Yesterday was bad day
After spending the day cleaning the house and moving furnitures from side to side I wanted to relax a bit and spend what was left of the sun riding my bike. I managed to finish what I was doing by 15:00 hs which was pretty good, I could take a shower and ride to my girlfriends house in the best hour, sunset. I packed my stuff in my backpack and off course I wasted a lot of time looking for my helmet as it always happens.
I love this road, I think I rode it in almost any kind of bike, at every time of the day, and night, and it's been always lovely. It's a 10 km road that goes all by the coast to Punta del Este, with 73F and the sun going dow it seems like nothing could go wrong.
I ride a track bike, or as many of you may know them by now a fixed gear bike, it means the transmission is fixed to the wheel, so as the wheel is moving your legas keeps moving, you can't stop pedaling, unless you lock your legs, and then you are able to track with this technic so to speak. My bike is breakless, this has led me to a lot of discussions and questions about why I don't have breaks in my bike. And the answer Is simple, my legs are my breaks, my legs are my gears, I don't need 28 speeds, to shift up or down, I can push harder when is needed, like I can break when is needed too. Riding breakless means you have to focus, you have to be sure about every move, you have to anticipate to traffic, and you really should know how to lock your legs and break.
I was going like 30 km, which is a cruise speed with the crankset relation I use, I slightly lean to my left to enter a wide open turn, when suddenly my front wheel explode, it get flat in a second, it caused to loose grip and added to some thin sand my front wheel slides sideways, when I tried to correct the move I oversteer and the front wheel tucked horizontal while I flew (with the bike over me, because the automatic shoes) I landed with my shoulder, my backpack and finally smashed the back of my head into the ledge of the street. Luckily for me I always wear a helmet, part of riding breakless is that you never forget your helmet, or decided not to use it, you know what you are riding.
Anyway, I was fine, just a couple of scratches on my shoulder and elbow, and a big scary story to tell lol, but what hurled me more was the material damages, you know, when you realize you are fine, when I could literally died if I wasn't wearing a helmet, you start to see the other damages as a more dramatic way. For example, I trashed my t-shirt, my backpack, also my can of weed was smashed even it is made of metal. Also my computer got some damages too, it bend a bit so it kinda close real bad, the screen got some cracks and black things in some random places, and also it got a couple of scratches. But you know, at least it works perfect, nothing serious in performance and usability.
So if you ride a bike, use a helmet, you never know when an accident like this could happen, I was riding perfectly and a flat tire almost killed me, some I could have never be able to control. When ever you think you are safe, because you doble check everything, and you are riding a brand new bike that its not gonna have some random failures, use a helmet, and also don't ride with a Macbook on your backpack, thats my personal lesson.