RandallS
Well-Known Member
- Region
- Canada
- City
- Calgary
Well, here's the rest of the story.
Weather was decent on Friday, as it was only -1C, so I headed out to my playground, Nose Hill. As I was entering the park I met a couple of fellow e-bike riders on their Haibikes and silly me, took no photos.
They live just about 3 km south of me and ride most days - mainly dual trails and paved paths.
Bikes were both a couple of years old, and they were really interested in mine, especially my makeshift battery blanket.
Here's the Strava route which is traveled clockwise from the green dot starting point on the upper right.
The blue X marks the spot of my eventual crash (details). From there, I rode one handed all the way home and that was about 9km.
First off, I headed up to an area where I knew there was a labyrinth - I've ridden by it on a ridge many times, and decided it was time to go have a look.
I decided I wouldn't try to ride it (that wouldn't be acceptable in my view).
More details about the labyrinth HERE.
From there I rode up some trails and started for the southern edge of the park and as I was going by a thicket I've ridden past plenty of times, I spied some interesting structures inside.
This is where it got interesting and quite frankly, a bit sobering.
I came across a memorial for a young man who'd died of a Fentanyl overdose in one of these structures in 2017.
A bit more on his story is here.
After spending a bit of time absorbing the tranquility of the thicket, I ventured back out onto the trails.
It was shortly after the last picture where I took a left turn down a narrow, "un cycled" pathway heading for another thicket I'd never looked in before, where I lost my front end and crashed, thankfully at low speed and more thankfully, not too far from the major pathways (i.e. the way home)
The ride home was slow, and my brain was busy calculating how many months before golf season in case there was any real damage.
That ends anything of interest other than no apparent injuries other than some bruising and a lot of stiffness as a result.
And yes, the bike is fine.
Weather was decent on Friday, as it was only -1C, so I headed out to my playground, Nose Hill. As I was entering the park I met a couple of fellow e-bike riders on their Haibikes and silly me, took no photos.
They live just about 3 km south of me and ride most days - mainly dual trails and paved paths.
Bikes were both a couple of years old, and they were really interested in mine, especially my makeshift battery blanket.
Here's the Strava route which is traveled clockwise from the green dot starting point on the upper right.
The blue X marks the spot of my eventual crash (details). From there, I rode one handed all the way home and that was about 9km.
First off, I headed up to an area where I knew there was a labyrinth - I've ridden by it on a ridge many times, and decided it was time to go have a look.
I decided I wouldn't try to ride it (that wouldn't be acceptable in my view).
More details about the labyrinth HERE.
From there I rode up some trails and started for the southern edge of the park and as I was going by a thicket I've ridden past plenty of times, I spied some interesting structures inside.
This is where it got interesting and quite frankly, a bit sobering.
I came across a memorial for a young man who'd died of a Fentanyl overdose in one of these structures in 2017.
A bit more on his story is here.
After spending a bit of time absorbing the tranquility of the thicket, I ventured back out onto the trails.
It was shortly after the last picture where I took a left turn down a narrow, "un cycled" pathway heading for another thicket I'd never looked in before, where I lost my front end and crashed, thankfully at low speed and more thankfully, not too far from the major pathways (i.e. the way home)
The ride home was slow, and my brain was busy calculating how many months before golf season in case there was any real damage.
That ends anything of interest other than no apparent injuries other than some bruising and a lot of stiffness as a result.
And yes, the bike is fine.
To have an actual Specialized showroom close enough to bike to would be a dream for most of us. The Vado SL 5.0 EQ is on the top of the list of a close relative of mine. In fact, I'm willing to bet the color shown on that particular model would also be his first choice. They are hard to come by here so I guess he'll just have to wait a little longer.
