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i had an accident about a week and a half ago, i quickly nipped out of my house to go to the shops wearing my jeans and the obligatory leather jacket. not far from my house i was breaking for the traffic lights and as i put the brakes on doing around 40 i crossed from tarmac onto some new shellgrip. the front went immediatly and i slid down the road at 30mph on my knee. Jeans obviously offered no protection at all as i have left my knee cap somewhere along the scarborugh scalby road near the traffic lights, attempts to recover kneecap proved unsuccessful by the ambulance crew. my knee, thigh muscles and i presume some of my shin were all very visible from what i saw while waiting for the ambulance arrive and then they wouldn't let me take a picture in A&E.

so i'm laid up now in a splint with no knee cap to speak awaiting my 3rd surgery appointment so they can cut the side of my leg open stitch it up and hope it heals healthily so i can undergo the repair operation due me having massive nerve damage and poor circulation in the lower part of my leg and knee. i've lost the knee cap and managed to grind about 2cm off my lower tendon that attaches to the kneecap. i need to have tendons grafted from my upper thigh and ligaments removed and stiched into the lower tendon. i'm not going to be able to walk with crutches for at least 6months the doctors reckon and i'm looking at maybe 18months before i'll be able to walk properly.

i went in to have stitches out yesterday..

If your very squeemish i would beware before viewing, although theres no blood it's not pretty this is a week and a half after the accident.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/37493425@N03/

i've worn jeans frequently while riding my bike, never thought it'd happen to me and it has. but you can guarantee when i can get back on a bike i'll never go out without my leathers on. i dont wanna tell people they should never wear jeans but now when i see another biker in jeans i cringe a little.

on the brightside however, i'm enjoying being waited on hand and foot. i've been thinking about using my savings to purchase a small lordship just to add some authority to my incapacitated self.

ouch!! does make u think, especially as most people including myself wouldnt expect to get more than a bit of road rash at low speeds!!

toad me!

Hope you're up and about soon! I mean, that's pretty -ing amazingly bad, but it could have been worse and you could easily have lost the whole leg from that injury and it's after effects!

So are they putting a fake kneecap in or does it grow back (it was only a few years ago I found out babies don't develop a kneecap until as late as 5 years old sometimes!)?

Definitely a cautionary tale worth telling though. Most people don't seem to realise the damage even such a low speed off can do. Think about falling over when you're running full-pelt - and that's only about 7mph or whatever!

HOLY F*CK!!!!! and to think i was pushing 145 the other night in my jeans in the wet & dark with a black visor!! am i a twat or what?

glad your ok ish anyway!!

will end up with a plastic kneecap, all i have left of the original is a couple of small peice still attached to my thigh tendon, the doc doesn't want to remove those bits but as it wont grow back they'll screw and wire the plastic one to that i imagine.

i'm not going to go down the route though of trying to convince people not to wear jeans, before this accident i wouldn't have been totally convinced never to ride the bike without leathers and constantly telling people it's dangerous would get boring. all i hope from this is maybe a few will take a bit of note from my accident and to everyone else i hope you dont have to learn the hard way, enjoy riding your bikes i can't wait to get back on mine in a year or so.

That sounds nasty, didnt want too check the pic. A good lesson to any rider I suppose though.

What do you mean by shellgrip?

masterofinsanity wrote:HOLY F*CK!!!!! and to think i was pushing 145 the other night in my jeans in the wet & dark with a black visor!! am i a twat or what?

Thats where you get your name from then

86zxr01 wrote:That sounds nasty, didnt want too check the pic. A good lesson to any rider I suppose though.

What do you mean by shellgrip?

masterofinsanity wrote:HOLY F*CK!!!!! and to think i was pushing 145 the other night in my jeans in the wet & dark with a black visor!! am i a twat or what?

Thats where you get your name from then

shellgrip is that red/orange patches local councils seem to have a fetish for putting on corners and the approach to junctions as it's supposed to be grippier but when it's only just been done there's lots of unstuck grit on it.

I have a pair of Draggin' Jeans with the kevlar in the knees and ass - and stuffed some armour in the knees too, but seeing your pics, it's still making me think twice now.

Hope you're healing up well enough though.

Maybe you could get a titanium knecap put in and then leave a hole in your leathers to use it as a really expensive slider...
But I guess thoughts like that are way off though, sorry.

wonderpupp wrote:I have a pair of Draggin' Jeans with the kevlar in the knees and ass - and stuffed some armour in the knees too, but seeing your pics, it's still making me think twice now.

Hope you're healing up well enough though.

Maybe you could get a titanium knecap put in and then leave a hole in your leathers to use it as a really expensive slider...
But I guess thoughts like that are way off though, sorry.

hehe that'd be awesome, i could start my own "wolverine" race team

i always wear jeans. coem of a few times in jeans and been ok . oen was a 40mph slide on my butt . got gravel rash but what id probaly get in a cheap set of leathers tbh

wonderpupp wrote:Maybe you could get a titanium knecap put in and then leave a hole in your leathers to use it as a really expensive slider...
But I guess thoughts like that are way off though, sorry.

PMSL!!!! Just the mental thought that cracked me up!

Good luck on healing matey, knee doesnt look 'too' bad in the pics but then i guess its had doctors all over it since then. Shellgrip, probably about the worst stuff you could come off on considering its abrasion properties, although in this case it seem to ascaped the tyre somewhere

unlucky fella, you just never no when its going to happen, i learnt from my mistake when i was on a ped and with no lasting damage luckly...it honestly isnt worth thinking "its not going to happen to me". But your right poeple wont listen till it dos happen to them.

Do they think you'll make a full recovery?

That kind of stuff is exactly what caused my wheel to lock going into a left hand turn up in yorkshire. I didn't lose it but went ploughing into a raised kurb and narrowly missed some signs. The fuckers build the roads for cars and don't think about bikes. Unlucky mate.

rene wrote:
Do they think you'll make a full recovery?

the doctor says i'll walk but doesn't know whether i'll be able to do any more active lines of work or be able to run jump etc properly. i guess i'll just have to see

Ow, Jesus Christ man. I always wince when I see a biker in Jeans. That must be quite sore by now. These things seem to hurt during healing than they do at the time!
I bet you'll be sore for a while, but it's amazing how well the body heals. Was there any damage to the actual joint surface? Or did the Patella take the brunt of it?

I love the idea of a titanium knee. I can imagine seeing this biker in shorts dragging their bare knee, sparking along the tarmac! People would think it's the fucking Terminator!

Hope you heal up good.