I briefly mentioned in my last posting, that I’ve been hobbling round on injured knees after a mountain biking accident, and I just thought I’d like to elaborate a little. You see, I’m not a mountain biker, and it had been something like two years since I’d been out on a mountain bike, when I went over to the trails at Cannock Chase to meet up with my old friend Dave from back down south (Dave being a keen mountain biker, and Cannock being a nice half way point for us to meet for a day trip).
I borrowed Matt’s mountain bike (cheers matey), which held a couple of issues for me: 1) the spd pedals he uses (easily solved by the guys in the shop loaning me some flats) and 2) the bike is slightly too big for my petite frame.
Anyway, I had a really good time on the ‘Follow the Dog’ red run, also linking in a few more easy miles of ‘blue’ through the forest before rejoining FtD…it was all going so well, until I fluffed it. Right at the very end of the course, I misjudged a couple of things and to cut a long story short, went flying without the bike…landing directly on both kneecaps.
The bike was fine thankfully, but I had to finish riding the trail in an unbelievable amount of pain. I hadn’t broken anything, but judging by the kind of pain I still have, I suspect I may have bruised some bone underneath the big cuts. Anyway, I’m virtually back to normal now so we shan’t dwell on it too much.
The two most frustrating aspects of the whole episode were the fact that I wrecked my only pair of walking/climbing trousers and that I promptly decided I wanted another bike. Yes, that’s right, I went out, caused myself massive amounts of pain through injury, so of course I decided I wanted to be able to ride better, and in order to do that I need to ride more, and in order to do that…I needed a bike (and some knee pads!).
So here we are, my bruises finally starting to disappear, and I’m looking at my beautiful new hardtail mountain bike – one that’s mine, a bike that fits me and is an absolute joy to ride. Bring on the trails and the mountains…I will get better at this.
Argh, sounds painful Lauren! Which bike did you end up buying?
ReplyDeleteCannock Chase is brilliant for mountain biking, I love the Follow the Dog route, so much fun!
It's a Boardman Comp (halford special - unbelievable spec for the money), by far the most expensive bike I've ever owner (apart from the CBR600 of course!)
ReplyDeleteBeen out on it a couple of times, including with a mate who was once a sponsored XC racer, so I'll soon be learning to ride it properly :-)
Enjoy the new bike.....and knee pads perhaps!?!
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid to say my trusty old Kona is sat upside down on the balcony looking very sad for itself. It needs some serious tlc but no mountains or real off-road in London!
I once came a cropper in Turkey -spent 2 hours going up a mountain and within 200m of the start of the downhill went over the handlebars and into a rock-wall. Trashed the helmet and thought I'd broke my leg, but survived. I'm slightly more stable on two feet than two wheels, but not much!