Yellow Ciao...R.I.P.

Its with great sadness that I report that my humble, reliable yellow ciao has been destroyed. Late Monday night (early Tuesday morning) Elliot, Raymond and I went for a late night ride and none of our bikes returned...What started as an amazing ride ended in tragedy. Our last leg was to go up a large hill in Iroquois park to see the Louisville skyline. There is a gate for this road, which was thankfully open. Unfortunately this road is not intended to be used after dusk and so there were no street lamps. As we gained confidence by our tiny headlights we began to go faster and faster. And then it happened... Elliot was riding in front of me when I heard this loud POP! I saw his head light quickly point down. All I had time to think about was "what happened to Elliot" before I too wrecked; and Raymond behind me. I felt the impact on my shoulder and helmet (thank God we were all wearing them). At that point time had stopped. It was pitch black and as my senses started to return, all I could hear was the moaning of my compatriots laying on the pavement around me. While the gate was open, there was a downed tree covering the length of the road. We each hit the tree going somewhere between 30-35 mph. I flew the farthest (I won the moped rider throwing contest). I tried standing up but found myself lying down. As I stared up at the sky I realized that I was "spacing out" and in fact had passed out for a moment. I sat up and made Elliot keep talking to me. I was "out of it" but apparently "with it" enough that I directly Elliot in how to put my arm into a sling. The pain was excruciating. Nate Bandit came to the rescue and rushed me to the ER with what he thought was a broken collar bone. After waiting a while, the x-rays came back negative. I am lucky to walk away with only a sprained shoulder. It's still very sore and painful, although I regain some movement every day. Thankfully we were all wearing helmets and no one was seriously hurt. All of our bikes are toast (at least the forks and front wheels). My yellow ciao however (i am told) might be unrepairable. They aren't made from that great of material anyways. Here are the photos Nate took of the bikes in the back of his truck.

check out my front wheel...