cylist vs. tree @15mph

Journal Tsunayoshi's Journal: cylist vs. tree @15mph 2

Journal by Tsunayoshi on Tuesday December 19, 2006 @04:14PM

I'll skip ahead to the results:

Tree : 1
Cyclist: 0

I was actually in NoVA this weekend so I decided to take advantage of the great weather (mid 60s in Dec) and lack of recent rain to hit a trail in Maryland I had done once before on a night ride. Total length of the main trail is ~9.7 miles with lots of nice long hills so I knew I would get a good workout. I also bought a bike computer so I can start getting some metrics on how I ride (speed, distance, average speed, etc) since I want to start getting into bike races and adventure racing.

This trail is very easily from a technical point of view, smooth hard packed dirt with only 3 log obstacles on the whole main trail. You can really fly down the hills and need to be good at cornering at speed. Since the last time and only time I had been on this trail was at night with a rather fast paced group, I figured I wouldn't have any problems in the daytime. Wrong.

The aforementioned match between the cyclist and the tree occurred .2 miles into the ride as I came around a sharper than I expected corner and understeered right into one of those trees that is placed in such a way that you MUST take the turn right or you hit it. I hit it. It was about 3 inches in diameter.

One of the cardinal basics in mountain biking is if you are about to wipe, you DO NOT attempt to save yourself with arms, legs, etc since you have a much better chance of breaking something if you do. I was lucky in the following points:

1. Even though I stuck my arms out, I managed to catch the tree and use the arms to absorb my body's impact.
2. I hit the tree as perfect as you can head on with the tire just sliding by it, so the impact was near center on the handlebars so there was no twisting of the bars which would have sent me and the bike flying off somewhere.

Basically, it was a head on hit @ about 15mph, the tree won (only lost a small chip of bark from the bike's impact) and the bike and I bounced back about 2 feet and fell to the ground (off the side of the trail, so I didn't get run over by anyone). The amazing part is my shoes didn't even unclip from the pedals, so I was still attached to my bike laying on the ground. However, my brand new computer was about 3 feet down the trail since the tabs on the mounting bracket snapped on impact.

The computer still was in working condition however, if I had some zip ties on me I could have tied it back onto the bracket so the sensors connected. That is where I got the .2 miles into the trail and the 15mph stats from, they were the last settings on the computer before it flew off.

I went on to finish two laps of the trail (roughly 20 miles) with only two more incidents: front wheel washed out on a pile of leaves and this time I just rolled with it, and a badly placed (in my opinion) log on a rolling section where I somehow managed to not endo but rode a front wheelie until the wheel washed out and I slid into the hillside. Both the other 2 wipes happened on the 1st lap, and on the second I caught a killer 2nd wind and flew through the latter half on an endorphin high. I wanted to attempt a 3rd lap but wisely didn't. My legs have that nice "damn good workout" feel to them but my upper body is sore from both the wipes and 20 miles of bouncing around.

Unfortunately with the winter weather I think I am just going to be a weekend warrior on the bike since the weekday night rides are getting too damn cold and I can't afford the right clothing, but I am going to start taking advantage of the free gym at work to cross train as well as work on my running since I am going to enter a trail running series in March.

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