So then, i have just spent 48 hours in hospital

Glad you came off relatively unheart fella! I have the "luxuary" of living close enough to cycle to work. any off is gonna shake you up and make you re-assess stuff... But the train though, really

[punyXpress]

[QUOTE=Viney;2056861]I wont be int he car either, not for commuting, a horrible late, smelly train will be my transport of choice. Its going to take a while for me to save up for a new lid anyway unless the insurance pay out![/QUOTE]
Shouldn't the cage driver pay for this ( as well as the p'ing ticket ) ?

[Jayneflakes]

Heal soon Viney, hope the bruises are not too painful.
Hugs,
Jayne
XX

Originally Posted by Kilted Ginger

Viney, I've a spare lid in the garage, you need to have wee head for it to fit though, think its an agv something size small.

take it you have never met Viney, he has a mahoosive one (his head is big too)

any excuse for BBC to get out the old nurses uniform.

Hope you recover quickly and remember to buy a big newspaper to put on the seat before sitting down on the train.

You're giving up commuting by bike for winter?! That bump on the noggin must have given you a dose of old age...

Originally Posted by CoolGirl

You're giving up commuting by bike for winter?! That bump on the noggin must have given you a dose of old age...

And you're a spring chicken, I suppose?

Sorry about the off Viney. Not your fault mate. BBC will give you rub down with a damp copy of MCN, no doubt

Oooof Viney , man , don`t sweat about it too much , time will make your fear wane a little and you will be back on the Horse . It could have been far worse with a totally mangled bike and some serious injuries . You practically walked away from it to all intents and purposes , you could have been in plaster etc and not earning a full wage etc .

Oh Viney, unlucky man. Glad to hear you are relatively ok.

[_Stretchie_]

Glad your ok matey

Originally Posted by Viney

he stopped, i hit the brakes and down i went clouting the car with my head i reckon, or back, not really sure.

Admited to hospital with brusied lungs and a very sore neck/back. No breaks, or fractures, which is good even after all the xrays and CT scans.

and to rethink my biking carrer for now.

Originally Posted by fizzwheel

No shame it that Viney me old mucka. I think we're all thinking about the reasons why we ride and how we ride to at the mo...

I've been thinking about how I ride since the GMII when I lowsided and had my second accident in less than a year and reading this I thought if you and Fizz are having the same debate with yourselves, maybe the conclusions I have reached on that debate will give food for thought, so I'll post them.

I was pretty lucky to walk out of a field one icy morning last November, rather than be stretchered out by an ambulance crew with internal injuries, and if my textile gear hadn't held up to the barbed wire fence I went through, I'd have had some nasty external ones too (including my male parts if you look at where the rips in my textiles are!).

What I decided on was what I have always said about biking, that I love it so much that crashing is a risk I'm prepared to take. The difference with my latest revaluation is that I now have a wife and kid to think about and that I'm not prepared to take the risk or orphaning them any more that I do by driving the car. So a trip to hospital is a risk I'll take, even a disability in worst case scenario, you can't be put off things you love in life by fear, but doing things that put myself at higher risk of a fatal accident are a no no. With bruising internal and external, no breaks, no punctures, it seems you came out of it OK by those standards.

So my riding has definitely changed and comments such as "You seem quite happy to bimble today? What's wrong?" were made by a couple of folk at the peaks ride-out. I always stick to 30 and 40 limits anyway, but I've decided that just below the ACPO guidelines for a speeding ticket is where I want to ride normally and the guideline for a court appearance is as fast as I really want to go in 50 limits and above. That's not to say that I'll never have a 96mph+ stupid moment again, but I won't be doing it habitually and sitting at the front of the pack in ride-outs as I used to do (and we know what all know speeds the front of the pack habitually reach).

These are the ACPO guidelines http://www.speedlimit.org.uk/faq.html#ACPO

Riding so you can stop in the distance you can see is actually pretty difficult to do unless your down to 15mph in places, but I've decided not to corner faster than the visual limit point (any newbies who don't know what that is PM me and I'll find an old thread on it or start a new one), so even if there is more lean angle to be had and more throttle to be twisted, I'm not doing it if to do so would mean getting any closer to the limit point, I'll hold back.

And otherwise just trying to consciously employ as many road craft techniques as I can, scan and plan, good road positioning, don't overtake near junctions even if it's the only only opportunity you've had for 20 minutes, reading ahead with tree lines, lamposts, following traffic on other roads over the hedges, etc, etc. Any of us can read the book and watch a few DVD's.

I've decided a pre-requisite for my next bike is ABS. From the sounds of it you hit the deck under braking on a wet road and your accident would have been different with ABS.

High on my list of priorities is good fitting leather gear with gore-tex or similar as leather seems to be better than textiles (So T.C taught me something, pity he foxtrot oscar'ed over a bit of a debate) and I've also been looking at Hein-Gericke Oxtan II two piece suit tonight, but I need to find 500 quid! I've also been needing new boots for a while, I'm riding in FT Aqua-boots that are just glorified wellies, so that's another 150 quid for Gore-Tex boots, but I've decided to keep my SV for at least another six months and use the finance payments I'm saving on a new bike to pay for that gear and Hein-Gericke are doing 0% finance so that may be an option.

So that's how I have decided to remove some risk from my riding, and I've been employing it for a few months now, hopefully it's food for thought and it's helpful.

Originally Posted by Spiderman

Of course if you need any assistance kicking the **** out of the ticket warden, you just let me know mate and i'll happily help out.

Edited for you I mean the warden is a 'er. It has to be quite obvious that the bike has just been crashed. Appeal the ticket, mention how they have "adding to your emotional distress" and ask them what corrective training they will be undertaking with the warden to ensure that he is able to spot such situations in future.