After the crash!

Hey, glad to hear you're ok!

I think it's hard for any of us to make recommendations about your bike without actually inspecting it. I'd advise taking it to the best mechanic in your area and have him scrutinize it.

If he finds anything, document it, and have it ready to show the claims adjustor.

I don't know the correct answer, but I'll chime in anyway 🙂.

It's probably best to play it safe. Have a wrench check it out and if it even seems like something is wrong, replace it. The guy was at fault, make him pay for his stupidity.

-Matt

Yeah, I'm fine...just a little hard to take deep breaths right now. I think you're right, the adjustor isn't going to take my word for it and I might miss something that a more experienced bike mechanic would see. I'll run it in on Monday.

You know the worst thing about all of this is that the weather is perfect and I'm sidelined. They ought to give me a rental bike until mine is fixed!

glennjd said:

You know the worst thing about all of this is that the weather is perfect and I'm sidelined. They ought to give me a rental bike until mine is fixed!

Where do you live that the weather is perfect? It's been terrible here in Washington DC for the past couple days. Pouring rain since Friday morning. We are finally getting a break today, but it's supposed to rain tomorrow and last I heard, every day this week.

-Matt

Glad you are still standing.

1. have a pro check out the bike. he will find things which you will miss.

2. if your head hit anything, get a new helmut also. they are built for only 1 crash.

3. get off the pain killers as fast as you think you can. after i crashed, I found they did a real number both on my brain and on my gut.

glennjd said:

:eek: Re: Crash Victim

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I don't know if this is the best place to post this question, but I need some advice from all you crash experts. My 23 year run of cycling without any accidents came to an abrupt end last night. A suburban made an illegal left hand turn from the opposite direction and didn't see me. I slammed into his mirror, put a two foot dent in the door, and shattered the bug deflector. I don't know how I managed to wind up standing when it was all over, but man was it hard to breathe. Today, I'm feeling better (thanks to loritab). No broken bones, just some very painful bruised ribs. The policeman kept saying, "I can't belive the damage you did to that car."

In the split second before impact, I managed to get the front wheel of my bike turned so that it wasn't a direct head on on the front wheel. My rear rim has a slight hop in it from hitting the curb and my front wheel looks O.K. except for needing some slight truing. I'm running Zipp carbon fiber hubs in a Mavic CXP30. I love these wheels, they've been my best friends for thousands of miles, but I'm concerned about what the crash may have done that I can't see. What my best course of action? I really think the wheels should be retired. I just don't want to hit 50mph on the mountain and have a stress fracture take me out. Should I be worried about this? Also, the front fork doesn't look like its been bent, but should I press for a replacement. I'll be talking to the calim adjustor on Monday.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Sore and lucky in SLC

mattjf said:

Where do you live that the weather is perfect? It's been terrible here in Washington DC for the past couple days. Pouring rain since Friday morning. We are finally getting a break today, but it's supposed to rain tomorrow and last I heard, every day this week.

-Matt

Right here in sunny Salt Lake City, Utah. Right now it's 48 degrees and clear skies with a high of 68 today. It sure is hard to stay off the bike on a day like today.

-Jim

li rider said:

Glad you are still standing.

1. have a pro check out the bike. he will find things which you will miss.

2. if your head hit anything, get a new helmut also. they are built for only 1 crash.

3. get off the pain killers as fast as you think you can. after i crashed, I found they did a real number both on my brain and on my gut.

I just wanted everyone to know what good advice this was. I had a wrench check it out and the a frame was bent 10mm. There was also some slight elogation of the spoke channel on three spokes on the front rim. The insurance company totaled it and I'm getting a brand new bike. I've got a picture of it in my wallet to speed the healing process.

-Jim

li rider said:

Glad you are still standing.
...

3. get off the pain killers as fast as you think you can. after i crashed, I found they did a real number both on my brain and on my gut.

I'll second that! Those things are nasty. I was taking vicodin and darvocet most recently. Contolled the pain mostly, but like li rider experienced, the side effects were not fun. When you do stop (if you haven't already), I'd recommend tapering off rather than cold turkey. I stopped my vicodin cycle cold turkey twice - a few days after my injury, and then a few days after my surgery a week later - and both times I experienced what must have been some sort of withdrawal. I had the most awful headaches and just felt bad in every way.

friedmikey said:

I'll second that! Those things are nasty. I was taking vicodin and darvocet most recently. Contolled the pain mostly, but like li rider experienced, the side effects were not fun. When you do stop (if you haven't already), I'd recommend tapering off rather than cold turkey. I stopped my vicodin cycle cold turkey twice - a few days after my injury, and then a few days after my surgery a week later - and both times I experienced what must have been some sort of withdrawal. I had the most awful headaches and just felt bad in every way.

Definitely need to take it slow! I'm six days out from the crash. I went off cold turkey yesterday and it felt like the left side of my chest was in a vise. I'm feeling better today, but I wouldn't recommend doing the cold turkey route. I'm still doing 800 mg 2x pd of ibuprophin. I've got an appt. with my doctor today. I sure hope I can get back on and ride before winter closes in.

-Jim

Jim: I was on vicodin and percoset. i cut back to only 1 pill per day and 1 dose before I went to sleep, then went to advil only for the day and 1 dose to sleep, then to nothing, all in about 1 week. But I didn't strart to "withdraw" until about a week or 10 days post-crash. By then, I could not deal with talking on the phone and forgetting who I was talking to.

enjoy shopping for the new bike. but don't rub in your good weather -- It hasn't stopped raining here since Friday.

glennjd said:

Definitely need to take it slow! I'm six days out from the crash. I went off cold turkey yesterday and it felt like the left side of my chest was in a vise. I'm feeling better today, but I wouldn't recommend doing the cold turkey route. I'm still doing 800 mg 2x pd of ibuprophin. I've got an appt. with my doctor today. I sure hope I can get back on and ride before winter closes in.

-Jim

li rider said:

Jim: I was on vicodin and percoset. i cut back to only 1 pill per day and 1 dose before I went to sleep, then went to advil only for the day and 1 dose to sleep, then to nothing, all in about 1 week. But I didn't strart to "withdraw" until about a week or 10 days post-crash. By then, I could not deal with talking on the phone and forgetting who I was talking to.

enjoy shopping for the new bike. but don't rub in your good weather -- It hasn't stopped raining here since Friday.

Hey, I may have good weather, but I can't even think about riding yet. On Wednesday I had a big setback. I sneezed at work and found myself on the floor unable to breathe. The pain level was incredible...almost like right after the crash. I went back to the doc and he took more x-rays. Nothing is broken, but it sure hurts! It's taken three days to get back to where I was before the big sneeze. I'm not going to do that again. Thanks for the warning about the pain meds. I'm afraid all the warm and sun will be gone by the time I can pedel again.

Jim