road with no traction - watch out!

[taxico]

back here for the weekend... was on my way to buy motorcycle gloves yesterday after lunch. decided not to wear my old pair...

east bound PIE, after the upp serangoon off ramp, towards the city...

on green i turned right and found myself sliding... i was riding an mp3 400 with decent tires - not a bike without grip.

i stood up, and nearly slipped - there was almost no traction on my lane. i was wearing rubber soled chukka boots.

there seemed to be a layer of cement powder on that lane/road, and i struggled to pick my bike (back to bike) coz my boots slipped on it.

both my hands were hurt so i struggled to pick it up. as i was at the head of the pack, no car ran into me, thankfully, despite very heavy traffic!

i managed to nurse my now-steering-misaligned bike back home, one foot sticking out as i couldn't bend it much...

after an afternoon of calls to LTA and TP from the x-ray place (8-9 calls), it rained cats and dogs. hopefully the road is less slippery now.

torn pants, scuffed boots but my riding jacket bore the brunt of my slide although i have a very bad gash on one palm, one knee (i was not in jeans), and a very broken thumb on the other hand in a home made splint as i await a specialist next week... hopefully surgery is out of the picture but i have seen the images and i don't like what i see,

i wonder if my "comprehensive" insurance will cover this... or if i can seek compensation from LTA... i suspect my riding privileges may be permanently revoked by my wife this time.

seems like this weekend stay in singapore just got extended!

be safe out there!

[ecureilx]

i wonder if my "comprehensive" insurance will cover this... or if i can seek compensation from LTA... i suspect my riding privileges may be permanently revoked by my wife this time.

seems like this weekend stay in singapore just got extended!

be safe out there!

Sorry to hear about the mishap....

Wish you speedy recovery... though missus maybe right in grounding you

[Wd40]

Sorry to hear about it Taxico. Just too many accidents these days. One of my office colleagues banged a car last week, on his super 4. In Singapore, if you are riding a bike, I think ita just a matter of when you will have an accident rather than if. I gave up riding 1.5 years back after my work place moved to the city and now my new work place is even further and I really miss riding my bike. But looking at the COE and the number of accidents, I think I will just not bother to get back to riding.

[Strong Eagle]

I am glad to hear you are OK... AND... your "accident" is a prime example of why it is essential to become a "proficient motorcyclist". You could have prevented your accident if you had known what to look for and were actually looking for it.

Glad to know your payment for "lessons learned" was a small one... and buy this book... http://www.amazon.com/Proficient-Motorc ... torcycling

[Strong Eagle]

And, I'm going to add... after my first dumbass accident at age 20, trying to make a turn on concrete roads that had slick mud on them after a recent rain... went down... tore a large stretch of skin from my shoulder... I realized if I was going to survive it would help to pay attention.

[x9200]

I learned driving in a country where the roads could be a solid, wind-polished surface of ice hidden under a layer of snow and with no inventions like ABS. This probably saved my a** a few good times while riding in Singapore. When in sliding all the instincts tell you to press the brake where this is usually the last thing that should be done. But again, not all the scenarios can be reasonably predicted so I am far from suggesting to taxico to be a more proficient rider. Just happy you managed ok and hope you will manage with your wife too.

[PNGMK]

Why was the road slippery? Oil?

[x9200]

"[..]there seemed to be a layer of cement powder[..]"

[sundaymorningstaple]

IF it's a high traffic slip road/on/off ramp I've found that if it's just after a peak traffic period and there has been a light drizzle of rain, the roads are particularly slippery when on two wheels (even 4 wheels) as the period of dry heavy traffic on an on/off ramp will tend to scrub rubber off of the tires more than traveling in a straight line. A little bit of drizzling rain will create a rubber slush that is invisible to the naked eye, but is slippery as oil. If it's a hard rain it's not nearly as bad as it tends to wash the loose rubber away quickly, but a light drizzle will wet it in place without runoff.

[PNGMK]

"[..]there seemed to be a layer of cement powder[..]"

Ah yes, that stuff is lethal.

[ecureilx]

Why are you in a home made splint ?!

Xray images ?

Taxico is self medicating

I am sure he knows how much is broken

[ecureilx]

I am sure he knows how much is broken

Professional interest

Oops ...

Will let Taxico respond .....

[taxico]

thanks for all the well wishes and good natured advice!

it was almost entirely my fault for not noticing the substance on the road... except i will remark that the cement powder was not easily distinguishable from the asphalt... and i shouldn't be leaning over that much on unfamiliar public roads... even on 3 wheels.

i am usually a careful rider, but i was just glad to be off the plane and on my bike and got carried away with getting away from saturday afternoon traffic while what was supposed to be a ride to buy a pair of riding gloves.

[rajagainstthemachine]

glad to hear you are safe.. you typing with one hand btw?

[taxico]

and a very broken thumb on the other hand in a home made splint as i await a specialist next week... hopefully surgery is out of the picture but i have seen the images and i don't like what i see,

Why are you in a home made splint ?!

Xray images ?

because a splint formed by an orthopedic specialist would have cost me $400 more. i didn't want to pay it.

it was a saturday afternoon... and a call to my "on-call" ortho had him gently informing me he was at a golf course at the other end of the island... the doctor who first treated me refused to touch my fracture nor give any opinion about it... "this one you must see specialist!"

i decided to mold my own splint (onestep $50 - bowl of hot water was free) and use a nurse ($16) under the wide-eyed gaze of the locum "A&E" GP to tide me over until the following week when i could walk better.

the bill came up to under $500; tetanus shot and a lot of dressing included.

after a weekend of staring at my xrays and calculating (and re-drawing and re-calculating) how much my thumb's been displaced (quite a lot)... i finally decided i was well enough to hobble into the car on wednesday... bad gash on the knee but drying remarkably well and i didn't really want to bend my knee getting into, what is essentially, a very small car with no rear seats.

after resolutely refusing surgery, i was given this with the help of more scotchcast products:



well, that, and a $600 bill.

the cast comes off this week (6 weeks). i'm going to live with my odd thumb as it is because i believe it can still touch all its fingers. if it doesn't and it affects my grip, i'll have a surgeon break it and fix it back in a year or two's time.

my personal accident insurance was unfortunately not renewed (my choice) as i am no longer based here... although i am still a (tax) resident here.

unfortunately the almost 1.5 month job of having to wait on me hand and foot (literally!) has taken its toll on my wife and beginning yesterday she's decided she has to be out everyday this week except on friday when she takes me to the doctor's.

"i love you, hon!"