Hazards of the autumn ride

Road biking in the autumn brings some riding challenges, especially when leaves, pine needles or sand covers the road -- or in some cases, the dangerously wide gaps between long-wise wood planks of a bridge.

My ride buddies Marc and Pat and I just a couple days ago finished a ride that had a short wood-planked bridge at the bottom of a steep gorge we’d just descended. Pat and I rode over them first, and I noticed a gap in the planks that could have sucked in a tire if you didn’t manage to ride crosswise over the gaps. We made it across and immediately started a hellishly steep climb out of the gorge.

When we met up at the top of the climb, Marc said the planks on the bridge spooked him when he suddenly saw them, making him nervously steer across.

He had a reason for being a little wary. In the back of his mind was a bad experience he had riding over a wood-planked bridge last year. He had been ahead of me on a long, rough-road descent on a shady, cool autumn afternoon in the High Sierra foothills.

By the time I caught up with him, Marc was walking around, rubbing his arm, limping, his bike laid down at the other end of a short wood-planked bridge over a small creek. 
“Watch out when you ride over the bridge,” he said, “I rode over it, but the leaves covered up the gaps between the planks. I rode into one, it grabbed my front wheel and I endo’d.”

He was shaken up, and felt like he’d just been blindsided by a middle linebacker.

“You OK?” I asked.

“Hit my knee and arm pretty hard,” he said. We hung out for awhile as he tried to shake it off, and we took it easy for the rest of the ride. Fortunately, we weren’t too far from the end of a 50-mile ride that included nearly 5,000 feet of climbing.

Autumn leaves, while exceptionally beautiful in their multi-colored splashes, will not only hide road hazards like plank gaps, but when wet, are slick as a sheet of ice. If you hit a patch of wet leaves on a fast turn, the tires can easily fly sideways, bringing the rider an un-fun hard smack-down on the pavement, causing scrapes, bruises and possibly worse.

On another foothills descent a couple days ago, we rode fast and furious down a road in the forest we’ve ridden many times in warm, dry conditions. Near the end, when you’re going the fastest, there is a sudden blind hairpin turn where, when the road is dry and clean, you can let the bike accelerate with a fast, steep lean.

Trouble is, this last time, we didn’t think to brake a bit going into that shaded turn. Both of us took it fast and leaned hard through it, only to realize at the last second that a patch of pine needles was in the middle of the turn. 
It's one of those feelings where you know you’ve made a mistake, and you may very well get messed up for it. We made it through without slipping, lucky for both of us. But afterward we talked about it. We both knew we’d been caught in no man’s land for a split second, and how lucky we didn't go into a skid and lay down the bikes with a nasty tumble.

These scary little traps, as Marc experienced, pop up out of nowhere, and  will throw you off your bike before you know what happened. But once you’ve taken un unexpected toss off the bike, as Marc will tell you, you REMEMBER what caused it! Because you’re not too anxious to have it happen again and you definitely want to avoid it. 
That’s why even riding over uncovered planks with exposed gaps gave Marc the willies as he rode over the bridge. Keep those wheels from slotting into those gaps, he told himself. Because if you don’t, the bike stops and you won’t. You'll fly through the air with the greatest of unease and land somewhere on the ground – probably on something hard. Like asphalt.
Yes, he remembered. But it's key to remember before you get into no man's land, so you don't repeat painful mistakes.

Meanwhile, sand, just like leaves on the road, also make it slick, the equivalent of many ball-bearings on a hard floor. Sand often gets spread over roads after a rain, the leftover of runoff water. It will cause most road bike tires riding over them on a curve at high speed, to do one thing: Slip!

So whether it be leaves, pine needles, sand in the road or wood-plank gaps on bridges, keep your eyes peeled, stay upright, and keep rolling!

Speaking of avoiding falls, here’s one road bike rider who isn’t fazed by any surface challenges: Meet Martyn Ashton. Check out the road bike handling skills of this guy! Probably unwise to try any of these moves:

Watching this one question occurred to me: How many times did Martyn have to fall off his bike to master these moves? Apparently not enough to keep him off his bike. Wow! Thanks, Martyn.

So until next time, especially all you riders and all people that have been hit hard by Hurricane Sandy, hang in there, we’re all pulling for you. Just remember everybody, always strap on a helmet before every ride. And then, do whatever it takes at all times, to keep the rubber side down!

-- Mark Eric Larson

Mark Eric Larson has written two books of essays, "The NERVE...of Some People's Kids," and "Don't Force it, Get a Bigger Hammer. To read, visit: 
http://www.scribd.com/Mark%20Eric%20Larson/shelf