How do you define a "good frame?" What are things to look for?
I bought a Trek 850 a few years ago, for no other purpose than to ride
around town. Is this a decent frame worth "upgrading?"
How do you go down rocky hills?
How do you fall?
I had an interesting experience in Sedona, they day before I jumped out of
an airplane. By the way, jumping out of an airplane is cake when compared to
mountain biking.
Well, I mostly walked this mountain bike through the trails. I'd never done
single track riding before, and these seemed to mostly be from rock to rock.
And I have a theory about failure. For example, if you fail in an autocross,
you'll probably hit a cone, spin out, DNF, or whatever. You risk very little
injury to yourself, even others, so it's all right to make mistakes. If I
mess up mountain biking, though, I'm likely to break an arm, which would
most likely ruin the rest of my day.
Anyway, on the way back to the shop that rented us the bikes, we went
through this "beginner's" single track. Compared to the rock jumping, this
was a breeze. Nothing too difficult, and by the end, my confidence had
soared. I was having too much fun. I practiced the "looking ahead" technique
that comes at such a high dollar price for most autocrossers. This seemed to
work, and after each little obstacle, I got better and better at it. I was
enjoying the challenge. I felt as if I learned something.
Well, there was this straight section, we were almost home, we're flying
across the dirt, and I don't know what happened, but I must've hit a rock or
something, because the next thing I knew, I made sudden turn to the right,
and flew airborne into this tree on a mound.
It hurt really, really bad. My friends Brigitte and Dan only heard the
sounds I made, which went something like, "Huh? Uhh uh uh UHHHHHHHH."
I was flat up against the tree. Thank God for helmets, I'll tell you that
much. Brigitte tried to help me stand up, but I was all tangled up. I'm
still bruised from this, and it this all happened over two weeks ago. Before
I even tried to get out of my flat knot, I first had to check to make sure
all my parts worked. The fingers on my left hand were numb, and the area on
my hand just below my left pinky STILL is tender. I still can't run, nor can
I even kick in swimming. I am just all messed up from this.
Yet, even though crashing hurts a lot, it's kind of fun getting the wind
knocked out of you a little bit. I think it's because the brain releases all
these chemicals to block all the pain.
Brigitte and Dan were really impressed, and said that when they saw me all
smashed up in the tree, that I looked "really cool."
But then they said, "But we're just trying to understand HOW it happened,
Katie. We were going in a STRAIGHT LINE!"
"Well, I think I hit a rock or something!"
"But there are no rocks here, Katie!"
All there was were just my tracks in the dirt as you can see that at first I
was travelling straight, and then suddenly, I turned right, as if for
ABSOLUTELY NO REASON.
Okay, never mind. I'm having second thoughts about this mountain biking
stuff. I think I'll stick to autocross. I might spin out for no reason, but
it doesn't hurt as much.
Katie K.
|