On the way home Friday I had an unplanned dismount. No other vehicles or persons involved so nobody to blame but myself. There's no pill for stupid!
I live in Midrand and so, often on the way home, I'll try to ride a short stretch of dirt, just for the shits and giggles. On Friday, the R101 was busy, so I decided to ride along the service road/tweespoor running alongside the Gautrain track barrier fence. There is a short section where the recent rain has washed away the track, leaving a shallow ditch. No problem with that, I'll simply ride around it and squeeze through between the wash away and the adjacent bushes. As I did so, I rode too close to the wash away and the side wall collapsed, taking me and the bike with it. My foot got jammed between the foot peg and the sidewall causing some mild discomfort.
Anybody driving home along the R101 seeing an old fart writhing around in the grass crying out 'Mommy!' - that was probably me.
Luckily the bike was still standing more or less vertically, leaning against the sidewall (thinking back, I had to lift it to get my foot out) and so I could ride the bike out along the wash away until I could get back onto the tweespoor.
When I got home I took my boot off to apply some ice and that's when my eyes really started to water. Did I mention that I have a very Low threshold of pain - I need a ge neral anaesthetic to pull the hairs out of my nose. Wife and daughter are in Cape Town so I got a friend (ok, so I only have one friend) to drive me to Unitas in Centurion. No bones broken, just a bad sprain and I have to go back in a week when the swelling is down to check for ligament damage.
An interesting side note: The X-rays revealed two old breaks in the bones in my foot. I can't remember ever having a caste on my right foot (still have the plates in my left ankle from a previous dismount - all Malibu's fault, but we all love her and I've forgiven her) but nothing on my right. These must have come from my fall on day 2 of the Kruger fences ride, when I had a few minor off's following the first fall, when I couldn't take weight on my right foot and went down every time I had to dab my foot for balance. So, to all you palooka's along on the trip that kept telling me I can't ride for sh!t, I have the, rather belated, evidence to support my case.
The doctor's parting comment to the nurse as she wheeled me out of the emergency room: "Look after Mr. Brodie- he's a repeat customer. All our biker's are repeat customers".
Bit of wry humouur, methinks.
A final thank you to all of the staff at Unitas. My injury was trivial, but they couldn't have treated me better.
Thank you all.
(Update: Added pics)
I live in Midrand and so, often on the way home, I'll try to ride a short stretch of dirt, just for the shits and giggles. On Friday, the R101 was busy, so I decided to ride along the service road/tweespoor running alongside the Gautrain track barrier fence. There is a short section where the recent rain has washed away the track, leaving a shallow ditch. No problem with that, I'll simply ride around it and squeeze through between the wash away and the adjacent bushes. As I did so, I rode too close to the wash away and the side wall collapsed, taking me and the bike with it. My foot got jammed between the foot peg and the sidewall causing some mild discomfort.
Anybody driving home along the R101 seeing an old fart writhing around in the grass crying out 'Mommy!' - that was probably me.
Luckily the bike was still standing more or less vertically, leaning against the sidewall (thinking back, I had to lift it to get my foot out) and so I could ride the bike out along the wash away until I could get back onto the tweespoor.
When I got home I took my boot off to apply some ice and that's when my eyes really started to water. Did I mention that I have a very Low threshold of pain - I need a ge neral anaesthetic to pull the hairs out of my nose. Wife and daughter are in Cape Town so I got a friend (ok, so I only have one friend) to drive me to Unitas in Centurion. No bones broken, just a bad sprain and I have to go back in a week when the swelling is down to check for ligament damage.
An interesting side note: The X-rays revealed two old breaks in the bones in my foot. I can't remember ever having a caste on my right foot (still have the plates in my left ankle from a previous dismount - all Malibu's fault, but we all love her and I've forgiven her) but nothing on my right. These must have come from my fall on day 2 of the Kruger fences ride, when I had a few minor off's following the first fall, when I couldn't take weight on my right foot and went down every time I had to dab my foot for balance. So, to all you palooka's along on the trip that kept telling me I can't ride for sh!t, I have the, rather belated, evidence to support my case.
The doctor's parting comment to the nurse as she wheeled me out of the emergency room: "Look after Mr. Brodie- he's a repeat customer. All our biker's are repeat customers".
Bit of wry humouur, methinks.
A final thank you to all of the staff at Unitas. My injury was trivial, but they couldn't have treated me better.
Thank you all.
(Update: Added pics)
