Erik's 100% right on about steel's resiliency. The mechanic was pretty amazed that the Atlantis was able to go back into perfect alignment with relative ease. Especially considering the wheels , bars, brake levers, etc, were comically bent up. I'm sorry to hear about everyone's wrecks. I feel like I got off so easily considering. The guy who did it drove off but I happened to be present enough get his license plate number. Three joggers witnessed the whole thing and were kind enough to stay as witnesses. The officer who filed the report came up to me as I was being loaded into the ambulance to let me know that they caught him in downtown Nashville. His insurance company covered everything. I think they were happy that I wasn't filing a lawsuit. Kind of a strange night in the sense that despite the negativity of that pecker doing a hit and run, the joggers, police officers, doctors, and emt's made my faith in humanity even stronger...I still remind myself of that night when I start to feel misanthropic feelings coming on. Anyhow Ben, I'm glad you're ok. If you're anything like me, it takes about a week of riding again before I start feeling confident again after wrecks. I also want add that if aluminum bars bend(or any aluminum parts), get new ones. It's not BS. The lose their resiliency with bending and strong impact. I have a Laser Helium helmet and would recommend it for ventilation, comfort, and adjustment. I'm also in the muggy southeastern US. Also I don't think helmets are capable of looking cool outside of this. [image: Unknown.jpeg] On Tuesday, June 8, 2021 at 6:12:18 PM UTC-5 Erik wrote:
> Hey Ben. I'm really sorry to hear about the accident! I went through > this back in January after another cyclist rammed into me head-on. I was > riding my Appaloosa. I crashed really hard. The initial impact with the > other cyclist damaged my brake lever and bars. The subsequent crash into > the ground and skidding along the road damaged my rear derailer and > derailer hangar. It likewise damaged my shifter and other brake lever. My > saddle was scuffed up as well. The front basket ended up taking the brunt > of the impact, but the front rack (a big ol' Nitto) was a bit bent as well. > The housing on my Edulux light was scraped up but still worked. In the > end, I think the basket / rack took the brunt of the impact on the fall and > likely protected the bike from worse damage. > > I posted about it here asking a similar questions. I took everyone's > advice and brought my bike into a local shop with mechanics I trust to get > the whole thing inspected. I do all of my own wrenching, but I felt it > was important for my future safety to get the whole thing thoroughly > inspected. They looked at everything in great detail including frame > alignment. No fork or frame misalignment, but I had dents and chips in > the frame from the impact with the ground. The wheels were good. They > wrote up an estimate for me for insurance and for the court (about $1300 > with a new paint job at D&D Cycles). I ended up just eating the dents and > paint chips without getting them fixed, but replaced the handlebars, brake > levers, shift levers, rear derailer. I was able to bend the basket back > into shape and get the rack re-aligned myself. I also did a minor > correction to the rear derailer hanger. I put some pretty orange Testor's > model paint on the chipped areas. > > These bikes are pretty tough. Steel, after all. But I'm really glad I > had it inspected by a good mechanic and had them write up a total repair > estimate. I've just recently been able to start riding again after healing > from my injuries and I feel pretty confident with the safety of the bike. > I cracked my helmet in the accident too. I've replaced it with a Giro > Caden in matte gray. > > Good luck! > > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/f89586f2-fbd1-4476-844f-2071729ffba4n%40googlegroups.com.
