I've recently started getting into a little bit of freeriding, and I have quickly learned that crashing is par for the course. Like this one ladder-to-rock drop. It's about a 4 1/2 - 5 foot driop, slight tranny. First four times, I fly off and land ok, but there wasn't a whole lot of runout, so I either endoed from grabbing brakes too hard or lay the bike down sideways to avoid a head-on collision with a tree. But now I'm getting worse...out of the last four attempts, I only crashed once.
I have found that protective gear is essential! I wear everything when I go out -- full face helmet, chest protector, arm and leg protection, even the padded shorts! And I make full use of it all, especially the full face! Slammed what would have been my face right into a large rock on one crash. But it's ok, so I just get back on my bike and try the same crazy stunt again.
Then I'm in DC jumping stairs and all sorts of other crazy stuff. Afterwards a friend points out that my frame was cracked! I had thought it was just a scratch in the paint It had been there for a couple months! I'd been doing all this crazy jumping on a cracked frame! Now THAT would have been an awesome, though likely painful, crash if the bike had snapped in half while landing a drop.
So now I'm out of freeriding for a couple months until I can get a new bike, meanwhile I'm borrowing a friend's XC rig so I can at least ride. But that means no more crashes for a while oh, well.
Ride crazy, crash hard.
I have found that protective gear is essential! I wear everything when I go out -- full face helmet, chest protector, arm and leg protection, even the padded shorts! And I make full use of it all, especially the full face! Slammed what would have been my face right into a large rock on one crash. But it's ok, so I just get back on my bike and try the same crazy stunt again.
Then I'm in DC jumping stairs and all sorts of other crazy stuff. Afterwards a friend points out that my frame was cracked! I had thought it was just a scratch in the paint It had been there for a couple months! I'd been doing all this crazy jumping on a cracked frame! Now THAT would have been an awesome, though likely painful, crash if the bike had snapped in half while landing a drop.
So now I'm out of freeriding for a couple months until I can get a new bike, meanwhile I'm borrowing a friend's XC rig so I can at least ride. But that means no more crashes for a while oh, well.
Ride crazy, crash hard.