Crash Dummy

I went out for a mountain bike ride today with Duane and Dave. This was my second time riding a mountain bike and I wanted to take a ride on a full suspension bike. My first ride was on an old school Schwinn hardtail. I road Dave’s Trek Fuel Ex5 and it was a lot smoother overall, but my ride was terrible. I used clip-in shoes which made the ride “easier” on my legs and I was able to generate more power, but this also complicated everything. It’s tough coming from my beloved Giant TCR to a fat, heavy, dumpy, mountain bike. I had trouble getting used to the gearing and it seemed like I was driving a tank through the woods. I felt like I was putting so much effort into my pedal stoke and was receiving limited response. I ended up crashing five times over the whole ride. My first crash happened up hill. I tried to shift out of a lower gear and ended up brining the front wheel up and flipped it right over. I took a pretty good blow to my right side and tore a nice chunk of skin out of my hand. After the mess, I was ok until I came to a downhill and hit a log. I went right over the handle bars and landed hard on my left arm. I decided to walk the bike down the steep incline. After that I tried to squeeze the bike though two trees and just fell over from going to slow. The last to wrecks happened when I tried to turn around while going to slow. It’s a miserable feeling when you fall over on a bike. As of now, I will think long and hard about whether I want to get seriously into mountain biking. It is tons of fun when your upright, but your world can be turned upside down in a heartbeat.