Don't be stupid... like me.

bode

Esteemed Pedelecer
May 14, 2008
626
0
Hertfordshire and Bath
Gentlefolk all, pay heed to my call,
And learn a lesson from my fall.

- Shakespeare, or McGonagall or Somebody

So there I was on Monday, slowing to a walking pace, turning my head to look at an interesting house, and pehaps therefore inadvertently turning the handlebars that way, when I chose that moment to take my right hand off the bars to get a handkerchief from my pocket, would you believe, not seeing a small patch of gravel on the tarmac.

Well, my bike was mostly all right because I broke its fall with my face on the gravelly suface. Fortunately the kind chap living in the interesting house was outside and called an ambulance and stored the bike in his garage. Result: seven hours in A&E, huge loss of blood, suspected skull fracture (fortunately shown not to be the case after a CT scan), a face like Coco the Clown's, and a resolve to try not to do anything so stupid again.

So; to practical matters: the only real casualty on the bike was the Shimano 6-speed gear shifter (first picture). It doesn't seem to be availble online any more, so does anyone know if the one shown in the second picture is compatible (in the 6-speed version, obviously)? Thanks.
 

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Tiberius

Esteemed Pedelecer
Nov 9, 2007
919
1
Somerset
I have the 6 speed version of that new shifter on one of my bikes. It works fine and was a replacement for what was there before.

It may actually be the only 6 speed shifter easily available.

Nick

PS. Sorry about your accident. I was concentrating on the practical matters.
 
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eddieo

Banned
Jul 7, 2008
5,070
6
Be careful out there!:eek:
 

monster

Pedelecer
May 13, 2009
120
0
you were braking with the front brakes. am i right?

you can't use front brakes on slipery/loose surfaces. did your front wheel loose traction and slip away?
the way the handelbars were pointed is almost irrelevent. Front brake on slipery surface = accident.
 

bode

Esteemed Pedelecer
May 14, 2008
626
0
Hertfordshire and Bath
you were braking with the front brakes. am i right?

you can't use front brakes on slipery/loose surfaces. did your front wheel loose traction and slip away?
the way the handelbars were pointed is almost irrelevent. Front brake on slipery surface = accident.
No. It was my right hand I removed from the bars, so rear brake only at the time; also, I wasn't braking hard and was down to walking speed.
 

Straylight

Esteemed Pedelecer
Jan 31, 2009
650
2
Sounds like a nasty freak accident to me - bet you couldn't do it again :D . Hope you're fully recovered soon :) .
 

barrycoll

Pedelecer
Sep 14, 2009
235
11
not so freak, Straylight...
whilst windsurfing down in Spain, and out on our Bromptons (unpowered!), I got a bit cocky, and tried to go over one of those sharp, almost square sided rubber speed humps, with one hand holding the bars lightly......oh dear!
he bike didnt mount the rubber, but the bars twisted sideways, and I went straight down onto the tarmac on the side of my face and my front teeth...3 teeth were pushed sideways, breaking off the 4th one, with the nerve totally exposed...as I am (was) a dentist, this was as bad as it could get for me....
luckily I was carrying Arnica tabs, and after sitting on the kerb and taking a few tabs, I felt broken but well, and cycled home with my wife
a few bad experiences with Spanish dentists, who didnt believe that I was ditto, and one who insisted on touching the exposed nerve with a sharp probe!!!!.....I have never grabbed a fellow professional hand before, but this time, I almost broke her the arm, before running out....the stuff of nightmares, or at least Marathon Man
sorted eventually, enought to drive back to LOndon, but the worst bit was that I had also fallen on a brake lever, that had cracked or fractured a rib, some thing I discovered while reaching up to load the windsurfers on to the roof of the car!!!
a telephone call to a good friend in Londons Harley St, got me a root canal appt for the day of our return, and the amazing thing is that the appt was on the day of the London bombings, and I was the only patient who managed to make it to town on my bike, as everywhere was closed off by police cordens and all London on high alert....
I sat in the chair and had root canals on 4 teeth....all painless!!!
 

Straylight

Esteemed Pedelecer
Jan 31, 2009
650
2
Blimey! It's funny you talking about that day, wish I'd decided to ride into town. As it was, I ended up sitting in a smoke filled tube carriage with a lot of shaken and panicy people somewhere between King's Cross and Russel Square. Still, enough of this, we're all still here to enjoy the peace and freedom our bikes afford us. Whereas I wan't seeking to belittle Bode's accident, I was just trying to say that the random nature of events like these is such that if we allow them to become more than they are then we'd never ride a bike again, or get on a tube.