Biking with Cell Phone = Very Bad Idea

No, the title does not refer to me.

Rem and his dear friend Mark went out cycle camping around Vancouver this weekend. Mark needed to call his girlfriend for whatever reason and was cycling the 10km or so to the nearest landline as they didn't have cell reception at the campsite. Unfortunately, while doing so, he was also holding his cell phone to see if he could get reception before going all the way to the phone booth.

Lo and behold, along the way he noticed a full bar of reception, got all excited and braked suddenly - on a downhill slope - with his left hand only. Now, for those of you who don't cycle, the left hand is your front brake, and a sudden stop of only the front brake, particularly going down the hill, is very very likely to send you head-over-handlebars. Which is exactly what happened to poor Mark.

He landed on his hands, smashing the cell phone but generally preserving the skin on his right hand. His ungloved left hand, however, was apparently pretty road rashed. More importantly, he managed to slightly fracture both elbows. Yup, the poor fool will be in slings for three or four weeks. Good thing he already wrote his final exams.

Two lessons may be taken from this:

One, dismount before attempting to do anything at all with a cell phone. Please!

Two, wear gloves. Or protect your hand with a cell phone.

Get better soon, Mark!