The story of my first crash

[Lise]

Whew. Glad to hear you're OK, although I'm sure the experience shook you deeply. Take care, give your body and spirit time to heal, and enjoy getting back on the bike. How is the bike, by the way? Lise

[SalsaMTB]

Glad to hear you're OK. Road crashes can be terrible and very frightening.

Just as an FYI: You said you hit your head so you may want to replace your helmet. If it was a serious crash, you should replace it even if it appears undamaged.

[Lenusik]

The bike is fine. I just lost a cap on the right side of the handle bar. My helmet seem to be not damaged, just a few scratched. But our mechanic is coming over today to tune up the bike. I will ask him about the helmet as well. Good advice! Thanks!

[DeniseGoldberg]

My helmet seem to be not damaged, just a few scratched.

SalsaMTB is right. If your helmet hit the ground, it needs to be replaced. Bike helmets are designed for a single crash only.

As a reference, here's a page from the Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute on when to replace your helmet: http://www.bhsi.org/replace.htm.

--- Denise

[Jo-n-NY]

By the sounds of your post, you are so lucky that you did not break anything. Good for you!!!! If you feel up to riding on the 1st, go for it. Take it from me, it is worse not getting right back on the bike. I was physically out of commision for more than 6 weeks then winter set in, need I say more. I am back on the bike, but with much caution as I am sure you will be anyway.

I am with Denise on this one, if I waited for someone to ride with I almost would hardly ever ride. I am off on weekends my husband works. My girlfriend just got a part time job and works on Saturdays, then of course her own family commitments. I will start taking a couple of nice Thursdays (my husbands day off) so we can ride together, but that for sure is not enough riding for me. So I will use caution and will be ordering my ID this week.

~ JoAnn

[Lenusik]

Thanks for all this encouragement. I will definitely ride on the 1st. I know that I have a shot in winning this competition, so I will even go play tennis (my other sport of choice) just to see how my body is holding. I cannot sit still.

I am lucky that my husband and I work together, we have the same schedule and we do ride together most of the time. But I do ride alone as well, however I stick to my usual and a very familiar rout when I do that. I always have my cell phone with me and some cash case i need to be rescued.