One Flew Over The Handlebars

My normal riding routine is Church on Sunday (S.M.M.R.), the shop ride on Tuesday, and an unsupported, lengthy version of the shop ride on Thursdays.  Knowing I wasn't going to be able to do the ride tonight (Thursday), and not having been on my CX bike in a couple of weeks, I decided to go for a short CX ride in Betzwood today.  After a long warm up on the SRT, I got to the 422 section and hopped right in.  It took me a few minutes to get used to the cross bike again, but I felt pretty good.  I had one close call where I always do.  There's an especially slow left turn that has a small tree on the inside, a large root that as you go over, rotates the bike around too quickly, then you have to avoid the larger tree to the right, and a little, baby tree has started to grow on the left ion the middle of the turn.  What usually happens, and what almost happened today, is I hit the root as I'm turning, rear snaps around, and I bullhorn the baby tree with my handlebars.  I didn't hit the tree today, so i took it as a good omen.




As I entered The Ponds section, I was carrying good speed, and I felt I had really good control (for me) of the bike.  I made it all the way out, and was a little disappointed to see that they cut the grass in the fields before the swap area.  It was nice for being able to see my line, so I was able to carry some good speed through there too.

Even though it rained a little last night, Betzwood, which is a swamp, has been really dry, making it faster than normal.  There is one area on the loop that I ride where in years past, I've had to dismount to cross water/muck.  This year, it has been so dry that I've been able to ride through it, with the occasional splash of water.  Today, after it rained a little yesterday, it was bone dry.  It took me by surprise, but it was nice to be able to continue riding.

I came back out to the trail leading back to the SRT, and started adjusting the tension on my pedals.  While going through The Ponds section I had my foot just pull out of the pedal twice, and it was unnerving.  Once that was done, I wasn't, so I dove back in to do another lap.  Brimming with confidence, I was carrying a lot of speed, and I got to a section with some leaves, didn't see a stump, and hit said stump, flying over my handlebars and coming to a stop some 15ft later.  Other than some road rash and a little ankle soreness (perfect timing to adjust pedal tension, huh?), I'm fine.  Bike seems fine too, although both shifters were all over the place.  I got them adjusted as best as I could on the trail, then headed back home, tail between my legs.  I'm realizing that just because I'm getting faster on my road bike, doesn't mean that speed should carry over to the CX/MT bikes.  Nothing like learning the hard way.