Fifty Plus (50+) - The Third Ride Was a Charm

My beautiful new bike and I got off to a somewhat less than auspicious start when *literally* less than 60 seconds into my very first ride I went over the handlebars.
I was all excited, hopped on my bike, rode across the lawn, and was riding down a little terraced spot at the bottom of the driveway, which is all over grown with crown vetch, wasn’t paying attention, was too far forward, and bang! OTB on to the driveway. Scraped up my left elbow & pushed the lever on the rear shifter back (which needs to be replaced:notamused:)

Then, about half way through my second ride on my beautiful new bike I got stung on my left ankle by a bee. It hurt, but I kept riding. My armpits were getting kind of itchy by the time I was riding out, but I thought it was just because the straps of my Camelbak were chafing. Drove home, took a shower and when I looked in the mirror, I was covered from my neck down in hives. :eek: And, my foot was all swollen up.
Went to the Dr. the next day and she said it's time for an EpiPen & make sure I always carry antihistamine with me.

Now, the fall & the bee sting were not the bike’s fault, but still ….. I was a little leery for ride # 3.

But! 3rd ride was a charm! :D
Awesome ride today. No falls, no stings, nothing but a great ride. I was being careful, not pushing, staying away from the most difficult trails, but things were going so well that I decided to ride one of the real technical trails, and, boy, is that bike wonderful. It holds it’s line, it sucks up all the bumps, it climbs like a mountain goat (those 30 gears do come in handy), descends like a dream, I’m so happy that I didn’t talk myself out of it. :love:

Not my fault! really!:innocent:

I keep thinking about adding a mtb to the stable, however, around here it would be an hours drive to the closest off road riding other than the rail trail which doesn't recquire one.

Glad to see the Yeti is behaving itself but fancy allowing it to bend your shifter. None of my MTB's would allow that:innocent:

They would rather break my leg than damage themselves.

Good ride.

Congratulations on the new bike and the successful ride!

Sounds like my son's first ride on his MX raceing motorcycle.

Being a non-wimp, for his very first motorcycle he bought himself a YZ426 which is about as big and as fast as MX motorcycles go. The cold start procedure takes about a minute once you get the process down and five minutes when you're learning how. So he unloaded it from his trailer at a road construction zone, started it up, and putzed around for about five minutes to get it warmed up. Then he rode up to a pile of dirt and cracked the throttle. The Yamaha shot straight up about 12 or 15 feet and fell straight down breaking the tailpipe and clutch lever. My son was agile enough to push off the back while the motorcycle was in the air and didn't get hurt but his first ride only lasted 5 minutes and cost him around $300.00. That's $60.00 per minute.

Congratulations! And glad you weren't badly hurt after going over the bars.

A bee stung me on the knee during a recent ride. I brushed it off and went on my merry way. It seems that on every long group ride I have some sort of silly mishap so I expected my knee to swell to the size of the Goodyear blimp and require being airlifted home, LOL. Fortunately, none of that happened and I was able to complete the ride with only a very slight ache in the knee and a red spot that lasted a couple of weeks.

Way to finally tame the beast Miss Jean, glad the third was a charm for you.

RG, I own an '02 YZ426FP and race it (well I did, not now with the CRF I have managed to develop. Great bike and plenty fast for me. I guess she will be sold now.

Bill

Glad to see the Yeti is behaving itself but fancy allowing it to bend your shifter. None of my MTB's would allow that:innocent:

They would rather break my leg than damage themselves.

Good ride.
That reminds me of the old racer's mantra. "Flesh heals, Campy doesn't."