THAT WAS CLOSE

September 29, 2018 • TODD BROWN • Bike Life

STRAVA SAYS I PRd EVERY SEGMENT OF THE DOWNHILL, but at the time I was just in the zone chasing Paul. It's a twisty one, shadows flooding the asphalt. When I'm in the zone it all seems slow and normal, and it was...

until a chunk of road reflector sliced my sidewall,
tire pressure dropped to zero...

I had to come out of my lean to get off the rim, changing my trajectory from safe to heading straight for a tiny roundabout with a huge rock.

Things were still slow, my gaze lasered beyond the rock across the road to the dirt... I was still hauling @$$ with no steering. The dirt shoulder allowed me to lock up the rear wheel and slightly change direction.

Then I clipped a brick hard and shattered the wheel I'd borrowed from Mike.

It could have been a lot more expensive. The $300 or so it'll take to fix it seems awfully cheap.

I hailed a LYFT. We killed 18 minutes inspecting the cause, retracing my line and Paul kept me company.

Which brings up my awesome local bike shop, Rock N Road... LYFT dropped me off and clunked in to find Jeff. Can ya halp a brother out? In no time, I had a loaner wheel and tire.

Serenity accompanied me as I rolled back to the coast. I had survived near disaster, been swooped up by LYFT, patched up by Jeff.

Someone's looking out for The Old Diesel,
and I'm not sure I'm worthy,
I'm just sure glad
to be home.

There were quite a few rocks, but I think it was this very sharp reflector shrapnel.