10 Tips For Cycling Accident Victims

10 Tips For Accident Victims:

1. Ride with a cell phone, personal identification, emergency contact, and something to write with.

2. Dial 911: call the police or an ambulance immediately. If you are unable to do so, ask someone to help.

3. Always wait for the police to arrive and file an official accident report. A police report provides documentation detailing the incident, including the identity of witnesses.

4. Get the business card of the officer.

5. Leave your bike in the same state it was after the accident, if possible. It is best if the police see the accident scene undisturbed.

6. Obtain the contact information of any witnesses.

7. Immediately seek medical attention, either at the scene, the emergency room, hospital or doctor's office. When in doubt go to the ER! Give all complaints to the doctor. Medical records are proof that you were injured and document the extent of your injuries.

8. Take photos of injuries and keep a diary of how you feel after the accident.

9. Never negotiate with the driver of the vehicle, regardless of who may be at fault. Get the driver's name and his or her insurance information, along with the names of any passengers.

10. Give no written or recorded statements to anyone.

One week ago...

It's been just one short week since Clive Sweeney was struck and killed by a vehicle while riding on Pleasant Green Road. Here's thinking of you Clive: 53x11 from now on.

I stole this photo of Clive from the website that his family set up to remember his life. If you haven't checked this out it's worth a minute: for those (like me) who only knew Clive in passing, it's a great way to learn what an interesting, multi-faceted life he led.

hot. Hot! HOT!!!

Sunday was the hottest day of the year so far, with temperatures topping 100 degrees, so we thought we could sneak in an early morning ride before it got too hot. Early was only moderately early. John has been known to push for 6:00 or 7:00 start times, but Linus' appearance seemed to suggest that the 8:00 meeting time was way to early. I too was actually about 10 minutes late. We had the bikes loaded up by about 8:20. The temperature was about 80 degrees and climbing. We were squandering our window of (moderately) cool temperatures.

As both native and naturalized North Carolinians we roll southern-style. Not with stars-and-bars or NASCAR hats, but fueled on Biscuitville. Linus and Ali were already kitted-up in lycra and I didn't make them go into the store. The tally:
Dave: 2 egg and cheese biscuits
Chris: 1 egg and cheese biscuit
Linus: 1 biscuit (w/ butter)
Ali: 1 biscuit (w/ butter)
John: 0 biscuits

We finally reached the trailhead about 9:00. Temperature climbing through the 80s. After an easy non-Pirate-led warmup, and a wrong turn or two (since only Pirate knows the way around these trails), we were rolling along nicely. I was in the lead and saw a nice little mound in the trail which I thought would be nice to take a little jump over. Now know this: when I speak of a little jump, I do mean little. I'm not really any good at jumping. So it's not surprise that somehow, within the 2-inch maximum cruising altitude of my flight, I managed to steer my front wheel off the trail, into a rut of leaves, and totally bite the dust. There are no pictures, but John said it looked "totally rad". Linus, who was cruising along closely behind me, did not expect such a rookie mistake and skillfully avoided running me over, but ended up crashing as well. Unlike normal crashes (yes, I crash fairly frequently), I got the wind knocked out of me, which hadn't happened in years and was still kind of a scary experience. I think I also bumped my head, so it took me a few minutes to get myself back together and riding again. The other thing about this crash is that it's reminded me that I'm getting old. I woke up this morning sore in numerous different places.

And so we were riding again. Drinking liters and liters of liquid. Eating magic electrolyte strips. Sweating profusely. The temperature was now in the mid 90s and we were each entering our own personal hells. The tally of symptoms:
Dave: beginning to stop sweating, thirsty
Chris: bruises, minor brain damage, very sweaty
Linus: goosebumps, thirsty
Ali: still feeling injuries from previous week's crashes
John: irritable rider syndrome, still bmx-less

In summary: When it's 100 degrees, don't ride hot trails. Stay indoors. Drink cold beer. Read bicycle blogs on the internets. Shop for new headsets and 24" bmx cruisers. Please, do not go outside.

"The unblogged life is an unfulfilled life"-Pirate

Pirate's admonishment, offered at the start of yesterday's heat fest, motivates today's entry. Although, Chris O. has already recounted the highlights of our trip I thought I'd proffer my own view and by doing so find some elusive fulfillment. And I have photos, too.

It was hot. No one with good sense should ride his or her bike in this weather. We lack good sense even the Professor, whose crash was as quick as it was unexpected. But that's mountain biking for you: a reminder of human limits and humility. Here's us reflecting upon the frailty of our shared human condition after the Professor's crash. Oh folly.

This was early in the ride, which picked up speed to match the escalating temperatures. Linus and Dave looked good when I saw them, which was mainly at the rest intervals and as they accelerated away from me. Linus, in particular, was on a banner day. He looked smooth and confident on his bike despite not being able to recall his last mountain bike ride. Pirate was his normal self. As I gasped to Chris before he rode away from me once again, "The game is strong in him." And it is.

As noted earlier, I have been suffering the after effects of injuries sustained during my last two mountain bike rides. The first and perhaps more serious is a very bruised tailbone that I acquired at the end of an otherwise spectacular ride in the Duke Forest during the prior week's thunderstorm. Coming back home through Duke's campus, my back tire slipped on the wet slate walkway as I tried to avoid an errant pedestrian and I fell to the ground. Painfully. I tried to tough in out last Wednesday during my ride with Dave, but only made things worse when I fell over my bars while descending. While Dave judged my fall "graceful" its damage- two slightly sprained wrists- was not. After several days of rest, ibuprofen, and ice, I joined the boys on Sunday hoping to keep up but that was not to be. It's hard to feel comfortable on your bike and turn pedals when your contacts points are ill at ease. My body was capable of producing only a few phrases of the body english required to ride effectively.

But in the end, the heat was an equalizer with all of us rolling the last miles to the car listlessly. Linus' situation was most acute and he availed himself of Pirate's ice packs and cold water in an effort to find relief. What did I say about mountain biking as the teacher of human limits, frailty, and humility?

Chris and Linus post-crash:

Notice that even in 100 degree heat, and after knocking himself a little silly on the ground, the Professor remains cool, calm, collected, and fully zipped-up: the guy's a phenomenon.

The scene of the crime:

Linus icing his jibblies:

If you click the photo above to make it bigger, you'll notice that you can see Ali over Linus's shoulder, and that he clearly does not approve, though it's unclear if it's of the icing or the photographing thereof.

BCC, fully Focused:

The Pathfinder will be greatly missed, but the new floor mats make the Focus totally pimp.

Edit: Text by Ali, pictures and captions by John. We tag-teamed on this entry.

Critical Mass ride begins with moment of silence

As we gathered around Major for the monthly Critical Mass ride through downtown Phillip Baron took a moment to describe the accident on Pleasant Green and to say something brief about bicycling safety and Clive Sweeney's death. We then took time to observe a moment of silence for Clive, his family, and his friends.

With that rather somber beginning, the ride was a little lower-key than usual, though the rather ridiculous temperature might have put a damper on some of our enthusiasm as well. Chris, Dave, and I cruised around Durham with the diverse crew for a leisurely hour or so before adjourning to Bull McCabe's for some post-ride carbing. It was great to see all the people that came by after the ride -- there were probably 15 or so CMers there -- to enjoy a hot, humid night on the patio.

Brian also joined us, though he spent less time talking and more time grooming his euro-mullet. Some kids are just too cool for school.

I would have some pictures, but either Ali, JD, Brian, Erin, or the shop has my camera.

Until next month, keep rubbin' Major's nose!

Driver charged in cyclist's death

ABC11 has the story about the driver who struck Clive here, along with a picture of the driver. Here is the text of the story:

ORANGE COUNTY (WTVD) -- Orange County authorities charged the driver of a SUV in the death of a cyclist.

North Carolina Highway Patrol Trooper Matt Smith told Eyewitness News charges were filed Wednesday.

Ryan Idyle, 26, is charged with misdemeanor death by vehicle, careless and reckless driving and driving left of center.

The accident happened around 8 a.m. Tuesday on Pleasant Green Road in Orange County.

The bicyclist was 59-year-old Clive Sweeney.

Sweeney was hit head-on by a SUV that lost control and crossed the center line. He died at the scene and Idyler suffered minor injuries.

I hope that the coverage that this incident has gotten will raise people's awareness about the busy -- and shared -- nature of our roads. Just a little less speed and a little more awareness could make things safer for all involved: cyclists, motorists, motorcyclists, and pedestrians. Here's hoping.

New Video posted by ABC 11

ABC 11 - Durham aired another bicycle story this evening on their evening news. Click here to see a video and/or read the report.

My co-worker Matt (from Greenways Inc.) and myself were interviewed on the topic of existing area bicycle conditions and the need for adequate bicycle facilities on local roads.

Once again thank you to ABC 11 for devoting air time to bicycling.

Thank you ABC 11 - Durham

Many thanks go out to Durham based ABC 11 and reporters Sabrina Zimring and Gerrick Brenner for running stories on both of their newscasts last night about the tragic death of Durham cyclist, Clive Sweeney.

Click here to see the two news stories that were aired on ABC 11 yesterday.


Please be safe out there everyone.

Also don't forget Durham's Monthly Critical Mass Ride is happening this Thursday. The cycling awareness ride begins at 5:35 pm in Downtown Durham at "Major" in the CCB Plaza. See Map Below:


View Larger Map

Memorial Bicycle Ride Today in Durham - 5:30pm

Cycling Community-

We lost another cyclist today. If you have not heard the news, a local Durham cyclist was killed this morning when an SUV hit them on Pleasant Green Road in Orange County....just west of Durham.

Bull City Cycling is organizing a short road ride today in honor of our fallen friend.

Please join us at 5:30pm today as we roll out from Durham
(Note: This ride is replacing our normal Tuesday Evening training ride.)

Our route is as follows:
-Meet at 639 Broad Street in Durham (The Bicycle Chain and Whole Foods Shopping Center)


View Larger Map

-Head out of town on Erwin Road to Morreene Road to American Village
-American Village to Neal Road
-Neal Road to Bennett Memorial Road
-Bennett Memorial Road to Hwy 70
-Hwy 70 to Old NC 10
-Old NC10 to Mt Herman Church Road
-Mt. Herman Church Road to Pleasant Green Road

On Pleasant Green we will ride to Ebenezer Church Road and pause.

After we will return to Durham.

I know this is short notice. Please spread the word to all.

Our hope is to honor our friend and raise awareness for bicycles.

Thank you and please pass the word on......

Bull City Cycling Team

Things I hope never to see in person

This was the result of a car crashing into the pack while an organized bike race was in progress in Mexico:


I'm not sure how the picture was taken, but the result is pretty terrifying. I stole the article from CNN and I'm sure that there must be more information elsewhere, but the outlines are that a drunk twenty-something American fell asleep while driving and allowed his car to careen into the pack just south of Brownsville, Texas. At least one cyclist has died.

Be careful out there.


Edit, Wednesday, 9am : I eventually turned up a little more information from the local NBC affiliate, KVEO. Here's a snippet of the article:

The third annual bike tour "Matamoros-Playa Bagdad" started at 8 o' clock Sunday morning. Hundreds of people, from little ones to adults, joined the 21-mile race. They thought it was a family outing, but little did they know, 30 minutes later, a man under the influence of alcohol ended the life of Brownsville resident, 30-year-old Alejandro Alvarez.

TORC Skills Day at REI Durham

Last Thursday evening JD and I headed over to REI to conduct an hour and a half "Mountain Biking 101" workshop. We had an enthusiastic audience who peppered us with questions during our discussion of bike setup (26ers? 29ers? advantages of each?), riding equipment (funny padding in shorts, is it a good idea?), and riding skills. The last one was the hardest to commmunicate in a class-room setting and is better taught on the trail. Below JD shares the wisdom of his riding years with the audience.


We tried to emphasize the fun and enjoyment we've both found in mountain biking. In addition to the social aspects that keep each of us coming back, there's an attentiveness and appreciation that one gains to the change of the seasons in the forest through mountain biking. Our ride earlier this spring at New Light was a vivid illustration of this kind of change.



There are several notable social events for mountain bikers on the horizon. National Trails day on Saturday, June 7th. TORC will be working at Crabtree on that day, Our friends at Trips for Kids hosts rides for area school kids regularly and can always use volunters. Finally, the Triangle Mountain Bike Festival and Curse of the Crab 6 hour races are scheduled for October 4th. Mark your calendars.

The Test: Dropping Science Part 2

I arrived at the K-Lab not really knowing what to expect. Well, I expected to answer a questionnaire, sign some legal waivers, get weighed, then ride my bike on a trainer for an hour while being periodically pricked on a finger so blood could be drawn, meanwhile eating some sort of semi-experimental electrolyte product. And, yes, that's pretty much what happened. But blogging is all about telling a story that turns into some other story, a much longer, more hilarious, other story. So here's that story.

I actually expected something unexpected to happen, like them telling me I couldn't drink any water, or that I would need to wear some scientific burlap cycling shorts, or that Coach K would dash out from one of the offices and start prodding me with a trident. None of these things happened.

Once, this other time, I participated in a study that measured several products' ability to speed glycogen replenishment in leg muscles after intense exercise. Sounds cool, right? The catch is that to replenish glycogen, you need to deplete all of your glycogen, also known as bonking. So, the experiment involved riding the bike on a trainer for about 2 hours, really hard, then sprinting. The body is smart, though. Too smart for a silly study like this so when I started sprinting at the end, my body decided that this was important for survival (like escaping from a cheetah or something) and instead of just giving up and letting me bonk in peace, it somehow pulled more glycogen outta nowhere. This continued for another hour or so, interspersed with blood samples--not just little finger pricks, but little vials full, straight outta the vein--and tube-in-the-mouth oxygen measurements. It was total torture.

In this case, the K-Lab person, Cameron, was very nice. There were a few other staff members around during my first trial and a few other people doing some walking experiment during my second trial. The walking experiment involved some undergrad walking back and forth in front of an array of cameras while wearing spandex shorts and little fuzzy white balls taped to him. They were supposedly using some motion-capture equipment to do some sort of modern Al "Mr. 59" Geiberger SyberVision analysis (I'm still looking for a better link of this video, but it's a pretty hilarious golf technique video which was also the premise for a friend's theme party). The balls kept falling off, making their experiment seem even more ridiculous. They would occasionally look over at me, cranking away, while they sat around, re-adhering balls to his shorts.

So, in my most recent experiment, an hour on the bike wasn't so bad. Plus, there was Computrainer. If you have not experienced Computrainer, you've been missing out. Computrainer is computer software that you hook up to a stationary trainer and it allows you to race against a virtual competitor while it gauges your power, cadence, heart rate, speed, and dorkiness level. However, this was not a study of dorkiness, given the fact that most people who would decide to participate in this type of experiment are already off-the-chart dorks (see Dropping Science: Part 1). In any event, Computrainer is essentially a video game, a lot like Guitar Hero or Rockband but instead of five buttons and a whammy-bar, there are only two commands: pedal with your left leg and pedal with your right leg. There are also no guitar solos on Computrainer. It does, however change resistance as you go uphill or downhill.

Ah, Computrainer. Much like that strange compulsion that some people have that will cause them to drive to a smelly gym on a gorgeous North Carolina afternoon, jump on a treadmill, and stare at ESPN or CSPAN or ANTM, the Computrainer will make you never want to ride a bike outside again. Who needs the outdoors when you can watch a computer screen where you are playing this video game where your character is outdoors? The "level" I was on was a rolling landscape of green foliage and rocky knobs. It looked a lot like middle earth from the Lord of the Rings movies, sans hobbits, plus a silky-smooth car-free roadway. My character was on the left-hand side of the road, so it may have been in England.

But in an anachronistic twist, on this pastoral landscape, I was racing against the cyclist of the future. Yes, while riding on these magical roadways, your companion, or should I say nemesis, is not a mythical beast from the days of yore, but instead a futuristic uber cyclist who appeared to be made out of liquid mercury. Yes, if you dream that you are racing against Terminator 2 to save that really hot elf, then the people at Computrainer are stealing your thoughts. Also, you will like Computrainer. My cyber opponent, let's call him RoboFloyd, had a ridiculously high cadence (>120 rpm) and a bad habit of not slowing down when they were drawing blood, making me eat stuff, or when I just felt like slowing down. Even my normal technique to slow the pace down (sidling up to a compatriot and trying to get them involved in a conversation about equipment, nutrition, or their mother while I gradually slow down) didn't work. He was relentless...at least until I got too far behind. Once he got a few bike-lengths ahead, I think he was programmed to ease up until I caught him. After I figured this out, things were cooler. I realized that I would not be abandoned in this computer world and forced to battle my way out, like in Tron.

The cool thing about Computrainer (okay, all that other stuff was really cool, too), is that it produces tons of data. Here's a screenshot from one of my sessions:

I'll discuss the data in the next installment of this series, but here are the cool things about using a Computrainer:

* You can do a solid one-hour time trial test, which can be difficult on the open road since you need to contend with traffic, stop signs, and liquid-mercury humanoid rednecks throwing stuff from futuristic pickup trucks.

* You get to see all of the sweat you produce during a workout.

* You can avoid the outdoors, which is great if you are in Barrow, Alaska in January or if you are a reclusive novelist or if you haven't done laundry and don't want to wear your Rock Racing jersey with your white Quick Step bibs.
* You don't need to wear a helmet, so you can proudly display your EuroMullet (see Brochard or Bergler).
* You can listen to your headphones without fear of getting hit by a car. My recommendation for Computrainer 2.0 would be to team up with the Rockband people and make some course where you could race against a cycling robot on a floating pathway to the tune of Rush's "Tom Sawyer".

Next time: electrolytes=yum & data analysis.