What Happened?

Many of you are aware that I had a bad bicycle accident on August 24. I decided to write the answer here to the question that many have asked: "What happened?"

I was riding a bike with dual sided pedals - plain steel mountain bike style flat pedal on one side and SPD clipless on the other. I was riding in running shoes. This combination should have dictated casual non-aggressive sit-down riding for city commuting. But its on a light weight early-90's Japanese steel racing bike that begs to be ridden hard. Add to the mix a rider who has no brains when it comes to cautious riding styles...

So I was standing up, accelerating away from a stop light. My right foot slipped off the front of the pedal and my foot got caught hanging just in front of the pedal. As I struggled for balance, the little voice in my head said "I'm going down!". I fell on my right side and my head hit the pavement hard enough to knock me out. The bike had tiny scratches on the front of the brake hoods with no other marks anywhere.

My body, on the other hand, took the brunt of the fall. My right shin was bloodied and scraped by teeth of the metal pedal. I cracked a right rib. My shoulder had a category 5 AC joint injury (ligaments ripped away from top of joint). My helmet had dents all along the right side.

Surgery will be required to fix the shoulder. Its scheduled for September 14. The doctor said he will wait for road rash to heal on top of my shoulder before he will perform surgery.