LanC
Pack Dog
This is kind of a ride report and an "oh my hat how much does it costs to fall off a bmw in sand" rant. So I had my first off on a bike where I've hurt myself exactly six weeks ago. I've been putting off typing anything because doing so with one hand is very slow and frustrating.
I decided to join the guys at sandcamp one fine Sunday morning for a ride around the parklands bush. My sand riding experience has been limited to three times through Eselbank's famous sand strip to Wuppertal and one other sandcamp session a few weeks prior to this fall.
We headed off down along the rail way and just after the Whoops ended we found we'd lost Chad and Dodgyloss. N[]vA turned around to look for them while SandStar, Simon and I had a little rest.
I fell over quite a few times but felt like I was slowly conquering that little sand monster.
Almost at the end of our first loop I was confidently cruising over the sand toward the finish line. Then !SURPRISE! this trench pops up out of nowhere right in front of me. I did not have time to turn, break or accelerate and my front wheel went straight into 30cm deep ditch. The last thing I remember was my chin hitting the windshield bracket then the next thing I remember was on ground crawling towards my bike to switch off the engine. I could not move my left hand and I suspected something was broken. Dodgyloss drove my bike to SandStar's place and they both returned with his four wheel ride to transport me to the hospital.
In the picture below the yellow circle is where my front wheel hit and the orange circle is pieces of my fairing left behind.
N[]vA and Simon help created some shade for me with their bikes and kept me entertained until the cage arrived.
Quote of the morning:
Dodgyloss: "Guys, for once we actually have a doctor with us!"
Chad: "I'm a microbiologist, not a trauma surgeon!"
Here is an aerial shot of where it all went south. The recorded gps track said I was going 50km/h at the time off the crash.
On the way to the hospital my dad phones and asks me to bring a trailer as his friend had just cooked a corner on Gydo Pass. No can do.
At the hospital I had to wait about an hour before they could get medical aid to give the approval. We managed to get the glove off without them having to cut it off and this is what my hand looked like.
Morphine kept me calm and Zanie arrive to keep me company and help remove the MX boots which the nurses didn't have a clue with. Got the below x-ray back and was diagnosed with a shattered wrist.
I'm not sure if I busted the wrist on from the sudden stop while still holding on to the handle bars or if got hurt from diving into the ground.
The orthopaedic surgeon told I'd messed it up real badly and he plans install some plates and screws. The op was at 4PM. Zanie took my kit home and took some pics of the bike. Just a few missing fairing pieces and the steering was slightly out of alignment. I take my wind screen off off when riding on sand so luckily that was not part of the crash as I'm sure I would have kicked it off when flying over the handle bars.
When I woke up it was even more sore than before. The good morphine and anaesthetics had worn off. The guy in the bed next to me had done exactly the same thing to his right wrist by falling off a ladder while trimming trees.
The doc came to see me at 8AM the next morning and said there weren't enough solid pieces of bone to install the hardware and he managed to get a good result with the closed reduction procedure and installed a temporary surgical pin (which I like to call a tent peg). I was discharged at 9AM. I had fresh x-rays taken on Tuesday to confirm everything is still in place besides a few stray random bits of bone still floating off on their own.
Took the week off work as I was too dizzy and sleepy from the myprodol and I could not sit at a desk very long for the first few days. Stopped with the pain meds on Friday to feel human again. Had to keep the arm elevated as much as possible to prevent further swelling. Sleeping was not an easy task. Found some extra bruises around my hips, elbow, knee and shoulder.
After straightening the steering my dad drove my bike to Donfords on valentines day as it was booked in for its 20k service on the 18th so I asked them for a quote to fix the broken bits. I don't have insurance so I told them not to worry about any item with scratches, just the broken bits. I gave them a call on the 20th and told me they are still stripping the bike to access the damage while they service it.
The first 10 days of a broken wrist were the most painful and after 14 days most of the pain and discomfort had disappeared. I could also start moving my fingers after two weeks. Next call to bmw was on the 3rd March and they still had nothing but promised me one soon. The next day they came back to me with a quote for 77k
:deal:
I went in on the 6th to discuss the quote and they basically quoted me for getting the bike in show room condition again so any part with the slightest scratch needed to be replaced according to them. The only mechanical issue I could see was one leaky fork seal, the rest was all cosmetic damage. They had not serviced the bike yet and it did not look like it had been stripped for any inspection. I told them which parts I don't mind having light scratches and knocked off about 80% of the items on that crazy quote. I had to wait another week and three more phone calls for the revised quote to arrive so that I could accept it before they order anything.
The revised quote was missing a few items so after another few phone calls and ignored call me backs I told them to just order the stuff so long as my cast is coming off in the next 10 days. It seems to me that they have very little interest in helping a customer they cannot make a full 77k from. My last call to them was on the 16th to check if they have ordered any parts and guess what, most of items on a few weeks back order from supplier. This whole lack of after sales service from bmw has left a real bad taste in my mouth. I'm not expecting to get my bike back before the end of April but I'll hold thumbs anyway.
My hospital bill was 23k so far (excluding any upcoming physio) which is how I got to the hundred grand fall in the sand :eek7:
It's been six weeks exactly and I went to show Zanie the crash site and take some photos. This is the what the trench looked like from the angle I approached it from. You can see how well camouflaged the trench I'm standing in is hiding.
This one is looking back to the direction where I came from. The depth of the trench is a little more evident now.
The most ironic part of the visit was when I noticed that my off happened on the corner of ARM STRONG and SAND DOWN roads :imaposer:
The cast comes off on Tuesday and they yank that little tent peg out as well. Check out this video on how how they remove a tent peg from your wrist.
Thanks to the wild dogs that helped me out on my first hundred grand fall in the sand
- Thanks Zanie for keeping me company at the hospital and carting my kit home
- Thanks Dodgyloss and SandStar for driving my bike home and transporting me to the hospital.
- Thanks N[]vA, Chad and Simon for keeping me company while waiting for the cage to arrive.
I decided to join the guys at sandcamp one fine Sunday morning for a ride around the parklands bush. My sand riding experience has been limited to three times through Eselbank's famous sand strip to Wuppertal and one other sandcamp session a few weeks prior to this fall.
We headed off down along the rail way and just after the Whoops ended we found we'd lost Chad and Dodgyloss. N[]vA turned around to look for them while SandStar, Simon and I had a little rest.
I fell over quite a few times but felt like I was slowly conquering that little sand monster.
Almost at the end of our first loop I was confidently cruising over the sand toward the finish line. Then !SURPRISE! this trench pops up out of nowhere right in front of me. I did not have time to turn, break or accelerate and my front wheel went straight into 30cm deep ditch. The last thing I remember was my chin hitting the windshield bracket then the next thing I remember was on ground crawling towards my bike to switch off the engine. I could not move my left hand and I suspected something was broken. Dodgyloss drove my bike to SandStar's place and they both returned with his four wheel ride to transport me to the hospital.
In the picture below the yellow circle is where my front wheel hit and the orange circle is pieces of my fairing left behind.
N[]vA and Simon help created some shade for me with their bikes and kept me entertained until the cage arrived.
Quote of the morning:
Dodgyloss: "Guys, for once we actually have a doctor with us!"
Chad: "I'm a microbiologist, not a trauma surgeon!"
Here is an aerial shot of where it all went south. The recorded gps track said I was going 50km/h at the time off the crash.
On the way to the hospital my dad phones and asks me to bring a trailer as his friend had just cooked a corner on Gydo Pass. No can do.
At the hospital I had to wait about an hour before they could get medical aid to give the approval. We managed to get the glove off without them having to cut it off and this is what my hand looked like.
Morphine kept me calm and Zanie arrive to keep me company and help remove the MX boots which the nurses didn't have a clue with. Got the below x-ray back and was diagnosed with a shattered wrist.
I'm not sure if I busted the wrist on from the sudden stop while still holding on to the handle bars or if got hurt from diving into the ground.
The orthopaedic surgeon told I'd messed it up real badly and he plans install some plates and screws. The op was at 4PM. Zanie took my kit home and took some pics of the bike. Just a few missing fairing pieces and the steering was slightly out of alignment. I take my wind screen off off when riding on sand so luckily that was not part of the crash as I'm sure I would have kicked it off when flying over the handle bars.
When I woke up it was even more sore than before. The good morphine and anaesthetics had worn off. The guy in the bed next to me had done exactly the same thing to his right wrist by falling off a ladder while trimming trees.
The doc came to see me at 8AM the next morning and said there weren't enough solid pieces of bone to install the hardware and he managed to get a good result with the closed reduction procedure and installed a temporary surgical pin (which I like to call a tent peg). I was discharged at 9AM. I had fresh x-rays taken on Tuesday to confirm everything is still in place besides a few stray random bits of bone still floating off on their own.
Took the week off work as I was too dizzy and sleepy from the myprodol and I could not sit at a desk very long for the first few days. Stopped with the pain meds on Friday to feel human again. Had to keep the arm elevated as much as possible to prevent further swelling. Sleeping was not an easy task. Found some extra bruises around my hips, elbow, knee and shoulder.
After straightening the steering my dad drove my bike to Donfords on valentines day as it was booked in for its 20k service on the 18th so I asked them for a quote to fix the broken bits. I don't have insurance so I told them not to worry about any item with scratches, just the broken bits. I gave them a call on the 20th and told me they are still stripping the bike to access the damage while they service it.
The first 10 days of a broken wrist were the most painful and after 14 days most of the pain and discomfort had disappeared. I could also start moving my fingers after two weeks. Next call to bmw was on the 3rd March and they still had nothing but promised me one soon. The next day they came back to me with a quote for 77k
:deal:
I went in on the 6th to discuss the quote and they basically quoted me for getting the bike in show room condition again so any part with the slightest scratch needed to be replaced according to them. The only mechanical issue I could see was one leaky fork seal, the rest was all cosmetic damage. They had not serviced the bike yet and it did not look like it had been stripped for any inspection. I told them which parts I don't mind having light scratches and knocked off about 80% of the items on that crazy quote. I had to wait another week and three more phone calls for the revised quote to arrive so that I could accept it before they order anything.
The revised quote was missing a few items so after another few phone calls and ignored call me backs I told them to just order the stuff so long as my cast is coming off in the next 10 days. It seems to me that they have very little interest in helping a customer they cannot make a full 77k from. My last call to them was on the 16th to check if they have ordered any parts and guess what, most of items on a few weeks back order from supplier. This whole lack of after sales service from bmw has left a real bad taste in my mouth. I'm not expecting to get my bike back before the end of April but I'll hold thumbs anyway.
My hospital bill was 23k so far (excluding any upcoming physio) which is how I got to the hundred grand fall in the sand :eek7:
It's been six weeks exactly and I went to show Zanie the crash site and take some photos. This is the what the trench looked like from the angle I approached it from. You can see how well camouflaged the trench I'm standing in is hiding.
This one is looking back to the direction where I came from. The depth of the trench is a little more evident now.
The most ironic part of the visit was when I noticed that my off happened on the corner of ARM STRONG and SAND DOWN roads :imaposer:
The cast comes off on Tuesday and they yank that little tent peg out as well. Check out this video on how how they remove a tent peg from your wrist.
Thanks to the wild dogs that helped me out on my first hundred grand fall in the sand
- Thanks Zanie for keeping me company at the hospital and carting my kit home
- Thanks Dodgyloss and SandStar for driving my bike home and transporting me to the hospital.
- Thanks N[]vA, Chad and Simon for keeping me company while waiting for the cage to arrive.
