OFF the bike....then off the bike...

Two Sunday's ago, after church, I needed to get out and ride. Lately, with life being as busy as it is, my ride time has dropped dramatically.

I really wanted to put in a good hard ride though so I brought out the SS and headed for the long loop at Chabot. The day was going great. Weather was warm, but not hot. Trail was fairly empty once I got away from the lake and I was getting a good hard ride in without killing myself.

One of the benefits to riding alone is that I can go as hard or as easy as I want. This particular day, I was going hard uphill to get a good workout, but taking it easy on the flats and downhills knowing I had no schedule and no one I had to keep up with.

Things were great....until they weren't....about 2/3rds the way around the loop after the last drinking fountain, I was zipping down a rough bumpy downhill section when my front wheel went in to a rut. - sidestory: the parks dept grades the trails with a bulldozer which doesn't do anything except drag the loose powdery stuff into the ruts. The ruts are still there, its just now they're camouflaged - Once my tire went in to the rut I heard what amounted to a large burp and my front tire was immediately flat.

This flatting of the front tire led to an interesting chain of events. 1) the handlebars wrench sideways 2) the bike comes to a sudden and immediate stop 3)the rear wheel to tries to trade places with the front wheel 4) Rich becomes airborne 5) Rich stops being airborne by impacing the ground 6) Rich slides across the ground on his shoulder, elbow and knee creating nice ovaloid sections of red, bleeding flesh at all three contact points.

It wasn't really as painful as I thought it was going to be and, to be honest, I was so worried about being seen in this predicament that I bounced up and moved to the side of the trail before anyone saw me. After quickly re-inflating the tire I mounted the bike and got back underway as quickly as possible.

The good news is that there really was no serious injury and my bike is actually fine, although my brake lever is slightly tweaked. The downside is that later as I stood in the shower trying to clean dirt and gravel from my knee, elbow and shoulder...I whined and cried like a little girl....but that's ok, because no-one saw that part of the ordeal and to all concerned I'm still a tough as nails mt biker with the scars to prove it.