the great escape

Its been a while i know....been mega busy leading up to xmas with work and what not, but this needed a blog.

I was out training on Wednesday morning on my normal loop when something irregular happened, my steerer snapped! for those of you that don't know much about bikes, its the part the the handlebars/stem join the bike at the top of the forks...which hold the front wheel in place.

This all happened very slow motion, so here is a detailed report.

As i went over a little bump, i lifted the front wheel a bit and when it landed there was and mighty bang/snap/crush whatever you want to call it. I knew something was a miss from the noise, but a fraction of a second later i realised i was also holding my handlebars up in the air...while both wheels were on the ground still....not good. I am now a passenger with no way whatsoever to control the bike and where it wants to go, or so i thought.

I don't know how but i headed for the grass with one hand now holding the handle bars at head height and the other hand out the the side balancing like i was on a tight rope. When the bike went into the grass, still doing about 20kph, i had enough time to think "sweet at least it'll just be a collarbone"cause if you snap your steerer going down hill your probably not going to be walking home.

So as the bike starts to slow down I start to realise i might have this all under control and might be able to avert and physical damage. Apparently at I was laughing as well, that was the fear talking. I now also have one leg unclipped so that all that is attached to the bike from a control point of view is my left foot....and i am naturally right footed, so it wasn't even my good side.

The bike is now doing about 7kph so i decide to jump off, i nail the landing and the bike rolls to a graceful collapse in the grass as i joyfully expel my satisfaction of keeping it up. Sammy and Gordy were suitable impressed as well, I was more relieved. I am a terrible bike handler as a rule but somehow manage a way to keep things up when they really go tits up, I think its the fear taking over.

The steerer sheered itself in half so its a new fork for me and a great story to tell.