Crash!!!

For those who haven't been following elsewhere, I upgraded to a new mountain bike a week and a half ago. I've done a few short rides on it, and it is a lot nicer than the entry level MTB's I had (which have been passed on to other entry level riders), much easier to get up hills and over obstacles, and definitely a lot smoother on the rippled dirt roads. (Some say it better be for the money I paid for it)

Specialized Camber Carbon Comp

After some patching up

Unfortunately, though there are days off this week, I won't be riding (much), because of what happened on Saturday morning. The damage to me:. grazed face, broken pinky finger, cuts on nose from glasses, the glasses have some deep scratches on the lenses. The helmet also has a deepish impact 'injury'. There are some grazes on my knees and forearms, and my right shoulder has been aching as if it's had a good hard bump. The bike as you can see looks almost perfect but I have managed to put some scratches on the handlebars and lever mounts.

Yup I haven't washed the bike yet, I'll do it later today.

What happened? Well I don't remember.... but the GPS tracks I have give some circumstantial evidence.


The green line above is speed and the grey line is altitude, as you can see going down hill at nearly 40Km/h suddenly drops to 0 then I continue a bit more down before turning around and coming back up. This doesn't show time linearly so I can't really see gaps where I was stationery but actual riding was 34 minutes and I got home almost an hour after I left. It is also apparent, based on the speed up the hill, that I rode home, but again I don't recall that. Also I came home with some toilet paper I didn't leave with so someone must have helped me, also looking this morning I must have drunk from my juice bottle but I don't remember that. In fact I only start remembering in sequence properly after I got into my friend Alan's car, who took me to the doctor.

The rubber ring on the shock which gets pushed up and records maximum depression was pushed up quite high which indicates that I probably rode into a hole and got thrown forward hitting the dirt with my face. For what it's worth this is a section of track I know fairly well I've ridden it dozens of times as I nearly always start MTB rides down this hill.so I really don't know what unexpected obstacle I might have hit. Maybe I'll take a (slow) ride or walk there to see if there is any evidence of what might have happened.

So some lessons learned?

• Always wear protective gear, judging by the impact on the helmet without it I would have a cracked skull, without the glasses my eyes might have been damaged. With a full face helmet my face wouldn't have got grazed (or at least not as badly).
• There are some good people out there, the unknown person who helped could just as easily have been someone who took advantage of my unconscious/addled state and robbed me, but I came home with everything I left with as well as the tissue that had been used to mop some of my blood off my face and arms.
• I'm only human, broken and frail both in the physical/mental sense and the spiritual sense.

Despite what many may think, that it was just good luck or fortune that I came home relatively safely, I know there is a God who cares for me, and who had this incident in His plan, and that He works only for the good of those He has chosen. I don't know what exactly the purpose of this is, and I may never know. I have peace about that, there is no point fretting about why God does things, we may never understand His purposes completely and who are we to question Him, who created all from nothing, when He chooses pain to refine us more into his likeness. Whether this was beneficial for me or whether it is beneficial to someone else at my expense matters not to me. I can only thank Him for working through me and perhaps I will know the blessing this has brought when I meet with Him in glory.

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33 ESV)