Hulver's site || fascist Nazi editor atreides HQ

Diaries
Everything
Who's Online?
FAQ / Help

500 miles from Newham.

By ambrosen (Thu Sep 21, 2006 at 10:26:40 AM EST) bikes, crashes, ambulances, highlands, wind, rain, scalp lacerations (all tags)

Otherwise Reynolds could have sorted my Dad out. So, picture the scene, we're riding 2 miles from our B&B to Dalwhinnie station with a 25mph tailwind on a Sustrans path. It's slightly downhill, and narrow. It's a well surfaced path, just over a metre wide, but bumping and swerving up and down to bridges over streams. It swerves up towards the main road (the A9) to cross a gully. I can ride offroad

As well as being a mountain biker of sorts, I'm on the bike with flat bars and good brakes. My Dad's bike is decrepit with steel rims and centrepull brakes.

I make the corner without braking. My Dad bails. Sadly, he bails almost at the apex, so he drops about 2m into the brook.

I've stopped, and saw the end of the fall. It's 1 long second till he moves. I feel bad I'm not upset, but he's moving.

< Processes | BBC White season: 'Rivers of Blood' >

Login

Poll

Votes: 3
Results	\|	Other Polls

Related Links

- ambrosen's Diary

Google

Comment Controls

500 miles from Newham. | 9 comments (9 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback

Continuation... by ambrosen (2.00 / 0) #1 Thu Sep 21, 2006 at 10:42:06 AM EST

So, he walks out of the gully showing no signs of being in pain. However, it takes approximately 3 seconds for his scalp to cover in blood. There's also a cut under his eye. He's apologising. Two Australian women pull up, having seen it, and start bustling around checking I'm OK(!), stopping vans to call 999, and sitting him down. They go when the ambulance comes. I'm alone with a broken bike now.

Finale by ambrosen (2.00 / 0) #2 Thu Sep 21, 2006 at 11:00:00 AM EST

I've missed the train, one of 2 southbound services a day, but there's 2 hours until the next northbound train comes. His bike's bent and the front wheel won't move. I take the mudguard off and stamp on the forks to make clearance. I ride my bike to town then run back for his. I scoot it into town and the pub lets me chuck it in their skip after I've stripped the few good bits off it.

[ Parent ]

: One more. by ambrosen (2.00 / 0) #5 Thu Sep 21, 2006 at 11:48:42 AM EST

I strap his old wheel and pannier rack to my bike, and leg it to the station. I have about 2 minutes. Thankfully, the trains 15 minutes late. I get to Kingussie, half an hour north of the crash, and receive a call from the EMT to say they've taken him to Inverness to stitch him up. That was 4 hours ago. He's just out now, and on his way back to my sister's in Edinburgh to convalesce.

[ Parent ]

Uhhhh... by Breaker (2.00 / 0) #3 Thu Sep 21, 2006 at 11:34:24 AM EST

What's the Newham/Reynolds thing all about?

Hope your Dad's OK; scalp wounds tend to bleed a lot worse than they actually are.

Well, I just thought it'd be nice by ambrosen (2.00 / 0) #4 Thu Sep 21, 2006 at 11:42:43 AM EST

If the attending ambulance officer was a minor internet celebrity of the randomreality.blogware.com sort. My Dad's pretty much fine. I've just got to write that bit now.

[ Parent ]

: It would indeed be amusing.. by Murkey (2.00 / 0) #8 Fri Sep 22, 2006 at 05:54:06 PM EST

... If Tom Reynolds took the call...

[ Parent ]

Glad to hear the family cycling trip... by Metatone (2.00 / 0) #6 Thu Sep 21, 2006 at 06:12:00 PM EST

is following the traditional formula:

Blood, sweat and tears.

More seriously, glad he is ok, hope your plans aren't too bent out of shape.

Good crisis management. by Alice Pulley (2.00 / 0) #7 Fri Sep 22, 2006 at 03:46:49 AM EST

I'd have panicked. Glad your Dad sounds OK.

--

'But they're adults and perfectly capable of working it out themselves. And if not, well, fuck em.' - Nebbish '06.

You really can't take your eyes off by calla (2.00 / 0) #9 Wed Sep 27, 2006 at 12:24:46 AM EST

your parents for a second. It's amazing the trouble they can get into.

"but i have a vested interest in keeping the people who see me naked interested in continuing to see me naked." 256

500 miles from Newham. | 9 comments (9 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback