Me, John (Vivalargo) and level 10 rider Jamie (Unicycle9899) met for a ride down the now infamous “Nature Trail” & “G-Spot” in Simi Valley, CA. This is the very same place Jamie broke his back (just a few months ago) and John tells me even KH took some bad falls here as well! These have to be simply the most intimidating, advanced trails I’ve ever seen! Words can’t really describe it, but I think “Treacherous” comes close!
So after the 1/2 mile hike up we dropped in…and all seemed to be going swimmingly…but not for long. Turns out John forgot his helmet! But that didn’t stop him from doing some very tough lines and drops. Jamie and I did a few drops as well, but were a tad more “careful” and decided not to press our luck too much on the really crazy stuff.
Then I decided to roll a particularly nasty section; very steep, rocky and loose. Well, about half way down I went into an unintentional coast and one of the steel pinned drillium pedal smacked the back of my left calf with such force, that it immediately swelled up like a fricken water balloon!
Then, when John and I were standing and looking at the Plumes of smoke rising in the sky like a chimney, from the Malibu fire, Jamie rode up from behind us, and he too went into an unintentional coast, and his uni smacked me in my OTHER calf!! But that wasn’t nearly as bad as the first one, thank goodness!
Somehow I managed to complete the rest of the trail, but as we were getting ready to ride the next trail (Devil’s slide) it was abundantly apparent that I needed to get home and Ice it asap! Those first two trails are like playing russian roulette on a MUni! But now I can’t wait to go back and try it again!
Jamie did manage to sanp a few pics, which he should be posting later today i reckon!
i have a bunch of scars from cuts like that on the back of my legs. When I wear my kh leg protectors it saves me a bunch of blood. The only trick is remembering to put them on. I like the write up tho. That stinks that you got hit again after you hit yourself.
I’m thinking now, why couldn’t I simply add some pieces of high-density foam to the back [inner side of the nylon covering] of my 661s? That should be relatively easy.
I could use velcro intead of sewing them in and that way they’re easy to remove if it doesn’t fit right, or restricts too much movement. They seem to have plenty of extra room in the back since they fit a bit on the loose side, so the added foam should also improve the fit to some extent. So I think it should work well enough, and give much needed protection from those nasty calf bites…ar at least soften the blow a bit.
I know everyone thinks the 661s are the cat’s meow, but I’ve never liked them for two reasons: first, they chafe me like crazy and interfere with pedaling comfort, and two, they don’t protect the back of the calf.
After this calf injury, I came up with this solution, which is basically a standard volleyball knee pad worn backwards over the calf, combined with a standard soccer-type shin guard in front. The two fit together well and between them offer full shin and calf protection, plus the shin guard also has ankle padding for protection there.
The only downside in my view versus the 661s is the lack of knee protection, but I seen to hit my calfs and shins much more frequently than I hit my knees.
I’ve never had any chaffing problems and overall I really like my 661’s. The back bite is a rare occurance, at least for me, but I really think the added padding in the back shopuld solve the problem.
Speaking of broken backs (2 in that region, right?), have you guys thought about this kind of thing? A broken spine is much more serious than a calf bite. The motorcycle guys are wearing much more than even that.
I’m not convinced that it would have prevented Jim’s (munivision) compression fracture.
That resulted from him falling directly on his tailbone area so something covering his back probably would not have made much difference.
He fell in this position: “L” not directly on his back. But that spine guard would have definitely prevented my injury from my last fall at Stair Stepper!:o
I hadn’t either…until I did! Have you ever fallen on your head? No? Me neither and most other’s on this forum haven’t either, so is that a reason not to wear a helmet?
