Hello guys, It's been a really long time since my last post, and the reason for that is that I crashed.
Before I get into what I wanted to talk about, how did it happen?
I was riding around my town, I wasn't really going anywhere, just riding because I wanted to ride...makes me feel relaxed, "free" if you will.
Anyway I came up to an intersection shaped like this " =|| ", with 3 vertical lanes (2 going "up", 1 going the opposite direction) and 1 single lane in the road on the left. Slowed down, checked that the car in front of me wasn't going to turn into that road on the left and it didn't (I am a bit of a paranoid when driving around traffic), when the car passed the intersection I accelerated and next thing I knew there was a car in front of me, diagonally, and I was going straight into it.
That car was initially driving in the lane at the right side of mine, but the driver apparently decided that cutting from that lane, across mine and attempting to turn in that left road was a safe enough maneuver.
The moment I saw the car I slammed on my brakes while pulling my clutch, but really inside me I knew I was going to crash into it. Luckily, as I said before, I am paranoid when driving in traffic so I knew that there was a scooter on my right and that trying to dodge the car by turning right could have resulted in the girl driving the scooter to crash too, I also knew that no one was in the upcoming lane in that moment, so I opted to attempt to minimize the damage by swerving to the left. Of course I crashed into the car regardless of that, but at least it wasn't a full-frontal crash. Unfortunately this had another type of consequence...
Did I get hurt?
Well, the answer is yes and no. I did get hurt, but the injury was minimal compared to what it could have been, and that is because I was wearing full gear.
Before going into the details of how/where I got hurt, I was wearing the following:
-Leather jacket & pants (Alpinestar, not mine so I don't know the specific model)
-Riding boots (Dainese TR-Course Out)
-Gloves (Dainese Veloce)
-Back Protector (Dainese Manis)
-And of course the helmet (AGV K5)
As I said before, swerving to the left had some consequences, in fact when I crashed my right hand "punched" the car, the impact was strong enough that the handlebar broke almost completely in my hand. My body got pushed forward, I hit the tank (I later found out that the tank fairing broke away from the bolts holding it because of the impact) and flipped over the bike, slamming my back to the ground.
First thing I felt after falling was dizziness and an intense pain at my groin (hitting the tank really hurt), I couldn't really see well for a few moments, it seemed blurred...then I started seeing red drops of blood, and realized it was my nose.
I remember someone yelling at me to stay on the ground, even though I knew that was the right thing to do for some reason I felt the need to stand up, I wasn't thinking straight at all, lying on the ground made me angry for reasons I don't know how to explain and I even removed my helmet knowing I shouldn't have, I just couldn't stand the blood anymore as the inside of my helmet was drenched in it at that point.
I stood up, I saw a few cars stopped and people directing traffic around my bike and the car, someone approached me and told me they had already called the police and ambulance and they were on the way there, in that moment I wondered how much time had actually passed between when I fell and when I stood up for all that to have been done already, I have absolutely no clue...I then walked to the sidewalk and sat down.
People were talking to me, I could hear them but I wasn't really listening because at stupid as it may sound, from that sidewalk all I could see and care about was my poor crashed bike, I didn't even care if I was hurt or not, I was just sad for my little R3.
Eventually the ambulance arrived, they took me to the hospital to have me checked (X-rays, MRI and whatnot), and when the results came it turns out in the end I had absolutely nothing. Not a broken bone, not a bruise, literally not even the hint of a scratch, they only thing I had was a nosebleed that passed by itself before the ambulance arrived and a bit of groin pain.
Am I a lucky person? I surely am. But I believe what really saved me was the gear I was wearing, specifically the back protector as it was a direct and heavy slam on my back and I didn't feel a thing.
Funny enough I intended to buy aftermarket parts for my bike, but then I read the numerous advice on this forum about getting gear first and that's what I did, I've never been so grateful about advice from the internet.
Seriously, buy riding gear, it will save your life.
Thoughts
It's funny how no matter how carefull and cautious you can be, anything can go wrong regardless. It doesn't matter how flawless and faultless your riding is, you have to have a thousand eyes and your full attention when riding your bike, and even then it still might not be enough, and it scares me.
The accident itself didn't scare me and riding again doesn't scare me, I was ready to ride the bike home if it weren't for the extensive damage, what scared me was feeling powerless.
I didn't get hurt, but the thought that my life could get scarred forever, or worse, end entirely...because of something I have no power to avoid leaves me with a huge amount of bitterness, the idea that being in the wrong place at the wrong time is enough for that to happen makes me angry.
And yet, as I've been having these thoughts since a few weeks ago when I crashed, all I've really wanted since then is to just hop on my bike and go for another ride.
My non-rider friends call it idiocy but I call it passion, because I know that no matter how much I'm aware of the intrinsic dangers of riding, I could never give it up for anything else.
