One of my New Year's Resolutions involved combining cycling and public transportation to limit driving my truck to work. The score so far:
Bike - 2
Bus - 0
Truck - 2
Road - 1
Road - 1???? What's that about? Well - I'm glad you asked.
Yesterday morning I was happy to be riding after the torrential downpours of the previous 2 days. I even took the longer route to work to get in some extra miles. It's been quite a while since I took that route. There was a new addition to the route - a pot hole - that I didn't see until it was too late. Mind you - this was no ordinary pot hole - it was big and deep. In the split second I had to register this impending doom - I came to the realization that if my front tire went in that hole - I was gonna tear something up.
Now I've been commuting to work for the better part of 15 years. I've had my fair share of run ins with pot holes. I instinctively pulled up on the front wheel and pedals so as to bunny hop the pot hole. I was semi-successful in that endeavor but overlooked one minor detail. I was riding my fixed gear bike. As I tried to execute a text book bunny hop, my feet kept going round and round. This caused the bike lean too much toward the right. When the wheels finally hit the pavement, they were far from perpendicular with the ground causing them to slide out from under me. I didn't even have time to say "ah sugar".
I went down hard on my right side. I have always worn my normal street clothes while commuting. The right leg of my dockers were shredded. My head hit the ground hard enough to put a dent in the side of my helmet. (I DON"T KNOW WHY ANYONE RIDES WITHOUT A HELMET) Luckily the only physical injury I suffered was a bruise and road rash on my right hip. The bike suffered no ill effects.
The year is off to a bang of a start. It's 30 degrees out right now and no rain. Hopefully the score by the end of the day will be:
Bike - 3
Bus - 0
Truck - 2
Road - 1 (Wish me luck:-)
Friday, January 9, 2009
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