I'm bummed: bad crash

Originally Posted by batjerk

I'm bummed out. I am being forced by circumstances into a hiatus from riding. I hope that I don't get too cranky from withdrawls.

I hadn't been trail riding in nigh eight years. The kids are old enough to ride now and I dug my old Trek 820 out of storage and started riding around to do all of my errands, e.g. groceries, hardware. Then, I began commuting with it. Being the bike is a decade or so in age, I thought it nice to buy a new bike.

I'd done some very minor rides on some snowmobile trails here, not too much fun, but less boring than pavement. I bought myself a Marin Pine Mountain and had the bug to do some XC like I used to. A co-worker of mine mentioned the Farm out in Chaska.

We went out there only to find some portion of the trail consumed by the Hwy 212 construction. The remainder of the trail is ridable, but in need of some cleanup; it is terribly overgrown and mildly deteriorated from disuse. We found it disappointing, but we got the bug and really wanted to ride, so we went to the Minnesota River Trail and found that a satisfying scratch to our itch. At least for Saturday. I discovered that my skills were somewhat rusty, but they were coming back to me. After the ride, all could think about is the next ride: I had the bug.

Being the impatient man that I am, I had to get out there and ride before the weekend. I had to find some singletrack closer to home. Well, I'd heard that Battle Creek was fun and had some good trails, yet they are poorly marked and can be very confusing for those unfamiliar with the park.

Undaunted, I forged ahead determined to do exploration to find the sweet ride if need be. As luck would have it, I arrived only shortly before a fellow rider. I asked him if he'd been riding this park much and he had. He offered to let me tag along with him and a friend of his who'd been riding the park regularly and knew the sweet rides.

Not much later we were rolling along up and down some nice mild singletrack. As we progressed, the trail got a bit more technical and I seemed to be flowing over it nicely. The rust was being knocked out of my proverbial joints: it felt wonderful dance the XC dance again.

Unfortunately, I was getting a bit overconfident in my skill and familiarity with my new equipment. I was going a bit too fast down this particular section for my skill and the width of the trail. Just before the 100 or so degree left turn onto what amounts to be more or less a staircase, I hit a tree with my right handle bar.

The resulting crash was probably pretty cool to see. I was thrown over the bars and landed on my back and rolled right up onto my feet again near the left side of the trail. The bike had gone off the trail to the left and a couple of feet down the embankment. I went to pick it up and noticed that my right hand was hurting more than it should.

My front wheel was tacoed pretty severely. I carried the bike down the remaining portion of the trail. Thankfully, the guys I was riding with had some experience with field expedient repairs and got the wheel straight enough to ride back to my car. By now, my hand was hurting badly. My right thigh was stiffening up too. I was beginning to think this finger was worse off than simply being jammed. In fact, had it not been for disc brakes, I'd have had no way to stop the bike since the front wheel was still too crooked to work with more traditional brakes and I had little to no use of my right hand.

By the time I got to my car, I was thinking I may have broken my finger. When I peeled off my glove and saw the swelling and where it was, I was convinced I had broken it.

The X-ray confirmed my belief: my metacarpal broke cleanly in two. Also, my knuckle moved outboard about a quarter inch.

I have to wait until next week to see the orthopedist to see if it will need pins or just a cast. I presume I'll be away from the trails for several weeks now and I'm really bummed about it.

Originally Posted by Strumpetto

Gnarly, mate.

Originally Posted by batjerk

I'm bummed out. I am being forced by circumstances into a hiatus from riding. I hope that I don't get too cranky from withdrawls.

I hadn't been trail riding in nigh eight years. The kids are old enough to ride now and I dug my old Trek 820 out of storage and started riding around to do all of my errands, e.g. groceries, hardware. Then, I began commuting with it. Being the bike is a decade or so in age, I thought it nice to buy a new bike.

I'd done some very minor rides on some snowmobile trails here, not too much fun, but less boring than pavement. I bought myself a Marin Pine Mountain and had the bug to do some XC like I used to. A co-worker of mine mentioned the Farm out in Chaska.

We went out there only to find some portion of the trail consumed by the Hwy 212 construction. The remainder of the trail is ridable, but in need of some cleanup; it is terribly overgrown and mildly deteriorated from disuse. We found it disappointing, but we got the bug and really wanted to ride, so we went to the Minnesota River Trail and found that a satisfying scratch to our itch. At least for Saturday. I discovered that my skills were somewhat rusty, but they were coming back to me. After the ride, all could think about is the next ride: I had the bug.

Being the impatient man that I am, I had to get out there and ride before the weekend. I had to find some singletrack closer to home. Well, I'd heard that Battle Creek was fun and had some good trails, yet they are poorly marked and can be very confusing for those unfamiliar with the park.

Undaunted, I forged ahead determined to do exploration to find the sweet ride if need be. As luck would have it, I arrived only shortly before a fellow rider. I asked him if he'd been riding this park much and he had. He offered to let me tag along with him and a friend of his who'd been riding the park regularly and knew the sweet rides.

Not much later we were rolling along up and down some nice mild singletrack. As we progressed, the trail got a bit more technical and I seemed to be flowing over it nicely. The rust was being knocked out of my proverbial joints: it felt wonderful dance the XC dance again.

Unfortunately, I was getting a bit overconfident in my skill and familiarity with my new equipment. I was going a bit too fast down this particular section for my skill and the width of the trail. Just before the 100 or so degree left turn onto what amounts to be more or less a staircase, I hit a tree with my right handle bar.

The resulting crash was probably pretty cool to see. I was thrown over the bars and landed on my back and rolled right up onto my feet again near the left side of the trail. The bike had gone off the trail to the left and a couple of feet down the embankment. I went to pick it up and noticed that my right hand was hurting more than it should.

My front wheel was tacoed pretty severely. I carried the bike down the remaining portion of the trail. Thankfully, the guys I was riding with had some experience with field expedient repairs and got the wheel straight enough to ride back to my car. By now, my hand was hurting badly. My right thigh was stiffening up too. I was beginning to think this finger was worse off than simply being jammed. In fact, had it not been for disc brakes, I'd have had no way to stop the bike since the front wheel was still too crooked to work with more traditional brakes and I had little to no use of my right hand.

By the time I got to my car, I was thinking I may have broken my finger. When I peeled off my glove and saw the swelling and where it was, I was convinced I had broken it.

The X-ray confirmed my belief: my metacarpal broke cleanly in two. Also, my knuckle moved outboard about a quarter inch.

I have to wait until next week to see the orthopedist to see if it will need pins or just a cast. I presume I'll be away from the trails for several weeks now and I'm really bummed about it.

Originally Posted by Skoorb

That sucks, but nothing permanent, so that's the great silver lining.

Last time I rode trails I realized that if I keep up at this I'm going to seriously hurt myself, so I stopped and now do roads Of course, it's hard to get hit by a car on a trail.