Not My Day to Ride

Well, I took a solo ride tonight and here is how it went.

First, my route ... from my house to Brumbaugh Road ... turned left on Cove Lane ... turned right on Kensinger Rd ... turned left on Carper Rd ... turned right on Cove Lane Rd. ... left on Rt. 866 (Market Street) ... (this is where the 'incident' occurred - keep reading) right on Spring St ... left on State St to Cowan Rd to Frederick Rd ... left on Rt. 164 (Cove Mtn Rd) to home. Approximately 12 miles.

1 - I forgot my water bottle ... thankfully my daughter noticed and came running after me.

2 - My Cyclocomputer did NOT work! Grrrr! I had the bike shop reset it for me to add in the miles I lost when I dropped it last week. Everything worked AFTER I dropped it, except I lost my cumulative miles. Now after they 'fixed' it, I have my total miles, but nothing else works. I stopped and tinkered and smacked it a few times to no avail. No speed, distance, time, etc.

3 - I had my first mishap, and it was totally my fault. I'm coming up Market St. in Martinsburg to turn right onto Spring St. There were construction workers in that area, and a motorcycle sitting at the stop sign at Spring St. waiting to turn left. There were no other cars coming and he was waiting for me. So being the courteous cyclist that I am, I reach my right arm out to signal that I was turning right, but I realized I need to slow down. Right arm is out, left hand hits the brake a tad too hard (I forgot that was my FRONT brake) and I was so focused on the motorcycle that I didn't see the manhole cover and I hit it at the moment I hit the brake. OOPS!! I flew head first over the front of my bike. Now I know why we wear helmets. If you look closely at this picture, you will see a slight boo boo on my forehead (and that's my pissed off look!) Yes, I took this picture of myself which explains the double chin.

I never moved so fast in my life. The guy on the motorcycle stayed put for a minute to see if I was okay. I'm so glad for the helmet and sunglasses ... hopefully nobody recognized me. I jumped up, picked up my bike and moved to the sidewalk, all while uttering various four letter words. My headlight popped off and is scratched, my mirror got scuffed up and came loose, my brake handle is all scratched. My body? I have a few goose-eggs on my elbow and knee. No blood! The picture on the right is of the tread mark on my sleeve.

And the icing on the cake was ... A bug flew in my eye on Frederick Rd, and I had to pull over to get it out, take my contact lense out and rinse it off and put it back in. I'm so glad I remembered to throw my eye drops in my pocket!

All I wanted to do was try out my new saddle. Didn't expect all this drama.