Biting It

Wednesday, while Brent was off doing some stuff on his own, I took two hours of bike lessons. The first hour was on the simulator, where I was to maneuver my way through a virtual world of traffic, crosswalks, and stupid pedestrians. My favorite parts of the simulator were when random cars performed what I will now refer to as the "Okinawa merge." It's not actually a merge, rather an abrupt pulling-in-front that causes everyone I know to exclaim how poor Okinawan drivers are. The other was the pedestrian with no regard for traffic laws, or perhaps the fallen logs in the middle of the highway. And of course the elementary school student running down the middle of the street like a moronic child.

It went well, the instructor saying I did a good job (despite my missing the first "right turn" instruction offered by the program).

The second hour was back on the real bike. I didn't realize it first, but I had bike #9, a bike which I've only ridden once before and had severe problems with. The first time I rode it, the clutch was jerky, which made the fine maneuvers in the crank and slalom tricky. Today, it felt weird because I spent an hour on the simulator; I felt like my balance was a little off.

My second instructor (everyone is assigned a random instructor for each of their lessons, the idea that each instructor will have a chance to watch how we ride and offer feedback that others might have overlooked) told me that we'd be starting with turning practice, as in taking the large outer turns - while staying within the dotted turn lines - on the course in three scenarios: 20kph (also referred to as "safety turning"); 30kph with the bike in gear; and finally 30kph with the clutch pulled at the moment the turn begins.

The first two were easy. 20kph turns are no problem, hence being called "safety turns." The 30kph turn with the bike in 3rd gear also felt pretty good. I'd taken turns like that before, so it was just a matter of feeling the good balance and riding in through. The last scenario, the one where I'm supposed to pull the clutch, release the bike from gear, and coast through the turn, didn't work out so well.

As my instructor told me I would, after pulling the clutch and releasing the bike from its engine friction, I started to drift toward the other lane of traffic. He had told me what to do in this situation - apply the rear brake and slow the bike, hold as tight an arc as possible and not wander into the other lane. Sadly, I did more than what he told me to do and applied the front brake as well. This locked the front wheel in the turn, which caught the road, jerked the bike out from under me, and threw me onto the asphalt at 30kph, the bike skidding about 3 meters before coming to a rest on its left side, gasoline dripping onto the driving course.

I rolled onto my chest with my elbows underneath, assessing myself. My instructor came over immediately to check if I was okay. I was. My head hurt with the pain I get during any sudden jarring impact, the left side of my ribcage was stinging slightly, and my left ankle hurt a bit. It felt as if I had taken a really heavy tackle that I wasn't ready for. But perhaps that unpreparedness was what kept everything so minor. I don't remember the interval between the bike jerking and me realizing I had fallen, so I don't know what I did. Perhaps nothing. Perhaps I just kind of went limp, which I think might have been the best thing to do.

The elbow and knee pads I was wearing I'm sure saved me from having a very bad day. The long pants and shirt also kept my skin where it belongs. My helmet never touched the ground and luckily I wasn't pinned under the bike as it skidded to a stop.

After getting off and out of the road, my instructor lifted the bike, ran the gasoline out of the engine, gave it a few turns to make sure it was stable, made sure I was okay to ride for the rest of the hour, and we continued on our way. We did not return to the turning practice - I suspect that I'll have to cover it during my next lesson. And while I may be just a little bit hesitant to get the bike into a 30kph turn, I'll be certain of what I'm supposed to do, and even more so of what I'm NOT supposed to do - apply the front brake in a turn.

Front brake is only used when braking in a straight line. No other time. Period.

It's also just a little interesting that this comes the day after I was talking to Sam about the future of my bike ridership, and the experiences she's had with family members and friends who ride, or rode bikes at one point. And of course, Brent and I talked about it, him sharing a story of a former baseball coach who, driving behind a girl one day, witnessed said girl in a bikini coming back from the beach doing 70mph (miles per hour!) with no protection and losing control. When the coach stopped his car (the coach was an EMT at one point of his life) and checked on the girl, all he could do was call 911 (we presume she died). Though I already knew it, riding a bike, even only 1km, should not be taken lightly.

So I have a much better idea of what I'm getting myself into, or onto. I'm wiser now; I hope safer too. And to wrap it up, here's a couple shots of my first souvenir.