Another ride today on a familiar route. It never gets boring as there's always something different to see. Plus I am lucky enough to be able to choose a different bike . Today - damselflies, loads of them, flying in front of me as I rode, battling with each other, I presume they were hoping other insects would take flight as I approached and they could eat them who knows?
Anyway, the park is always quiet around 6pm on a Sunday - it is a lovely place to be.
I went mountain biking! First one since the Turkey Twizzler on Cannock. I rode Follow the Dog with the folks on E bikes. You know that it don’t count as an overtake don’t you folks? I was surprisingly quick on the downhills. Please see my thread on setting up cantilever brakes!
I had issues up to and including the brake blocks wrecking the sidewall of my tyre. Luckily this all happened well into the ride or I would have abandoned the whole thing. I was able to push the bike to the cycle shop at the visitor centre and cause consternation asking for a 26 x 1.95 tyre. They didn’t have one. Someone thought there might be some upstairs. There was! Trouble was it was 26 x 2.3. Would it fit? I had no option but to try it. Talk about Time Trial bike fag paper clearances:
It did get me around. Thanks to the tall chap at the bike centre for rooting around upstairs and for letting me use the track pump. I will be changing the tyre for something a little thinner. The bike looks a little heavy at the rear.
We had Sunday off since the rest of the family other than the Grom and I wanted to walk - which seems SO SLOW after DH. But all was good.
So today we got up reasonably early and hit first lifts. Plan A…..I would do the Blue with the Grom as a warm up for him and relaxing vibe for me - and it was. After the vertical corkscrew berms of St Luc, the blue at Crans was a chill thing. Nice. And then I would get bread and go back to the house and pick up family, the Grom would do circuits of the Red and then we would have lunch.
Only Plan B kicked in. We did not have a Plan B.
It turned out that Plan B was get a call from the Grom whilst I was at the bakers. ‘Er I’ve crashed….and I think I have broken my finger…’. So Plan B turned out to be:
Grom manages to idle down to Arnouva, where a great pistuer inspects him and straps up the finger. Good man.
Then it’s both bikes to friend Yves at Swiss Mountain Sports otherwise we will have to lift them off the roof repeatedly if we go to Sion hospital. Yves recommends the local medical centre for a quick X ray and evaluation before running the gauntlet of waiting time at Sion.
The Grom has
A modified forearm - grazing full of dust
Red eyes from getting a face full of dust and grit
Significantly grazed shoulder. No added grit.
Significantly grazed cheek and temple. No dust inserted.
Grazed arse.
Cheek which is swelling fast - but teeth seem fine
And rapidly swelling little finger with chunks out of it - ‘it was at a weird angle so I straightened it’
So…possibly dislocated and reset, or broken. He attacked a berm at just slightly too high an entry speed, grabbed just a tiny bit too much front brake and off went the bike 50m cartwheeling down the mountain, while he did a right side slam onto the ground.
The staff at the medical centre in Montana are just great. Straight in for an X ray, and then out to be cleaned up by a gauze and antiseptic wielding care assistant. Who is kind and gentle and reassuring.
The medic is mighty confused by Grom’s finger. ‘The X ray shows it is not broken….but…’. ‘Ah we both say…it’s been an odd shape for a very long time…broken before…’. She laughs…’that’s all good then’. No concussion…the Bell DH MIPS full face has done a brilliant job - it’s completely trashed…broken visor, crack in interior, dented and cracked outer. Completely fugged. well done Bell….a bad thing which could have been infinitely worse but for a great full face helmet.
Plan B is sh-t. I don’t like it. I preferred Plan A.
Plan B costs 250chf in medical bills, which I think is really reasonable for two X rays and 90mins of professional care.
The Sender has slightly twisted Boxxers, but that is a quick fix, and I put some new headset bearings in for good measure.
The Grom looks like he has done ten rounds with Mike Tyson, and is both stoic and reflective. We watch the GoPro footage and the berm seems so innocuous as he approaches. But it’s a highly kinetic sport and all that energy can do a lot of damage. A moment’s error can be a fright from which you instantly recover or body slam from which recovery is slow and painful.
I spent 40 years trying to keep my (26 then 27.5 then 29) wheels on the ground. Then when the Grom was ten he started jumping. He coaches me now. Ok says he ‘just stand up to the jump’ and in he goes and gapow…like an uncoiled spring he’s over a metre off the ground. Ok ok here I go … in fast … and flooopp …. Maybe 10cms. Ok he says … we’ll continue to work on that….
Another ride today on a familiar route. It never gets boring as there's always something different to see. Plus I am lucky enough to be able to choose a different bike . Today - damselflies, loads of them, flying in front of me as I rode, battling with each other, I presume they were hoping other insects would take flight as I approached and they could eat them who knows?
I spent 40 years trying to keep my (26 then 27.5 then 29) wheels on the ground. Then when the Grom was ten he started jumping. He coaches me now. Ok says he ‘just stand up to the jump’ and in he goes and gapow…like an uncoiled spring he’s over a metre off the ground. Ok ok here I go … in fast … and flooopp …. Maybe 10cms. Ok he says … we’ll continue to work on that….
Luckily my son is so fearful of bikes, he gripped the bars so hard he melted one of the grips! I have never understood the physics of jumping without being clipped into the pedals. I have tried it on flats and it felt horrible. Back to SPD/Time as quickly as I could.
Finally a day where everything came together for a bit of a ride. It's still most definitely winter here, which means it tends to get dark before I get a chance to go out, so have been sitting on a turbo trainer in the shed three times a week, dreaming of sunny summer evenings.
Today was frosty to start -- minus 3C overnight -- but sunny and clear, reaching 15C at lunchtime. Decided on a whim to check out my routine ride up the hill outside town. Chose the '98 Explosif on the assumption that a reasonably light, sweet-riding bike would help with the unfitness in some way.
All went well -- the turbo trainer seems to have been reasonably effective and it was a comfortable ride -- right up until we encountered a massive tree across the way. There were gale-force winds a couple of weeks ago, so this old monster must have come down then. It had been dead for some years, so I guess they eventually lose their grip on the soil and keel over.
Anyway, there was no bunny-hopping this one and as I only had an hour's break from my desk, headed home again. Lovely to be doing this outdoors again!
. Today - damselflies, loads of them, flying in front of me as I rode, battling with each other, I presume they were hoping other insects would take flight as I approached and they could eat them 
who knows?
