Crashed My Bike
Posted by Raymonn | In The Archives of Short Story
Ive been riding my bike to work for the last 3 weeks. I love it. It feels really good to get the heart going and getting exercise while at it. However, bike tires and railroad tracks don’t mix well.
I was biking the last stretch to work. I have two routes I can take. One going in the direction of Hay Maker park. The other under Rosa Parkway. They both lead me to
the “Hay Market” area, one from the north and the other from the south direction, up 2 blocks, then east past 9th and 10th to Carriage garage.
This particular morning was the Rosa Parkway route, which has a plethora of old tracks in the streets. Going directly over the top of them is perfectly fine, but when you ride your tire along side the tracks there are little side creases that comes along with it. Yeah, this is where it all began.
Pumping my pedals as fast as I could go, with a downhill slope in my favor, I was Lance Armstrong…making the last stretch a good one, so I thought.
As I’m approaching “M” street, I started to tilt and turn my tires. Suddenly my tires became parallel with the tracks. Remember the little creases I mentioned? My tires get stuck in the crease, while I’m moving full speed, with a bit of a tilt (leaning), because I’m trying to turn the corner. So, I’m off balance. With the rubber scrapping the side of the track, it’s almost impossible to pull the tires out. It almost felt like the tires were stuck.
Needless to say…I began my descent.
Within split seconds, my mind processed a few things:
- I can’t stop this fall…I had to accept that fact.
- I’m moving pretty damn fast…this might hurt.
- Damn
- I have on long sleeves (thank the Lord), no gloves or helmet (I Be Damn).
- O Shit
- I don’t wanna feel this afterwards…
- How am I going to work after this…
- Backpack….
- Hope nobody sees this shit…
In mid air I processed I will have to football role this fall. This mind set came natural. With my background in football it was pure instinct to save face (literally).
The technique is often used by football players that are falling fast and want to protect themselves from a potentially horrible face plant.
I pushed off the bike, with its force and speed, I traveled at least three bike heights (10-12 feet) in the air. I got the height I needed to have the perfect football role. I started to turn in the air, softly landing on my right shoulder to tuck and role landing on my feet after one complete role.
Everything was perfect up until the point my “Backpack” reminded me that it wasn’t accounted for in the football role. The backpack did not allow me to complete my role, so I’m caught between sliding on my back and shoulder for about 3 yards until I used the Backpack for protection. So I turned enough to ride the Backpack for the rest of the hard earned yardage.
The complete role was null. But I managed to get back up on my feet without any scratches on my hands or shoulders. I jumped up as fast as possible, looked around to see if any one saw the crash. One guy in a milk truck was looking. Meadow Gold is a milk company that’s been in the Hay Market area for years.
He must have seen me coming so he didn’t pull out until I was going to pass. In other words, he saw the whole thing from beginning to end.
No such condolences, “Are you o.k.?,” or “Need help?,” from the milk man. He crossed the street looking at me with a smile that yelled, “What a pitiful fall!” Bastard (achingly muffled)! He could have, at least, honked his horn.
I picked up my bike and finished my route at Carriage garage. I walked into work and told a few people about my spill. They laughed and shared my pains. After sitting at my computer for a couple of hours I thought to myself I didn’t feel to bad. My memory erased the fall and I carried on with my day.
I totally forgot about my “savvy descent” until the next morning. I was SORE AS HELL!
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