Sunday 16th February,
My off road riding was off to a good start and I was aiming
to carry on my off road riding regime to build confidence, technique and
fitness. Today I was aiming to ride with a couple of old friends and a new
rider who had not ridden off road before. But that’s all part of the fun and we
all have to start somewhere. I wanted to get a good day’s ride in, so I had
arranged to start early and had set an 8am departure time from a local petrol
station.
Josh a good friend turned up at my house around 7.30am on a
bright sunny but slightly chilly Sunday morning, to un-ceremonially wake the
rest of the family with roar off his 450 Husaberg. I was ready to roll and we
took the 15 minute ride to the petrol station to fuel up and await the arrival
of the other two riders.
Smokey2t was waiting at the garage when we arrived. He
hadn’t ridden off road before and was uncertain if he would come along, but I
had assured him, he had nothing to worry about, we were all out for the same
reason and I wait for people because I want everyone to enjoy the day.
We fuelled up and then got to the introductions whilst we
waited for Tony. Life’s a funny thing and the world is a small place, the new
guy was in fact a person I had met before.
I was travelling on
the M3 when a car coming the other way lost control and hit the central
reservation just as I was passing in the other direction, flying debris hit my
car and smashed my windscreen. He was from the windscreen replacement company.
Whilst he replaced my screen we talked bikes. Now four month later we had met
again and I was going to lead his first ride.
Tony soon arrived and with everyone sorted, we set off
toward the first lane. The sky was a pale spring blue, the hedges brown from
the long wet winter, and the lane was wet, rutted and as slippery as an eel on
a riverbank. 
Half way along the first lane a large tree had fallen and
blocked the way. The continuous winter’s rain had loosened the ground and the
recent high winds meant that there had been a lot of wind blown trees. After a
bit of shuffling around we managed to negotiate our way around the tree and
finished the lane. We then headed down the road toward the next lane and the two
river crossings. When we arrived at the first ford I looked and could see that
the river was extremely high. We had a quick chat and decided that it wasn’t
worth the risk. We had only ridden one lane, it was cold and we had the rest of
the day ahead of us. So with discretion being the better part of valour we used
the bridges to cross.
We were now back on tarmac and riding toward the next lane.
The day has started well, but that was all about to change. I was approaching a
right hand bend and noticed a large puddle covering most of the road; I could
see the uncovered part of the road was wet. Being February and early it was also
frosty . This all added up to a “NOT GOOD” situation. Before I had time to
react it was already too late. It was a strange crash; I could see everything
happening so vividly, not like the usual shut your eyes and hope. The rear wheel
was trying to overtake the front, I was going down on the right, I could see
the wheels slipping from under me. I felt ok at this point thinking the bike
would slip from under me and we would slide for a bit. But then something
unexpected happen, I don’t know how or why but the wheels suddenly kicked up
and away from me slamming into the tarmac.
I lay on the cold hard tarmac, HURT! Luckily for the other
lads they had seen the crash and had avoided the black ice. They were soon
around me asking if I was ok and picked up my bike. As I lay motionless trying
to catch my breath and gather my thoughts I could hear them asking me if I was
alright. I thought to myself “you’ve seen me crash before and you know I get up”
finally I got to my feet, struggling to breathe and my shoulder felt like it had been hit by a sledge hammer.
The lads asked if I wanted to carry on, I felt bad that they
had made the effort to come out and we hadn’t gone anywhere. After a few
minutes I made the decision to carry on. The next lane was hard and I felt
every impact. Every time the wheel hit a root or step up the shock travelled up
from the wheel through the forks, past the handle bars up my arms then into my
shoulder I could have cried. The next lane was quite flat. Lane three, I knew
was going to be hard going so I pulled over and let the others go and said that
I’d meet them at the end of the lane. About a third of the way up this lane yet
another tree had come down, but we managed to negotiate our way around it. This
was now the practice for the next few lanes, I would lead the road work, and
then they would ride the lane while I plodded behind.
Lane seven was another technical lane, but they opted that I
lead this one so they could follow my line, I started but saw a small tree
across the track, I knew what was going to happen so I throttled off, stepped
off the bike and let it fall. The lads laughed at the sad attempt. But I didn’t
have the strength in my shoulder to be able to pick the bike up so Josh had to
help me. Tony then said he’d lead this lane, so they set off Josh said he’d
stay behind me in case I needed help. The lane went well until the end when
another small thorn tree blocked our path. Crossing at the lowest part of the
tree, the stump, Tony crossed OK! The new lad gave it too much throttle and
although the bike flew across he was left sitting in the dirt, Josh had to get
my bike over and then followed. We made
it to the garage where we refuelled, grabbed a bite to eat, and I dosed up on
pain killers.
After a short break
we set off once more. A large tree had fallen across the main road blocking it
totally, so we had a short road ride to get around it. Finally we were back on
the lanes. The next sections of lanes went well although I was really feeling
it. I was looking forward now to get to the next garage and have a rest and a
short break, but as we approached it, it had gone, they had taken it away and
were now using it to sell cars, BUGGER! I was now a little concerned about fuel
levels. Josh was now near his home and decided to leave as he would now be
travelling away from his house and he also wanted to see his kids.
There was now a fair bit of road work to do to get to the
next section of lanes, which gave me a bit of a break, but it went all too fast.
The lanes were nice and fast but I had had enough. This group of lanes had led
us fairly close to where we had started, I pulled over and said to the lads “sorry
can’t go on” it was now about 2pm I had been riding for 6 hours, they were more
than happy with the day’s ride and were glad to go on their way. I then took a
leisurely road ride home.
The day was good but hard. I ended up with several broken
and fractured ribs, with both deep and soft tissue trauma to my chest and
shoulder. The bike was put away dirty while I sulked J lol
No comments:
Post a Comment