Quite an incident that...... one of those things that memories are made of!
![Cool4](https://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hubb/images/smilies/cool4.gif)
Hope the hand heals well.
Reminds me of one where my hands completely failed to bring me to a halt.
Riding a Norton Commando in a race at Cadwell Park back in the early 70s, on a long and fast-ish righthander (Charlie's bend I think it's called) the rear tyre slid gently away and bike and I continued onwards both lying on the ground. I was no longer attached to the bike but stayed in close proximity sliding along the tarmac. The deafening sensations were the noise of the bike on its side, grating along the tarmac, sparks coming off of a handlebar, the bumpiness of the tarmac as you slid over it with no mechanical suspension, and a couple of 'hot-spots' building up on bodily extremities.
![Eek3](https://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hubb/images/smilies/eek3.gif)
The bend is a wide sweeping one, plenty of run-off and nothing to hit. So no chance of any braking there, and this experience continued for quite a while (it seemed, at the time) until a certain dazed feeling encroached.
But lo! It all stopped. Everything fell quiet, no sparks, no bumping. Quite calm in fact.
So, like you do in these situations, I went to get up on my feet straightaway to take stock of the situation. This involves firstly putting your hands down to lift yourself up off of the ground.......
Immediately I found I was staring up at the sky, for a microsecond, then the ground, then the sky...... and so on.
After a bit, this summersaulting settled so I could get some awareness, and I was able to see that earlier, when I thought I had stopped sliding, nothing of the sort had happened. I had merely reached the edge of the tarmac and continued on the nice smooth and level grass run-off area. Hence the silence, and feeling for a moment as though I had come to a halt.
Anyway, still travelling, I was rapidly approaching the earth bank at the edge of the grass, and I found with judicious use of hands (still with gloves attached) I was able to steer enough to make sure I didn't hit the banking head-first or legs-first, and all ended reasonably well.
So, not a case of braking with hands, just a touch of steering with them.
But that wasn't a 'first'. Later in the paddock a fellow racer came up, who had been behind me at the time.
"What happened there? It didn't look as though you made any mistake! Got me worried for a moment in case the same was going to happen to me!"
"No," I said. "Can't work out what went wrong there at all."
"How far did you slide?" he asked. "I came off there once, it feels as though you'll never stop!"
I related my experience.
"Snap!" he said. "Exactly the same happened to me. Really strange feeling when you go onto the grass after what feels like a mile on the tarmac."