Here’s the video I was talking about in my previous post.
Archives For July 2013
Yesterday I took a pretty good fall and here is the evidence. I’ll have the video up soon.
My shin/knee pad also broke and caused this to happen. There is much more rock rash on my lower back and legs, but I didn’t want to take off all the bandages just to take pictures. All I can say, is I’m glad that I have body armor and shin pads that cover all the way down to my ankles, otherwise it would have been MUCH worse.
When I put up the video, you’ll see that most of the impact was directly on top of my head which caused the GoPro mount to break in two places. The one on the helmet is the one that broke and the one I am holding is one that hasn’t been used. You can see the difference.
The impact also caused the GoPro case to break on the bottom where it connects to the helmet. The lense protector isn’t scratched, but there are quite distinct gashes on top where it hit the ground. The camera is perfectly fine though!
After some research on helmets on bike fat, I’ve concluded that it isn’t good to continue using any kind of helmet after a significant impact. Even if there is no noticible cracks on the helmet, the EPS foam that is inside the helmet doesn’t expand after it has been compressed with a large impact. The helmet I’ve been using has endured a lot of hits, and I’ve decided to retire it. I still don’t think that after one or two small hits should be enough to go out and buy a new $450 helmet, but if you hit hard enough, or are really concerned with the health of your noggin, people won’t think you’re crazy for replacing a helmet after a good knock on the head.
One more rock rash picture for ya.
I also tore up my new jersey a little bit… >:(
This morning it was really overcast, so I thought it would be a nice day of riding. …Until it started raining.
Last weekend was my first BC cup race. We drove three hours from Silverstar to Sun Peaks on Saturday morning to practice riding the course to prepare for the race. We got our passes, registered and hopped on the chairlift. I was surprized at what I saw on the top of the mountain. I had to wait in line again. Not only to get on the chairlift, but to get on the race course. Only one person at a time go and with around 175 people, it took quite a while. We probably waited at the top for around half an hour before getting our first run in.
The course was a lot faster than I expected and was mostly straight with a few ruffed up berms. It was in pretty good condition the first day and I rode it only three times to make sure that my hands were fine for the next day. Sunday, the day of the race, I rode the course twice and I was surprised on how much it had gotten beaten up. It was time to race. I went up to the top right after Caleb who raced forty minutes ahead of me. Unfortunetly, there was a huge delay after someone crashed pretty badly on the course and everything was held up for almost an hour. The bugs were horrible.
Finaly it was my time to go. Everything was going fine and I noticed that the course was even more beaten up than when I had ridden it a few hours before. I noticed this especially when I crashed from hitting a deep hole that wasn’t there before. As soon as that happened I knew I had no chance of winning, but I tried as quickly as I could to find my bike and continue. The rest of the course was slow going for me because my handlebars and breaks were slippery because of all the dust and dirt that got on them when I crashed. I made it down, and was disappointed when I heard that I was in 4th place. I ended up being 17th, 43 seconds slower than the fastest racer in my category. I may not have gotten first if I wouldn’t have crashed, but I certainly would have been a lot happier being in the top 5. Oh, well. Hopefully the race here in Silverstar will go better!
