Golden Comeback

Went for a ride today out a Wilder Ranch. Rode out the Wilder Ridge Trail a ways and then into some single track I cannot remember the name of. IT was good. I was a little gun shy after my wipe out, but I had zero problems today. All told I did about six miles. The ride up was brutal. I am so out of shape, but I'm working on remedying that. I eventually stopped, because my right hip and right thigh were throbbing, presumably after effects of the crash. Coming back down was a riot. I was grinning ear to ear. I could feel the tires bite in on the corners the suspension absorbing hits, I could here the tires crunch the gravel on parts of the path. It was beautiful. The weather was still nice then to (It got all gray and nasty later). All in all a spectacular day of riding. Even if a friend of mine back out of going with. I'll drag her out eventually.

Freaking out Mom

I spent about four hours truing up and tensioning the wheels on my Trek today. I feel better, but the weather sucked. I had to go to the bike shop twice. First time to pick up spokes (One of the little bastards snapped when I was tensioning it) and for tools to take the drive cassette off the hub so I could actually put the spokes on. I finished about 4:00 PM local time and decided I needed to take it on a shake down ride. So I head out on a short loop. The one I think of as "Old Road Loop" because there is a nice heavily eroded old road section about 50 yards long that I use to brush up on my technical skills. The whole thing is just a little over a miles. I planned to do two loops. SO I rode up the (brutal) hill. Along to the dirt and down. I'm feeling quite good. The bike if performing flawlessly, and I'm doing well, especially on the decent on the old road. At the bottom of it there is an asphalt curb about 3 inches high. As I got to it *BAM* the front of the bike grabs, I go over the handle bars. I hit HARD. No graceful roll, just slapped down like a dead fish. Pain shoots up from both hands and my right elbow. I feel the bike land on top of me and roll off. I begin to get up and I realize I can't breath. A moment of panic. I realize I've had the wind knocked out of me. I roll over onto my back and relax until I can breath again. I look first at the bike, everything looks OK. I look at my elbow, which was, by then, stinging furiously. Oh wow, lots of blood. I make sure it's not gushing, upright my bike, and ride home without doing a second loop. I clean up and clean my wounds (Not until after I took a picture of it which I'll post one I figure out how to do that). Fortunately work gave me a NICE first aid kit, so I had way more than I needed to properly clean it out. I noticed in the shower that I had a nasty bruise on my right thigh. Presumably from the sifter or the break lever as I went over. Over all I'm fine. This crash, at about 8-10 MPH did far more damage than when I crashed going 15-17 MPH, but the fundamental difference was what sort of surface I landed on, this time I landed on asphalt. OK. So why did it happen? Why did I crash? Well, pilot error. Right when I got to the curb I clamped on the break, because I wanted to make sure there was no traffic. The braking slowed the wheel and compressed the front shocks, so when I hit the curb, there was less momentum on the wheel, and the shocks had less room to compress to absorb the hit. These to factors caused the wheel to stop and the ensuing disaster. So what could I have done to avoid it? Well, not break until after the curb. In the past I've learned that speed can save with bumps like that. There was plenty of room on the pavement to stop or slow down to watch out for traffic, so next time, I let the break out, and pull up slightly on that front wheel to help it over.

huuuuurk!

Been sick. Had the flu. 'nuff said. Now the weather sucks.

One Step Closer

So I got home and remembered that I had a video i needed to return. So I hopped on the Centurion and rode down to the video place. Only a few blocks. I returned the video. Coming out of the parking lot I decided to ride the bank to take out some money. I decide that despite wearing my "Street" cloths I'll sprint the mile or so to the bank. I make it. As I wait in line and then make my withdraw I feel pretty much entirely recovered. So, I decide to sprint the slightly over a mile home. Big chain ring in front, smallest in the back and off I go. I made this sprint to. But coming up the hill one block to my apartment. Ug. Brutal. My cloths were soaked with sweat, but I'm doing laundry tonight, and it felt good to push myself. Tomorrow I do 5 miles again.

5X5

I rode my 5 mile loop again. My front wheel was developing some play in it. Maybe I didn't properly tighten the cones when I repacked the bearings. I'll fix it tomarrow night.