********** WARNING**********
Gather arounds kids and let grandpa Dima tell you a long-winded story...
I've lived up to the saying "There's only two kinds of bikers, the ones that's been down and the ones that are going to go down." I can assure you getting road rash sucks. Sliding on the asphalt flays you like a cheese grater.
My favorite tittie bar back in the day (Valley of the Dolls) was I in the industrial part of the city where the semitrucks kept the road fucked up all the time. I was doing about 50 mph and high sided over the handlebars like superman after hitting a pothole so deep it cratered my 21" front wheel.
My main running buddy and I had closed the bar down like we had hundreds of times before. Between my beer goggles and the dim headlight on my bike, I didn't see the pothole in time to evade it. The worst thing about going down was watching my bike (that I had just repainted the week before) showering a rooster tail of sparks as it slid down the road in front of me.
To answer the obligatory question,
no I wasn't wearing a helmet. I still don't unless I'm riding through a State that requires it. For me if it's your time go, it's your time to go.
< on soapbox mode > I've seen both sides of the argument. I've seen people die or get massive head injuries without a helmet and people die from a broken neck because of the additional weight of the helmet puts on your neck or base of your skull. <off soapbox mode >
Anyway, I ended up with a gash on the side of my forehead, road rash on my elbows, back and right ass cheek. I stayed with my bike until my buddy came back with his pickup to take it to my house.
Once my bike was safe, only then I did I think about getting myself looked at. My buddy pussed out and wouldn't wash the dirt and gravel that was embedding in my back. He was afraid I'd hit him if he tried to do that.
He took me to the local hospital to get fixed up. By this time, it's been two hours since I wrecked. I nearly tore the cover off the hospital gurney as Nurse Ratchet scrubbed the dirt and gravel out of my back with anti-bacterial soap with what felt like a wire brush.
In the middle of all that, a cop comes into the room. (I assume the hospital called the police) He starts giving me a ration of shit asking me why I'd hadn't reported the accident. I told him didn't know I was supposed to report that I had a wreck with the ground! I'm sure he intended to arrest me for drunk driving, but between the time, pain and adrenaline I had sobered up. But to add insult to injury, he gave me a ticket for leaving the scene of an accident! FTW
They covered all my wounds with about thirty yards of medical tape and sent me home. As painful as it was to get cleaned up, that wasn't shit compared to pulling all that fucking tape off the next week to check how I was healing up!
Like they say, whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger. (and smarter) I healed up and fixed my bike. I got back on her and have never stopped riding. I didn't stop drinking, but I don't let it get out of hand when I'm on two wheels. I don't hammer down until the bike is put away. I also upgrade my headlight blub that looks like a welding arc so I can see the road!