I have learned a painful lesson today...

[K-Star]

So, I was gonna go to my art class, and since there was only ten minutes left to get there I grabbed my Razor scooter in order to make the trip a little faster. I stepped outside and saw that the sidewalk was still wet from rain, but I didn't think that would affect my scooter's performance at all. So I flip it open and step on, then push off a bit to get going.

I start going down the sloping sidewalk that leads from my dorm towards the power plant. Usually, I keep my kicking foot on the brake as I go downhill so I can slow down enough to dismount before I hit the street. Well... the brake didn't work. Probably cuz the rear wheel was wet or something. I couldn't slow down at all. Rather than risking crashing into the street at full speed and possibly being hit by a car or something, I dismounted right there, halfway down the hill. Momentum carried me forward a few steps before I fell over and faceplanted on the sidewalk.

(images shall remain linkified just in case there are people here who are SO sqeamish that even minor cuts and scrapes gross them out.)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v113/General_K-Star/scooteraccident002.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v113/General_K-Star/scooteraccident004.jpg

Yeah. Glasses are broken (not the lenses, but the left earhook thingy is bent outwards so they don't fit on my face properly anymore. I can still wear them but they slide around alot and almost fall off if I look down.) My left arm's bruised up pretty damn bad too since I landed on it. Went to the doctor after class was over and they did x-rays of everything and told me I was fine, but if my eye still hurts after a while I need to go back for a CT scan so they can see all the little bones in my face properly. Also landed on top of my iPod, which was strapped to my backpack's strap, and it still works just fine!

Moral of the story: NEVER RIDE A SCOOTER DOWNHILL WHEN IT'S STILL WET OUT! I'm still hurting... time for ibuprofen!

 

[JuanBolio]

It wasn't the hill or the rain - it was you not taking inertia into account. Riding a scooter downhill in the rain can be perfectly safe - as long as you don't need to stop in any kind of hurry.

Sorry to hear about your injuries, though. We've all done something like that, I think. Last year I was on a bike ride in the woods and I found a steep hill that looked like it'd be fun to ride down. It was - until I got back down to level ground doing 40 mph. I hit a big rut in the ground, and my front wheel hot the other side, stopping the bike dead and flipping me right over the handlebars onto my face in the grass. Not fun, not fun at all...

 

[K-Star]

It wasn't the hill or the rain - it was you not taking inertia into account. Riding a scooter downhill in the rain can be perfectly safe - as long as you don't need to stop in any kind of hurry.

Yeah, but on a normal dry day I can slow down just fine on that hill... Sorta. The dismount is usually a little rough on my feet but at the very least I can usually slow down enough to avoid a faceplant when I dismount.

 

[JuanBolio]

True... but the effect of dismounting while moving swiftly downhill would likely be the same.

 

[thestrangequark]

All part of the fun of wheels! Glad to here you're okay, though -- for all intents and purposes. And it's can be fun to show off a few nasty injuries; I've always felt them to be a sort of badge of honor -- If you're going to go through the pain you at least want something to show for it (though only a few of my friends understand that and the rest think I'm crazy). Just a couple of years ago I was in a nasty accident on my bike. I was heading down Allen St., when a woman foolishly opened her cab door into traffic without looking first, and I rode smack into it. Infuriatingly, all NYC cabs have decals on the windows of passenger doors that read "WATCH FOR CYCLISTS." My hand took the brunt of the blow, but at first I was so surprised, and then annoyed, that I just glared, told her to watch herself, and rode on. It wasn't until several minutes later that I felt the wetness inside my biking glove, and looked down to see that it was torn and my hand was soaked in blood: the ring finger had a gash from tip to base.

The worst for me, though, was when the chain broke on my Strawberry Shortcake bicycle when I was seven. I was going down a steep hill, and after toppling over and sliding down half the hill on my side, one of the handlebars impaled me in the stomach. Ouch.

 

[TheSeeker]

Ouch! I've had my share of spills on bicycles and know they are not fun. Glad you are ok.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Glad to hear you weren't seriously injured.

I had a similar experience on my bike when I was a teenager. I was coming down the hill on Route 18 on my way back from the library and I decided at the last second to swing into the supermarket for a snack. I didn't make the turn and went straight into the island between the in and out lanes. Went right over the handlebars. And the book on the back rack landed way on the other side of the parking lot.

 

[An Officer]

Glad to see you're okay. Hills are a bitch. I remember riding my large 18 gear mountain bike down one at around 12 years old, got stuck in a rut at the end... they probably put it there for idiots like me who might otherwise take in a dip in the lake at the bottom! That was one painful sudden stop.

Glad to see no broken bones on you.

 

[Lindley]

I scraped myself up once biking down Okemo moutain road one summer. Hit a thick patch of pine needles on a turn and felt the bike slipping, but couldn't do much about it....

 

[DeafPoet]

You poor bastard! That sucks. There's nothing quite as painful as wiping out on a two-wheeled conveyance.

A few years ago I got rip-roaring drunk and went out on my bike. For some reason I was down at the boardwalk by the lake and I went ass-over-teakettle and faceplanted myself. The next thing I remember was four hours later in the ER

My face looked like fucking hamburger. You got off easy

 

[JAG]

Happy that you were'nt too injured.

 

[backstept]

I made the mistake of trying to ride over a speedbump look-ma-no-hands style . . .
my palms were pretty scraped up

 

[Mallory]

Last time I fell on a bike I snapped off the ball part of the ball and socket joint in my right elbow. That required surgery to fix and I never did recover full mobility in that arm. Haven't been on a bike since then.

 

[K-Star]

...The worst for me, though, was when the chain broke on my Strawberry Shortcake bicycle when I was seven. I was going down a steep hill, and after toppling over and sliding down half the hill on my side, one of the handlebars impaled me in the stomach. Ouch.

My brother impaled his stomach on a handlebar once. Around the same age too. I think he might still have a scar there.

 

[DBR]

Last time I fell on a bike I snapped off the ball part of the ball and socket joint in my right elbow. That required surgery to fix and I never did recover full mobility in that arm. Haven't been on a bike since then.

Funny how that works.

 

[judge alba]

remember when i got my electic bike for the first time going a little too fast for the level crossing ahead as the barrriers came down, i opened the trottle instead of braking and ended up in a little heap on the barrier. dirty great gash on my arm and a sore head. broke the front mud garud though kinda left it unrepaired to remind me not to be so stupid.

 

[Gary Mitchell]

The worst for me, though, was when the chain broke on my Strawberry Shortcake bicycle when I was seven. I was going down a steep hill, and after toppling over and sliding down half the hill on my side, one of the handlebars impaled me in the stomach. Ouch.

That reminds me of my first non-training wheel bike. My dad brought the bike home in a box on Christmas Eve and put it together after I want to bed. Christmas morning I ride my brand new red bike up the street, turn around , and then ride back down the hill at full speed. Dear old dad, being tired and all, forgot to tighten down the seat so I went flying off my bike still sitting on the seat. That was a very painful landing.

 

[Lookingglassman]

OUCH!

 

[Shatmandu]

Moral of the story: NEVER RIDE A SCOOTER DOWNHILL WHEN IT'S STILL WET OUT!

In other news, sticking your cock in a socket can hurt.

Joe, amped

 

[CaptainStoner]

Wow. Judging by your avatar, I'm thinking its time to look into the brakes on that POS. They really should work when wet, maybe not at full efficiency, but you said you had no brakes at all. WTF?