| Author | Message | ||
     Crusty |
Good Gear and Such One beautiful Sunday in 1975, I went out for a ride with a group of my friends. I was riding Chuck’s Honda 450, and Chuck was riding my Moto Guzzi Sport. Chuck was my racing partner, and was going to be a co-rider in the upcoming Aspen 4 Hour Endurance Race. He needed to get a feel for the bigger bike, and the best way to do that was to ride it. We had a route planned up Ute Pass and around some nice twisty roads. Riding along with us were Sue (my wife), Wally and Elmer. Ray was supposed to come with us, but he was feeling pretty sick, so he bowed out. Since Ray was sick, Elmer asked him if he could borrow his Honda 350 to go with us. Ray agreed, and the group was set. We headed out with Chuck and Wally up front and I was the tail rider. We were about half way up the pass when Elmer went into a turn all wrong, ran out of road and lowsided. He wasn’t going all that fast; in fact he was well under the Speed Limit. I think he was going about 30 MPH when he hit the pavement. Anyway, I stopped, as did a lot of passersby. One guy was riding a BMW and had a First Aid kit, and he started putting gauze bandages on Elmer's multiple damaged areas to help out until the Ambulance arrived. Elmer had been wearing a T-shirt and Sneakers and basically, he looked like he should have been wearing a sign that said $.79/Lb. He had a lot of trouble getting around for the next month or so. The rest of the group came back when they noticed we weren’t with them and we figured out how we would get Ray’s mangled bike back to him in the Springs, and waited for the Highway Patrol to finish their investigation and report on the accident. Wally said to me that after seeing Elmer, he’d never ride without at least a jacket again, and I had to agree. Now, since my Heart Surgery, I have to take a blood thinner (Warfarin). The downside to this is that every week or two, I have to go down to Quest Diagnostics and have a vial of blood drawn so that they can check the level of thinner in my blood. Too much, and I could bleed to death, too little and I could have a stroke. So one hot day last July, I went down to let them stick me as usual. The head nurse was out of the office busy doing something, so another nurse drew my blood. While I was sitting in the chair, the head nurse came in and said, “I was wondering who would be wearing such a heavy jacket on a hot day like today. I should have known it was you.” I replied saying that I always wear something when the nurse who was drawing my blood started in on me. She rode a bike and didn’t believe in that stuff, that she preferred to feel the wind, and that I was being stupid for my attitude, etc. I was surprised, to say the least. Usually, I have to defend why I ride a motorcycle; here was someone berating me for wearing a riding jacket. I mean; if I fall down and get road rash, I could bleed to death, and she’s giving me shit about wearing protective gear. I’m not an ATGATT (All The Gear All The Time) kind of fanatic, but I carry the memory of just how bad Elmer looked. He wasn’t going very fast, but he really was badly torn up. Even if I wasn’t on a blood thinner, I’d be wearing at least a jacket of some sort, and I always wear boots. Elmer had been wearing sneakers, and I still have a vivid memory of how bad his feet looked. I hope that that nurse doesn’t ever fall down while riding or has to witness what a friend who did fall down looks like. But if she does, I hope she doesn’t become one of those Motorcycles Are Dangerous kind of Anti Bike zealots. | ||
| Dwardo |
Congratulations on joining the blood-thinner brigade! Back in early 2008 (a year after buyihg the Cyclone) I was put on blood thinners for a-fib. That was not a good feeling. I was very concerned about riding on blood thinners so I asked the badweb for input. I was trying to decide whether it was better to ride on blood thinners or not take them and run the risk of stroke Everyone was very kind and I found a surprising number of badwebbers are on Coumadin. I think that only one person advised me not to take them. I have been on and off of Coumadin ever since, depending on how reliable my heart rhythm happens to be. I'm fortunate because I don't bleed much on Coumadin at all. What I find most upsetting about it is the dietary restrictions. I eat low carb, and when you take broccoli and spinach and etc. out of your meal choices, that becomes a real challenge. I plan on switching to one of the newer blood thinners as soon as I can get approval from my doctor. The bad part is that so far, there is no antidote for any of them so if I had a wreck I could be in big trouble. They are working on antidotes but who knows how long they will take to be approved? I just decided the risk is worth taking. I'm tired of this Coumadin bull. |
