avalonracing
09-20-2012, 08:30 AM
A squirrel could have saved me a bit of pain yesterday... and today.
I don't hit the deck much... In twenty years of road riding and a whole pile of racing I've only hit pavement a handful of times... If that. (Of course one of those times probably should have been fatal as I took a serious "header" without a helmet 12 years ago).
So yesterday I was "just riding along" with a friend and as it was a beautiful day I was feeling quite spry and taking the downhills at a pretty good clip. Thankfully, no problem there. But as we cut through the paved section of the local park I pointed out the bumper crop of HUGE acorns that we have been having and said that I'm afraid of one of those huge, slippery marbles taking me out. Well, less than five minutes after that I was on the pavement.
Luckily, the pavement was fairly smooth and we weren't going quickly so my road rash is minimal but man, my ass, shoulder, arm and hip ache this morning.
One thing that I noticed as I hit the pavement was the side/back of my helmet slamming the ground. Well, now that I've tried both the helmeted and helmet-less methods of a head to pavement experience I HIGHLY recommend the helmeted method. I cracked my helmet but when I felt it hit it hit the ground but there was no pain... and no trip to the ER this time. So one of my trusty Bell helmets gave its life to help save mine... Thanks Bell.
I don't hit the deck much... In twenty years of road riding and a whole pile of racing I've only hit pavement a handful of times... If that. (Of course one of those times probably should have been fatal as I took a serious "header" without a helmet 12 years ago).
So yesterday I was "just riding along" with a friend and as it was a beautiful day I was feeling quite spry and taking the downhills at a pretty good clip. Thankfully, no problem there. But as we cut through the paved section of the local park I pointed out the bumper crop of HUGE acorns that we have been having and said that I'm afraid of one of those huge, slippery marbles taking me out. Well, less than five minutes after that I was on the pavement.
Luckily, the pavement was fairly smooth and we weren't going quickly so my road rash is minimal but man, my ass, shoulder, arm and hip ache this morning.
One thing that I noticed as I hit the pavement was the side/back of my helmet slamming the ground. Well, now that I've tried both the helmeted and helmet-less methods of a head to pavement experience I HIGHLY recommend the helmeted method. I cracked my helmet but when I felt it hit it hit the ground but there was no pain... and no trip to the ER this time. So one of my trusty Bell helmets gave its life to help save mine... Thanks Bell.