Sat, 21 Apr 2001, 21:08:43 UTC-08:00
A new helmet for treehugging
I took a nasty spill. While checking out some of the trails around the new house we're building, I discovered a particularly wicked section of blind singletracks. There were a lot of fallen trees on the trail. A lot of the logs were center-cut to allow passage. Carving in wide from a particularly fast downhill section, my front tyre nicked the edge of a log, completely halting the bike's forward motion but not mine. The front end stopped dead and the back of the bike reared up, launching me over the handlebars and headfirst into the base of a large tree. I heard the GT helmet crack. Aside from a nasty set of bruises and a sore neck, I was relatively unhurt. Once again, some smartly designed styrofoam saved my noggin. Although, the helmet didn't totally shatter, there was enough force to crack the microshell along the left middle rib section, denting the styrofoam and forming fractures in several places. Upon closer inspection, one can also find evidence of buckling around the outer microshell in other places.
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While glad I wasn't seriously injured, on the other hand, the helmet was now useless and I was only 30 minutes into my ride. I went about quickly grooming myself of dirt, twigs, leaves and mud to walk the bike back towards the Jeep where I loaded it up and headed for the nearest bike shop. Following all those shining recommendations and succumbing to my fashion conscience, I decided to ignore the highway-robbery price of the high end mountain biking helmets and walked out of the shop with a new white/silver Giro E2. Returning to the trail, I discovered that it led to a vast network of interconnected sections that form part of the Beaver Lake Trail system... all accessable (literally) right from the doorstep of my soon-to-be new home.