I had a spacetime disagreement with a tree last night.

[StuckMTB]

There I was, all by myself, out enjoying a nice peaceful evening ride through the snow covered woods. The center of the trail was a bit slick, so I was riding a bit more off-line than I might normally be doing, but all was well.

WHAM-SLIDE-OOF-SLAM.

Now I'm on face down on the ground with the wind knocked out of me wondering what the hell happened. Based on my highly skilled and technical forensic analysis, I believe the likely offender is the tree in the foreground of the crime scene image depicted above. I think my wayward line strayed a bit too wide and my knuckles of my right hand decided they would like to occupy the same space as that damned tree.

That scrape there on my pinky knuckle was the result (and despite two pairs of gloves), in addition to what's probably a broken middle finger on my left hand. I didn't realize this at the time, but it's slowly been swelling to about 130% of its normal size and it hurts like hell when I try and bend it.

I did eventually catch my breath again and finished up my ride. Not one of my best, but definitely entertaining. Stay safe out there, OPPO!

[doodon2whls]

@stuckmtb
I rapidly egressed from my bi-wheeled trail navigation contraption last fall.

I leaned into a corner only to realize (too late) that a 4" tree jumped in front of my inboard shoulder, and then I was having a small yardsale in the middle of the trail. Thankfully, I egressed clear of the bi-wheeled thing and only skinned a knee. Thank goodness for gloves, or my palms would have been raspberry-like. I caught my breath and continued on gingerly as I had twanged my knee on impact pretty goodly.

That chest-blow, though... Fun times. Glad you are OK.

Y'all be carefy out there.

(The snow looks peaceful and great for night riding ! The local parks here frown on overnight rides. )

[gin-san]

Dang, glad you're okay.

I don't think I'll ever do MTB or downhill skiing in the glades like my friends do, I'm confident that a tree would kill me.

[OPPOsaurus WRX]

i've never ridden at night on my own. i feel like if anything ever happened I wouldn't be found until the next morning. The last fall I took I couldn;t figure out how I fell. the best guess I have is that i had used a large root to jump a little and i may have landed on another root with was at an angle and turned my wheel for me. other than that I am completely clueless as to how it happened.

[Chariotoflove]

@stuckmtb This is the age-old question, isn't it? If an opponaut hits a tree in the forest, and there's no one there to laugh at it, do we really care?

Kidding aside, I'm glad you're okay. That could have gone badly. I was riding through the park last weekend, and there were EMTs and a fire truck around a guy who hit a pole he didn't see. He was standing but wobbly. So much blood on the ground and him.

[HoustonRunner]

@StuckMTB and @doodon2whls Those are two of the best descriptions of "I had a bike accident".

[RallyWrench]

@stuckmtb Argh, hate when trees reach out and touch us. Hope you get that swelling and pain down!

Side note: Riding in the snow sounds very peaceful.

[StuckMTB]

@doodon2whls @RallyWrench those damned trees! I also had a pretty good knee-knock in there too.

[BicycleBuck]

@stuckmtb Glad you're ok. I'll swear that trees can be evil, reaching out to grab a bar end when you least expect it. It happened to me many times.

That bridge reminds me of one particularly bad wreck. They had just built a new bridge for a small crossing, but the trail team hadn't installed any side rails. They also didn't consider speed or direction when they placed it. So, I rounded a corner and was presented with a bridge that was just a little too far off the original line. I just barely missed it and went over the bars. I learned just how rough freshly cut wood can be as it did its best to remove most of the skin off my right thigh. It hurt worse than road rash. Probably because of splinters and dirt.

I'd get the finger checked just in case it's a torn tendon and not a cracked bone. One can be fixed with a splint. The other might require surgery.

Happy Healing!

[StuckMTB]

@opposaurus-wrx said in I had a spacetime disagreement with a tree last night.:

i've never ridden at night on my own. i feel like if anything ever happened I wouldn't be found until the next morning.

This fear exactly! I don't typically ride solo at night, but if I do, I'll choose trails that I know are frequented by other loonies like myself so I'm not the only one out there. Last night I was itching to get out there and my usual riding buddies couldn't make it. It was peaceful as hell, but that thought is always in the back of my mind.

[StuckMTB]

@chariotoflove said in I had a spacetime disagreement with a tree last night.:
I was riding through the park last weekend, and there were EMTs and a fire truck around a guy who hit a pole he didn't see. He was standing but wobbly. So much blood on the ground and him.

Ouch, hope he made it out alright! That sounds like a scary scene.

[Chariotoflove]

@stuckmtb said in I had a spacetime disagreement with a tree last night.:

Ouch, hope he made it out alright! That sounds like a scary scene.

I'd be surprised if he didn't spend the night in a hospital bed under observation.

[nermal]

@stuckmtb How did you take the picture of both hands?

[Cash Rewards]

@stuckmtb on an adventure race I had the same accident. Right before my wedding too, so that 'hold hands with your new rings' photo had this gnarly wreck of a pinky. This is 13 years ago

[spacekraken]

@nermal said in I had a spacetime disagreement with a tree last night.:

@stuckmtb How did you take the picture of both hands?

This is the real question...

Glad you're mostly ok and hope the hands heal up well!

[StuckMTB]

@nermal + @spacekraken I used the timer on the camera app and set it on a higher surface.

[VincentMalamute]

@stuckmtb said in I had a spacetime disagreement with a tree last night.:

@opposaurus-wrx said in I had a spacetime disagreement with a tree last night.:

i've never ridden at night on my own. i feel like if anything ever happened I wouldn't be found until the next morning.

This fear exactly! I don't typically ride solo at night, but if I do, I'll choose trails that I know are frequented by other loonies like myself so I'm not the only one out there.

I learned that this year too! This summer I got a concussion in a crash and was walking around completely out of it for several hours but my riding buddy kept me from wandering off into the mountains.

A few months ago, we rode up Rollins Pass which is relatively well trafficked but we came back down a double black diamond trail with zero traffic. I face planted and thought I broke facial bones.

After that, we decided to do the risky technical trails close to home and stick to the safer trails if we're riding in the remote mountains. And now I'm always wearing a full face helmet regardless of terrain!

[trivet]

f*cking trees think they own the woods.

It was probably drunk when it swerved into you.

[Highlander]

Nothing like hitting the deck clipped in.

[trivet]

@highlander said in I had a spacetime disagreement with a tree last night.:

Nothing like hitting the deck clipped in.

Almost as bad - getting clipless pedals (Look) when they were the new hotness (yes, I'm that old - get off my lawn!)
Just like these

Zipping around town, keeping up with traffic like the bad ass USCF racer that I was, feeling pretty smug on my fancy Campy Record equipped road bike and Flying Rhinos racing team jersey, coming up to a red light and instinctively tried to pull up and back on my pedals......stayed locked in and fell over in the middle of the street. Pretty much wiped the smugness away......only thing hurt was my pride (almost fatally).

[nth256]

@StuckMTB Did you... digitally erase your thumbprint from that photo? If so, that's probably brilliant.

[ibRAD]

@bicyclebuck said in I had a spacetime disagreement with a tree last night.:

That bridge reminds me of one particularly bad wreck.

Once upon a time that may or may not have involved alcohol, I was zipping around a provincial park (campground) at night with no destination in mind and spied a bridge just like that out of the corner of my eye and decided to alter course and hit the bridge at an angle. Would not have been an issue except the evening dew on the wood wasn't sticky enough and I went down.

I was OK. Nobody saw that. Until all of the sudden there were 2 cops there to help me up. I guess they were hiding in the bushes looking to bust the folks who were actively drinking. haha. they liked my bike and asked lots of questions.

[lokerola]

I'm gearing up to ride 500K (311 US miles) for the Rapha Festive 500. Usually I have no time for it (even though I'm off work) because of all the in-laws in town. But thanks to the Pandemic (not really), I will have very few obligations this year and hope to get a lot of miles in on the bike.

Glad you survived relatively unscathed from the crash. I can ride in the wet/snow, or dark (if I have to). But I don't have the nerve to do it when it's both wet and dark.

[doodon2whls]

@highlander said in I had a spacetime disagreement with a tree last night.:

Nothing like hitting the deck clipped in.

I dunno how bad the egg-beaters are to get out of, but I use the SPD MTB setup and never have an issue getting out of them. They hold like crazy in the 'spin the crank' direction, but as soon as my ankle kicks out, they release. I think the mistake ppl make is trying to move their toe laterally... You need your foot to rotate which means relaxing your foot and letting it rotate while you move your leg (and ankle) outward.

[SilentbutnotreallyDeadly]

@stuckmtb Trees are cunning like that...I had one reach down and tap me on the head with a branch during a MTB race. Made me go all floppy.

Bridges on trails can't be trusted either. No sir...