Alo vs. Curb. Point Curb.

Let me be honest, this was not initially what I had hoped to have wrote about today. Instead it was going to be a nice little play by play of my ride around GR on my day off [which will still be part of this but not until later]. But only 4 or so blocks away from my house, I take a little bit of a short cut which involves crossing traffic, jumping a curb, taking a side walk to a dead end street which then leads me home. If the title of todays entry didn't already give it away, it wasn't the traffic that was the problem, it was: being in such a hurry that I lifted up my front wheel early on the fixie, going too fast which then lead to me putting down the front wheel too soon. This of course then caused me to hit the curb at probably around 13 mph, throwing me over the handlebars onto my left side, giving me a small but deep gash on the elbow, a scuffed up lower leg and a bruise that I'm just now noticing on my hip.

All of which I would be totally ok if it wasn't that quite possibly have totally jacked up the front wheel. It's hard to see from the picture [taken moments afterwards, I'll pat myself on the back for that one, Thank You Very Much!] but there is pretty extreme wobble and I haven't mustered up the courage yet to see how much up and down there is, but I'm willing to bet pretty good.

Deep breath.

Now for the rest of my ride... I headed out today and headed over to a near by shop to say hello to a friend and see about lending hand in a little 'impromptu' urban mtb 'gathering' going on this Sunday. Sounds pretty sweet, there will definitely be pictures.

Then headed to help figure out a commuting route for a friend who wants to maybe ride in a day or two to work. In doing so I stumble onto a very new trail that seems to be a ticket...
This was taken after I went around it... If given the 'safer' and 'dryer' choice, which would you choose? Yes, you're correct the right side. Unfortunately, although some thing might look dry it might not actually be...
Yep, the right foot took a dive. Can't tell much from the picture but it's pretty muddy and half of my foot was then wet. A shame. I continued to cruise along and ended up deciding on going over to the cheap theater in town and hit a movie. Went to the Other Boleyn Girl. Sounded mildly interesting, has my favorite actress Natalie Portman in it so that definitely didn't hurt and for $3.50 worth the risk. I ended up cruising around the mall for a bit before hand and must say if you want to get fun looks from people, show up on your bike to a mall, then proceed to walk around your shoes and whatever cycling appropriate garb. I was definitely in the 'urban/hippister' garb today. Lots of double takes. Good times.

After the movie I came out and just sat in the sun for a bit next to the bike... Took a shot of the fixie [pre-curb terror]...
And as I sat there and just soaked it in, I noticed some thing. I had a waterbottle cage but no bottle. I had left the house with one, left it on the bike when I went into the movie/mall. SOMEONE STOLE MY WATERBOTTLE???? WTF? I'm sorry, I'm not really upset about losing it but out of all the things that I left on the bike a person, of high intelligence no doubt, decides to take the USED water bottle? Ok? Let's go through the items which could have been taken without any tools: the head of my Cateye computer and my newly purchased yancopad. Things easily taken with a wretch or alley key: Inform staddle, front wheel, bottle cage.

So if anyone is in the Grand Rapids area and sees someone with a Europa Cycle and Ski water bottle that isn't me, please go up to certain individual and pat them on the back for such a stellar choice.