Oh to the Bee

Over the bars, often referred to as OTB, is not just a bar on the South Side.  It also occurs when you are riding a bike (typically a mountain bike) and you decide for one reason or another, to go over your handle bars.  Now, there is typically only one way this happens and when it has happened to me it's never been intentional.  Usually when one goes over their bars they are riding down something steep; drop the front wheel a bit too much or bury it into something; and have their weight too far forward.  This results of this are you rotating around the axis of your front wheel therefore going over your bars and onto the ground. 

The magnitude of going over the bars can vary greatly; mostly based on the amount of speed and the steepness of the angle of approach.  I've experienced several varieties of going OTB from the extreme where I ended up launching about six feet off the front of my bike (on my first ride after I moved to the SC) to the benign where I was able to grab a tree in the middle of the forward momentum thus allowing me to gently fall to the ground.  This weekend I decided to take a trip over the bars with a little more pizazz.  

So Sunday was the annual fall group ride for the local mountain bike club.  We met at R.B. Winter State Park to ride trails that I have never been on.  We were on this super fun downhill stretch that was steep but not bad.  The terrain changed from loose baby heads to giant boulders in a big washed out area.  These trails don't get used much so there isn't a real defined line to ride.  On the burly section of big rocks I was making it up as I went and I chose poorly.

I was doing fairly well with some decent speed when I got bumped off the line I wanted and dropped off a big rock to what I thought was a solid place to put my front wheel when to my dismay, the wheel augured in and stopped.  I, unfortunately did not.  As the ground started coming closer and closer to my face I put out my arms to help ease myself in.  It worked, kind of.  I didn't hit the ground as hard as I could have but I went a few feet out and landed on a bunch of rocks.

I'll admit, it was one of the biggest diggers I've taken in a long time.  My elbow, wrist, and shoulder all hurt pretty bad.  My hip hurts a little but not awful.  The biggest thing is that I cracked my helmet when it bounced off a rock.  Yes, my head was in it so I'm a bit headachy.  I was able to get up and ride away.  The bike was fine and I was fine, for the most part.  I'm a little bummed that I need to get a new helmet, but I guess that's why I wear it in the first place.