So in the midst of this discussion I took the Ram out for a short ride that included 10+ miles of dirt road. The bike has Grand Bois Cerf tires which are not ideal but adequate for dirt roads. About 7 miles or so from home I hit a patch of rough ground. I never heard the rear tire pop but the ride felt harder than it should have, so I looked back and discovered a flat tire. I have had only three flats on all the bikes this summer and the first two were discovered in the garage, so I didn't have much to complain about. I did however feel less sanguine when I discover a tear in the spare. Started walking home on a road with very little traffic. After a mile or so a women came bye in an SUV with a bike rack. She didn't stop and offer any assistance, but then I didn't wave her down and ask either. Decided I needed to get over the "I can't ask for help" thing and deal with my male ego. A mile later a Jetta wagon with a couple rolled up. I asked and got a ride home.
Apropos of earlier posts, in decades of dirt road riding I have had only one spill. I was going downhill at about 25 mph when the front wheel went into a rut and took me down faster than I could say crank set or something that rhymed with it. Hip, then shoulder, then farhead. It was blisteringly hot & humid day and I had taken my helmet off. A neighbor came along, looked at the egg growing above my eye and insisted on taking me to the hospital. Had the pleasure of getting the gravel washed out of my wounds and bandaged up, but was otherwise OK. I worked at the hospital and once a month I talked to new nurses during orientation. The one who treated me remembered my telling her that inflicting pain on other people would take a spiritual toll. She said that was true. Michael On Tuesday, September 30, 2014 10:06:58 PM UTC-4, Patrick Moore wrote: > > I'm no gravel expert -- sand is more my line -- but I recall 10+ miles of > fast downhill on a very heavily washboarded, deeply gravelled, ex-logging > road in the Jemez. The Fargo was shod with 60+ mm 700C Big Apples at no > more than 20 psi, but despite standing, knees bent, on the pedals with > hands loosely gripping the hoods, some parts were so rough (and fast) that > I literally could not breath and I literally could see only a blur -- my > diaphragm and eyeballs were rattling so much. I would have gone slower, but > my brother (on much skinnier and harder 26" tires) was keeping 1/4 to 1/2 > mile ahead by virtue of his downhill handling skills (and better vision) > and I wasn't going to wuss out. > > On Tue, Sep 30, 2014 at 7:45 PM, Deacon Patrick <lamon...@mac.com > <javascript:>> wrote: > >> Och! The hardest roads to ride are those that have just been maintained. >> Tied for first are roads that get enough traffic to get DEEP washboard, >> like the kind that swallows what feels like a third of your tire before >> spitting you out and back down to the next one. I have yet to figure those >> out other than stand and go slow and hope there is a line you can follow at >> some point. They are horrific to hit at speed. >> > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
