Hitting trees Sucks!!
by:
Ryan R. from Plainview, N.Y. U.S.A
Well after a couple of months of riding Freeride and not doing much XC I had a chance to get out and do a little solo XC time. You know a little RNR time by yourself just you and the trail. Freeriding is awesome and I love to freeride but there are times when I just want to ride. No drops, no jumps, no gaps, no chutes with steep rockgardens in them. Just a little trail riding, time by myself with a bike and a couple of hours to kill. Well since I have been on my Kona Stinky for about a month or so with sometime both Downhilling and Freerding I ws kinda really use to both the handling and braking of my DH/FR Rig. So when I jumped on my XC for the first time in a month I kinda noticed that it was really different than my Stinky, but I've been on my trusty Specialized Stumpjumper a thousand times so I thought I would be use to it by the time I was half way through the first part of the trail. Well while I was having a great time remembering how much fun it was to trail ride. I was sorta gaining confidence with the bike again. So I decided to take a ridge line trail that has some minorly challanging switchbacks both downhill and uphill. So I decided to hit one of them goign downhill at a nice rate of speed, like I said before I've been on my DH/FR bike for about a month so when going downhill I was hitting the turns on the switchbacks pretty fast. Well into one of the slightly tight turns around a tree and into another downhill I decided to slow down a little. Lets just say six inch rotors don't stop as fast as eight inch rotors do. I got around the tree only to clip my shoulder on it. That sent be speeding at another on that I couldn't avoid! I hit the first one one only to ejected off the bike, sparing my lightweight XC bike from getting trashed. To slam head first into another one, man that sucked pretty bad. I broke my Helmet on the tree but not my head! My bike escaped unsratched and that is the important part since bruises and cuts heal but broken and twisted metal needs replacing. So in retrospect I think I'm going to take it a little easy on Downhills on my XC/ Trailbike for a while. It makes me wonder though, Why we wear heavy motorcross armor on 40lbs downhill bikes that go pretty fast but no armor on light weight 24lbs, XC/ Trailbikes we just wear a helmet. This crash could have been much worse and I escaped with very little injuries just a few bruises, a couple scratches and cuts. I still think I can get some scary fast speed on my little lite weight bike. My Downhill/Freeride bike goes really fast downhill but allot more stable and easy to stop and handle. My XC bike goes just as fast but not as stable and can't handle the speed as easy. So why don't I were my body armor while trailriding? It makes me wonder. but since it is way too hot to wear while riding so I guess it's just a helmet for now!
