Bike Crash Today

I'm ok. No injury.

I was stopped at the light at Call & Stadium on my way in to campus. It turned green and I began to cross Stadium. At about 3/4 of the way across the road, I hit the pavement. My left foot had come off the bike because the left crank arm had cracked about halfway between the spindle and the pedal. Luckily, there was no car traffic moving past me and I wasn't hit by a car. A pedestrian asked if she could help so I asked her to drag my bike to the corner. I assured her that I was OK and thanked her for her help. At that point a motorist who was turning left from Call Street campus side onto Stadium Drive said that her husband works in an adjacent building and that she could help. I asked for ice. She was very nice and I am grateful. That ice helped me keep the swelling down.

At that point, I appraised the damage: bloody left elbow and left knee. I can bend my joints fine without pain, it's just a little bit of road rash. A minute later, I noticed that my shorts were torn from above the wallet pocket to below the cargo pocket on the right side. My boxers are also torn and my butt's visible. At the moment, I didn't care. Later I wished I had a safety pin, but then realized that I had a pair of board shorts in my backpack so I slipped them on over everything else. Further damage was only noticed when I got home and took off my shorts. I'm scraped up on my right butt cheek and bruised and scraped on my left one. When I was taking a shower, I noticed that my left hand has a few pieces of black top inside. I pulled the biggest piece out but I think I'm going to let the tiny ones work their own way out.

I called Micah to see if he could get me since he has Mondays free and Erin had to work. I forgot that she was on her lunch break and would be free. I had been on my way to eat lunch with her so she offered to pick me up when I called to cancel our lunch plans. Micah showed up with first aid stuff and ended up taking my bike to the shop. He had already spoken with KHS by the time he arrived. The bike will be fixed tomorrow. Erin took me home, but had to go back to work.

If this crank arm had to snap, it did so at an ideal time. I was going slow on flat land without moving traffic next to me. I wasn't on my way to an appointment (or to run my experiment!). I didn't get injured and my head never touched the ground. I'm feeling a little sore now a couple hours later. I bet I'll be pretty sore tomorrow. With the exception of it happening on grass, I couldn't ask for a better crash.

The failed crank arm broke almost perfectly in half as you can see in the picture. I didn't get an amazing photo of the fatigue, but you can see the metal has turned a different color near the convex portion of the crank arm. There is some missing metal because the two pieces won't fit together quite right.