15.9.07
Crash

I was going into town to run an errand.  Shortly after I'd set off, on
Leys Avenue at about 20mph, something suddenly locked up my front
wheel.  I went flying over the handlebars.

I landed moderately well considering - a few cuts, some impressive
bruises and very dramatic black eye which lasted around a week.  I was
badly shaken; some nearby householders came out to attend to me and
summoned medical help, so that I was ferried to casualty who cleaned
up my wounds and superglued a couple of cuts.

I managed to use my hands to kill of most of my downward and
forward-rolling momentum during landing; as a result I only hit my
head a glancing blow on the road (while I was still travelling
forwards at quite some speed).  Bruises on the fronts of both
shoulders show that I took some of the impact there too, with my head
craned back; I also had scrapes on my hands and arms and bruises on my
knees and chest.  It seems that I managed to convert most of my
forward speed into a roll shortly after the initial impact, so I
avoided serious road rash.


If I had been wearing a helmet it would certainly have hit the road
much more solidly than my head did, simply because it would stick out
more.  I think it would probably have knocked my head back further
than my neck would have liked; an alternative scenario is that the
helmet front edge would have crushed and caught on the road and
twisted my head forward underneath me.

So I think that in this case not wearing a helmet might well have
saved me from very serious neck and/or brain injury.  Instead I just
had cuts, bruises and shock, leaving me as walking wounded and now
fully recovered.


The root cause appears to have been the front camera coming off its
mounting (which had been somewhat loose and on subsequent inspection
turns out to have had a crack).  The camera seems to have fallen into
the front wheel.

I had to do some data recovery because the front camera stopped
working during the crash.  However, in the video you can clearly see
the front camera's image flail about wildly for a substantial fraction
of a second before the rear camera shows the bike's forward motion
being almost instantly replaced by vertical rotation.  The camera
itself is also badly scuffed and has what look like gouges from
spokes.

So I think I have only myself to blame and I've obviously now become
paranoid about anything loose near my handlebars.  I've not had
properly working cameras since this incident as I've been rather busy
and haven't got around to reworking the front camera attachment.


In the video please disregard the night scene which suddenly replaces
the front camera view.  This is whatever happened to be in some of the
flash card sectors during my data recovery, and isn't relevant.  I
left it in because I couldn't be bothered to take it out and because
it's vaguely amusing.  That night-time video shows me stopping for
some reason; I don't remember why and the video doesn't offer any
clues.