I was reminded today of how fast things can go bad. My buddy and I were just finishing up a ride today when he took too shallow of an angle when he was crossing railroad tracks. You can guess what happened next. Thank goodness I was on my road bike b/c I would have hit him if my hands were not on the brakes. He was OK, just a little road rash and his helmet saved his melon. I just had to share, be careful out there and wear your helmet.
I almost had a similar spill today. Even at right angles, them crossings can be tricky…
yeah that’s how my first crash happened. Forgot about some unused tracks in Wilmington, NC when i went to school there. Didn’t see them until it was too late. Hope he gets back on the bike soon.
No railroad tracks around here, but we do have lots of cattle guards. They are hurt!!
Hey swift, it happened in Wilmington. Does River Road ring a bell?
Yeah I think I know where those tracks are. Right down by the shipping terminal? I actually wrecked coming out of downtown on Front Street headed toward Greenfield Lake. Your friend definitely isn’t the first to hit the deck on either of those sets of tracks.
Yep. One of my first spectacular crashes happened that way. Still have a faint 6" scar on my arm where I slid across a chunk of broken glass.
John
We got a set of double tracks that guards a popular route around here at about a 60* angle, so in order to hit/hop them anywhere close to perpendicular you gotta counter-veer well out into the travel lane first… except that particular bottleneck gets a lot of chip truck traffic since there’s a mill nearby. Had some close calls there, including a pinch blowout once.
Wife’s first tri she biffed at a RR crossing; rear wheel got whacked out of alignment in the dropouts, ended up riding the rest of the way (fortunately not much further) w/ it rubbing against the chainstay before we figured out afterwards what was wrong.