no rules...no politics...just ridin'

Cindy's Ankle

Been a while hasn’t it!! I have been riding a bit, just nothing that I have found exciting enough to write about. The daily commute and a few short stints on the odd weekend have been the extent of my riding since getting my license back. That changed a little over the weekend.

I recently changed jobs – at my previous job I worked with Cindy, a lady whom owns a Triumph Daytona 675. She really didn’t seem to ride it that much and I was always on at her about coming out for a day on the road. After much harassment on my part, we finally arranged to do so last Saturday.

I was up early and headed cross-town to Cindy’s place at Springfield. The morning was overcast but the forecast was for a warm sunny day. I got there in just over 45 minutes and shared a coffee with her before heading off for a trip up to Tamborine and Eagle Heights for lunch. Always find it refreshing riding up in the mountains on a warm day.

We took the road from Springfield to the Mt Lindsay Hwy at a steady pace, allowing Cindy to find her feet again. Was a bit slow, but didn't really worry me that much. Onto the highway and then turning off not too far down to head towards Tamborine. Was great to get away from the traffic. The roads were good, the day was nice - not much more you could ask for. We reached the Logan to Tamborine strip and picked the pace up a little, finally pulling up for a break out the front of the Bearded Dragon. I let Cindy know that I would probably take off a bit from here but meet her at the top again.

If you haven't ridden it lately, the road up the mountain is currently being resurfaced. Up to about the half way mark the black stuff is new and smooth as, but then reverts back to the original crap that used to cover this climb all the way from the bottom - filled potholes and really bad camber in a lot of spots have long been it's weakness. It will be a fantastic bit of road once they finish the resurfacing and you pick your times to ride it. Traffic was quite heavy when we rode it so I was forced to use all of the road, but gees, the new bit is good.

I reached the top, pulled up and waited for a short while until Cindy was in my mirrors again. We then continued through Tamborine Village and pulled into the Eagle Heights pub for a few drinks. After a couple of hours we headed off again, this time heading towards the St Bernards pub to check out that huge dog!! We stopped at the info centre so Cindy could grab a few brochures about accomodation up on top of the mountain. Once done we mounted up and were about to hit the road when Cindy dropped her Daytona!

We had parked the bikes on a bit of a hill and as she was just about to take off she went to put her foot down but picked the wrong side. She overbalanaced and the bike went down, trapping her right leg underneath. I got off mine and lifted the bike off her but she was in pain, serious pain. An older couple who witnessed the fall rang an ambulance and stayed with us until it arrived - we sat and waited, watching a lot of other bikes just ride on past. I was pissed off that no other biker pulled up to see if all was ok - I would have for sure. Anyway, the ambos arrived and had a look at what had happened. They decided to cut her boot off and man, I was amazed at how swollen her ankle had become. She had obviously broken it after taking the full weight of her bike as it fell.

The ambos carted Cindy off to Logan Hospital and I found a place to store her bike. I then headed down (whoa, it was a great ride down!!!) to see how things turned out. On arriving at the hospital I was amazed to see how big her ankle had become. I didn't stay too long as she had a friend with her, but rang her later on and she confirmed that it was smashed. She is still in hospital and has already had one operation, with another on the cards once the swelling goes down.

Her bike was not damaged too much with just a couple of scratches on the fairing. Her ankle actually saved the bike, however, it bore the full weight. I felt so bad afterwards, but I do understand I wasn't responsible for what happened. It is just such a pity that we parked on that hill. Fortunately it was a zero speed accident and she will recover eventually, although with some inconvenience.

Take it easy out there people - something this simple can be very painful and very inconvenient.

Under (re)construction!!

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