I wrote this after my accident and after seeing a few friends also have bad accidents. Hope you enjoy it...
RIDER DOWN! Bounce… And getting up again…
By Laurie Winslow
There are two basic kinds of riders, those who have been down and those who haven’t…YET. I am talking about motorcycles, because come to think of it, just about everyone has had a scrape or more at the expense of their childhood bicycle! Not many people scuffed themselves and then just gave up riding all together. Some of us continued that love as adults and ride motorcycles now. Some of us even continue to behave like kids with our bikes, but we won’t go into that now.
When an accident on your motorcycle happens, you may have been doing everything right. (Even professional riders can be in an accident.) There have been a number of our riding friends that have had this experience recently. When we ride together, we stress over and over again that you need to ride your own ride. Never try to keep up with another rider. No matter what your skill level, accidents can happen. The trick to riding again is realizing that you have been through scuffs before, and you need to discover how to find the fun in riding again.
When you were young, you probably had a bicycle, and not many people can say they never had an accident. I know I had some amazing ones! Usually it started out with “watch this!” among friends, and culminated into a great impression of Superman crossed with a hover craft over the pavement, and sometimes even the whole ragdoll cartwheel at the end! Honestly, girls are not immune to this sort of thing! I’ve had some spectacular mistakes with my bicycle and some of my friends have actually had to run to the bathroom because they were laughing so hard at my expense. I wasn’t so amused. I still got back on a bicycle and even ride one today. It isn’t much different with getting back on a motorcycle.
When you have an accident on a motorcycle, it is likely to be a more dramatic event then one on a bicycle, but you can get back out there. My accident was a one in a million kind of event that may never happen again. There was nothing I did wrong, yet it rattled me. First thing that caught my attention was seeing the rear tire sliding up alongside the front tire. It occurred to me that the bike was not designed to travel in this direction very well and it took all my skills to try and recover it back into a line of one tire in front of the other. Of course just as I got the rear tire to line up the bike still went over on its side and gouged the street. It also resulted in some injuries to me.
Going through the injuries can be a traumatizing experience, but it can also be funny to look at it from an outside the box point of view. An interesting thing is that adrenaline and the stuff they do to you in the hospital prevents you from realizing the extent of your injuries. Of course the family “smart mouth gene” kicked in hard to protect my ego as well. For some reason ER staff is not as amused by sarcasm. The trauma also prevented bleeding for a while, which was a fascinating subject in my warped sense of humor way. I also learned that when they ask you at the hospital if you want something for the pain before you leave, the correct answer is “YES!” The trauma, adrenaline, and what they do to you in the ER will keep you from feeling what your body has endured for a while. I was only a few blocks away when the pain started to set in. WOW! Not a fun time!
This was also a lesson in human behavior and test of relationships. We discovered that a person in pain does NOT follow instructions. My poor husband did everything he could to help me after leaving the hospital. I cannot stress enough that a person in pain will NOT follow instructions. Bull headed takes on a whole new meaning. You will also notice that after a rider has been down, they may be rattled and they won’t listen to you either! Advice is heard, but not often listened to. People rarely remember conversations at an accident scene.
The first time back to ride after my accident, I was ready for every gremlin and booger monster to get me. I had a nervous stomach and rode through intersections looking for rouge cars and big scary shadows and anything at all that might make the accident happen again. This is a common feeling for anyone who has had an accident. It is ok to feel a bit out of your comfort zone. So, then I thought that after getting through that, it is like getting back on the horse… I’m good to go now. Yeah, right!
The first season of riding again will be a test of confidence. Looking at it from outside the box, I think I have done some pretty good tailspins that would make the Tasmanian devil envious. Getting used to your bike again and missing something can lead to missing something else, which can quickly evolve into a meltdown of confidence and occasionally a full tantrum. After your initial ride that proves to you that you can still balance and work the clutch and brakes, there will be other tests of your skills. There will be times when you think this will be a great ride, and you encounter something that challenges your belief that you are ready to ride again. This can be an entertaining story later on.
For me the winds picked up on a longer ride, and I was being blown out of my lane on the road. I had to remind myself to hold the bars as loose as a bird, and not have the counterproductive crushing grip. I had to relax my elbows, although I wanted to fight the wind. It may be a test of riding skill, but once you get through the worst of it, the next time is easier. Pulling over and realizing that I was ok and had already been through the worst of it was “interesting” as I was preoccupied with fears of being blown off the road or into an oncoming car’s path, and then having to deal with needles in the ER again. (I am needle phobic) I had a pretty good horror flick running through my mind! Your mind can play some pretty mean tricks on you!
I had to pull over and have a moment of frustration. It was not a pretty sight. Some riders might pull over and scream, and others may have a moment to take a breath. I am glad my mother was not around to hear the mouth I had just before I got to the side of the road. Good thing our helmets don’t record. I’m sure there is a ton of off key singing out there as well as words our mothers don’t need to know about. Each day gets easier, and not taking yourself too serious goes a LONG way in being able to get back up and on the bike more.
Find humor in your riding and make it fun again. Get together with a friend who has also been rattled! That can be fun! Make a destination of a nearby pie house and then the next stop for ice cream. It may not be good for a diet, but the sugar will help counter the stress on you, and sure does make the next ride tempting! See you out there!
Here’s to more riding on the open road! …and less bouncing and sliding across it.
