CHEN

So for those of you in boston, i was riding down comm ave today and the traffic was kinda crazy...been like that for the past couple of days. So I was riding down between lanes and this car in the left front of me was trying to merge into the right lane and really narrowed my path between lanes, so i tried to go around him. Well when i got half way around he stopped short when i expected him to keep going...someone in the lane he was trying to get into cut him off. Well I hit the back of his car and my face went THROUGH his rear windsheild. Well i was bleeding all over the place and i had this deep cut from my lower cheek, by my lip, all the way up to the top of my ear. Luckily the guy in the car behind the car i hit was like an off duty EMT or something and he helped me slow the bleeding and told me what to do. Some random girl that ran up to me to ask me if i was ok helped me lock my bike up as i was taken away on a stretcher via ambulance. End result was a crazy 5 inch cut, my ear got torn into like 3 peice, and i got about 40 stitches to put everything back together. I stopped by to take a look at my bike after i got fixed up...it looks like it'll be ok but i'm not sure. I still love my bike, but now i feel scared....i was not wearing a helmet....i know i'm super lucky....i will buy a helmet now.....i was riding brakeless.....i don't think brakes would have helped in this situation, but i'm considering putting brakes on now. This could have turned out very bad....if you were in kenmore around 2 this afternoon, i was the dude on the orange IRO, this is right around the time i got rocked!

manboy

I hope you get better soon.

I hope you don't take this badly, but you might consider putting on a brake even if you don't think it would have helped and giving yourself a little more space when you're riding (I'm sure this goes without saying).

Also, post gnar self portraits.

46x16

+1 on adding at least one brake.

and sorry to hear of your bad-luck! and I hope all is well with both your face and bike!!


and post some pictures of both!

madeinjpn

damn man i've been through that gauntlet a bunch when i lived down there. Hope everything heals (your face and the bike).

CHEN

thanks for the support guys...and yea a brake is going on as soon as i'm good to ride again

petebow

that sucks. definitely get a helmet dude. i feel way better riding around boston with mine. picked up a giro monza on ebay for cheap. definitely recommend one to you. hope you get better soon.

lns55

Glad to hear you're going to be alright. It's strange i never wear a helmut and for some unknown reason I put my helmut on today ( the one that has been gathering dust for a year ) for my commute to work. After hearing what happened to you I'm defineitely going to keep wearing it. You will be a bit apprehensive for the next few times you ride and aftera few days it will go away. You're right though it probably couldn't have been avoided, Again I'm happy to hear you're alright - a few stitches and a lot wiser. Take care my friend.

CHEN

Face is a bit swollen

This is the bike if you guys remember. I'm gonna grab it tomorrow and hopefully its in the same condition still. I'll take new pics of the bike and some pics of the stitches when i can take this dressing off my head.

seejohnbike

damn, i was passing kenmore on the bay state side of things around two... i must have just missed you.

and yeah, that was pre-game red sox traffic i believe (or right toward the start of the game)... i had a sucky time heading back and forth just a little earlier than that.

glad to hear youre relatively ok, and that (i'd assume) everything will heal.

bonechilling

So how is it that a brake wouldn't have prevented you from not being able to stop before you went head-first into a windshield?

zelah

daaaamn that frame is ****ed, you gonna try to bend it back or what

CHEN

It all happened very fast, and i actually don't remember falling off the bike nor my head going through the windsheild. Even if i had a brake, i don't think i would have been able to react fast enough....my brain couldn't even process what just happened fast enough when i was on the ground. I didn't feel out of control at all, but i was cutting across that car very hard and close at a moderate speed, so when it stopped suddenly there was nothing i could've done...i don't think

tinydr

oh f### CHEN, that's awful... I'm really sorry to hear it. if you don't mind me asking, when you say you were going "down" Comm... where were you and which direction were you heading?

Anyway... a front brake probably might've helped quite a bit (even if didn't prevent the initial collision, it might've slowed you down enough to avoid hitting the rear window)... in that you would likely have already been ready to hit the brake (or hopefully would've anyway).

I definitely feel you about being a little freaked-out about getting back in the saddle... with all the accidents or near-accidents I've been in over the years (messenger in Boston for 4.5 years) I eventually realized that when I'm recovering from one I start flashing-back to old accidents. Hopefully you'll be able to get back in the saddle again soon (and please, throw a brake on the bike).

Mr. Fly

That's the pre-crash picture. The picture is like that because of lens distortion; check out the window frame.

Back to topic: I am not sure a helmet would have helped. Helmets are not exactly designed to prevent deep cuts like what the OP described. If you're going through a windshield, you're pretty much SOL, helmet or no helmet.

zelah

i don't know what you're talking about

CHEN

Yea you guys are probably definitely right...even though i think the brake wouldn't have helped, you know what, it probably would have. I'm definitely putting a front brake on and i'm gonna use it. I plan on riding much less aggressively on the road....+ helmet on my head. When i say down comm ave, i just meant i was going down that road, not opposite of traffic or anything. I was actually headed away from kenmore into allston, from class to home :/

Straws

glad to hear you're gonna be alright.

the thing with saying a brake wouldnt help is that the theory is that with a brake you would ride differently, you would have approached that car is a different manner. I can see that but I can also see how brakeless makes people ride defensively. To each their own though. lets not make this a brake debate.

solbrothers

glad you're ok dude. good luck on a speedy recovery

tinydr

Don't get me wrong... I currently don't run a brake (New Orleans is as flat as a pancake) and knew plenty of messengers who rode brakeless in Boston without problems. Personally I ran a brake, but I also ran 45 x 13 so it was necessary coming down good sized hills.

ah... I see CHEN, I didn't know if you were coming down the hill by Buick Street, I wasn't suggesting you were riding the wrong way or anything like that; me being "somewhat" @#@!-retentive about Boston I'd probably call that going up Commonwealth (the #s are going up headed that way). Obviously up or down doesn't really matter.

bionnaki

+1 on helmets and brakes.

glad you survived and in stable condition - get well man.

supercub

Based on your description of the accident (if I understand correctly), you might want to ride more slowly and cautiously in that situation. Splitting lanes is inherently dangerous. I can't imagine splitting lanes at a speed that would put my head through a window. I'm probably going 10 mph or less in that situation and a car cutting me off would cause me to rack my nuts on the stem or something.

It doesn't sound like a helmet would have helped much in this particular case, but there are plenty of ways this accident could have played out where a helmet would make all the difference.

Edit: Glad to hear you're alright.

hudsong

That's an old picture, I've seen it before.
And yeah, brakes. When I'm coming to a sketchy intersection, a car in front of my just put on brake lights, or I see some weird **** coming up, I always put a hand on my brake. It saved my ass once.

CHEN

Interesting Story:
So my friend Ben, who rides a brakeless fixed gear as well, also got into an accident today.

Interesting because last night we were riding down Comm Ave mad wrecklessly... superfast and weaving between cars and people like crazy. It was really fun, but really dangerous and probably stupid as hell.

Today i get destroyed, and it turns out so did Ben. He hit a parked car trying to cut through lanes and flipped over his bars and hit his face, this is all on the same street i got wrecked on and the same street we rode like dicks the night before!

We definitely had it coming to us....and it hit us hard. He cut his forehead and probably has a concussion.

slvoid

The girl that locked up your bike? You owe her a dinner. Make sure you bring the handcuffs and duct tape.

ianjk

I hate to be a brake weenie here, but I have to agree. A bike with a properly adjusted front brake should be able to stop on a dime. At least it could have helped reduce the impact.


Glad to hear you are still kicking and planning on adding a helmet and (hopefully) a brake.