No falls, no balls

My uncle was the first person to ever take me down a real singletrack. He told me to go faster than I wanted to down it and to just go for it. After going down I was pretty scared and he gave me the wise saying ... "no falls, no balls".

I've been riding really conservatively for a while now and as a result haven't had any bad falls. Just a few situations where I run off the bike or whatever.

Recently I've been wanting to be a bit more aggressive on the downhill. I understand that I need to improve my downhill skills, and so that means taking more risks. Can't go through life playing it safe.

With that in mind ...

This Saturday I had two rides scheduled. The first was the normal Saturday ride with Troy, Mark, Andrew and Matt. Nothing too special about this ride. I had been wanting to do Tijeras Creek to Cougar Pass for quite some time because it was worth 84 points and in my mind I didn't think it would be that tough to do.

There were only a few memorable things from the first ride. Mark missed a steep climb and walked back down and did it the second time. Way to go! Ha. I realized I had a bent rear derailleur which sucked. We also did some singletrack adjacent to West Ridge that I had never done before. That was kind of cool.

After the first ride I was a little tired and both Matt and I had some non-trivial bike problems. We went to Rock and Road Cyclery and we both got SUPER lucky that they fixed our bikes on the spot.

We ate at Diedrich's Coffee and then headed over to meet Corby and Joe Westa for our second ride. It was Corby's birthday and he wanted to do a big ride. I don't think he knew what he was in for when he suggested "Ironman".

The pace was slow enough to where Matt and I could rest and not burn out. We both ran out of water, but we didn't really need it. I was _really_ impressed with both Corby and Joe. They both rode up a lot more than I thought they would and they both rode down a lot of stuff I didn't think they would try.

I tried to clear the one climb coming back from Weir Canyon where the dirt is very loose and the angle is very steep. I tried three times, but was only able to get up 75% of it before having to walk the rest. Next time I'll keep doing it until I get it. I actually fell into Corby on the second attempt and jacked my right knee up a little.

So back to the topic of the post ...

We started going down Chutes and I wanted to ride as much as I could. I wanted to push myself. My front brake had been making horrible noises, so I didn't trust it that much, but I figured it would last until the end of the ride.

I ended up having a pretty bad crash near the end of Chutes. I was coming down a steep loose section and needed to make a tight right turn. I missed it. I ended up landing on my right side and rolled down the hill a little. I ended up getting away with only a few scrapes and bruises, which I think is pretty good. My sunglasses got destroyed and my right brake lever got the top part of it snapped off. Otherwise no damage.

Overall I'm actually glad to have taken a dive. It had been a while since I had got my "bell rung" and it made me feel like I could crash and fall and still be ok. I think in the end it's going to give me more confidence on the bike knowing that I can eat it and still get up and be ok. Not every crash has to be a disaster.

No falls ... no balls.