I need to think of good excuses why I fell 3 x in the first 30 minutes of the ride in Montalban…. He he he. Let me give it a try ……actually the Montalban trip is the first time I’ve ridden my KHS through hardcore single tracks. The previous times were on the road and the fire road at the back of UP Los Banos going up Makiling. It’s also only the 2nd time I’ve ridden with cleats.
The first time I fell, it was because I hit an obstacle on the trail and my bike suddenly stopped. Couldn’t remove the cleats on time, and bang… fell on my side. I got up, brushed myself off quickly para hindi halata. Pero sakit sa pride.
Within 5 minutes, eto na naman. May pa-akyat but I wisely unclipped my shoes na just in case I needed to stop. And stop I did…. Right on top of a small hill… on the left side was a short drop into a stream. I stuck out my left leg to break my fall but there was no ground for it to step on… ayun…. 8 ft into a stream with the brush stopping my fall. I remember I was so far down that I had a hard time trying to lift my bike up to Alex and Freddie… it had all these vines holding it back… I had a small cut on my knee… very near the scar of my ACL operation…. Honestly, the fear slowed me down after that and I think the fear caused my next fall.
Next fall was equally dumb… I was going fast through similar single track with a slight drop on one side of the track…. I thought to myself, “paano kaya kung mahulug ako dyan?!” I got what I asked for… my front wheel went off the side… my bike went down but since my feet weren’t clipped on, I was able to jump off my bike.
Moral lessons? I guess I’ve been biking too long on road bikes and on old mountain bikes with lower, more aerodynamic profiles. Since this was the first time I’ve owned a bike with an upright stance (great for downhill), I realized that going uphill on that bike causes my front wheel to lose traction and control. Plus the high ground clearance makes it hard to extend a leg onto the ground. The upright stance though, helps a lot in controlling the bike when going downhill.
A few more practice rides should get my confidence back on track which I guess is another factor in MTB. Going down those steep hills after that was tough because the tendency is to brake too hard especially in front. This causes a loss of steering control. So my lesson here was to just pump my front brake while going downhill.
That was a very challenging ride!
The first time I fell, it was because I hit an obstacle on the trail and my bike suddenly stopped. Couldn’t remove the cleats on time, and bang… fell on my side. I got up, brushed myself off quickly para hindi halata. Pero sakit sa pride.
Within 5 minutes, eto na naman. May pa-akyat but I wisely unclipped my shoes na just in case I needed to stop. And stop I did…. Right on top of a small hill… on the left side was a short drop into a stream. I stuck out my left leg to break my fall but there was no ground for it to step on… ayun…. 8 ft into a stream with the brush stopping my fall. I remember I was so far down that I had a hard time trying to lift my bike up to Alex and Freddie… it had all these vines holding it back… I had a small cut on my knee… very near the scar of my ACL operation…. Honestly, the fear slowed me down after that and I think the fear caused my next fall.
Next fall was equally dumb… I was going fast through similar single track with a slight drop on one side of the track…. I thought to myself, “paano kaya kung mahulug ako dyan?!” I got what I asked for… my front wheel went off the side… my bike went down but since my feet weren’t clipped on, I was able to jump off my bike.
Moral lessons? I guess I’ve been biking too long on road bikes and on old mountain bikes with lower, more aerodynamic profiles. Since this was the first time I’ve owned a bike with an upright stance (great for downhill), I realized that going uphill on that bike causes my front wheel to lose traction and control. Plus the high ground clearance makes it hard to extend a leg onto the ground. The upright stance though, helps a lot in controlling the bike when going downhill.
A few more practice rides should get my confidence back on track which I guess is another factor in MTB. Going down those steep hills after that was tough because the tendency is to brake too hard especially in front. This causes a loss of steering control. So my lesson here was to just pump my front brake while going downhill.
That was a very challenging ride!
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