Ope, I Crashed My Bike!

On the day I was planning to create content about me and my bike, well, I crashed my bike!!

August 15th - I created a schedule, typically post content 2x every week and I was already behind. What better thing to talk about other than my little bike. I had a Kawasaki Z125 - which is a fun, small bike and the competitor to the Honda Grom.

The day before, August 14th, we went out for a short ride in town. It was fun, removed some of my anxiety. See - I'm still getting a feel for my bike as I don't ride more often. It all went well until I got home, turned in the driveway, hitting the breaks too hard and falling face down. It was pretty funny and pathetic, but hey... I guess part of learning right? What worse that can happen?

I rewarded myself by putting my beloved Nelliel sticker on my bike.

So what's the worse that could happen, right?

Definitely not the worst but most definitely not any better than my faceplant antics.
En route to Neenah, I did the boo-boo.
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Things seem to happen so fast, but my memory repeats it in slow-motion. Thankfully no one else was hurt and no, I wasn't hit by another vehicle. I did the biggest rookie mistake of panicking, and I'm glad that we were not in a busy section.

I have to say though, I hate roundabouts when riding motorcycles!! It took me a while to get used to while driving a car.

TLDR - I was turning in a roundabout, went too wide, panicked, broke too hard, fell on my left side, slid, and hit a curb.

I've never had a major accident before, never broke a bone, never needed major surgery. Surprisingly, I'm in tact and alive! I think the worse accident I had before this was diving in a pool that had a broken light bulb (you know, those lights on the side of the pool to light it up at night) and caught my 2nd toe. It needed 6 stitches but that was it.

Thankfully there were cars stopped at the roundabout who came to my aid and called the Bear. My arm was very painful and my back was burning. I wasn't sure if it was the heat of the pavement or what, but it was burning so bad. My arm was throbbing and I kept asking, is it broken? No one can confirm, I was told to stay put and not move. Someone gently put a blanket underneath me and we waitied.

I felt so bad for inconveniencing everyone else and making Bear worry. It was a mix of pain and guilt, to be honest. Rookie mistake but glad I was alive. I was wiggling my toes, wiggling my fingers. They put a neck brace on me but the medics were too busy to take a photo. I really wanted that photo (darn it)! Like I child, I was pretty excited that I got to ride the techy ambulance.

Fact: We don't have a lot of modern ambulances in the Philippines. I've rode in one before. They usually would convert a van into an ambulance and it's pretty simple without the gadgets and electronics inside.

I was very amused by the stretcher. Yep, the little things. Anyways, the medics were able to remove my hoodie without needing to cut it up. My arm wasn't broken from the looks of it but still needed checking of course. I was taken to the E.R. and for a moment I felt like I'm in Grey's Anatomy or Scrubs. More like Grey's Anatomy, getting rushed to the E.R. "Trauma patient, female, injury on the arm and complains about burning on back..."

I got my wounds cleaned, and I did get a long muffler burn across my lower back just missing my tattoo by a centimetre. X-rays confirm no broken bones, had a pretty bad road rash (aka skinned flesh) on my arm, which sadly, did hit a portion of my new tattoo, and sprains on my leg and thumb. Overall - alive and well! 

Then of course I checked the county scanner....

I did have some thoughts after all these, and a little bit of reflection.

I could've died if not for wearing gear!

I really could've died if I wasn't wearing a helmet. I watched myself approaching the curb and I hit my head and my left body on it. If I didn't wear a helmet, I would have a pretty bad head injury and I could only imagine. The impact wasn't bad enough to break my neck, but I sprained my arm and bruised my left body pretty bad. My left arm hasn't recovered it's full mobility and I'm having problems moving in certain angles.

I'll always wear a jacket or a mesh jacket from now on.

Wearing a long sleeved hoodie absolutely helped and my injuries are not so bad than what it would've been if I was only wearing a shirt on that hot, sunny day. However, I still ended up with a road rash which hurts really bad, and a 2nd degree burn. If I was wearing a jacket, it wouldn't have lifted and the protected me from the muffler. It would've also helped preventing the road rash - motorcycle jackets have thicker material and usually have extra plastic pads and mesh.

Will I ever ride a bike again?

Yes, most definitely. At first, I felt apprehensive of getting on one again. But I think I learned valuable lessons and I will try again. I know that my main struggle is clutches and shifting - for the life of me, my brain cannot comprehend this well enough. I can do complex things quickly but I guess I'm just not mechanically inclined. That being said - my goal is to get an automatic motorcycle next year! Some elitists would say it's cheating but hey, I would still like to ride!

I therefore conclude that 08/15/20, so far, has been the most eventful day for my year.