Tuesday night B ride report by Charlie - 4/10/12

The B group started out with around 10 riders last night. We were on our way up Prospect Street and I was leading the group at a leisurely pace until we came up to Lawrence Street ( street on the left ) where a car stuck his SUV nose almost in front of me. I stopped pedaling and when you’re going uphill it’s the same as putting your brakes on. Also moved a bit to the left which almost took down the rider’s right in back of me because he overlapped my wheel a tad. Unfortunately Big Dave who was third wheel did kiss the pavement and absorbed most of the impact was on the left side of his face.

After checking to ensuring he was ok, we adjusted his bike and based on the external cuts I saw advised him to ride back to the shop and go to the hospital for stitches. I think he had more damage internally but I wasn’t sure about that.

So now I’m depressed and feeling responsible for what happened. Kept running over in my mind how I could have handled this differently. Did not get a lot of sleep last night thinking about this.

Continuing back up Prospect Street we made our way over to Route 70. I could sense that something was going wrong with my rear wheel and when we arrive near the soccer fields on route 70 it starting seizing up. I stopped and Mike from the shop determined that my rear hub was shot.

I instructed the rest of the group to continue on and that I would ride back to my car in Leominster. The rear wheel wobble staring getting so bad that even with my brake adjusted wide open it was still rubbing on the brake block. They were a couple of hills that I had to walk up it was that bad.

I finally got back to my car at 7pm, and dropped my rear wheel at the shop for them to perform an autopsy on the rear hub. I hope they can fix it and have it ready for Saturday’s mornings ride. If not I’ll have to go with my back up wheels.

I left the shop right away and went up to Leominster Hospital to check on my friend Dave. I figured I could keep him company while he was getting patched up. The ER waiting room was pretty packed but I located Dave and his wife was already with him to keep him company. Dave had an ice pack on the left side of his face to keep the swelling down and had not even seen the doctor yet. Looked like he was going to be there awhile so I left and drove back to the shop to give everyone and update on Dave.




I guess the rest of the B ride was uneventful and I feel awful about what happened last night.



Here’s an email I received from Dave.

After a 4 hour stint in the ER and 5 stitches on the outer lip and 3 on the inner lip, a tetanus shot and a sore wrist, I am doing OK.

The bike is fine as far as I could tell.. Thanks Daren for straightening out the handlebars. I will check for further damage tomorrow.

I have penicillin to take for 5 days.