How often do you fall ...... and why?

On Jan 28, 1:30 pm, Marz wrote:
On Jan 28, 10:00 am, wrote:





On Jan 27, 11:12 pm, Tom Sherman
wrote:

Hank Wirtz wrote:
...
This does not count any falls while BMXing or mountain biking. Those
are too numerous to remember.

If you do not fall while riding off road, you are not trying hard enough!

I've never bought into that. I enjoy getting into the woods just
because I like the woods.

Seehttp://www.bicyclinglife.com/Recreation/GrownUps.htm

- Frank Krygowski

Ditto, but even during my most sedate ride theres always one section
I'd like to clean without dabbing, some sort of challenge that's going
to test my riding skills and possibly lead to a crash.

Maybe I don't mountain bike like a 'grown up' should (as per your
link), but if that's how 'grown ups' are supposed to ride maybe I'll
never grow up (is 39 considered grown up these days?). Careful you
don't age yourself before your time.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I fall fairly often, and for the same reasons Marz listed. The short
of it is that I outride my abilities and equipment, or as I like to
say, "run out of talent". I almost never crash on pavement. Last
time I did I fell onto the pavement from a very steep rock that I was
trying to ride up, 180 on my rear tire and ride back down. The rock
was steep enough that when I lifted my front wheel it came over
backwards as well as around. Sore elbow, no big deal. The last time
I fell on the mountain bike, there was a wooden platform that led off
the top of a large rock, and a couple feet past the end of the
platform and down a bit was a halfpipe looking landing ramp. Not
wanting to come in between the ramp and the landing, I came off the
platform a little too hot and had to push my rear wheel down to keep
from landing past the ramp on the flat. I manualed down the ramp and
looped backwards, smashing the back of the helmet into the landing
ramp. After a discussion with tweety I was back on my way, and after
the day long headache was gone all was back to normal. My last
thought before trying that move was "I really shouldn't do this today,
when I'm alone and there's no one else riding here. Oh well." At any
rate, when I do fall off my bike it almost always seems to be part of
a stunt, not JRA. I have not had an on-road JRA wreck since I was a
kid, and then it was either from equipment, assembly issues or some
sort of distraction.

Dan

On Jan 28, 7:59*pm, wrote:
On Jan 28, 1:30 pm, Marz wrote:



Maybe I don't mountain bike like a 'grown up' should (as per your
link), but if that's how 'grown ups' are supposed to ride maybe I'll
never grow up (is 39 considered grown up these days?). Careful you
don't age yourself before your time.

Actually, one of the perks of being a grown up is, you don't have to
worry about "should." *You can bike pretty much how you like!

My point in writing that article, though, was that people can use
mountain biking as a wheeled version of hiking, rather than (say) as a
wheeled version of freerunning. *(Seehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_running)
or mall walking.

ISTM that most adults use their mountain bikes only on perfectly
smooth surfaces. *Most of the enthusiasts that take them off-road
often seem willing to risk injury by adventure, by "pushing the
envelope." *I know relatively few who use them for the equivalent of a
pleasant hike. *But that's my favorite way to mountain bike.

But no worries about aging myself before my time. *That time has
already come! *;-)

- Frank Krygowski

That is all true. But there is nothing that says going fast has to be
pushing the envelope or necessarily leads to crashes. The best and
fastest mountain bike riders I (try to) ride with never crash.

Joseph

wrote:

I've never bought into that. I enjoy getting into the woods just
because I like the woods.

See http://www.bicyclinglife.com/Recreation/GrownUps.htm

My kind of mountain biking!

Essentially I "road ride" where the road just happens to be
dirt and perhaps a bit narrower and rougher than a very badly
maintained paved road.

Once the road becomes too rutted, too many rocks or roots,
too much loose gravel or sand, or too much incline, I'll be
headed off on another tack or turned back.

Furthermore, one of the great thing about biking off road is
observing nature. I find if the road is too rough for my
technical abilities, I spend all my time looking only at the
road ahead of me, plotting my lines, estimating how much
speed I need to get up over a rock or root ledge, etc.

There could be the long sought after photographic proof of
Big Foot himself napping alongside the road awaiting my
camera shot...but I wouldn't have seen a thing!


SMH

On Jan 28, 12:59*pm, wrote:
Actually, one of the perks of being a grown up is, you don't have to
worry about "should." *You can bike pretty much how you like!

- Frank Krygowski

That's the truth and I'm all for bike how ever you like. I actually
liked the ride report, it reminded of the types of rides I used to
enjoy back in the UK and what sort of riding seems difficult to find
in Houston. Most of the dirt trails in and around town are within
designated areas and therefore don't actually go away useful. I
shouldn't have read too much into the report's title.

On Jan 27, 8:39 pm, Hank wrote:
Numerous spills on ice, when I wanted but couldn't afford studded
tires - Winter '86/87

Couldn't unclip from my SPDs while stopped - spring 2004

Slid out on what looked like a thin layer of mud on a paved trail next
to a recently-flooded creek, Mud was actually 3" thick - summer 2004

You reminded me of at least two I'd forgotten about:

- ~1996, wet bike trail (twice within 30 minutes, d'oh!)
- ~1998, mud slick
- ~1998, black ice
- ~1999, cyclist rear-ended me at a red light and I went over the bars
- ~2000, car forced me off the road (driver was oblivious)
- ~2006, failed to unclip from Look pedals


- JR

aka Frank Krygowski wrote:
On Jan 27, 11:12 pm, Tom Sherman
wrote:
Hank Wirtz wrote:
...
This does not count any falls while BMXing or mountain biking. Those
are too numerous to remember.

If you do not fall while riding off road, you are not trying hard enough!

I've never bought into that. I enjoy getting into the woods just
because I like the woods.

See http://www.bicyclinglife.com/Recreation/GrownUps.htm

Nothing wrong with what Frank is advocating - unless you are Mikey V!

Non-technical riding off road is certainly enjoyable, but maybe we need
a better name than the generic "mountain biking". In addition, some such
as Jobst Brandt would likely say that non-technical off road riding can
be done acceptably well on a road bicycle.

--
Tom Sherman - Holstein-Friesland Bovinia
"And never forget, life ultimately makes failures of all people."
- A. Derleth

On Mon, 28 Jan 2008 08:00:41 -0800 (PST), wrote:

On Jan 27, 11:12 pm, Tom Sherman
wrote:
Hank Wirtz wrote:
...
This does not count any falls while BMXing or mountain biking. Those
are too numerous to remember.


If you do not fall while riding off road, you are not trying hard enough!

I've never bought into that. I enjoy getting into the woods just
because I like the woods.

Shoot, Frank, you're probably one of those characters who rides across
the country just for fun, taking months instead of weeks!



Email address works as is.

"Ron Wallenfang" wrote in message
...
Anyway, at the risk of appearing a real oaf, here's some
of my spills -


Falls in the last year: I was creeping down a slicked-over black-iced
overpass and managed not to fall the entire way until I got to the
stoplight, and the act of actually stopping caused me to fall.

I fell when I ran into Mr. Cell Phone. For all of you who yelled at me SLOW
DOWN, I guess you really didn't understand the situation. I managed the
other day to spot a dark-complexioned African man walking a black dog in the
utter darkness the other day with lots of room to react. Further, since it
was on the East Channel Bridge, if I hadn't slowed to a near crawl (and he
hadn't reined in the dog's leash), my other options would have been a flip
over a three foot barrier into four lanes of speeding interstate traffic; or
an arabesque over a five foot barrier, and then a descent of maybe 100 feet
into the frigid wintery waters of Lake Washington. But Mr. Cell Phone
stepped from behind a barrier (where he was completely out of sight)
immediately into me without looking. It would have happened in broad
daylight - and in fact, the area was pretty well lit. It wasn't a matter of
me riding too fast or out-running my headlights, it was a matter of someone
else being an idiot. So there.

I fell when I rode on some slippery bit on the Montlake Bridge in the dark
in the pouring rain. I was coming back from doing some volunteer work, it
was late, and I was really tired.

I can't think of any other recent falls. I still bear the scars on my knee
and elbow from crashing Ryan C's bike several years ago. I was an idiot, and
I still feel bad about that.

--
Warm Regards,

Claire Petersky
http://www.bicyclemeditations.org/
See the books I've set free at: http://bookcrossing.com/referral/Cpetersky

Hmmmm....

Have done the "insufficient angle thing"...all of the above...and *twice* at
a level Rail Crossing.

-most recent fall was on AF bridge on one of those @#$%^&*!!! cable
protector boxes the Hwy maint guys were nice enough to place on the path, in
the dark, with no appreciable lighting or warning signs.

-most spectacular fall (more of a "wipe out", really) came 20 years ago when
I rode my newly-reassembled machine without toeclips...wearing flat-soled
leather shoes...*Yes* I stuck my foot in the front FORK and *yes* I hit hard
and fast. I have a permanently dislocated left clavicle because of it.

-had a jeep pull in front of me while riding past a sidewalk ramp. I did a
handspring over his hood, and landed on my arse next to his DS front
wheel...fortunately, he had the presence of mind to *STOP* after seeing
myself vault over his car right in front of him.

B.

I've plowed into a couple of parked cars in my life, both times I was
checking my handlebar mounted mirror instead of watching where I was
going (one reason I use the helmet "Fred" mirrors now).

Never done the RR track at the wrong angle trick, I prefer drainage
groves.

Gone down on sandy spots in curves enough to meet my quota. On and off
road!

Ice, no. Water, yes.

The most memorable was going down a hill at 40 mph and had some guy pop
out from behind a parked truck. Clipped my shoulder, turning the front
wheel and down I went. Witnesses say I tumbled over three times, bike
and all. I layed unconscious in the hospital for three days. This was
the accident that cost me my sense of smell.

- -
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