Wounded Pride

Limp. Groan. Limp. Oww.  Limp.  Groan.  Owww..

Yup.  I crashed.  Twice.  Once when I hit the brakes too hard and I slid into the handlebars hard enough to make me cry.  At least I didn't go over the handlebars to face plant out on the street.  The second was wiping out trying to do a wheelie and landed in the grass scraping my knee and adding 4 more giant bruises to my body.

I have always wanted to do a wheelie and go down the road holding one.  I found a YouTube video that was fabulous and showed simple steps to do it.  Cool.  I so gotta try this technique.  What could go wrong?

Step one:

Use the grass so if you wipe out it doesn't hurt so much.  I stood on the side of the bike and practiced pushing my upper body/arms down and over the bike to get the front wheel up.  Cool!  Instead of 2 inches off the ground I got a foot!  I kept practicing using my upper body until it clicked.  Sure beats trying to pull up on the handlebars.

Step two:

Lower the gears to find a comfortable position.  Done.  I practiced putting my back as low to the bar as I could, pushing down on the bike and pulling up.  I kept that up until it got easier and went to step three.

Step three:

Put the pedal in the right spot to add leverage while pushing down and keep pedaling.  So far so good.  I'm not perfect every time but I have the front tire in the air pretty high up and getting the pedaling sort of right.  I'm not even close to getting the balancing right, but I'm stoked I can get the tire up at least a foot off the ground.

Step four:

Show off to your son about your accomplishments.  That ends up with you pushing down the wrong way with your back, losing your footing on the pedal, sliding off and landing on the grass with the bike on top of you.

Step five:

Avoid step four.  You'll end up crying like a baby because of your wounded pride and banged up body.  Your son will also fall over laughing until he comes over and helps you up.  You will also be grateful you didn't have your son record your accomplishment and that you wore a helmet.