Note to experienced/hard core mountain bikers-- notice I said "first". This is probably comparatively tame but it was fun for me! I just got back from mountain biking at Walnut Creek, which is maybe 10-15 minutes from my apartment. For those of you not in Austin, it's been raining on and off all day. I picked the time of the day when it was raining most heavily. I think I knew it was a bad idea. But since I've been riding for about a month without even the slightest accident, I think I was hoping it was a bad idea. Mwah ha. I was right-- I had my first total ****ing wipeout-- it was AWESOME. I was cruising along, good speed, no real problems even though the trail was wet and I was getting coated in mud that was spraying up. I was sliding a bit but gamely refused to slow for the conditions. What are the odds I'll suddenly hit something?" I thought to myself. Suddenly, I hit something. I don't know what... tree stump, log, gremlin, something-- and my very wet sneakers slid right off the pedals. This, I thought to myself in the brief instant before I began thinking "OH SHHIIIIITTTTT!!!!!", was why serious bikers have those snap-in shoe/pedal combinations. I was also worried that perhaps it was "Neuter A Republican Day" and no one had told me. Luckily for my testicles and my future children, the bike started to slide out from under me, so I didn't rack myself. I DID, though, get a series of puncture wounds on my right calf-- nine, it looks like-- from where the right pedal gouged my leg... my right foot slipped off as the pedal was coming forward, it bit into my leg, and ripped out a series of chunks all the way down. I was bleeding like a sonofabitch, but it's mostly clotted now. It doesn't really hurt at all. But I'm telling you, riding back, soaking wet, covered in mud, bleeding profusely-- it was ****ING COOL. I highly recommend it. I would like to hear other people's tales of mountain biking stupidy/bravery/both.
Here's my gnarly wipeout story. I remember a couple years ago, my pops and I went riding in memorial park. They were building something or other and a large pile of dirt, about 7 or 8 feet high, had accumulated by the work area. Seeing an oppurtunity for fun, I decided to see if I could ride over the mound. First attempt...cleared successfully! Wow, I'm a real nerd, I thought to myself. I'm happy that i simply rode over a mere pile of dirt. So being the genius I am, i now decided to see how quickly i could ride over it. I backed up about 20 yards from the pile, to get some momentum, then i hauled sweet ass towards my obstacle. I didnt think that if i was going to fast, i would become airborne, and that my airborne-ness would result in disaster. So I hit the top of the mound, but i kept going, about 5 or 6 feet into the air. It seemed like ages I was up in the air. I could see the little details in my shifters, i could hear all the birds, and I could hear my father's taunting cackle. After what seemed like a minute, I hit the dirt with a sickening thump, but i was alright, save for the embarassment and sore ass. it was a great experience.
when i did go mountain biking back in the day i used to go to memorial park too...that was some good stuff...
This was many years ago, and not mountian biking, but a cool wipeout nonetheless: As kids, we would take the bikes down the street to gather speed, head down a particularly steep section of the ditch, and see how high we could pull a Jeff Kent (pop a wheelie) coming up the other side. We had done it a number of times when I decided to really "hit the big one". I got moving as fast as I could, went flying down the ditch at top speed, and pull up on the other side as the perfect time. I went flying thru the air in a huge wheelie...only I kept turning. I realized I was upside down with the bike above me! I hit flat on my back with a loud thud, knocking the wind out of me. I had enough presence of mind to push the bike sideways to keep it from falling on me. Everyone starting laughing and cheering till the realized I wasn't moving! The ran to me as I was gasping for air. It was spectacular, but I never tried to repeat it.
I crashed about a month ago and yeah, sicky enough, it was kinda badass. Coming back from a friends house around 10:30 at nite, I was hauling a$$ along the sidewalk and I see a pedestrian coming my way a little ways ahead. Just to be polite I thought I'd just jump onto the road and keep on going. Well, I did, but in that particular spot they were wokring on some water pipes and well, it was dark and well, I ate $hit! It happened so fast kinda like a boxer that gets knowcked down and they just go down real quick and get back up. HAHA, the person walking freaked out and came running at me, "are you ok? Are you ok?" My calf was all scraped to hell as well as my right arm, but I straightened my handlebars and got back on and pretended I was on a time trial the rest of the 4 miles home. Strange, but in a few of my other wrecks, I always seem to keep the head up and the legs always get the scrape, kinda like a cat. Sorta like this, but then again, MTB riding has cliffs and stuff. Anyhow, cheers!
Congrats on the biff... moved here from California and I miss the availability of mountain biking. I know, i can ride off-road at Memorial, Ant Hills, and even go out towards Austin to places like Bluff Creek and Rocky Hills, but I used to be able to pedal out of the garage to places like Mission Peak and Alum Rock Park, and I could drive within an hour to hit places that overlooked the Pacific Ocean, climb 2,000 feet , and even ride through the rare snow and ice on winter rides. I even (gasp!) bought a road bike (also sacry out here... absence of shoulders and farmers seem oblivious to folks on bikes). I may drive all the way into Austin, or beyond (I hear there are actual mountains way west to Bib Bend).
Ah yes, whats a day without tales of cycling misfortunes. Oddly enough my first accident didn't occur on the actual trail itself, but after I had finished it. Now, here I was in New Hampshire, the route that I just completed straddled the line between moderate and difficult. Though I'd lean more towards moderate. Anyways, nothing too extreme had hit me and I was just looking forward to the cruise back to the parking area. Which meant going down this secluded and shockingly steep trail. From sight there weren't any reasons to proceed with caution but that was a mistake I learned soon after. So as I was on the path I continued to let my speed mount while the incline became more severe, and right on cue when I felt as if my velocity may be too much, danger sprouted. Apparently some small but solid rocks had frayed from an adjacent formation. Of course by the time I had realized this it was far too late and although I managed to avoid the largest one, I went head into another. It happened so rapidly that the images are blurred but upon striking I flipped over my handle bars and proceeded to slide/roll for about thirty feet. When I stopped I was on lying on my back opening my eyes to the sun above. I didn't feel like I was injured, yet I was terrified to check. After a moment I sat up and scanned my limbs, baring minor scrapes they seemed fine, but a tingling sensation buzzed from my left shoulder. I reached around to feel out the damage when my fingers brushed upon something foreign, I pulled away in shock, but forced my hand back. As I touched it the second time the object dropped out as burning sensation aerated from its location. I looked to the ground an realized I must of landed on some stones. My attention then shifted again as I noticed my fingers were basted in blood, the stone had nestled quite a gash around my shoulder blade. The bleeding was inconsistent and tapered off soon after. With an appropriate view it didn't seem like that much of an injury, albeit I still bare a light mark. The "lesson of the day" was picked up when I took off my bike helmet and observed another stone firmly jammed into one of my vents.
I used to ride trails but didn't hadn't in years when I moved in in '94. I thought I'd try the Ant Hill trail near Wilcrest last summer...my first time in years. I was only a matter of minutes before I ran into a tree and lodged the handle bars into my ribs...I broke my expensive Oakleys that I had put in my pocket (dumb move) and bruised my ribs. They hurt for almost 2 months. I haven't been on a dirt trail since...nothing but pavement for me. os
I never did any of the mountain biking, but I used to race BMX pretty seriously. In one race attempting to qualify for the Gold Cup race held annually there was a large jump near the beginning of the race. It was a double tiered one. The first section was lower than the second section. Well, I tried to get enough air to lift up and over the second section and land on the downslope of the higher portion. I didn't quite get there. My front wheel hit the little valley space in between the first section and higher jump. It lodged there, as it had nowhere to go. My momentum carried me forward along with the back of the bike, and I did a (what I can only imagine) beautiful swan dive a good 6 feet down the other side of the entire jump straight into the dirt, head first. I lay there for a several seconds before realizing how much it hurt. One thing that I couldn't figure was, how is it possible to get so much dirt in your mouth when you have a face protector portion of your helmet? I lost the race, by the way.
Wow, BrianKagy wiped out right there in my neighborhood. (except it was raining so I stayed inside sleeping all day ). The idea of riding bikes on a non-flat surface scares me. I don't have the balance to stay upright. (and I've participated in bike races before) It always seemed to me like trails were made for walking, but a lot of people around here seem to want to ride on them. I prefer the parks where walkers and riders use separate trails. My worst wipeout: I was home for Christmas and my dad had his old road bike fixed up for me (the thing is the same age I am). We thought it was all fixed. I was out riding around town and all of a sudden the wheels just quit. I had been applying the brake, but I'm pretty sure I didn't use the wrong one or anything. Can't prove it though. The wheel locked, bike stopped, and I flew over the handlebars and became one with the pavement. Freaked out a couple of passing cars. They stopped and asked if I was OK. I said yes. Of course, at that point I hadn't figured out how to get up and move yet. They didn't believe me. One stayed with me and let me use his cell phone. The other pretended to believe me and drove off - then they must have called 911. By that time I was up and mostly OK, though my elbow was sore and puffy. I got to meet various representatives from the ambulance, fire and police departments while trying to tell them to move along and take care of a real emergency. The firemen did put a pretty cool wrap-around bandage on my arm. Four stitches in my elbow and a sling for the next few days (fortunately it was my left arm/hand, which I don't use much). I have a tiny Y-shaped scar on my elbow. When they looked at the X-rays again, they discovered a small fracture (which I didn't tell my parents about). It was never in a cast and healed fine. The bike withstood some damage, especially the seat, which was bent forward. No one ever trusted that bike again. This was seven years ago, and I think it's still hanging from the ceiling in their garage with that bent seat.
I don't like injuries, so I take no risks on those bike things, but still manage to wipeout. Both my bests were going r.e.a.l. slow. Actually, about as slow as you can go on a bike. I was zipping up my jacket going no-handed coming out of my dorm and trying to take a turn at the same time when the wheel simply pivoted all the way to the full turn position and I slowly tipped over to my right with zero forward momentum, feet in clips. That must have looked pretty stupid from behind....then, DAMN, something hurt. I felt like, like ... what was that. But thought no way I could be hurt going that slowly and continued onto the undergrad pub for Thursday Night out. One hour later I have to pee and going to the bank of urinals that had like 3 other guys flanking me ... and started pissing blood. whoa!!! I had totally forgotten the 0 mph bike "accident," so didn't know what the f!ck was up and barely stopped myself from exclamating...look, I'm pissing blood. That was a strange 15 seconds of being embarrassed that someone else would notice and say, "Dude, you're pissing blood," and me being genuinely worried at the same time. Later, I realized I must have got kidney-punched by the handlebars and have an inner bruise. The other time I'm going about 3 miles per hour through a grocery store parking lot, sitting upright and barely holding the handlebars. I see a nice smile in a convertible go by looking at me and I look at her, then *bump* I hit the speed bump and it gives me just enough of a bump to knock my two-finger grasp off the handlebar followed by a slight kick in the seat as the back tire goes over to knock me slightly forward and "aw f!ck" ... I'm over the handlebars completely and head first to the pavement. another embarrassing moment to say the least. But, you know the girls love to see that. hehe. I remember ending my flight thinking, is it better if she spares me further embarrassment and keeps driving or will I be able to pull off the Ben Stiller loveable dork thing, if she stops to see how I am.
This isn't my story, but my friend wiped out and when he peeled his face out of the barren ground there was a snake looking at him from one foot away. Harmless, but how freaky is that. Sometimes I wipe out when I'm running at night. It's embarassing. Sometimes you think the path is clear and then you realize one of those invisible chain link fences was in your way. Face down, feet up in the air you clear the fence, but the cars driving by think you are a moron. You just wipe yourself off and try to look cool. But You can't.
I don't do any riding, but when I was in Jr. High, Santa bought me and my big bro Huffy yellow 10 speeds. We wanted BMX dirt bikes, and to show how bad we wanted the BMX, we learned to pop wheelies, bunny hop, and to tie this story into the thread, jump ramps. Before I go on, I want to say that I won the ramp jumping competition. I think the jump ended up being over 7 feet long, but damn, the landing was a b****!!! I bent a pedal down, and got mangled in the yellow p.o.s.!!! It was the most painfully hilarious event of my life...so can I be in the wipeout club?
