Mike's Bike Blog

On Saturday in the light drizzle I headed out from my house and meandered to Parmer and headed North. One of my favorite twists I like to through into riding down Parmer is the Camp Tejas route. Right before Hwy 29 there is a left turn, once you crest the hill and look down to the Hwy 29 stop light. Once you turn onto this road it's a short ways to another left turn onto CR 267. CR 267 heads South to the river and then turns into CR 266 and heads back North towards 29. The rain started to increase from a drizzle to a light rain. The South section (South of 29) is a bit rough, but mostly downhill to the river and then you climb up small rollers, but the pavement is much smoother. The road is enclosed by trees and I've seen many deer down by the river, along with squirrels so be on the lookout.

I approached Hwy 29 and there was a truck coming from the West. I didn't unclip, but instead performed a track stand. It seemed to take the truck longer than I was anticipating to go past me, but I held my ground. Rocking a bit and working the pedals to stay upright. It was one of my longer track stands. As it goes past me, I release my breaks and give a few hard pedal strokes, but there's nothing there. No resistance. No speed, and no movement. In a brief second my legs are churning in a frantic circular motion at a rate of 160 rpms but not moving at all. I give an attempt to unclip, but my feet remained securely fastened to the pedals. The inevitable is about to happen and gravity takes over. I brace myself for the pending impact with the wet surface. I land on the road with a thud and immediately roll to my back. Still clipped in I lay on my back, the bike up in the air I feel like a vulnerable turtle.  At this point my feet finally unclip and the bike lands on me.

I quickly jump up and have that I meant to do that look just in case there were any spectators. I don't think there were any witnesses, the passing truck might have caught a glimpse of my mishap and will have a good story to tell his hunting buddies. I surveyed the situation, while performing my track stand the torque I was applying to the cranks must have caused the chain to come off. Luckily the bike suffered no damage and didn't even make contact with the ground, my shoulder and left side took the brunt of the impact. I have some nice bruises on my left knee and elbow along with some road rash on my hip and knee. My right knee also got bruised when the bike landed on me.

It took a mile or two to get the kinks in my body worked out. I gingerly limped along 266 and made my way back to Parmer. I headed North on Parmer to 3405 and decided to turn around there. Instead of taking Parmer all the way back in I went back down CR 266 and caught CR 213. CR 213 intersects Stonewall Parkway which is a feeder road to Hwy 29 just outside of Liberty Hill. Riding this section of 29 isn't too bad, it's no worse than Parmer in my opinion, the shoulders nice and wide. Once in Liberty Hill I catch Loop 332 and head back to Cedar Park on Bagdad and Lakeline.

Total mileage was 50.79 miles. I averaged 18.6 mph, 216 watts and burned 2106 kJ and 1 crash. The rain and wind wasn't too bad, the rain did stop after the crash. My hip, elbow and knee are still sore even today. I can tell you one thing I'm second guessing the usage of a track stand, even if I can hold it I'm weary of mechanical failures.Track Stand Fail