Carbon vs Steel: A Positive Outcome

If I didn't have bad luck......

For those who have been following me for a while, you will remember that I took a break from cycling because of a crash.  After 9 months off of the bike, I realized that I missed it, and I needed it in my life.  The decision was made to get another bike and get back into it.  I had to wait for a 2015 bike to be released to get the drivetrain that I was after, and that took an additional month for delivery.  The day after I took delivery of my Specialized S-Works Tarmac, I was out on my first ride in 10 months.  It went very well, and I managed to squeak out 50 miles for that first ride.  I was stoked, and ready to get my legs back.  I rode the next three days (25, 30, and 30 miles) before taking a break.  I was feeling strong and ready for a nice long ride.  My plan was to head out on Sept 9th and ride a metric century to stretch my endurance even more.  The planned 62 miles was not much more than the 50 I had already done, and I had been steadily increasing my speed up to an average of 17mph which was getting very close to what I was used to.  Things were going great.

I woke up on the morning of the 9th to wet roads, and a light mist.  What in the world?!??!?!  The weather had been forecasting sunny skies for the day and great riding conditions.  I didn't give up, and hoped that things would be getting better soon.  I had planned to leave at 7:30, but ended up waiting an hour for the rain to stop and the roads to start drying.  Since I had been hydrating seriously the day before and had loaded up on carbs, I figured I really needed to make this ride happen, so I went out to the garage and pumped up the tires to get ready.

By the time I cleared the neighborhood, the roads were starting to get clear, and I was feeling great.  This was the first warm up that I had done that I actually felt normal.  I had high hopes for a nice long ride with a reasonably strong finish.  I continued down the road gradually increasing my pace and having a wonderful time.  I made my turn onto Old Walkertown Rd and started to settle into my ride.  I was in tune with the bike, the road sounds were nearly hypnotic, and I was right back in my groove from the end of last year.  I was a cyclist again....the grin was permanently affixed to my face.

As I was traveling West along Old Walkertown Rd, I saw a beige Dodge stopping at the railroad tracks on Dorris Rd.  I saw it start to move forward about to enter Old Walkertown Rd and I slowed a little bit just in case he turned left.  As it turned out, he turned right and stayed completely out of my lane.  I started to put more steam on the pedals again as I proceeded on.  Just as were were set to pass, the car pulls to the left suddenly, turning into the Citgo Station.  I saw the bumper clearing the double yellow line and I grabbed the brakes hard.  I'm thinking that my rear tire locked up and started to skid a little bit.  I attempted to turn to the left in hopes of clearing the rear of the car, but in a split second I knew that I was going to collide.  As I screamed a few expletives, I put my right hand out to brace the impact.  I hit hard and wasn't really sure what was happening.  As the car cleared my path, I remember falling to the ground and seeing what I thought was a wheel spoke flying up in the air.  I landed on the ground on my right side.  I said some more choice words, that essentially amounted to "I can't believe this has happened, this is a brand new bike, this really sucks!"  but there were quite a few more words added in that I don't feel like sharing here.

I was on the ground, I had crashed, but I was alive.  Instinctively I got up quickly so I wasn't out in traffic to get run over.  I expected to find my bike completely shattered in the road, with a demolished front wheel.  What I found was a bike that appeared to be intact with no equipment, short of a tail light missing.  I was amazed, but had to collect my bike and get off the road as quick as I could.  It rolled well, and I realized that I was walking without any difficulties.  My arms felt fine as well.  In fact, I didn't feel hurt at all.  Instead of assessing my body when I got into the parking lot, I assessed the bike first.  It appeared to be ok, but there was some abrasions on the shifter, and bar end cap.  The car also stopped in the parking lot and the driver was exiting.  I think he asked if I was ok, and I remember him saying that he just didn't see me.  Keep in mind that I was riding in the most dayglow yellow jersey that I've ever seen.  But he obviously had not seen me at all, but I think it was because he just wasn't looking.  Anyway we were both there, and a crash had happened.  I stepped into cop mode since that was how I was used to dealing with these things.

I asked him for his license and registration.  He gave me that look I know all too well as he was handing me the registration.  He said that he didn't have a driver's license.  Oh wow....this was going to be fun.  Without even thinking about whether or not this was going to be reportable or not, I went ahead and called the Winston Salem PD to respond just to check the status of everything to make sure that his insurance was valid and hopefully charge him with driving without a license.  I also called Toni in one of the hardest calls I've ever had to make to her.  She was asleep, and when she answered I just told her that I needed her to come and pick me up that I had been in an accident.  She handled it better than I thought she would, and actually arrived before the police did.

Damage starts under the door mirror and continues through the rear door.  My estimate is approximately $800

While waiting for Toni and the police to arrive, I started collecting myself and figuring out what kind of damage I was dealing with.  I also stopped for a minute and looked at myself.  I was fine, no scratches, nothing broken, nothing hurting.  I was alive and very fortunate.  Now it was time to figure out what had happened.  From the damage, it appears that I hit the car at an angle starting at the mirror.  My bar slid down the side of the car with my hand along the roofline.  There was a dent at the bottom of the rear door that I think came from my foot hitting it.  That spoke that I saw fly off into the sky actually turned out to be his antenna which I knocked off with my bike, arm, or head...just not sure.  From my days working in a body shop, it looked like about $800 worth of damage to his car.  Not bad considering that my bike was still in one piece.  I was feeling pretty good about things at this point.  I wasn't hurt, the bike looked to be salvageable, and I knew I wasn't at fault for it.

When Toni arrived, I got the bike loaded in the back of the truck.  I felt bad for laying it on the side, but there are no cleats installed in her truck.  She was nice enough to bring blankets so there would be no more damage to the bike than was already done.  We got it secured and ready to transport home.

The police arrived and I went through my account of what happened, and explained that I wasn't hurt, but that the damage might be extensive if the carbon fiber had been compromised.  She took the hint and made this a reportable accident which is defined as damage in excess of $1000, injury, or death.  She verified that the other driver did have active insurance per DMV, and that his license was in a state of revocation.  Again, I slipped into cop mode and gave him my standard chewing out for driving without a license and all the issues that it could potentially cause the other party in an accident.  Oh wait....that other party was me.  Uh oh....this might go bad really quick.  I was starting to worry about whether or not Progressive would honor the claim since he was not supposed to be driving.  I was getting worried for the first time.  I was still paying on this bike for another year, and at the very least, I was seeing about $2000 damage on it without counting the frame.  If insurance didn't pay, I was going to be out a bike because I couldn't afford to fix it.  To make matters worse, I was still going to be paying $450/month  for nearly a year for it.

I got my exchange slip and pointed out to the officer exactly where the area of impact was so her diagram would be accurate.  I saw her going over to the other driver with a citation in hand.  I didn't know what was on that citation, but at least he was holding paper of some sort for the crash.  With all of my equipment loaded up, Toni drove me home.  While riding she suggested that I go ahead and call insurance to get the claim started.  It was a good suggestion and I went ahead and made the call.  I got everything started, and was told that I would be contacted later by a claims representative to take my statement.  I also made a call to Paul's and spoke with Dennis who thought I was playing a really bad joke on him.  After he realized that I was being serious, he told me to bring the bike in and they would check it out to see what type of damage I was looking at.

Right side bar end cap

Scarred shift lever

The most visible damage was to the right side of the handlebar.  I imagine that most of the damage was from the impact with the car and subsequent dropping on the pavement.  The lever appeared to be functioning properly, but with only 130 miles on the bike, this was not acceptable at all.  There was also some minor abrasions on the rear derailleur from hitting the pavement.  The shift cable was also frayed where it got crimped by the pavement.  This would have to be replaced as well.

I had missed this originally

With the bike up on the stand, I was able to see more than I had seen before.  I found a very uniform score mark on the non-drive side of the rear wheel.  It took a minute to figure out what had caused this, but I realized that the Garmin speed/cadence sensor had been knocked over by my foot when I went down to the ground.  The wheel was still spinning apparently and the sensor had dug into the rim.  Other than being cosmetic, this was a carbon wheel and I really felt like it was shot at this point.

I spoke briefly with Patrick who had built the bike and he felt like the frame was probably sound, but wanted Jimmy to look at it when he came back from school.  I had no problem leaving the bike there since I wasn't wanting to ride it in its current state until I knew for sure that the frame wasn't compromised.  We left the bike, as well as my helmet and shoes for the insurance adjuster to look at.

Carbon sole and cleat cover were torn up

Even the buckle got chewed up

With no bike, no helmet, and no shoes, Toni and I headed home.  I eventually spoke to the claims representative who asked me the standard questions about what happened in the accident and got all of the preliminary stuff out of the way.  She was nice, and seemed very willing to take this cyclist serious.  Honestly, I was worried that talking to the insurance company I would be blow off because I was just "riding a bike" and if I wasn't hurt there was not going to be much they could do for me.  That was not the feeling I had after my conversation.  My claim was being treated with as much seriousness as if I had been in a car.  I was relieved, but still nervous because they had not yet spoken to the other driver.

I again made contact with insurance the next day to ask if they had talked with the other driver.  They hadn't, but had left several voice mails and had sent a letter out to him as well.  They would give him a week to respond before she would get authorization to proceed without his statement.  Because of my police training, I am evidence driven, so I offered to send her the link to my Garmin file that showed all of the metrics of the short ride.  It would prove my speed, direction, and the sudden impact.  I also sent her pictures of the car and tag to help with her investigation.  Unfortunately though, I had realized that the officer's report was wrong.  Not a small detail wrong, but having me in the wrong lane, and the crash happening at a stage where there had been no problem wrong.  I had called the officer and explained, again, what had happened and she said that she would change the report.  I forwarded insurance that information as well.

sometimes you find funny things in the midst of disaster

When I was looking at the Garmin file, I happened to see my heart rate for the ride.  It was looking pretty good up until the very end.  There was a huge spike at the time of the crash.  Nothing like a visual of what happens when the pucker factor tries to suck up your saddle.  The official heart rate was right at 188bpm!

I settled into a waiting game and just tried to keep in touch with everyone hoping to be able to expedite anything that I could.  I found out that the adjuster had been to Paul's and looked at the bike, helmet, and shoes.  Dale told me that with the frame being carbon there was just no way to determine if it was sound after the crash and fall to the ground.  He was going to recommend a full replacement for safety.  I agreed, because the last thing that I would want would be for me to be coasting down a hill at 40mph and the frame fall apart beneath me.  There would be no way around getting seriously hurt in that situation.  The Specialized rep happened to be at the shop while I was discussing that and he looked at the order status.  It appeared that my bike was now backordered until the end of October.  At the earliest, I was looking at the beginning of November before I would have a new bike at the earliest.  This sucks!

I left Paul's with the reality that the fitness that I had gained was going to be long gone by the time I got the bike back.  I was going to have to do something to keep my heart strong and my lungs active.  Since Toni was starting to get into running, I decided to give that a go with her.  We both went out for a short 30 minute run.  While I didn't like it, I was able to keep up with her and found that running would be a suitable alternative for the short term.  I ran a total of four days in a row, and got faster and faster each time.  I still didn't like running, but I was still active and burning calories.

On Monday, I heard from insurance and found that they had finally spoken with the other driver.  The rep said that she had some good news and some bad news for me.  Here we go....here was the moment that I was going to get "its just a bike" and get blown off.  She started with the good news that she had spoke with the driver and found that he was at fault in the crash.  They would be accepting liability.  OK, the good news was expected, but still a relief for me.  Now for the bad news.  She said that they had been talking with the bike shop as well as the Specialized rep.  I knew all of this, and was getting anxious about where the bad news came in.  She said that the recommendation from the shop was for full replacement.  She was sorry, but the bike was totaled.  Bad news...not at all.  I wasn't willing to trust the bike after all the research I had done on carbon fiber crashes.  She said that since it was brand new, they would just send me a check for the full price on the bike.  WIN!!!!!  This was what I was hoping would work out, and it had.  This was great news all the way around!

I sent the requested receipts to her in an email and also asked about the damaged bike and what options I had for it.  She had said that they would come by and pick it up since they were sending me a check.  I asked if there was a way that I could buy the bike back from them.  I didn't trust it for the road, but felt that it would be fine for a stationary trainer.  Hey, if the frame explodes, I'll land on carpet.  I felt that injury would be minor at worst in that scenario.  Having that bike on the trainer would allow me to not only keep the fitness that I had gained, I would also have a very good alternative to road riding through the winter.  It was worth a shot to see if I could buy it back at salvage value.

She said that she would have to contact her manager to see just how they could deal with my request and she would get back to me the next day.  I was at work the next day, and didn't have a chance to follow up with her, but she did call me at the end of the day as I was unloading the car.  It was exactly a week after the crash.  She confirmed the amount of the check that they would be sending which included tax and everything for full replacement.  She also said that their plans for the bike would be to throw it away, so if I wanted it, I could just go and pick it up.  It just doesn't get any better than that!!!!  I had my trainer bike back...at least I was pretty sure it would survive under the load of the trainer.  I was willing to give it a try at least.  If nothing else, I could hang the bike in the garage as the survivor from a crash.

What had started out as a less than ideal way to end a 62 mile ride has ended with me being made whole by Progressive.  I just can't say enough good things about them and how they handled this claim.  I hate that it happened, and would have been very happy with my original bike for many thousands of miles, but having had the crash, I think I came out of it very well.  Most importantly, I am still unhurt, and have had no issues since the crash.  I also have a war story that stars the quality of Specialized's carbon frames and how well they stand up to automotive steel.  I'm sold on Specialized, and will continue to ride their product as long as my legs let me.