Moped accident,

Hi Luke, glad you are making good progress. Musn't let it spoil your enthusiasm or confidence, these things rarely happen twice.
Brings back memories of the 1950s. My brother came to greif nearly losing his foot, but he was back on his beezer in no time at all, enjoying many more motorcycling years. He said to me ( I was fifteen at the time) "never trust anyone to do the right thing, then you'll stand a chance". I didn't listen, within two weeks of my sixteenth birthday, having fitted a Power Pak to my bike, I went hurtling over the handlebars, over the bonnet of a Humber Snipe, planing a 1/4" off my forearms in the process. Many happy motorcycling days later, here I am, just purchased a Power Pak. Let's hope there are no Humber Snipes about.
Recover well my friend, the memory of the mishap will fade. Tony.

Hi Luke,

I've only just come across this thread and am so sorry to hear about your horrible accident, albeit belatedly! We were talking around Sept/Oct last year by email when you were finishing off your Puch and you were very encouraging as I was getting my PC50 back on the road, directed me to the NACC and I was and am very grateful for your help and support.

I just wanted to send my best wishes and hope that you are still progressing well in your recovery. Although it will be a long road, your positive attitude and your altruistic empathy for the driver of the car are very admirable!

I have my own bike accident story that I won't detail here, but suffice to say it was carelessness on the other driver's part and I was lucky to not be more seriously injured and to be free of pain and walking normally in about 6-12 months, but nothing to what you've experienced, so I can only try to empathise and hope your recovery continues to improve exponentially.

All the best,
Paul.

Thank you, Don't worry about it being belated, I'm fine now really, Just not as mobile as I once was! Yeah I was really excited about my puch such a shame really, the Mrs doesn't know it yet but I'm going to keep hold of the puch and give it another dose of attention (when i get back to normal!) I've sold off half of my collection now, My yamaha t80 has gone to a happy home with david stevenson (of the Dukaries section) and the Yamaha RD350 has gone to a bloke across the street, so Im down to two bikes now, My honda novio and my puch, the puch will live at my mothers until I think i'll be able to walk it the few miles to my house,

As for the moment my Op was put back a week the 14th of june now (strange as my other op was 14th of december making it exactly 6 months!) I'm doing hydrotherapy and phisyo therapy at the moment, and im slowly getting my knee movement back, I'm about 75 degrees at rest although it will go further if assisted!

Hopefully I will be heading back to work soon, I'm sure the busier I keep myself the quicker everything will go!

Thanks again
Luke  

Hi Luke

glad you are still  on the mend.

Dont worry about the knee flexion too much. My knee would only bend about 25 degrees for more than a year despite having it jumped up and down on under a general anesthetic.

The problem was greatly reduced when I fell down the stairs whilst moving a television set.After a brief period of swearing in a 'Grumpy' fashion it improved a great deal. My bloke said it was to do with scar tissue in the muscles which does not stretch and that requires breaking down.

So, if you are still stuck in the future I have an old TV and a roller skate you can borrow.

Regards
Bernie

Hi Luke,
 
A wrinkled grey haired old bloke turned up at the Yorkshire Section`s meeting last night riding your old Yamaha. Was this Dave Stevenson?
 
LT

I bet there was at least half a dozen wrinkled grey haired old blokes there - can you be a bit more specific as your description would cover 95% of the club membership.

ps. There is no point adding "he seemed a bit unhinged" either because that wouldn't narrow it down even slightly..

more than likely, I would say his usual cyclemotor attire is shorts and a cyclemotor t-shirt but as he doesn't have to offer 'LPA' any more he could be wearing anything!

I rang the police yesterday to see how the court case against the woman who knocked me off was going, they have just got back to me, They said the woman went to court and was given a £300 fine with £90 costs and 7 points on her lisence,
I'm annoyed with this outcome I really wanted the woman to loose her lisence people like that just arent safe on the road, I know she saw me and I know that had she being paying any attention I wouldn't be like this now, how long till she does it again? maybe next time she can have a few of my mates and for good measure she can kill them rather than maim.
I wouldn't wish this injury on anybody and In my opinion the courts should have taken her lisence, if she wished to drive again she should complete the test again that way we would know she would be safe to drive. The policeman In charge of the case said the outcome generally depended on how remorseful she was, So she must have put on a really good facade, as I've had nothing from her not even a sorry (and I'd like to think I'm good natured enough for that to be all I need)
I'm so annoyed about this, I feel that 2 years of my life (recovering) and then the rest of my life being incapacitiated (to some degree) should easily constitue taking her lisence, I guess there is no jutice and I guess that because of her age she was treated differently, I'm under no illusion If it had been the other way round and I (a 23 year old) had done the same injurys to her (76) in a similar situation my lisence would have been immediatly revoked

Hi Luke

steady as you go with this  if it was a careless driving charge then the penalty isnt really any sort of let off, specifically if it was her first charge.

My Father in law (who is no longer with us) only had one eye - and that wasn't great, he was the worst driver I have ever seen. My wife and I used to go through all sorts of play acting to stop our kids ever being in his car with him driving.

My own father had spent his life driving cars and planes but in later years became an absolutely horrendous driver. He bought a new Honda Civic which he dinked every time he went out in it - I suggested he might think of giving up driving - his response was "This new car is really unlucky!!".

Problem is that people of advancing years vary greatly in what they can do - we have club members who are somewhat aged who are fine motorcyclists and drivers so there is no real way of gating it on age. 

You are right though, if you had been in the car you would most certainly have lost your license.

Hi Luke
steady as you go with this  if it was a careless driving charge then the penalty isnt really any sort of let off, specifically if it was her first charge.

-dollythesheep

I do apologise, Its my own fault I'm so Disappointed, I Assumed the servity of the injurys would easily have equiled the revoking of a liscence and possibly more (although I would not have wanted her to do any jail time or community service or anything like that)

Problem is that people of advancing years vary greatly in what they can do - we have club members who are somewhat aged who are fine motorcyclists and drivers so there is no real way of gating it on age. 
You are right though, if you had been in the car you would most certainly have lost your license.

-dollythesheep

      Yes I agree, I feel like they should at least have given her a refresher course for driving or assessed her abilitys as a driver. Like I said before I would really have like them to take her lisence away thus making her sit a full driving test again as a sort of proof that she was able. As you say abilitys varys even with out the inclusion of age as a factor.
     You are quite Right I don't want to tar all people of a Vintage disposition with the same stick (after all I've not got numbers on my side for an argument like that )  And its quite clear that its only the minority who shouldn't be driving. I have no problems with her driving again on the condition she is capable, after all we all have accidents don't we? and they are as the name sugessets, accidental and un-intentional.
  What I wouldn't like to think is that in the case she is not capable, I will have gone through this and  she would be released like a time bomb waiting for another accident, And In total fairness my accident could have been much worse, Imagine it happening again except to a biker whos out on his cbr 600, I was in a national limit zone, If i'd have been on a big bike I'd have been going faster and probably lost a leg,

Luke

I was due for my op to start lengthing my leg on monday gone (the 14th) but my surgeon had an accident and is off work until mid august. The hospital managed to get me an appointment with another surgen, so on thursday gone (the17th) I went to see if they could fit me in for an op, The surgeon I saw was one I'd never met before but he seemed nice enough and he explained that I may never get the movement back in my ankle, but tbh I don't care I'd rather have equal length legs and a limp than a short leg and a flexible ankle! Im now due for my leg lengthening op on wednesday the 23rd, which I'm dead chuffed about, I really thought I would be waiting a few months at least,

As well as getting me booked in for the op I managed to get some copys of the inital x-rays when I attended A&E in decmeber ,

here is my thigh bone

And then my lower leg

My knee and lower leg

I'm sorry the last 2 aren't very clear

then I also got some copys of the x-rays after my surgery, you can see the drain from under my skin graft (the squiggley tube) and the staples holding the graft in place

They said at the hospital that my break has healed well, and If i was going to leave my leg short they would be about ready to remove the frame, which is annoying! but I suppose the longer I have the frame on the longer my intial break will have to heal

Thank you for taking the time to look,
And I do apologise for my little rant!
Luke

Hi Luke

bit uinfortunate is that, however now you have the x-rays you could always have a word with Grumpy as it all looks a bit like Meccano and I am sure he could suss is out for you in no time.

On a brighter note I spotted one of your machines on the Coast to Coast yesterday with D Stephenson at the controls. I am wishing that I had got a bike ready for the run as it looked bloody great fun.

Ideally I would like a Honda 50 c100 (which was the first bike I owned and took to bits) - I like pushrods and I went all over the place on it.
I keep looking on Ebay but they don't seem to come around very often.

regards
Bernie

Thanks Bernie,
     I was thinking the other day, they have all different pieces that fit with the frame, like hinges cross braces and twist's And I was wondering if the surgeons make things out the frames whilst they are waiting for patients, I had a vision of the operating theatre having a giant 'meccano block setting crane' you know like on the front of the old meccano instruction manuals, just made out of fixator parts! Oh I have just thought of some trivial but amusing information, the first frames like the one I'm wearing used bicycle spokes to hold the bone in place, so you could say I'm the closest to a moped than any one else here......

Brilliant, I'm glad David is using the townmate properly, It was a great little bike and it was sad to see it go but I'm glad I found a good home for it to go to. To be honest I'm too sentimental. I didn't want to put the townmate on ebay because although you get good prices on ebay, bikes like that tend to be snapped out by commuters rather than owners who want to lavish attention! Although saying that, I wasn't a perfect owner myself, I did make an effort before david came for it and gave it a clean,

C100's are great little bikes although I never quite grasped why they were called c100's as what does the 100 refer to? I think the whole range of honda cubs is great, I sort of had an idea that If i got some money together I could buy a brand new 'honda little cub' from monkeybike.co.uk but aparantly they don't sell them any more,

shame really!

Right then, I've not updated this thread for a while and I think its Update time!

Last time I posted I talked about going in to hospital for them to re-break my leg, Well thats all sorted now  and I have just finished stretching It back to its original length, In all I adjusted my frame 65mm to give my leg the 55mm back I lost (the first 10mm was taking slack out of the frame), My foot is still in the frame but I have an appointment on the 16th to hopefully have it removed, I'm still walking with x2 crutches at the moment but I'm sure it will be easier to walk once I've had the wires removed from my foot,

this was my leg before my operation, it was 5.5cm shorter than my other leg,

this was when they broke my leg to start stretching it, (in june)

this was in july when I had started to stretch by 2.4cm

and then this is in august I had stretched it 4.7cm

And finally this is the day I did my last stretch

so thats it really, I've had the frame on for around 9months now, so i should be about half way through my frame time, the consultant said it would take 2months of healing for every cm stretched so it should be another 10months before im frameless, but in fairness it will all be down hill now, Also I've been into work and they may be able to find me a position where I'm on my bum most of the day but i need to be able to walk down stairs without crutches first,

And some more good news, Whilst I've been off sick I've managed to get My Mrs Pregnant, Shes about 14 weeks gone now and due at the end of febuary, It's a bit exciting. We were trying so we are quite chuffed

cheers
Luke

Like - looking at the X-rays and pics I reckon that is some achievement to get you leg over!

Hi Luke,
looks like you are well on the way to a full recovery - which is great.
I showed your postings to the wife and explained how the lengthening procedure worked.
This suprisingly cheered her up visibly and for some reason she wanted me to ask you if you will sell her the frame thingy when you have finished with it?
It's all a bit of a mystery to me.
Congratulations on the impending addition to the family - just as well you are back at work (even more so if it's a girl as girls can spend at least 15% more than any man can possibly earn)