Sunday, May 07, 2006

4 of us and 9 Crashes.

Well today we rode for 3 hours.

It was a beautiful day, a lil hot, probably in the 70's, not a cloud in the sky, one of those perfect days to ride.

There were only 4 of us today. Betty (only her 3rd ride and first time on her new bike), Warren and his squeaky bike, Speeder-Man and his downhill bike and me with the 5 spot. Out of the 4 of us, we only crashed 9 times!

The first was Betty, she endoed over sum logs. We taught her, if she falls to get that bike away from her, because it will only hurt you (*see Speeder-Man's fall). Then not to be out done by Betty, Warren did a sweet endo over the same log pile and landed on his shoulder. Then I washed my front tire out and decided that it would be cooler to dismount off the bike backwards and to put my knee down to stop my fall, good job! AND thank god it was only the left knee.

Then Warren decided to fall into the brush next to a series of logs to determine where the thorns were. Thanks buddy!
I think Betty toppled a few times in between, I didn't see them because Speeder-Man and I were in front of them clipping trees with our handlebars.

Next stop were the bmx pit. *Speeder-Man decided to do a jump on his DH bike but didn't see the hole on the other side of the jump. So the bike's front tire dug into the hole, he endoed and his head dug into the ground and tumble saulted over and sat there, for a second or two and then WHAM! His 40 pound bike landed sideways on the back of his head, neck and upper back. I sat there stunned because where I was at, all I remember is his head digging into the ground and that bike wailing on him in the end. Speeder-Man got up like it was nothing, not scratch nor cut on him but a lil dusty to say the least.

Now I didn't see this fall but Betty fell down this HUGE dip. I think she gave it to much brake, since she just got the new bike wit disc brakes, a Cannondale Jekyll 500 few days ago. But Warren said she looked like she was continuously was falling down this dip. Finally she got some war wounds (cuts) on her legs.

The last crash was me, I endoed over a log pile and the handle bar jabbed me into my hip. I think that hurt more than flipping and falling over. Oh well, not a bad day, I got a few scratches from the thorns, a cut on my knee from kneeling down for a fall and that's about it. I'm sure I'll awake tomorrow with a flat. This place is notorious for thorns and flats, so I wont be surprised by tomorrow.

I doubt I'll ride tomorrow but I might eat my words. My knee is pretty sore right now, I have been icing it and I should really start to do my exercises again. Maybe the gym tomorrow or just lay in my hammock out back, what do you think I'll do?

Till the next ride!
Dirty Bert

Thursday, May 04, 2006

All done...

So it's almost 2 weeks now and I'm back to riding. I have been out of the game for 4 months with my knee surgery.

swollen knee

Yes, I did have to write "YES" on the knee that needed to be operated on. Kinda funny to see now and a bitch to get off.

Anyway, back to more important things, I'm back on the bike. It still hurts to climb on the bike as well as going up and down stairs. I was told this is natural and is to be expected. I think I have about 7 rides in since I got the green light back in late April. I have been riding Mercer a lot because of the flatness of the park. I don't mind it, the park really hasn't bore me and I got a nice lil circuit I do each time I go out.

The thorns are back in full force. As you can see here, this pic is my shin with 2 scrapes from a thorn bush, I love these natural tattoos but to bad they don't feel natural when it comes time to take a shower.

a lil shin cut

Here's a pic from a ride just recently. God, I can't believe how great it feels to ride that bike again and words can't describe how nice the bike actually rides.

5 spot under a tree

More pics to come...

–dirty bert