2/22 – Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall – 11 June 2024

A few days ago, I said to a friend, who was under a bit of stress, that it has to rain sometimes, so that you appreciate the sunshine when it returns. Well, this week has been monsoon season!

I also discovered today that when someone comments on my posts, I don’t get notified; I have to go online and look for them. So my apologies to everyone who has taken the trouble to comment, and heard …. Silence! I have penned – can you say that anymore? Keyboarded maybe? – a line or two in response to each. Promise to be more diligent in future.

So about that rainy spell.

Only a Minor Disaster? – 11 /12 June 2024

I left Terry and My Orab early on Tuesday morning having put back together. I decided to use only the kick start until I get around to check out the earth connections on the bike.

I had planned a route that was a bit sinuous, trying to take in short stretches of what were considered to be scenic, or interesting, rides. This meant I was partly relying on a route card I had prepared, and otherwise on my GPS.

Somewhere along the way, I took a wrong turn and had to rely totally on the GPS, telling it to take me the fastest way to my destination. The roads got smaller and suddenly I found myself on a gravel road.

Since I had set the GPS to avoid non-paved roads, I thought this would only be a short stretch, a bit like my previous experience in Fulton County. Not so! The road would through a forest, up a hill where the road was quite rough and on and on, through Tar Hollow State Park and Forest. The surface was good but had had ½” stones laid at some point. These were now concentrated at the sides and middle of the track, which made riding easy enough provided I took care on corners.

I had ridden on much worse roads, in Africa and elsewhere, so I knew I just had to keep it steady and all would be well. I was quite anxious all the same, because the area was quite isolated and I felt that if I did have a serious fall, I might lie for a while before someone came along; in Africa, I always knew that no matter how isolated the place seemed, as soon as I stopped, for whatever reason, someone would arrive within a short time.

I plodded on and finally after a few checks on Google Maps, saw the end of the road – the gravel road I mean. I was almost there – 100m to go – when I saw a large pothole, swerved to avoid it, and bang, thanks to a pile of those loose stones, ended up face down on the road sliding along with the bike on top of my leg.

Having righted the bike, and noting a hole therein, I dropped my jeans to find out why my knee was sore and discovered a nasty gash some 4-5 cm long and at least 1 cm deep. This I quickly covered with some iodine spray, a non-stick dressing and a crêpe bandage. I then took some pictures, repacked he bike and prepared to carry on.

Unfortunately, this was not to be as, within about 2 metres I nearly fell off again. Clearly something was wrong. A quick check revealed that the front wheel was about 30º out of alignment. No chance of continuing!

So I:

• Call bike insurance, obviously
• Call local bike shops, to ask about possible trailering and repair
• Call health insurance, even a minor repair could prove expensive
• Call Terry, because none of the bike shops are set up to come and pick up the bike or fix it on site.

I was doing all this calling from the porch of a house that conveniently was just next t the site of my fall. This was the home of Ali and Skyler – at least they were the only ones ther at the time – tow delightful girls who helped me feel  not so bad. Ali had just bred a litter of German Sherpherds and had 5 (I think) delightful pups gambolling about. The interesting thing was the colours; apparently, GSs come in 15 different colours ranging from white, the most common (in my, clearly limited,  experience) black and tan, the original sable to the more uncommon black and red, blue and liver colours. If you are interested in more detail, look here.  

A couple of hours later and Terry arrived with a trailer, and with the assistance of a guy whose truck we were blocking, we managed to load the bike and get it strapped down. An hour later he dropped me off at a walk-in health clinic.

Here the ladies, Andy at reception and Gwen in the treatment room, were extremely friendly. In a short period of time my wound was glued and dressed, and I was on my way. I did think, and said, that I thought stitches would be a better option, but was assured that glue was the done thing nowadays. What worried me slightly on reflection was that the cleaning and debridement had been quite perfunctory; I would have thought a good scrub and irrigation using H2O2 would have been in order. Anyway, I accept things as they are.

Next morning I went out to have a better look at the bike. The list of damage visible:

1)        Steering out of alignment

2)        Mud guard damaged

3)        Steering stop broken off – found just sitting there

4)        Dent in tank and some paint scratching

5)        Fairing damaged at front

6)        Crash bar bent

7)        Alternator cover damaged superficially

8)        Knee cut

9)        Trousers torn

10)  Battery completely discharged! I didn’t turn ignition off

Progressive, the insurance company responded quickly and arranged for an assessor to come and, well assess the damage. This was scheduled for Friday, but much to my surprise, and joy, I got a call just after midday, offering a visit that afternoon.

Ron the insurance man came out and informed me that because of the frame damage – steering stop broken – the bike is a write off. Their standards/policies or whatever require a damaged frame to be replaced with new, and since a new frame was not available, the bike was a write off.