So today was the first time I ever really took my coker out. I rode about 16 miles, and had no pain or soreness whatsoever from riding. I did however have the sting of open wounds.
On my trip I had too ouchy UPDs.
The first was on an uphill strecth and I just lost it, the secodn was when i was playing with my new V-brake and managed to lock the wheel and fly off.
This is the results:
Other than that it was a nice ride. I rode along the Ballona Creek in Los Angeles, from Culver City to the Ocean. It’s rather nice when you ride along this jetty with the creek on one side and the Marina del Rey on the other.
I wasn’t even feeling it yet so I rode a ways down the beach path too. Unfortunately the beach path has no poles or fences, so when I stopped to turn aroudn I had to walk a mile back to find a port-a-potty in order to get back on, since I am no good at freemounting the coker yet.
To dos:
-Practice freemounting
-buy knee and elbow pads
I am all neosporined up, and now they have neosprrin + pain releif that doesn’t sting. The cleaning alcohol sure does though.
I just wish I 'd spent the extra couple dollars to get real band-aids instead of the store brand ones because they just don’t stay stuck. I should have bought pads and tape instead.
But yes I am defintiyl going to be buying some knee and elbow pads soon.
Actually, I prefer wrist guards to all other kinds of padding (helmet excluded – that’s one thing I won’t Coker without). With wrist guards, you can actually “reach” for the ground as you’re falling. Except in really odd circs, you shouldn’t be hitting your elbows on the pavement, and the same is pretty true for your knees. You can actually scrape your shins and lower legs more than your knees if you know how to fall properly (esp’ly if this is done while wearing those aforementioned wrist guards) because you use your feet and wrists to arch your back a bit, keeping the pointier bits of your limbs off the tarmac. Said differently, you can minimize the damage to your knees and elbows and can transfer some of that hurt to your lower legs, which can absorb it better since there is a lot less chance of bone breakage.
I have ridden lots of miles on a Coker and have never scraped my elbows or knees, but when I carelessly rode sans wrist guards, I did some damage to my wrists (scrapes, sprains) a few times before the lesson got thru my thick skull. I also managed to scrape my lower legs a few times, but that’s always been minimal-injury kinda stuff – heals in two days, tops.
The helmet is just in case something really unexpected happens, esp’ly at speed.
