Well, I came a step closer to the wheelchair this afternoon. I got creamed a beauty, car doored at close to 50km/hr :x
I'd just left work and was heading along a quiet back street at around 50ks. It wasn't super narrow but with parked cars down both sides of the road if 2 cars need to pass they slow to a crawl if one doesn't actually stop to give way. A car was oncoming so I was fairly close to the parked cars when a guy flug his car door open. I had a split second to brake, maybe dropping my speed to ~40km/hr before the impact. I don't have any recollection of what happened next, I didn't hit my head but somehow lost a few seconds as it all happened so quickly. The next thing I knew I was lying in the middle of the road and thankfully the oncoming car had stopped. My leg was either under the bike or right next to me, I can't remember but the first thing I did was reach for the power lead to yank it. Maybe I lost more than a few seconds because next thing I knew 3 people were helping me up off the road. One was the guy that hit me, the other was his wife that saw it happen from across the road (outside their house) and I guess the other was the other car driver. The guy was very apologetic and said he just didn't see me to which I sarcasticly replied "what my headlight isn't bright enough ??" (it wasn't dark but my T6 headlight is bright enough to still throw a spot on the road even in the late afternoon and you can clearly see it even in broad daylight) They helped me up but I was more concerned with picking my bike up from the middle of the road. "Leave that, come and sit down" they said but I wasn't going to leave it just laying there
The guy didn't say much else (probably a bit in shock) but his wife was nice to me, offered to take me to the hospital and took my pulse (said she was a nurse) and offered to drive me home. I said I'd be right as long as by bike wasn't bent as I didn't seem too badly hurt. My chest hurt like shit at the time and it's now much worse. Other than that I haven't got a single scratch on me so I'm at a loss as to what actually happened. My knee has a small bruise on it the size of a 10c coin and other than feeling like I've been smashed in the sternum with a baseball bat (dead centre just below the collarbones) I'm not sure how I came to be laying on the road without a mark on me or any pain from the impact. I was wearing my kevlar jeans and armoured jacket, though ironically the car door hit right where the zip was - ie no padding. But there's not a mark on my pants or my jacket, or my gloves or my helmet. The only thing I can think is a started to endo as I hit the front brakes, collected to top of the car door in the middle of my chest as I went over the bars, somersaulted and landed on my feet then lightly fell to the ground as the bike slid up next to me.
The tiny bruise on my knee is most likely from hitting the bars on the way over. But yeah, I'm at a loss as to what actually happened after the impact.
I thanked the car driver for not running over me, put my chain back on, connected up the electrics and slowly limped away. The CA was all bent up and has a ding in the back but still seems to work fine. My throttle and second 3 speed switch (which I use for cruise control and enabling throttle off regen) got smashed up but I was able to get home OK. The PVC lipo box on my top bar was twisted but otherwise fine. A few components got grazed up - pedals, brake lever and fluid tank, bent bars and a buggered rear derailleur it seems (might just need adjusting but keeps skipping and jumping out of the top 2 gears)
My first thought as I rode away in a fair bit of pain was "SHIT, of all days not to have the gopro on!" :lol:
Followed by "thank Christ I was on my commuter and not the stealth fighter, I'd be really spewing if my fighter had gotten so banged up"
I bet I'll be sore(er) in the morning. I don't think I have any broken ribs (due to it hitting right in the centre) but the cartlidges must have copped a hiding. I'm just lucky I had the implant in my chest removed when I finished my chemo. It was a central line that tapped into the main artery leaving my heart and came to a large port just below the skin. This impact would have probably ruptured it, potentially causing me to bleed out internally
They were planning to leave it in for a few years incase I have to have more chemo but when I got really sick they decided to remove it incase it was infected (it wasn't) If subdermal central line. So unlucky, but also very lucky.