
parked on the path obscuring the ramp sign from view. Lucky there was no
cars following.

Destroyed a nearly new pair of leggings and top, bruises and gravel rash
to left hip, leg, arm and shoulder. Good job I wasn't wwearing a helmet
- might have hit my head if I had been.

Nurse has patched me up and doctor recommended paracetamal for 4 days.

For all you wondering about the important bit - bikes ok apart from
a damaged campag brake lever, it still works but the lever bade is
*badly* scraped and the rubber hood destroyed.

Vin rouge is a fine anesthetic!

Oooohhh that sounds painful, hope you make a fast recovery - roads hurt
quite a bit more than off-roads, im fortunate enough to have never come
off on the road yet!

Thanks coyoteboy, the pain is worse now than when it happenned. I WILL
heal. At least thats what I tell myself.

G

--
Gwyn

"Gwyn Oakley" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

The flying isn't the problem - the heavy landing is!

Came off my bike today for 2nd time in 30+ years. Doing about 30-35mph
downhill in a roadworks section and I missed the ramp sign
between two levels of new but temporary surface because there was a 4x4
parked on the path obscuring the ramp sign from view. Lucky there was no
cars following.

Destroyed a nearly new pair of leggings and top, bruises and gravel rash
to left hip, leg, arm and shoulder. Good job I wasn't wwearing a helmet
- might have hit my head if I had been.

Nurse has patched me up and doctor recommended paracetamal for 4 days.

For all you wondering about the important bit - bikes ok apart from
a damaged campag brake lever, it still works but the lever bade is
*badly* scraped and the rubber hood destroyed.

Vin rouge is a fine anesthetic!

Much commiserations, and I join you in the vin rouge. I'm really fairly
confident that I scraped a finger last week, and I'm sure it needs
anaesthetic. Well, I'm sure that something hurts somewhere.

Did you get the number of the vehicle obscuring the warning sign? and have
you reported incident to local police? Anyone stupid enough to park
obscuring a sign deserves, at the very least, to pay for the injury they
have caused. Don't let the [censored] get away with it, after all, if they'd
parked responsibly, you wouldn't have been injured.

Gwyn Oakley said:

Thanks coyoteboy, the pain is worse now than when it happenned. I WILL
heal. At least thats what I tell myself.

It always does. When I was rammed by a car in July, it didn't really
hurt much for the first few hours, but I didn't sleep well for the next
two nights because there was no part of me that I could lie on that
didn't hurt (even though there were no visible bruises on some of the
hurting bits!)

--
Yes, the Reply-To email address is valid.
Oolite-Linux: an Elite tribute: http://oolite-linux.berlios.de

burtthebike said:

"Gwyn Oakley" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Came off my bike today for 2nd time in 30+ years. Doing about 30-35mph
downhill in a roadworks section and I missed the ramp sign
between two levels of new but temporary surface because there was a 4x4
parked on the path obscuring the ramp sign from view. Lucky there was no
cars following.

[Snipped]

Quoted message said:

Did you get the number of the vehicle obscuring the warning sign? and have
you reported incident to local police? Anyone stupid enough to park
obscuring a sign deserves, at the very least, to pay for the injury they
have caused. Don't let the [censored] get away with it, after all, if they'd
parked responsibly, you wouldn't have been injured.

Oh come on, if you're in a set of roadworks on a temporary road surface
then it's surely not beyond the wit of man to consider that there might be the
off raised manhole cover or ramp between levels? Particularly if you've
beed riding for 30 years? Might 30-35mph on a bike in those circumstances be
a little injudicious? It's hard to see that the OP doesn't share some or even
most of the blame for his own misfortune here.

I wonder how much sympathy would be shown for a motorist driving a car in
the same circumstances? Of course it's have to be a pretty big ramp for
the driver to fall out of the car :-)

Ren

Rendolf Arbitier said:

burtthebike said:

"Gwyn Oakley" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Came off my bike today for 2nd time in 30+ years. Doing about 30-35mph
downhill in a roadworks section and I missed the ramp sign
between two levels of new but temporary surface because there was a 4x4
parked on the path obscuring the ramp sign from view. Lucky there was no
cars following.

[Snipped]

Quoted message said:

Did you get the number of the vehicle obscuring the warning sign? and have
you reported incident to local police? Anyone stupid enough to park
obscuring a sign deserves, at the very least, to pay for the injury they
have caused. Don't let the [censored] get away with it, after all, if they'd
parked responsibly, you wouldn't have been injured.

Oh come on, if you're in a set of roadworks on a temporary road surface
then it's surely not beyond the wit of man to consider that there might be the
off raised manhole cover or ramp between levels? Particularly if you've
beed riding for 30 years? Might 30-35mph on a bike in those circumstances be
a little injudicious? It's hard to see that the OP doesn't share some or even
most of the blame for his own misfortune here.

I wonder how much sympathy would be shown for a motorist driving a car in
the same circumstances? Of course it's have to be a pretty big ramp for
the driver to fall out of the car :-)

Ren

Must admit I'd blame the cyclist as much as the parker 🙂 But we all
make mistakes. Incidentally I have smashed an alloy wheel (car) on a
ramp that was signed but was obscured by cones, but then I should have
been going a little slower over a de-surfaced road, so I dont blame the
cone placer!

On 28 Sep,

Dylan Smith said:

It always does. When I was rammed by a car in July, it didn't really
hurt much for the first few hours, but I didn't sleep well for the next
two nights because there was no part of me that I could lie on that
didn't hurt (even though there were no visible bruises on some of the
hurting bits!)

Last time I made rapid contact with the ground (high speed walking -- parcel
tie lying flat, caught round other foot when troden on), as soon as I got
home I rubbed in Iboprofen gel on all the hurty spots. I was suprisingly fine
the next day, apart from my elbow, which didn't hurt at the time, but did
(with big bruise) for the next few days. I recommend the pracice (Ibuprofen
gel, not standing on parcel ties!)

--
BD
Change lycos to yahoo to reply

On Sep 27, 8:28 pm, Gwyn Oakley <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

The flying isn't the problem - the heavy landing is!

Came off my bike today for 2nd time in 30+ years. Doing about 30-35mph
downhill in a roadworks section and I missed the ramp sign
between two levels of new but temporary surface because there was a 4x4
parked on the path obscuring the ramp sign from view. Lucky there was no
cars following.

Destroyed a nearly new pair of leggings and top, bruises and gravel rash
to left hip, leg, arm and shoulder. Good job I wasn't wwearing a helmet
- might have hit my head if I had been.

Nurse has patched me up and doctor recommended paracetamal for 4 days.

For all you wondering about the important bit - bikes ok apart from
a damaged campag brake lever, it still works but the lever bade is
*badly* scraped and the rubber hood destroyed.

Vin rouge is a fine anesthetic!

--
Gwyn

Ouchee! Hope you get well soon. I'm also nursing a little road rash
after a spectacular fall off my skates. The worse thing about it is
the reek from the healing wound when you use high tech healing
plasters.

In message <[email hidden]>

Rendolf Arbitier said:

burtthebike said:

"Gwyn Oakley" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Came off my bike today for 2nd time in 30+ years. Doing about 30-35mph
downhill in a roadworks section and I missed the ramp sign
between two levels of new but temporary surface because there was a 4x4
parked on the path obscuring the ramp sign from view. Lucky there was no
cars following.

[Snipped]

Quoted message said:

Did you get the number of the vehicle obscuring the warning sign? and have
you reported incident to local police? Anyone stupid enough to park
obscuring a sign deserves, at the very least, to pay for the injury they
have caused. Don't let the [censored] get away with it, after all, if they'd
parked responsibly, you wouldn't have been injured.

Oh come on, if you're in a set of roadworks on a temporary road surface
then it's surely not beyond the wit of man to consider that there might be the
off raised manhole cover or ramp between levels?

Yep there were any number of raised manholes. All clearly visible and
easily avoided. There were also several other ramps between new and old
road sections, all very obvious. What was different with the ramp that
caught me out was that it was between two levels of new "temporary"
surface, only on the downhill side off the road, and with a relatively
long ramp, probably about the wheelbase of a bike. This was on an
otherwise "smooth" section of major roadworks lasting about 2 miles. The
other feature was that at the accident spot there was a side road and I
think I was checking for cars coming out of this which probably
contributed to me not seeing the hazard.

Had I spotted the ramp in time there would have been no problem
traversing at the speed I was doing, it was the unexpected drop that
jerked my hands from the bars and caused me to loose control.

Quoted message said:

Particularly if you've beed riding for 30 years?

Ah yes but thats when complacency comes in...

Quoted message said:

Might 30-35mph on a bike in those circumstances be a little
injudicious? It's hard to see that the OP doesn't share some or even
most of the blame for his own misfortune here.

Oh I agree, I share the blame. However the road manglers obviously felt
it necessary to place a warning sign and so with this obscured the
hazard to road users is increased. Had the warning sign not been
obscured there is evry chance I would have spotted the ramp and acted
accordingly.

Quoted message said:

I wonder how much sympathy would be shown for a motorist driving a car in
the same circumstances? Of course it's have to be a pretty big ramp for
the driver to fall out of the car :-)

Oh I blame the cars for everything. If it wasn't for more and more
people wanting to drive further and faster on roads given over to the
might of the motor vehicle then the roads would not be improved [1]
causing a vicious circle of increasing car travel.

[1] I use the word improved in its broadest possible sense!

--
Gwyn

In message <[email hidden]>

burtthebike said:

"Gwyn Oakley" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

The flying isn't the problem - the heavy landing is!

Came off my bike today for 2nd time in 30+ years. Doing about 30-35mph
downhill in a roadworks section and I missed the ramp sign
between two levels of new but temporary surface because there was a 4x4
parked on the path obscuring the ramp sign from view. Lucky there was no
cars following.

Destroyed a nearly new pair of leggings and top, bruises and gravel rash
to left hip, leg, arm and shoulder. Good job I wasn't wwearing a helmet
- might have hit my head if I had been.

Nurse has patched me up and doctor recommended paracetamal for 4 days.

For all you wondering about the important bit - bikes ok apart from
a damaged campag brake lever, it still works but the lever bade is
*badly* scraped and the rubber hood destroyed.

Vin rouge is a fine anesthetic!

Much commiserations, and I join you in the vin rouge. I'm really fairly
confident that I scraped a finger last week, and I'm sure it needs
anaesthetic. Well, I'm sure that something hurts somewhere.

Yes a jolly pleasant bottle of 2004 Cabalie was consumed.

Quoted message said:

Did you get the number of the vehicle obscuring the warning sign? and have
you reported incident to local police? Anyone stupid enough to park
obscuring a sign deserves, at the very least, to pay for the injury they
have caused. Don't let the [censored] get away with it, after all, if they'd
parked responsibly, you wouldn't have been injured.

To be honest my thoughts were more concerned with limping home.

Quoted message said:

--
Gwyn

in message <[email hidden]>, Gwyn Oakley

(') said:

Nurse has patched me up and doctor recommended paracetamal for 4 days.

For all you wondering about the important bit - bikes ok apart from
a damaged campag brake lever, it still works but the lever bade is
*badly* scraped

Ouch! Poor you. No wonder you need paracetamol...

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

Morning had broken, and I found when I looked that we had run out
of copper roove nails.

in message <[email hidden]>, Rendolf Arbitier

(') said:

burtthebike said:

"Gwyn Oakley" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Came off my bike today for 2nd time in 30+ years. Doing about 30-35mph
downhill in a roadworks section and I missed the ramp sign
between two levels of new but temporary surface because there was a 4x4
parked on the path obscuring the ramp sign from view. Lucky there was
no cars following.

[Snipped]

Quoted message said:

Did you get the number of the vehicle obscuring the warning sign? and
have
you reported incident to local police? Anyone stupid enough to park
obscuring a sign deserves, at the very least, to pay for the injury they
have caused. Don't let the [censored] get away with it, after all, if
they'd parked responsibly, you wouldn't have been injured.

Oh come on, if you're in a set of roadworks on a temporary road surface
then it's surely not beyond the wit of man to consider that there might
be the
off raised manhole cover or ramp between levels? Particularly if you've
beed riding for 30 years? Might 30-35mph on a bike in those
circumstances be
a little injudicious?

Don't be silly.

Quoted message said:

It's hard to see that the OP doesn't share some or
even most of the blame for his own misfortune here.

Obviously he does, but life is for living.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/
;; Drivers in the UK kill more people every single year than
;; Al Qaeda have ever killed worldwide in any single year.

In article <[email hidden]>, Gwyn Oakley
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

For all you wondering about the important bit - bikes ok apart from
a damaged campag brake lever, it still works but the lever bade is
*badly* scraped and the rubber hood destroyed.

AIUI Campag spares are readily available at a reasonable price, so good
choice of kit. :-)

In article <[email hidden]>, Gwyn Oakley
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

Had I spotted the ramp in time there would have been no problem
traversing at the speed I was doing, it was the unexpected drop that
jerked my hands from the bars and caused me to loose control.

A drop? I was assuming it was a short ramp /up/ that threw you. I
wonder why this sort of thing isn't routinely marked with white paint,
like those raised pedestrian crossing things - it really wouldn't take
much effort and would make them a lot more obvious.

Rob Morley said:

In article <[email hidden]>, Gwyn Oakley
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

Had I spotted the ramp in time there would have been no problem
traversing at the speed I was doing, it was the unexpected drop that
jerked my hands from the bars and caused me to loose control.

A drop? I was assuming it was a short ramp /up/ that threw you. I
wonder why this sort of thing isn't routinely marked with white paint,

Because it's temporary. Because the area is plastered with signs and
indications that it's a temporary road surface and all road users
should be taking care.

Your solution would seem to require a road-markings crew on permanent
attendance at every set of roadworks. Any roadworks will double in
duration because every time you change traffic routing you'll need to
redo the markings, then when traffic changes again burn off the last
set of markings to put down the new set.

You'll need more total road closures (as opposed to contraflows and
single-lane working) because you won't be able to run traffic on
planed surfaces, since the new course won't bond to the paint you'd
need, so you can't run traffic once you've planed. So you'll either
need to do a separate complete pass for each lane (much greater
duration, very much greater cost, but it is done for motorways) or
close the road entirely for the duration of all resurfacing (again,
sometimes done, for things like motorway sliproads).

Quoted message said:

it really wouldn't take much effort and would make them a lot more
obvious.

Not much effort?

regards, Ian SMith
--
|\ /| no .sig
|o o|
|/ \|

In article <[email hidden]>, Ian Smith
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

Rob Morley said:

In article <[email hidden]>, Gwyn Oakley
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

Had I spotted the ramp in time there would have been no problem
traversing at the speed I was doing, it was the unexpected drop that
jerked my hands from the bars and caused me to loose control.

A drop? I was assuming it was a short ramp /up/ that threw you. I
wonder why this sort of thing isn't routinely marked with white paint,

Because it's temporary. Because the area is plastered with signs and
indications that it's a temporary road surface and all road users
should be taking care.

Your solution would seem to require a road-markings crew on permanent
attendance at every set of roadworks. Any roadworks will double in
duration because every time you change traffic routing you'll need to
redo the markings, then when traffic changes again burn off the last
set of markings to put down the new set.

You'll need more total road closures (as opposed to contraflows and
single-lane working) because you won't be able to run traffic on
planed surfaces, since the new course won't bond to the paint you'd
need, so you can't run traffic once you've planed. So you'll either
need to do a separate complete pass for each lane (much greater
duration, very much greater cost, but it is done for motorways) or
close the road entirely for the duration of all resurfacing (again,
sometimes done, for things like motorway sliproads).

Quoted message said:

it really wouldn't take much effort and would make them a lot more
obvious.

Not much effort?

A bloke with a big aerosol can - he'd only need to paint the ramped area
with a few lines like they do on other raised areas. Don't they scrape
the temporary ramp off before laying down the new surface anyway?

Rob Morley said:

In article <[email hidden]>, Ian Smith
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

Not much effort?

A bloke with a big aerosol can - he'd only need to paint the ramped
area with a few lines like they do on other raised areas. Don't
they scrape the temporary ramp off before laying down the new
surface anyway?

In my experience, aerosol paint road markings last about one
rush-hour. If you want markings to stay put you need thermoplastic
gloop.

regards, Ian SMith
--
|\ /| no .sig
|o o|
|/ \|

In article <[email hidden]>, Ian Smith
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

Rob Morley said:

In article <[email hidden]>, Ian Smith
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

Not much effort?

A bloke with a big aerosol can - he'd only need to paint the ramped
area with a few lines like they do on other raised areas. Don't
they scrape the temporary ramp off before laying down the new
surface anyway?

In my experience, aerosol paint road markings last about one
rush-hour.

I'd have thought that most of the vehicles would follow the same sort of
path, and a fair bit of the paint would survive for a few days.