A couple of days ago I had my first fall from my bike. I was cycling with Paul along a route we’d done before, and we were going down a very muddy patch in a lightly wooded area. For some reason my front wheel had become a mud magnet and it was collecting leaves and mud and all sorts until it clumped together at the fork and stopped my wheel from turning. Paul found a quick exit from the muddy area via a short steep slope. I decide to follow via a similar route after first clearing some of the junk from my wheel.
With hindsight I probably should have really made sure my front wheel could turn before going down the slope… but in truth the slope was a bit too steep for me. I started the decent and my front wheel slid rather than turned. My instinctive reaction was to slam on all both brakes (for the record, this is what we call a mistake). It was at this point that my bike went left and I went over the handlebars to the right. In my minds eye I looked a bit like superman — hand out front — but my fall probably had more in common with flailing than flying. My thoughts were: “Hmm, I’m heading towards the middle of a clump of brambles. This could hurt”. And by hurt I had slashing and blood in mind. In fact it was quite a soft landing, but a bit of a tangle. I’ll have no hesitation in diving into brambles again. Should it be called for.
So, first fall and nothing really bad happened. My lesson from this one is: never cycle alone (thanks, Paul, for pulling me out of the brambles). Paul’s suggestions: next time we’re out, we should maybe bring a first aid kit and a disposable camera.