Rantwick Down!

I had a nice little wipeout a week ago on Thursday morning. I was barely moving and not even on the street at the time. Here's a helmet cam view of this stupid event:

As one might expect, the cam doesn't show much of what happened. I don't know where my mind was, but it wasn't on riding my bike or the big patch of ice I rode on to just as I was turning. I mean, it looks like I was aiming for it, but honestly my mind was just elsewhere, I guess.


Unlike a previous almost-stopped fall I wrote about on this blog, I did get a foot disengaged and on the ground, but my winter cycling boots have hard plastic soles that are less than useless on ice. I fell straight backward and landed hard, the back of my helmeted head smacking the pavement real good...

It hurt, but my helmet prevented any real brain damage. It hurt, but my helmet prevented any real brain damage. It hurt, but my helmet prevented any real brain damage.


I was kind of wanting a new helmet anyway. I hit one of my elbows super hard, but no bone damage. Did you know that the loose skin part of your elbow is called the "wenis" by some people? After I heard somebody call it that I had to look it up. Turns out it is popular slang, but not a "real" word as of yet. I had a badly bruised and and sensitive wenis. My neck was very sore and the next morning I hurt pretty much everywhere. It took three or four days for most of that to go away, but I'm right as rain again now. Except for the wenis. Still bruised and sensitive. In any case, it would seem that my preference for crashing at very low speeds is good for my health.

Stay Upright If You Can,

R A N T W I C K

Baptism In Snow

Well, the worst of that snow storm appears to be over and London Ontario continues to dig out. Last week's rides to and from work on Thursday and Friday were some of the most technically demanding I have ever experienced. I tried riding in on Wednesday, got a few blocks from home, decided it was too dangerous and went back home and grabbed the car. Things were made worse by the fact that I didn't get a chance to ease in to snowy riding, going from bare pavement to kookoo town just days after I started riding Mutant Winter again.

Thanks to the sheer volume of snow and cars mashing through it, the always treacherous "lightly trafficked" kind of snow often had strange hard snow/ice islands and ridges hiding underneath it. I walked my bike more than I ever have. "Giving Up" and walking it sometimes actually made the rides much less stressful, if a little tough on my ego.

This morning dawned much colder (approx -13 C / 10 F) than other recent ones. Warm wet snow yesterday and recent plowing made many of the backstreets into skating rinks. That is OK with me because the studded tires do fine on hard ice and I made much better time than in the shifting snow.

Just the same, it would have been OK to have one of these today...

pic source

I'm gonna be busy busy for a while, so I likely won't be posting again until Thursday when the FARATS voting begins. Try to behave while I'm out. Remember, Santa is watching and will punish you without hesitation because he is a very angry dude what with the melting of the icepack and everything.

Yer Pal,

R A N T W I C K