Wednesday, June 27, 2007

I Fall Down

I was just thinking last night about my crashes this year. Hmm..........let's see now. Full on slam onto concrete for the right side at the Ballyhoo: check. Full on biff onto concrete for the left side, (non-bicycle related) from a semi-trailer: check. Two major endos, one a full on lawn dart which split my Bell Ghisallo in two. At least two handle bars to the rib cage, and several spectacular dismounts.

Wow! I must be doing a lot of mountain biking lately.

I don't think crashing is a bad thing. Actually, they used to say that if you weren't crashing once in awhile you weren't riding hard enough. I don't know if that's true, maybe it was just a way of explaining away the poor technology of those times. Maybe. I think it's still true though.

Crashes are cool from several standpoints. You've got your buddies, who need to be entertained. I mean, who doesn't want to be the star of the story, right? Then you've got your battle scars to remind you of "that ride" for at least a few weeks, and if you're really lucky, for a lifetime.

For instance, I was showing a guy where my solid axle gouged my inner leg when I was a kid. This guy looks at me with wide eyes and says, "Ya mean like this?!" He shows me a scar just like mine he got in the same way as a kid. Instant brotherhood man. Awesome! It wouldn't have happened if not for the crashing.

So, besides being a weatherman, I can't think of a single thing I could do that seems to reward failure with such a high regard. Crashing is cool.........well, to a degree it is. There are those truly heinous hits.

Let's try to avoid those, shall we?

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