Tip o' the Day: Avoid vines!
09-30-08, 08:30 PM
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Tip o' the Day: Avoid vines!
I rode my MTB last night and I learned something important. I was just riding along the trail, and I saw a pile of 1" thick vines laying there, kinda looking like a pile of snakes - I guess the recent storms snapped them off of a tree, onto the trail.
When you see a pile of vines laying on the ground ahead of you, go around them. Why? Well, when I touched one of them with my front tire, it tipped another one up high enough to lasso my left pedal. I was dashed to the ground, on my right knee, with my bike frame compressed between my right calf and thigh. Think: jack-knife. I kinda sprained my right ankle, and injured my right calf (gave it a spontaneous Charlie Horse, which is still hurting today).
It was like "Top Gun", when the F-16 jets land on an aircraft carrier, and the steel braking cable hooks on and brings them to a complete stop. These vines were like braking cables.
So if you ever see vines laying on the ground, think: Pile of snakes! Avoid!
When you see a pile of vines laying on the ground ahead of you, go around them. Why? Well, when I touched one of them with my front tire, it tipped another one up high enough to lasso my left pedal. I was dashed to the ground, on my right knee, with my bike frame compressed between my right calf and thigh. Think: jack-knife. I kinda sprained my right ankle, and injured my right calf (gave it a spontaneous Charlie Horse, which is still hurting today).
It was like "Top Gun", when the F-16 jets land on an aircraft carrier, and the steel braking cable hooks on and brings them to a complete stop. These vines were like braking cables.
So if you ever see vines laying on the ground, think: Pile of snakes! Avoid!
10-01-08, 01:02 AM
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is as Gurgus does.
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Couple years ago, I had vine catch me across the throat and pull me off my bike.
I got home after that ride and my wife goes "Hey! Who gave you the hickey?"
-edit-
Avoid vines.
I got home after that ride and my wife goes "Hey! Who gave you the hickey?"
-edit-
Avoid vines.
10-01-08, 08:42 AM
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It funny how Some things that seem so benign, can eat us for lunch. I hit a hedgeball sunday and was on my side so fast I still had hold of the handlebars.
10-01-08, 09:40 AM
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I was riding the Jamis Commode after a rain (only has a front brake)...went down a plank ramp after a rope bridge. Just barely, lightly touched the front brake to scrub a bit and my front wheel shot out from under me sideways. I came straight down on my side. It was the slowest moving crash I think I've done in years and yet...the most painful.
Don't count your injuries...that's what scars are for. No scars = didn't happen.
Don't count your injuries...that's what scars are for. No scars = didn't happen.
Last edited by ed; 10-01-08 at 09:43 AM.
10-01-08, 04:02 PM
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I had one of those quick "what the hell happened" crashes on ice. My buddy was behind me and saw me start to lose control. As he was complimenting me for regaining control, I hit another bit of ice and was on my side instantly.
10-01-08, 05:37 PM
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That happened to my cousin, only in a car; he got on the throttle a bit early and drifted a bit, corrected only to hit a snow bank going around the next corner.
