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I Fall A Lot


MrTheCatLady

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1 hour ago, AustinBike said:

Just. Get. Out. There. And. Ride.

Do it solo to get yourself comfortable. Walk the features that you are unsure of. Session things. Take your time. 

Remember you are not on the couch, you are outside. And there is beer at the end.

I have been off the mountain bike since February. I should be back on trails some time in early October but I will not ride with anyone until I have had several rounds on my own to get back into the groove. That includes walking things that I used to bomb down and maybe even crashing once or twice.

Oh, and did I mention there was beer at the end? There is always beer at the end. 

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Thanks for all the encouragement, folks.

On the subject of pads, when out on the MTB I wear Fox Launch Pro d3o knee and elbow pads, with the hard shells in place.  Always.  And I mostly ride Walnut Creek and Peddler's pass.  Which for most people is way, way overkill, but even at Walnut, they have saved my knees and elbows more than a few times.  On the road bike, I wear nothing but a helmet.  As dumb as it may sound, I can't bring myself to wear pads on the road.  Although if I did I guess I might try G-Forms.

On the subject of bikes, my road bike is a Surly Midnight Special and my MTBs are a Surly Karate Monkey and a Santa Cruz Blur - both 29ers, both with droppers.  I am very comfortable on my bikes.  I've bought/sold enough of them these last few years to sort of know what I like.

On the subject of technique, well, mine could certainly use improvement.  But the last two times I got hurt happened so fast, they were over before I knew what happened.  The "tailbone incident" involved me hitting a divot in the road that I simply did not see.  For those "Surprise!  You're Dead!" moments, I think prevention is the only real solution, as opposed to developing better bailing skills.  Hence go slower and be more aware of my surroundings.  Be a better judge of risk.  I'm gonna have to find a way to amplify the little voice in my head.

On the subject of clips vs. flats, I am a clips guy.  For both road and MTB.  And I have no difficulties getting unclipped in either discipline, apart from the fact that road cleats have terrible traction.  Ever almost do the splits at a red light?  I have.  And while I agree that pavement is a harsh mistress, I ❤️  my road bike, and climbing hills around my area of town (Great Hills - go figure) has really helped my MTBing.  Which I guess sounds funny given the title of this thread.

Last night not long after I posted I actually got out and rode.  I rode the route where I had the tailbone incident, and tried to see what I had hit in the road.  I think I found it - a divot containing a little steel drain cover or something, fairly far out in the middle of the right-hand lane.  There are lots of those things along the right-hand side of the road next to the curb, but this one was in the middle of the lane, so that might have been it.  Anyway, whatever it was, I avoided it this time.

I'm sore today but in a good way.  Nothing hurts that shouldn't hurt.  So I'll probably ride again later this week.  One uneventful ride does wonders.

-cls

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What does The Tip's search history look like after finding that photo? What other wonders did that search return?

Hello MrTheCatLady, I'm just here to comment on photos of naked dudes. I have no sage advice for you on falling theory other than I feel like I fall an average amount for the risks I'm willing to take. I do pass on features I think I have the skill for but have higher penalties for failure. I feel lucky to have not broken any important pieces when I do fall. Just a few stitches, some sprains, and rib injuries over the last few years. I too have done the splits in road cleats on a wet road before.

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Having kids (well, my wife having kids...credit where credit is due) has made a significant impact on my riding. First, I have found that it unintentionally decreased my risk tolerance. Now I have this unconscious awareness that I have people depending on me. It keeps me from blindly sending stuff or attempting technical challenges that I'm not reasonably confident of completing successfully. Second, I don't get to ride as much anymore. So I don't want my precious ride time (and future ride time) to be cut short or ruined by an injury. Third, my oldest son is very cautious. He won't attempt a new thing until he has watched others do it a hundred times and studies their attempts. Then, when no one is watching him, he goes and does it like a pro. At first, this frustrated me a lot when trying to get him to try new things. But, I've now realized he gets a lot of that from me. If I come up on something technical that I'm not confident of cleaning, I won't try it unless I see other people do it a lot (often over multiple rides). This helps me visualize my own attempt at the feature until I can rehearse it over and over in my head. By the time I attempt a new feature, I already feel in some way like I've already done it. In Bentonville I sat and watched rider after rider hit the tall drop in the skills area of Slaughter Pen Phase 1, but finally I had it visualized and I hit it...felt awesome. I need to do it again though and really cement it in, and then try some of the less "sterilized" drops around that area and here at home.

The upside of this approach is that it has kept me fairly injury free up to this point. I've never broken a bone, torn a tendon, or had any major lacerations. I probably have 1-2 spills a year but they usually only result in some bruising and some scrapes. My family and bank account is thankful for this.

The downside is that I miss doing a lot of features that look really fun when watching my riding buddies hit them. I suck at jumping and tall ledgy climbs. I'll probably never ride Cat Mountain even though it looks like a blast. 

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14 hours ago, MrTheCatLady said:

...my area of town (Great Hills - go figure) ...

Last night not long after I posted I actually got out and rode.  I rode the route where I had the tailbone incident, and tried to see what I had hit in the road.  I think I found it - a divot containing a little steel drain cover or something, fairly far out in the middle of the right-hand lane.  There are lots of those things along the right-hand side of the road next to the curb, but this one was in the middle of the lane, so that might have been it.  Anyway, whatever it was, I avoided it this time.

I live and ride in the same area.   Are you talking about the one on Yaupon?   I did a 311 request to fix that.  It looks like a sinkhole.  They just threw some sad amount of material in there.  Doesn't even come close to doing anything about it.  

 

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I watched a This Old House episode and know those sinkholes/dips in the pavement signify a problem underneath and means they should dig it completely out and find out what's wrong.  We had one like this at work (Riata Technology Park) and they kept patching it and patching it and it just kept getting worse and worse until they decided to dig it up and fix the root of the problem.

 

One of these days I'm going to ride with some orange (shart) paint and color in all the dangerous edges.  There's another one not far from my house on Old Lampasas Trail.  They paved and didn't raise the drain/water covers so they are all dangerous on a road bike, and the worst ones are in the shadows of trees.

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On 9/14/2020 at 6:02 PM, AustinBike said:

Do it solo to get yourself comfortable. Walk the features that you are unsure of. Session things. Take your time. 

yes! if you track your rides on a map and segments of the map have a concentration fo squiggles in one spot, you're doing it right. It's best to do this kind of riding solo with just one or two other riders. no group of 4+ people wants to wait around while one rider sessions the same spot over and over. might be useful to just ride with one other person as a spotter and to analyze your attempts.

There are some segments in SATN and Barton Creek Greenbelt that I'll go ride and just ride them over and over until I clean them. There's a "ramp" of boulders just south of Bowie HS and the Bowie Stonewall segment down here that are good for that. Cheesegrater is another segment I like to session but I am pretty close to being able to clean all of it without a second try. the harder stuff is deeper in BCGB.

I am spoiled to have so much trail right out my front door, but I still need to go ride Emma Long. that seems like a good "session" trail. I'm down for this kind of riding if anyone wants to join me.

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