God Damn!

Isaac and I went for a ride in Valley Forge yesterday, and we were heading around the back side of the park to get to some of the trails when disaster struck. We were coming down a hill and were going to cut across a grass patch to get to the walking path. The grass patch was flat, then downhill, nothing out of the ordinary. Isaac hit it first and as soon as he started going down the hill I just saw him go right over his bars and roll. He was going 28mph. I locked my brakes and pulled off the line he took, and when I got halfway down the hill I saw what he hit. A service pipe and it's ditch. He popped up right after he stopped rolling and the side of his face was already purple and he looked very, very surprised. I did a quick concussion check and he was okay, but his helmet was cracked and you can see from the picture what his bike did. To the credit of both Giant (bike) and Specialized (helmet), both did their jobs perfectly. His front wheel, the only front wheel he had for both of his bikes, the rim is surprisingly untouched, but three spokes ripped themselves right out of the hub, so the hub is toast. Five spokes were turned and two more were just spaghetti. No damage to the fork at all. All the components still work as well. He just needs a new frame, front wheel and a lot of ice.

Snow & Mud

My winter riding didn't go as expected this year. Two massive snow storms and the ungodly amount of snow they left on the ground made riding close to impossible for me. Two weeks ago Isaac got himself a used cross bike and crank, and threw some Rival on it, so we decided to give the trail a try. There was WAY too much snow, but we kept pushing to the Perkiomen Trail. Surprisingly, we both only fell once. Isaac went right over his bars and scuffed himself up. Mine was a combination of tired and lack of concentration; it was a nice, slow sideways dump. The ride was judged as an over-all success and we were looking forward to the snow melting and getting in some mud time.

Last week I managed to tweak my right knee coming down the stairs. Just for the record, my knees are complete garbage. The "injury" kept me from walking for two days and has me limping like a jack-ass. Today was a beautiful, sunny day and at 50+ degrees, I couldn't help but go out and test how my knee was doing. Isaac and I headed down to Betzwood where we got on the gravel path and rode up to Pawlings road. A bunch of trees were still down (the snow destroyed many a tree in the area. Most seemed to be laying across the bike paths) so we got some muddy grass/ cyclocross style dis and remount action. At one point Isaac decided to try and hop a downed tree. The outcome was as you would expect.

So, I love riding my bike through mud. The Guru is caked. My bottom bracket area looks like when you stare down the hole of a porta-potty. My rear brakes don't look much better, and there is a lot of grime for me to clean out of there so that my bike will come to a stop without it sounding like I've both run over a cat and am mixing cement. The back of my jerseys look like modern art, but actually done by a person of talent. It's supposed to be sunny and in the sixties later this week. There will be more riding done, I assure you.