Head-On Collision.

June 11th, 2008
Luna at Northwest Hwy
Exact time unknown

Last night I was riding with the Carrollton Cycling Club on the usual Monday-Wednesday ride. We had already headed south down Luna and turned left onto the service road to go underneath Northwest Highway. I was sitting on the front left and, as we rounded under NW Hwy I was consciously looking through the corner for any possible oncoming traffic. I knew that spot could be bad, and was trying to keep things safe. Suddenly, and I mean truly suddenly, a car appeared. It was traveling quickly, in our lane and at the apex of the corner. I think we were probably traveling at about 18 mph, I have no idea how fast he was going, but it seemed fairly quick.


I barely reacted. No sooner had I seen the car... he hit me head-on. I was awake throughout, never lost consciousness, and distinctly remember hitting the windshield, rolling and then landing in a heap on the road. I think I might have bounced, I'm not sure. I would like to know if I went up and over the roof or not, as I lost track of my progress in all the commotion. I did an inventory as best I could and was sure not to move in any way. I was pretty certain I had broken my right clavicle, ankle and leg but the inventory process was not going smoothly. I had a lot of pain, but nothing distinct as I have had with broken bones in the past. Within seconds I had several great people at my side talking to me and making certain I was as safe as possible. One gentleman in a CCC jersey, and a woman I never saw (bad angle) were instrumental in keeping me calm and making sure I was in good hands. If either of you see this through the grapevine, thank you! Will S. called my wife, Betty, and filled her in on what happened and that I was being taken to Parkland. A few well-timed, humorous comments later (Will: "Nice, your mouth never touched the bottle!" and Andrew: "I think we should look at that Cervelo Prodigy on CraigsList...") and I was being tended to by Fire Station 43. Nice guys, and they're cyclists! They loaded me onto the backboard, seat belted me in place and into the ambulance I went for a little journey.


Once at Parkland I was tended to by at least six doctors and nurses. X-rays, cat scans and more x-rays later I was left to wait for results. Betty was there and she was great. She's a real trooper and one of her first comments when she walked in the room was, "I knew something like this would happen, but I thought you might wait a little longer!" Her mom and brother dropped by as well and it was good to have some friendly faces. I joked as much as I could with the nurses and doctors but, understandably enough, they were less than enthusiastic about my situation. Slowly, the adrenaline wore off and the pain started to set in at more distinct locations. My left quad was aching along with my right foot, ankle and shoulder. I had a headache but never showed signs of a concussion. Results took forever, but we learned that I had no broken bones, no damage to my spine and no internal injuries. I had, in essence, gotten extremely lucky. I was released at 2 AM and we were soon home for a few photos and a bowl of Cheerios.


This morning we inspected my helmet, which showed surprisingly few signs of impact. The back of the helmet does have some cracks, but I was a bit astonished that I had not taken a larger hit with my head. Of course, the helmet is instantly retired. My jersey had been cut off, but I had managed to talk them into leaving my shorts, gloves, shoes and socks intact. I believe my exact request was, "Those are expensive, can we not use scissors?"


Today has been slow going. I'm feeling pretty decent considering the situation and am still taking inventory of pain, especially in my neck and shoulders. The bike is toast. Actually, the bike is beyond toast, it is more like a crumpet. The front tire is buried in the large chain ring, the top tube having buckled at the head tube and seat tube. The down tube split, at the weld, from the head tube. And, to top it all off, the rear wheel was ejected from the frame on impact. The bars are spun 90 degrees to the fork and the seat and levers are scuffed and marred. Oh, and the Campy carbon crank set is cracked around the spindle. Yeah, that was one hell of a hit.


So, that's the long and short of it. Photos with captions are linked below. They are not too bloody, but a little graphic of my shoulder injury.

I guess the lesson here is to just be safe, watch out for each other and remain aware. Looking back on how it happened I think it should have been a lot worse. I don't know how I got that lucky, but I did.

Another rider was hit as well, but I do not know him. I think he hit the car with his shoulder and split his fork in half, but I think I saw him walking around so I do hope he is OK. If you know him, please tell him I send my best.

Part 1: Time to Rebuild

Arrival: Ridley

The List

During a full month of waiting to settle things with the driver's insurance company I embarked on a massive research project. The goal: select the replacement frame. Easy as this might sound, I had decided (then undecided, redecided, undecided, etc) to go with a full carbon frame and fork. Seeing as how I don't like to do anything normally, my list -at one point- looked like this:

• Look 585
• Ridley Damocles
• Giant TCR Advance Team ('06)
• Colnago CT2
  
• Cinelli Estrada
• Velo Vie V300
• BMC Team
• Cervelo R3
• Canyon CF Pro
• Wilier Izoard
• Ciocc EOM 16.5 w/carbon rear triangle
• Pegoretti Marcelo
• Mondonico Super Leggera
• Torelli Selvino

The list is mostly carbon frames, but I still included high end steel as possible options. I love the idea of a Pegoretti because it is hand built, just like the Mondonico, but cost and wait time are huge issues. Wait time also eliminated a number of custom frame ideas I had from Strong, Yamaguchi, Don Walker and others. I just wasn't prepared to wait 3 months for delivery.

Decisions, Decisions
I managed to weed a few things out of the list by way of eliminating small manufacturers that I feared either would 1) not be around in a few years, 2) might not be producing a quality product or 3) may not be under factory warranty. This eliminated the Cinelli, Velo Vie, Canyon, Torelli and Ciocc. Although I reconsidered the Ciocc again later, mainly because it is a steel/carbon hybrid that fascinates me, the paint quality is poor and the frame is a New Old Stock from perhaps '03 or '04. The Torelli is a beautiful frame but I couldn't find any reviews online and never knew much about it. I was assured it was quality, but at 950 grams for the whole frameset I was worried that it might flex or twist badly.



After a conversation with Sgt. D I found that I needed to keep my budget in check and be sure to be putting a little money back in the bank. No sense in blowing things out completely. This eliminated the Pegoretti and BMC Team, as well as the Cervelo. Truly though, the Cervelo would have been too "normal" for me as I see at least 3 of them every weekend during group rides. As always, I wanted something a little more unique.

My next eliminate was fit, based on research I'd done into the geometry of each bike. Based on what I had ridden and know I like in handling, I narrowed it down to the Look, Wilier and Ridley with the Giant TCR an outside possibility. Access to the Wilier was extremely limited so that took care of itself, and in the end it came down to the Look & Ridley, and a single question.

The Question
I called Will.
"Is 1 pound worth $500?"
Will: "Uhm... I don't know. Is it worth $500 to not carry a full water bottle?"
"Good point."
"Its not like we spend hours climbing mountains around here. Which one looks better?"



So, that pretty much settled it. That night I began the ordering process. It didn't take long to order the frame online. I had thought about going locally but no one had access to the Damocles. Apparently, neither did the seller from which I was buying.

Delays, Delays
Competitive Cyclist has a slick web site and simple ordering process that provides you with plenty of information about each of the frame sets they carry. I commend them for the detail to which the go in their descriptions of each frame, its intended use and level of quality. What they failed to do was indicate that the frame I was selecting was not actually readily available. The delivery date was moved back three times, and it eventually took two phone calls and two emails to straighten things out and get a frame delivered without moving the date again.

Ridley Damocles


Eventually, it turned out they had a frame in my size and color in stock, only it had been built as a Demo bike. I agreed to take the "used" frame and was offered an additional 15% discount. Honestly, its a great deal and the frame is in perfect condition.

Now I have to wait a full week (or more) for my build kit to arrive... and I still haven't picked a set of wheels. Will has a nice set of tubulars up for grabs as long as we can find a Campy compatible freehub body. In the mail I have a mixed Campy group with an Easton cockpit on order.

Part 2: Progress