I'm having a few days off from bike riding which is a pity as I have almost reached 7000 miles on the Delite, I wanted to do this before using the Haibike for a while.
So why the pause? Well on Tuesday, Lynn & I decided to ride the Monsal trail, from Buxton to Bakewell. Very nice it is and well suitable to use the Birdy. It folds well and with Lynn's Ansman electric folder both go into her little Suzuki for a nice safe quiet easy day out.
Except for a little idiocy on my part. Going through the shorter tunnel, which was unlit I foolishly looked to see how the Mio dealt with tunnels, loosing the satellite signal. Normally, when taking my eyes off the road I generally wander to the right, either in a car or on a bike. This time I went left onto the rough ballast at the side of the smooth track. I looked up and tried to regain control, it was pitch black and unable to see just at that moment I tried to slow and turn back onto the path.
However I went over the handlebars landing onto my nose. The main disadvantage of the 18" wheels, I would have thought my other bikes would not have done this.
Lynn, who was behind me, just saw me disappear. In a straight line I would have been visible in silhouette against the light at the tunnel end but I had suddenly gone.
Landing on a blackened rough surface like that doesn't do a lot for your looks, not that mine wasn't short for improvement. But now black and liberally being sprayed with blood from both nostrils' it must have been an alarming site. It was by the look on some kids faces as I limped into the daylight trying to get myself a little presentable by using some fern leaves.
Help came by three lovely ladies who overpowered me to prevent me from getting on the bike again and going off the toilets a couple of mile back towards the car to clean up a bit more
To cut it short, one took Lynn to get her car that was at the far end to where we were, and it's a long way round driving, I was escorted to the cycle hire place to wait for her to take me to the local hospital. It seemed to take forever. The nice girl in the Blackwell Mill Cycle Hire shop provided me with first aid stuff, my nose appeared to be more visible in my right eye than normal so gave it shove while everything was numb.
Buxton Hospital is brilliant, a nurse run place for minor injuries. Just what I needed, seen to quickly, checked over cleaned up, patched up and off home. In the North Staffs unit it would have been many hours waiting before any action. I think it shows smaller units run much more efficiently than the factory sized units politicians have enforced upon us.
So now looking worse than it really is I am a cross between an Apache's war paint and a large lump of coke. I can't manage walking to far yet, tried the supermarket but had to go back to the car, but I am improving. The swelling will subside and the new aches that are becoming evident will go and I will be able to resume. But perhaps not there and on that bike.
One thing is certain, if you are going to ride a bike, at sometime you will come off it. As I say "If you can't stand a laugh, you shouldn't have joined".
And no, I was not wearing a helmet not that it would have helped.
Edit. I have changed the hospital to Buxton, not Bakewell. I have been a little confused it seems.
So why the pause? Well on Tuesday, Lynn & I decided to ride the Monsal trail, from Buxton to Bakewell. Very nice it is and well suitable to use the Birdy. It folds well and with Lynn's Ansman electric folder both go into her little Suzuki for a nice safe quiet easy day out.
Except for a little idiocy on my part. Going through the shorter tunnel, which was unlit I foolishly looked to see how the Mio dealt with tunnels, loosing the satellite signal. Normally, when taking my eyes off the road I generally wander to the right, either in a car or on a bike. This time I went left onto the rough ballast at the side of the smooth track. I looked up and tried to regain control, it was pitch black and unable to see just at that moment I tried to slow and turn back onto the path.
However I went over the handlebars landing onto my nose. The main disadvantage of the 18" wheels, I would have thought my other bikes would not have done this.
Lynn, who was behind me, just saw me disappear. In a straight line I would have been visible in silhouette against the light at the tunnel end but I had suddenly gone.
Landing on a blackened rough surface like that doesn't do a lot for your looks, not that mine wasn't short for improvement. But now black and liberally being sprayed with blood from both nostrils' it must have been an alarming site. It was by the look on some kids faces as I limped into the daylight trying to get myself a little presentable by using some fern leaves.
Help came by three lovely ladies who overpowered me to prevent me from getting on the bike again and going off the toilets a couple of mile back towards the car to clean up a bit more
To cut it short, one took Lynn to get her car that was at the far end to where we were, and it's a long way round driving, I was escorted to the cycle hire place to wait for her to take me to the local hospital. It seemed to take forever. The nice girl in the Blackwell Mill Cycle Hire shop provided me with first aid stuff, my nose appeared to be more visible in my right eye than normal so gave it shove while everything was numb.
Buxton Hospital is brilliant, a nurse run place for minor injuries. Just what I needed, seen to quickly, checked over cleaned up, patched up and off home. In the North Staffs unit it would have been many hours waiting before any action. I think it shows smaller units run much more efficiently than the factory sized units politicians have enforced upon us.
So now looking worse than it really is I am a cross between an Apache's war paint and a large lump of coke. I can't manage walking to far yet, tried the supermarket but had to go back to the car, but I am improving. The swelling will subside and the new aches that are becoming evident will go and I will be able to resume. But perhaps not there and on that bike.
One thing is certain, if you are going to ride a bike, at sometime you will come off it. As I say "If you can't stand a laugh, you shouldn't have joined".
And no, I was not wearing a helmet not that it would have helped.
Edit. I have changed the hospital to Buxton, not Bakewell. I have been a little confused it seems.
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