As I was closing my first year anniversary riding motorcycles, I crashed, on my own. It was a sunny saturday which the dates were showing 18th of January, 2025 and the clocks were pointing to 16:10. I couldn’t slow down to a corner and went straight outside the twisties, in to the bushes. After I mowed the bushes, hit the little trees and than came to a stop. I was very fortunate to not hit anything during this period until I came to a stop. But at the very last moment, hit my left wrist to a tree and broke it.
Why and How Did I Crashed?
I wasn’t speeding at that moment; Was a chill ride with no destination. Even though it was a cold day (10 Celcius), road and tire conditions were OK. But I wasn’t paying attention to the road and this was the main problem. I was very absent-minded about my personal matters for couple of days. While thinking about them, I wasn’t paying attention to road. Because it was also cold, my hands were numb. I learned that these two combined is a disastrous scenario. As a result, I couldn’t pull the front brakes to a level that needed for me to slow down for that sharp turn.
When I noticed I couldn’t slow down enough, I got surprised. I thought to myself “What is going on at this very moment? Why am I in it?”. It was incredibly fast. I couldn’t do anything and just freezed. I don’t really remember the moment I hit the trees even though I was concious all the time.
This whole crash sequence gave me the same vibes in the movies where a high speed crash occurs: Time slows down before the crash. But when I saw the crash was inevitable, it was an incredibly fast moment and background noise just wiped out (was listening music). I was really angry to myself about the crash and yelled to myself. I was very lucky that I didn’t stuck under the bike and quickly get myself out in that situation and asked for help.
Luckily that road was very popular amongst the motorcyclist. People stopped and helped me to get my motorcycle out of the bushes. They offered me help to move my motorcycle in a safe place. Called myself an ambulance afterwards and my parents.
Damage Done
After the crash, I really didn’t notice anything wrong with my body. It lasted for couple of minutes until I tried to use my left hand. People asked me if something is wrong with my body. I checked my wrist because I wasn’t able to lift anything. Also the shape of it was looking funny.
There were only a little bit of pain that my body signalling me about something was wrong. But I wouldn’t say it was really that painful. I can’t say the same thing about the relocation process, though. Operation was done by a doctor, a technician and my dad (yes they wanted help from him). Glad it only took 10-20 seconds.
X-ray pictures tells what was wrong with my wrist: The little bones sat on top of each other and got moved inside.
After 2 days from the crash, I also noticed a bruise on my upper leg. Looks like I hit my leg to that same tree. I bet the impact force was the same that applied to the wrist. But the wrist got broke and leg is only bruised.
I was wearing protective motorcycle equipment, from head to toe. But my gloves (Held Madoc Max) don’t have wrist protection. Though, I am not sure if it would’ve protected me from this injury if it has it.
Healing Process
The cast was removed after 34 days. Doctors were saying I could still need to go in a surgery in the intermediary checks. But in the last check, doctor said that it could only be needed if bones dislocate themselves in the healing process, so I was fine.
After cast is removed, I felt like my hand will slip and fall because my wrist was so out of power. It got better in a couple of seconds though. Which was really weird but not an alien feeling for me; Not my first cast. Of course, a hand in a cast for a month and prohibited to be washed was dirty even though I didn’t do anything with my left hand in that period.
Even though my wrist was extremely weak to hold my hand, it was very stiff to move it up and down. So the doctor suggested a specific exercise to recover.
What About The Motorcycle?
Because I hugged the motorcycle and didn’t fall from it, it took lots of damage. Or, is it? See, I was also lucky about the terrain: There were bushes and a ditch before the small trees. So, motorcycle hit multiple non destructive obstacles before stopping. This made it slower, gradually. Unfortunately, there was still a sudden impact that stopped the bike and myself. This is what caused damage to us.
I took the Pulsar to a service for the repair. A plastic part is changed and new light was installed. Suspensions, brakes and other small plastic parts are fixed. Total was 15000 Turkish Liras (412 US Dollars at the time of writing). Repair costs in Türkiye are crazy expensive nowadays, as well as the spare parts.
Today
Today, I can use my left hand. But it’s movement and power generation is still limited. Service told me that my motorcycle was ready this week. I also felt I was ready. I was OK, bike was OK; We got home safely. Done a short ride to Maltepe beach afterwards. I missed this feeling.