Falling off

I came off my bike a few weeks ago, it was during the Sunday club run, I was at the front of the bunch coming into a right hander.  The road was a bit wet so I took it a bit slow, as soon as I started banking *whoop* and I'm on my arse.  I was probably only going at about 20km/h or so.  The front wheel just gave way without warning.  Normally you can feel the front tyre give a little when it's at it's limits but this one just went instantly.   I later discovered that I had a slow leak on the front and it probably contributed to the crash because it was only at about 10-20psi.  

The first thing I was worried about was my bike (yes silly me) I was fine.  I had a slight cut on my thumb and the side of by bum was grazed a bit.  My shorts weren't ripped or anything but I was just sore.  Little did I know that I got a decent sized road rash spot, I found this out when I had a shower when I got back home.  Damage to bike, some road rash on the derailleur and the brake lever.  Otherwise it was working fine, more damage to my ego.

you can just see the alloy lever through the faux carbon on the Athena levers

As soon as I washed it off I used some gauze and bandages to cover up the wound, what I can advise is to get the damn non-stick type dressings because these kind of wounds ooze like hell and changing your dressing is very painful because they stick to the wound.  I googled a bit and found that many people use these dressings called Duoderms, they are effectively like a plastic sticky patch that forms a second skin. It keeps the wound moist and allows it to heal whilst keeping it waterproof and clean.  They are a hell of a lot more comfortable, it really does feel like a second skin and it cuts down the pain a lot.  Only thing is that compared to the gauze and bandages it doesn't absorb any of the ooze so it'll inevitably leak out... Yeah I know, gross but the solution is to wrap the duoderm in bandages to absorb this.

1 week later

After about 1 1/2 weeks my road rash started to heal up and I started using Tegaderms, these are very similar to Duoderms but a lot thinner and about 1/4 of the price (Duoderms were $10 a pop at the chemist).  It became fully healed after another week or so, the strange thing about these types of dressings is that the wound doesn't scab like normal.  All the skin regrowth happens underneath and you end up with a much cleaner result.

Anyway, all this has been a good lesson.  It's the first time I have had decent road rash after many times falling off my bike.  Safe riding!