Scott HodgeIt is with a heavy heart that I bring you the news that Scott Hodge, owner of Addictive Cycles in Braselton, GA and beloved member of the southeastern mountain biking community, was injured in a motorcycle accident. The following post, taken from the Addictive Cycles website, sums up the situation:

In case you haven’t heard, Scott Hodge was in a motorcycle accident Thursday, Oct. 16th. Scott suffered the following injuries from the motorcycle crash: C6 vertebrae fracture, C7 fractured in half but is not separating, C5 is also fractured and causing the most pain but it will heal on its own. Healing time for the fractures is estimated at 3 to 6 months. His lungs are bruised which has made breathing a little difficult, one broken rib and his hip is sore and bruised from hitting the pavement.

Those interested in more specific details may click on over to Scott Hodge’s personal blog.

In case you haven’t figured it out by now, bike shop owners are not rock stars. Scott does not have medical insurance, but his friend Namrita O’Dea has set up a PayPal account to accept donations to help him and his family out. There are also some benefit rides in the works. Go to the Addictive Cycles website for a link to the donation page, and to stay posted on any upcoming fundraising events.

I was not exaggerating above when I wrote that Scott Hodge is a beloved member of the mountain bike community. For a sample of the comments from his friends, visit this thread on the National Mountain Bike Forum.

I have my own personal Scott Hodge story. Upon the completion of the first of two laps at the 2008 SSUSA race, the promoters had the racers chug either a beer or a root beer, before continuing onto the second lap. As I straddled my bike, chugging my root beer, I heard another rider roll in behind me. Then I saw a hand grab my water bottle from its cage and toss the bottle to the ground.

“Hey,” I said as I whirled around to see an unfamiliar face sporting an impish grin.

“Just trying to slow you down a bit,” was the reply from the rider, who turned out to be none other than Scott Hodge.

“Well, there’s not much to worry about from me,” I said, before draining the last bits of sugary fluid from the brown bottle.

It turned out that Scott and I rode most of that second lap together, with me glued to his rear wheel, watching in amazement as he piloted his fixed-gear rig through the twisty singletrack. My jaw dropped the first time I saw him lock up his rear wheel and skid through a sharp downhill left-hander. Did I just see that?!? All I could do was shout encouragement, and I soon lost any urge to attempt a pass. The Scott Hodge show was worth the price of admission, and I had the best seat in the house.

Please, help a brother out and click here and make a donation to Scott’s medical fund.