I don’t know how many times I’ve ridden down Granville, one of the main bike routes on the northside, and sworn at how bad the potholes were. In fact, they are so bad, I’d never taken my car down the street. When I biked through, I would always slow down and hold on tight.

While heading home from a hot and humid ride on Sunday, I was a little too relaxed on Granville before hitting the really bad section. I was in the far right lane lettings cars pass me. The next thing I know, I was doing an endo over my handlebars and sliding into a parked car. As with most bike crashes, they happen quickly and you put the pieces together afterwards.

I got up swearing knowing that I hit a pothole. I could walk and knew I hadn’t hit by head. I knew that  I had bad road rash and my chest was hurting. At first, I thought I had broken ribs, but noticed my forearm was swelling and hurting. I was afraid I had broken my forearm, so I immediately called Rose to pick me up. Luckily, she was home and I was only about 3 miles away. A few motorists were nice and stopped and asked if I needed help.

I was OK to walk around and grabbed my bike, which had escaped significant damage, except the shifters, and walked across the street to  a church to wait for Rose. While waiting, I couldn’t believe how many morons on I saw on bikes zip but sans helmets on their racing bikes. Some looked at me banged up and could have easily have wiped out themselves. It’s one thing to wipe out at 5 MPH, it’s another thing to wipe out 20 MPH.

Anyway, Rose was wonderful and took me to the Northwestern ER. I immediately got sent inside due to the speed of the crash. Even with a helmet, there is a risk of severe trauma at “high” speeds. Thankfully, I was in decent shape, except that I was sure I had broken something. The staff in the ER was wonderful. Amazingly, my x-rays showed no signs of fractures, so they sent me home in a splint. I had been in severe pain and happy to get hydromorphone and hydrocodone.

I didn’t see the hand MD until today and he thinks that I “just” have a wrist sprain and mallet finger in my pinky. Still sucks, but better than what I had thought. I’m not in that much pain and can actually type with both hands right now. Will be interesting to see how things go over the next few weeks. Won’t be biking outside for a few weeks, but happy this happened at the end of the road season. Interestingly, I feel more sore from the crash like you would after a car crash. Not fun, but any crash you can walk away from can’t be too bad. Here are a few photos.

BTW, I nearly got run over while walking home from the bus stop today. Makes me wonder if we weren’t safer before the wheel was intented. Of course, back then, we might have gotten eaten by sabre tooth tigers. And, they didn’t have X-rays or MRIs…:)

Photo of me in ER…smile thanks to the hydromorphone and Rose being silly.

Where I crashed on Granville, just past Clark. The “smooth” section before all of the potholes.
Too bad you can’t see them from space…yet.