It’s getting hot early in the AM here in Texas. I had time to shoot a 5 mile lap around my sub division on the Coker this morning before I started working on pulling up more carpet in preparation for the tile work we’re having done. I start thinking “I have never shin-whacked or face planted on any of my street rides.” “It’s pretty warm out there… maybe I’ll skip the pads for this one. I’ll be all right.”
Well I thought seriously about it then reminded myself that I have almost no luck when things seem obvious. So off I go, head, forearms/elbows, wrists, 661’s, and ankle brace firmly attached. Nice and toasty. I do a couple of detours off my normal loop to climb some of the steeper hills in my area and am having a very good time of it. Beautiful day and almost no traffic. The cars that I do meet all seem to have a smiling hand-waving body inside it. Me, I’m starting to feel the humidity and my shirt is already soaked through when I hit the home stretch. I’m thinking about a couple of things that I have to do when my wheel rolls into a small cupped depression. Nothing big. Just something that will toss you off the uni when you’re not paying attention to the road ahead. And that’s exactly what it did.
I get pitched forward and can’t quite running stomp my way out of it so down I go onto the pavement in front of a house where a several workers and a little girl are packing a trailer full of belongings. I slide across the pavement in a superman like position with my chest not quite touching the ground. When I come to a stop I lay there for a second wondering if it’s going to hurt or not. “Are you ok?” asks one of the guys. “Sure” I said. “That’s why I wear all these pads…” As I get back up and in position to remount I notice that my pads took all of it. No scratches or sore spots. Wow. The guy gets the little girls attention and that of a coworker and points me out. I remount pretty gracefully in front of them considering I just dug a trench in the street. They shout out a few props to me as I roll away, no worse for the experience.
And I’ll remember this little episode the next time the “It’s too hot for pads today.” thought crosses my mind. It could have had a much different ending. Wear your gear.
Now having nearly perfected my crashing technique, I tend to laugh it off and get right back on the trail. The armor seems to give me super powers… with it on, I can fly (albeit like a chicken)!