Ah, the late '80s and early '90s. I rode a loop in Arkansas fairly often that went from Ponca on the Buffalo River to Jasper, then Just short of Harrison and back to Ponca? Logged here by other start/stop riders, I always began in Ponca with Mt. Sherman in my face, climbing the switchbacks into the morning sun. The real excitement came hours later with the descent back into Ponca. I learned the road and grew confident of the ride down off the Ozark plateau. Even toyed with varying my speed by riding on the paint stripe and back to the Tarmac. 55 possible? On my old red RB-1 (Ultegra 36h hubs I laced to Open 4 CDs With Michelin 28s) I rode this circuit everal times a year. I built my bike and trusted it. No marks, no fouls.
South Colorado, 2001, riding my Rambouillet along the Trans Am Western Express, ultra light, my back tire lost its air just slower than a blow out on a chip topped road with some winding downhill eases and my options grew fewer as the PSI fell and the next curve came. I finally took one turns to be able to brake in a straight line long enough on the flaccid tire and tube to get down in speed while still on the bike. Nice idea, not what happened. I yawed widely on the slack rear tire to the point that I was almost sideways. Speed and some semblance of grip presented itself and I flew over the bars, cartwheeling slowly forward, landing on the ugly road surface with my head, my left shoulder blade and elbow. I got up and dragged my bike out of the road so I must have been OK. I changed my rear tube and one of my colleagues' rear tubes my shoulder slipping out of alignment each pump stroke. It was separated, all the way One of the others noted my visible injury and I said I was riding to the next town (our destination anyway) and got up on my bike which faired pretty well given the violence of my dissipation of velocity on this surface. Speed is the engine of injury, no doubt. But it sure is a fun test of equipment you know. Just have to keep some contingent thought available to handle the what-ifs. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rbw-owners-bunch/-/86jdqJVi004J. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
