MY BIKE REHAB - down hill master class

[thePinkDreamMachine]

BIKE REHAB

Sorry I missed the club run Saturday, I had a hard core, off road marathon called The Grizzly in Devon on Sunday so I required a little rest, (watch out for that report), Instead I learnt to drive… a bike.

It was like rehab, I faced my fear of riding down hills without braking… As I am soon to be racing as a 3rd cat, this has become an issue which needs addressing.

My ‘Priory’ type session started by inspecting each pot hole, the camber, the lumps, bumps and gravely sections towards the bottom of the hill. It was like identifying an offender in a police line up, we stood in the road, the criminals looking back at us all scary and mischievous, ready to cause copious amounts of carnage at the merest suggestion of a wheel out of place. We addressed which was the more scary, and why I feel the need to tug on the brakes at the sight of so much as a discarded fag-end on the tarmac.

Seeing these potential death-traps in the hard light of day, up close and personal, they were exposed… the truth was out and they really weren’t that scary at all. I was a yellow-bellied wuss, allowing myself to be bullied by half a yard of slightly less than billiard table-smooth tarmac.

I started my rehab by riding over the rough bits slowly, then with peddling, faster, and faster again, learning how the bike feels on a rough surface. It’s a bit like turbulence in a plane, uncomfortable, a little but scary at first, but not dangerous. Just let it roll on through.

Next it was time to address THE HILL.. And here it does get really scary. Like the Saturday morning RAC learner drivers in the roads around me, I learnt how to line up the corners by concentrating on looking as far through the bends as possible,
avoiding the curbs, parked cars and other distractions and distributing the weight accordingly (though I doubt if the learner drivers have to put their outside foot down in a bend). The brakes were banned and we began with the ‘easy’ segment at the bottom before moving further up the hill, lamp post by lamp post, around the bend to the top.

As the hill got longer with each increased elevation starting point, the speed increased. I felt like a car-crash waiting to happen, at one point I couldn’t look and closed my eyes, (understandably this caused more problems, and I soon opened them).

The frustration was evident. After a strop at the side of the road, multiple screams , yelps, and fear-induced fluctuating heart rates I conquered the mountain, descending the whole length of the hill, round the bend at the bottom without touching the brakes RESULT...

Without an ounce of road rash to show for my morning, I was no longer vertically challenged. Another successful master class from Mr Williams.

See you all soon.

[Sylv]

Now all you need is a dead piranha to look like a proper BADASS downhiller

[img]http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_SQMqbei9qZU/RhegdPRSoXI/AAAAAAAAADo/PJ2gqLDqVQc/s400/Missy_Giove.jpg[/img]
Missy Giove