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******fun part******
So I'm going I'm guessing about 55-60 around a VERY tight turn, feeling good about it, and the bike just slips off. I hear things scraping and I'm just like ahhh shit, I'm sideways on the bike. Eventuallly it occurs to me that I have got to fucking let go. I let go and I see the bike going past me and I'm just like ahhhh shit, I knew I was going to do this. I have no idea how much I slowed down, perhaps someone else does. But all I knew was I was headed directly towards a tree. I see the tree directly in my path and I hope I just took it like a rag doll, but I might have stiffed up, I don't remember. Not once did my life flash before my eyes or any of that typical shit. I just said 'oh look, it's a tree!' Took it DIRECTLY to the chest, I'm guessing at 20 mph, I would think logically it would have been faster than that, just what it felt like with the adrenaline. (60-20 mph in under 20 ft?).
Eventually I realized how much adrenaline slows down time, allt his thinking occurred in less than about 15 feet of distance.
I'm not even phased, I stand up, look at my bike, feel like 'ah fuck me', feel my fingers starting to hurt, but get up to hail my friend. I hear him coming around the turn, hear his exhaust scrape and am just like 'oh fuck no'. See him finish it and slow down and come to me. He makes some joke about 'finally! sweet!' or something along those lines. I'm just pissed off in general that I binned it, I really don't feel much of any pain at this point, maybe some mild pain in my hand. I was wearing a mesh tex jacket, with doubled up armor, leather gloves, boots, and draggin jeans (kevlar lined jeans).
A couple other bikers ('motorcyclists') stop by to make sure we're alright, yada yada, eventually I hop on the back of my buddy's bike and we head back down. They call up the tow truck and the one guy ben comes by to take a look at me. I'm not feeling anything too much so I'm not sweating it.
My fingers hurt like a bitch, but hey I just hit a tree, that's alright. That's hoenstly the only thing going through my head. Dude I just hit a tree, and only my fingers are hurting, that's awesome, I'm not too bad.
Eventually other things start settling in.
First I try to stand up and my chest hurts REAL bad, as in I fall back down immediately. I knew that would be coming though eventually. (this turns into nothing that I know of now, no xrays though now cause I have no health insurance).
I fall back down, and look back over myself.
(you'll see pictures of the aftermath later).
Alright, my entire right half of my jacket is torn to shreds, that's cool. look at my arm, nothing bad, just some mild scratches and shit, no biggy.
Look at my leg, alright it's torn up. No biggy, looks like it did it's job. Shin is hurting underneath but I'm expecting some mild road rash so I'm not worried.
Guy goes in to get me a bag of ice, I'm sitting there icing my hand for a few minutes, talking the shit with them, not feeling any massive pain, and pretty much feeling alright (other than the busted bike obviously). Find out apparently a cop died down there a couple weeks ago at EXACTLY the same spot where I lost it.
Eventually I look down at my legs.
Uh.... wtf, I have a blood spot forming at my knee, I don't feel any pain there, how the fuck am I bleeding that bad.
Start pulling up my jeans, using the whole int hem to scope it all out. See my shin, REALLY swollen, ok, that sucks. Keep on pulling up. See part of my knee, ok a little road rashed, nothign bad. An inch higher, annnnndd BIG HOLE IN MY KNEE. Eh not big, but a dime sized in width, and probably half an inch deep? I just look at it and i'm like 'wow that can't be good, i'm sure that means i just ripped through something I shouldn't have. But yet I feel no pain.
The resident medic know it all starts pushing it around and shit, seeing what all is wrong. Says there's nothing serious, that I'm lucky.
Pain slowly starts to set in, as they're cleaning it and whatnot. They also mention it doesn't feel like I broke or fractured my fingers at all, cool.
They dress me up, while waiting for the tow truck, and I go over tot he local medical center. With no medical insurance, I just want them to look me over, and do the bare minimum. which turns out being an ER visit, some dressing of wounds, and a few stitches in my knee to close that gaping hole..
Pain's starting to settle in at this point, hurts to move my leg. (this is like HOURS after the accident)
Stop by get something to eat. Eventually the bike gets tot he local mechanic (name's wheeler, this guy is INSANE, so awesome). He fixes it up so it's rideable (again, pictures to be seen later). I have no insurance on the bike either or rather don't really want to make a claim (all plastics it looks like).
From that point on, we ended up taking another pass on the gap (i'm not a puss, took it much slower cause it hurt but I'm not throwing in the towel at this point). came back, took another half pass waiting for the locals to make their weekly sick pass in their sick bikes. Snap some pics, and head back to Pittsburgh (no sleep, bad idea).
Trip back is doing pretty good. Normal aches and pains. Until we get to West Virginia. Holy shit was that the worst experience n my life. My buddy and I were going on about 20 hours of shit without sleep and just a shitty day (me especially). And it's about fucking 50 degrees up there in the damn mountains, probably lower. And we're goinga bout 80 to start off, through a damn mist.
Eventually we started freezing our asses off, like literally we were both hallucinating. I swear my bike just started acting weird, and I was seeing cops. And my buddy thought he was seeing all crazy shit
'DUDE, WHERE'S MY FUCKING BAG?' 'I NEED THAT' 'Dude WHERE IS MY BAG??'
'Hey man, it's on your back'
to which we crack up for about 5 minutes.
Eventually we get through that shit and get to decent weather. But I was done, I was completely out of it, eventually I ended up parking and going to sleep on an office complex's lawn (literally right in front of their complex) for an hour to screw up my system. into thinking it had some sleep. My buddy was pissed about that, but i was done for.
And eventually eventually we all get home, and the pain REALLY starts to set in.
I fall asleep for the first long period of time and wake up basically in tears. Every body part is hurting, this is the worst pain i've ever felt.. There's no advil in the house so I'm screwed. I'm chilling there pissed and in ridiculous amoutn of pain. Eventually go back to sleep.
And after all is said and done I'm at where I am now, 3 days after the accident. Hurting, but with enough tylenol in my system to slow it all down.
And the final count for damage.
Fractured pinky finger (can't do anything to fix that), chipped ring finger (can't do anything to fix that). Something wrong wiuth my shin, hopefully just severely bone bruised. And big hole in my knee. These 4 things I've been told I'll be feeling for the rest of my life. YAY. I won't be able to get full range of motion out of my right hand anymore. my shin and knee wilil probably continually give me problems, etc etc.
my chest i hope there's nothing wrong, and my neck i hope as well.
Am I done riding? fuck no. will I be back to deal's gap? fuck yea. next year
next year with full armor everywhere, full boots, full elatehr suit with armor everywhere, and probably a little more caution in my system.
Hopefully all the longterm effects aren't too bad, it sucks, but it'd never happen anywhere but there, and with anyone else but me, I was a little foolish, but I'm paying for it, literally and figuratively. I really hope the leg pain doesn't turn into something bad for the rest of my life, cause that'd suck.
Same with myf ingers.
pictures to come soon...
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08-26-2006, 12:38 PM
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