body slam

jinkies — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 05:59:00 +0000

I’m a moderately skilled cyclist. I’m fairly likely to remain upright on my bike in most situations. I’m comfortable riding in traffic, near cars (and doors that may open at any moment) and taking the lane when it’s required.

I’m not good at crossing railroad tracks, it seems. I took a different route out of work toward the light rail. In hindsight, this was a bad idea. It required crossing the tracks on 7th street, and then crossing them again to actually travel down 7th street. See the map (zoom in to just about street level):

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I was traveling west on Jackson, making a left on 7th to head south. Note the railroad tracks. I know they’re there. I cross them all the time. The surface is terrible, but I usually just bunny hop over the tracks. I didn’t bunny hop quite far enough today… Caught my front wheel just in the angled track rut area, went skidding down on my left side, and hit the ground hard. Hard enough to actually send my lip balm shooting out of my fully closed messenger bag where it came to rest about six feet away.

Is it sad that my first two thoughts were:

Shit, there goes my rear derailleur.
Thank god I didn’t fall on my knife side!

I have beautifully forming bruises in a crescent shape around my left knee, a bruise blossoming on my left hip, elbow, and shoulder. Ugh. Not much broken skin though–just some abrasions on my knee and elbow. I guess that’s the advantage to commuting in my regular clothes and not spandex. I would’ve shredded my knee (I was wearing long shorts) and probably ripped the shoulder of my jersey (I was wearing a sturdy cotton t-shirt) if I were commuting in full kit.

Though this is always one of the dangers of cycling on the road, stuff like this always takes me by surprise. I’m going to hurt tomorrow!

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body slam