Goodbye. Boodbye, my friend...

The weather has been unseasonably warm, and my sons wanted to go to practice riding their bikes. So, I took them up to the local tech school's parking lot. Son #1 was doing quite well, and I will be taking his training wheels off when I get the chance. (Honestly, I should have done it by now, but that just hasn't happened yet.) Son #2 is slow, but getting the hang of it.


Well, Son #1 decided to challenge me to a race across the parking lot. This really wasn't fair as I am older, faster, and was on my Puch. So, we agreed to give him a head start. I waited until he was about 2/3 the way across and then I got down on it. I hit about 21mph bolting across the parking lot and almost caught up (I was planning on letting him win anyway... it's what dads do) when I needed to hit the brakes in order to slow down, when...

TOTAL BRAKE FAILURE!

I don't know what happened, but the calipers would not clamp down hard enough to stop me! I knew immediately that I was going to crash since I was going too fast to turn away without eating asphalt. So I quickly chose to hit the curb. I will talk about the art of the fall in my next post (which you likely read first since this shows most recent posts first). Long story short, I hit the ground... HARD.

I've been in a couple of crashes over the years, but this was easily the hardest one I've ever had. I landed on my right shoulder, and my head hit the ground hardest. This is precisely why I always wear a helmet!! No matter what, always wear a helmet. Honestly, I was only doing this to set an example for my sons, because I never imagined that I would have a crash simply riding in circles around a parking lot while my boys cruised around on their bikes.

So now I have to bid farewell to my helmet of the past 4.5 years. It's been a good run, and probably 1,000 miles. I know that's not a lot in the long run, but it was a good helmet. Granted, the dark blue totally clashed with silver and coffee colored Trek. I will particularly miss the stickers. Seriously, I don't know what "Calvin's Dog Biscuits" are or how I acquired the sticker, but anything that says, "Life is Short, Eat Biscuits" is a winner in my book.

So I have taken a photo to remember it before throwing it away. I now have a new silver one that will match my Trek, and will last through my next crash. I hope that is many, MANY miles from now.