Sunday, April 3, 2011

Rockhopper cont...

I had a purty good time riding the mtn bike on the maiden greenbelt ride.  So much so, I went out and bought one of my own a couple weeks later - a Specialized Rockhopper.

First real ride on it, Muz and I left his crib and headed to the Barton Springs trailhead entrance.  We rode for about 2 hours.  Lots of fun lemme tell you.

Second ride - I left my place and headed back to the Wildflower Preserve greenbelt (GB) entrance (intersection of Repub of TX and Travis Country).  My primary goal w/ this ride was to explore the diff trails in the immediate area.  I was relatively successful, figured out where several shorter trails led.  But I did not make it down to the Barton Creek bed.  I did however manage to throw myself over the handle-bars of my bike (about 10 ft).  To add insult to injury as I headed home, I hit root at a slow speed, came to an abrupt stop, and fell off to the right side of the bike.  The first fall hurt like hell; the second, was just sorta embarrassing.  Oh well, crashing a mtn bike is just part of the learning process I reckon. 

Third ride, I took off from my place thinking to look for another trail entrance, but after riding for a few min, I decided to head back to the good ole WP trailhead entrance.  No wrecks the first half of the ride and I made down the the creek bed. The WP trail intersected w/ the south bank of Barton Creek, and I could not decide which way to go.  Thought for a min, and I decided to head East. As I was riding next to this...rocky wall (which I presume had been washed out over the years from high waters), I lost control when I hit some rocks.  Before i could hit the brakes all the way, I came to an abrupt stop when my rt shoulder hit part of the rocky wall that jutted out.  I can now confirm that the shoulder does not function well as brake.  Who knew?   I had to get off the bike for about 5 min to walk the aforementioned lil mishap off, cuz I felt nauseous for a few min right after.  Once I gathered my faculties, I decided to head west instead (heh!).  I rode for about 15 more min and then decided to head home.  A decent 2 hour ride, but the last hour really sucked cuz my freaking shoulder was a throbbin.  Once I made it home, I washed up the wound, cleaned up, and treated myself to a good 30 min of ice pack time.  Good times.

I do believe I need to be a little more risk averse on the bike in the future.  Let's see how this plays out...

2 comments:

  1. 2 more weeks than I am with you...

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  2. Rock hopper is a pretty solid bike. Much better that that old yellow rockhopper i bet. What's up on a pic of the new toy? Does it have the disc brakes? If you haven't you should look into getting some clip in pedals. It will change your life on rides. Makes hills much easier too.

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