Where I ride

[e_moon60]

Last week (Monday the 7th)  I was riding the bike on the land, checking the wildlife waterers and doing some trail maintenance  while R- was digging postholes along the south fenceline where he's building fence.   As I came around one narrow, snug turn (around a big juniper and between others on the outside) on the way back, I miscalculated my

Comments

[e_moon60]

Yeah...I think a helmet-cam (which I don't have...yet...) would make an interesting video--for me, anyway, to learn how to ride it all better.

[cdozo]

Sometimes, on rough terrain, it's a good idea to to lift your butt off of the seat just a little and shift your weight backward or forward a bit to keep the center of mass of the bike/human combo centered so the bike stays stable. I learned to do it with a friend who took me out riding on a trail off of Loop 360 long ago. She would yell "forward!" or "backward!" as we rode up and down and around the hills and gullies. After a few days of that, I started to catch on to the system. It really helps.

[e_moon60]

That would've been a good idea, yes. So would using only the rear brake have been a good idea. However, I made several classic mistakes. I hadn't eaten lunch, and had done a fair bit of trail work--had only five crackers with me. Though I ate them and rested at Owl before starting back, I knew I was tired and a little shaky...and instead of slowing down, was thinking "When I get home and eat something I'll feel better" so had been riding a little faster than usual on the more level (though twisty) part of the west-end trail...partly because it was easier to keep my balance on the straights and the less than 90 degree turns a little faster than slower, when I was wobbling a little. And I going faster as I started down the north fenceline trail, knowing it was all down-slope (except for a couple of very short up-turns) all the way to the dry creek. Less effort, easier, was in my head. I had cut back the section where I fell, and had also been riding it (in its slightly overgrown state) safely both ways. So my tired & hungry (and

[sheff_dogs]

I hope you aren't too sore or stiff today. Coming off like that is a shock to the system.

If the back end of the bike came up you may have been braking too hard with the front brake and going down hill would have exacerbated the effect. Way back in the sixties when I did my Cycle Proficiency course (run in schools by the Local Authority)braking with the back brake first and hardest was one of the things they really drummed into us. I've been very grateful they did over the years, especially on one occasion when on an unfamiliar road I came down hill round a corner to find the road meeting a bigger road at a t-junction. Differential use of the brakes is one of the ways trick cyclists manage to do things like getting on one wheel. Probably not what you want to be doing.

[thewayne]

My wife brought my bike down to my work place the other day and took the poodle for a ride, which is to say that the poodle did an awful lot of the work. Which is good, because there's a bit of a grade from my parking lot to the street.

I wish I had a GoCam, it was really interesting riding up here and watching my wife going up hill and not peddling. It's amazing how much energy Dante has, she thinks that he's sufficiently used to riding with bikes that we can use a standard leash and stop using the Walkie Dog thingie that mounts to the seat post and holds the dog about 2' off the side of the bike.