No you didn’t! – Man down!

We interupt our usual broadcast for a special anouncement:

The blogger known has “The HighwayMunky has been run down by a woman driving a peugeot”

Yes, folks i’m afraid it’s true after doing over 20miles and 800ft of climbing in the morning I set off home feeling great! legs were strong and I was heading out the city when a woman pulled out from a side street into the side of my bike and BAM! I do a very poor superman impression,

(Well i bet Superman never had to do it still clipped in!)

I land arm first the shoulder in the middle of the road. splat!

Off to hospital, spoke to the police. Can’t go into too much detail here but the bike is a write off and my shoulders in a mess, nothing broken but i won’t be doing any boxing for a while!

I’m ok, bit shaken up and very bruised and sore today.

More as it develops, Stay safe out there you lot.

Such an old man

I’m sat here writing this drivel with a cold pack on my back, one on my knee, a tartan blanket over me and a cat sat next to me. All I need is some slippers and the cough of 50 years passive smoking and I’d be my grandad.

I did a really good hard ride Sunday morning 33.45 miles in 2hours exactly on my single speed langster. I’m quite pleased with that 17mph average is pretty good with just one gear  think. [just can’t help it, i’ve got to drop the singlespeed comment in somewhere, why else ride it]

Anyway, I was moaning about being an old man. Yes at the tender age of 28 I’ve applied for my bus pass or so it feelsdue to the fact that today I bent over to do some thing simple like pick up my son and my back went “oh no you don’t sunshine” OUCH!!! I said and spent the rest of the day hobbling and mostly walking like i’d had a horrible accident falling of a ladder and landing n a traffic cone arse first…. which I did’t, I just bent over. The traffic cone would have been a much better story and gained me much greater sympathy.

Hoping to be on the bend tomorrow, as i’m on child care duty for one sick child and the other with energy levels comparative to a medum sized nuclear explosion. Should be fun.

Mayday, Mayday, We’re going down!

[Note from Munky: Nasty pictures of injuries ahead if squimish look away now]

I am once again humbled by the trail gods, I have clearly not been paying them enough attention.

Maybe because I have been riding on the road so much they thought that I must be punished,

Maybe it is because they have not had their pound of flesh [literally] from me for the use of their domain and they saw fit to take it at that moment,

Maybe they just wanted blood!

What ever their reasoning and as a mere mortal man it would be impossible and heracy for me to assume that I know or understand the reasoning of the gods. Yesterday I binned it….. at speed!

I was almost home on the XC route from work and had just enjoyed a fast descent through the field path, dropped the knee and took the 90° turn at speed with a nice amount of rear wheel slide.

I strightened up and hammered the cranks for home,

On the path there are two options a smooth thin line or a rough wide line. I chose the smooth thin line….. i chose poorly.

The thin line as but one flaw a series of humps that are usually fun to ride, but this time I made a fatal error. I looked where the trail disappeared into the creek.

Now I have learned that usually where I look the bike will go…… and it did.

Once the front wheel had slipped down this route I was buggered! I turn to try and retrieve it but the bank was too steep and off I went.

The front wheel stuck, I carried on as i was doing about 15mph at the time and landed knee and shoulder first. OUCH!

[and now what you’ve all be waiting for…… the damage]

Of course being the keen blogger I am I instantly whipped out the camera to take some pictures of the injuries for this post…. sad ain’t it.

Instant damage

The view when I got home

and the shoulder… I have similar grazes all the way down to my wrist.

So today, I got back on the stead and rode the same bit no problems at all. I hope that the gods are now satisfied with their offering of blood [hopefully it’ll be enough for the season]

Stretch it out

This mornings ride wasn’t quite 30 miles but it felt like it thanks to a fantastic 17mph headwind! [i checked it was that hard]

Ride info:

• Distance: 21.22
• Time: 1:30
• Ascent: 505ft
• Descent: 575ft
• Average Speed: 14.15 mph
• Calories burned: 1172

The 1st part of the ride was great and I felt strong and was whipping along quite nicely, I made sure that I drank regularly and  was able to get to the 14 mile mark in relative comfort it was at this point the situation changed some what.

I rounded a corner and was immediately blasted by head wind which cut my average speed as I was seeing it from a healthy 18mph to a suffering 13mph and the suffering in the head wind continued for the next 7 miles and this 7 miles is the 7 miles on the busiest road that I really could have done with zipping along, but it was not to be, today I suffered in the saddle but I’m sure it’ll all be worth it later.

Very sleepy now.

Slippy Slidy Ouch!!!

It was gorgeous on the way to work this yesterday morning. Really makes riding worthwhile when you conquer a hill and are rewarded with a sky like this!

It is muddy out there! Autumn is well and truly here as i ventured out into some of my rougher trails on the way home from work and I got muddy, the usual rough tracks were sloppy messes and the usual cross field routes were so muddy so boggy that I was pedalling hard to go down a 1:3 hill!

At the bottom the back end of the bike was all over the place i was trying my upmost to keep a steady rythem and the Panaracer Fire XC Pro tires were working over time find grip where there was none, in the end I realised there was a much more solid line to follow to the right, I tried to cross over to this line but at a much too shallow angle and a grip disappeared! Wheels sliding every where, brakes work stopping the wheel turning momentum continues and smack into a big thorn bush full of big thorns!

OUCH!!!!

Very muddy, gumpy and in a reasonable amount of pain due to the huge thorn I’d pulled out of my hand and the sound kicking my pedals had given my legs!

Conclusion it is too muddy to go all cross country routes, just stick to the well established tracks.

But damn it was beautiful in the morning!

mmm Ice is Slippy

Hello friends, Romans, fellow cyclists!

I have returned for my period of servitude a bit fatter but wiser and have dived head first (some times literally) back into the commuting biking life.

Over the past few weeks I’ve had the occasional ride, once out at Sherwood Pines with the Mrs & little man, We also revisited it as a family twice in the past week Sunday was a bit very much on the damp & muddy side as there was a BHF (British Heart Foundation) charity event on at the same time it was busy and the tracks well rutted at times but loads of fun and a learning experience in that I have discovered my beautiful children are much heavier than i thought as they were riding their chariot (trailer) and I was the horse (mule/ass) They thought it was fantastic

“faster daddy faster!!”

“I’m” (panting, wheezing) “going” (more panting, wheezing) “as fast” (deep breath) “as I can” (panting, wheezing)

But we had a great time all together getting wet & muddy!

Back to the commute,

On friday i was due back in the office and set off nice & early to enjoy the ride in. The 1st thing I noticed was that it was cold! really cold, mmm frozen water on the ground cold.

“mmm, I’m a tough mountain biker with knobbly tyres what do I care”

So i raced off down lanes, over fields, along tracks until I was happily pootling along at a gentle uphill, i turned my head to gaze at the horses running in the field to my left and at this point my front wheel decided I was not giving it enough attention, had a brief meeting with a section of black ice, together they decided that I should be punished proceeded to drop me like a stone!

Ouch!!

I had exactly no time to react I hit the ground still holding the handlebars in riding position, still clipped in and slid back down the hill.

Ice is slippy! forgot about that!

Where I hit the ground

Where we ended up. (not the natural angle for the steering end!)

You can see the skid marks from where we slid along! No bruises or cuts or anything to speak of.

I must be getting hard!!

It’s good to be back Later Y’all!!