There are two types of biker: those who have fallen and those who will
The trip
On a nice Saturday morning we’ve decided to go for an easy ride, couple hours all together to a nearby diner, nothing special, but the weather was too nice to let it go without riding a bike.
Easy tour, familiar road, what could go wrong, right?
My buddy came in jeans, because “it is too hot to put on the gear”.
The accident
Well, wrong…
We’ve just completed the interesting part of the route, 12 km of proper serpentine, my favorite. We were descending from the last hill when we caught up with a BMW that was going way too slow.
I was riding head, so I started taking over when I saw the old Suzuki going in front of it.
“Ok, cool, 2 in 1, no problem…” – I though, when the BMW turned on the blinker.
“He doesn’t see us” – was running through my head when I started braking gradually. And BAAM, my buddy hit my bike from behind sending us sliding towards the different edges of the road.
I came out without a scratch on me. Without the gear my buddy was bloody all over, he ended up in the hospital where they removed the fragment of his jeans from the burned wound on his knees.
Take-away
Always, always wear your gear
It doesn’t matter if you are “just going for groceries” or “just visit my buddy in town”, take the time to properly dress up, it can save your life.
It doesn’t matter if you’re the best rider ever lived, there is always going to be someone not giving priority, rear ends you, not using the mirrors or emergency breaks in front of you.
Just think about the accident of the Kentucky kid. He was a professional rider, yet he died after a traffic accident in Italy
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