Biking mishap... for a laugh.

I am still trying to exercise every day. I jogged 9.5k on Sunday. Yesterday I went for about 40ks on my bike. I share this story for its entertainment value. For my last two rides I have changed from my mountain bike to riding my rusty old 12speed road bike. In some ways it is not as comfortable but more exciting, given the right conditions you can really crank it up on tar seal roads. I ride around the side of the harbour on the road that goes to Port Chalmers, then change onto a new walking/cycling track that runs alongside the waters edge. At the end of that I generally take a shortcut across a railway bridge and continue on in toward town. It is easy with the mountain bike, I just put it in low gear and ride over the rocks and bump up onto the bridge and continue riding. On the road bike with narrower tyres, I dismounted, walked it onto the bridge then thought, "Oh I can ride the bridge." I "mounted for the fray but 'ere he'd gone a dozen yards" ( from Banjo Paterson's Mulga "Bills Bicycle") my front wheel stuck itself firmly in the gap between the boards. The back end of the bike reared up tipping me forward, but I could not fall forward because my feet were firmly on the bridge and the handle bars of the bike held my legs straight. Like something out of a Charlie Chaplain movie, here was this old man, doubled over, bike sticking up at right angles in the air, stuck in position, unable to correct himself. I managed to lower the bike without breaking my legs or buckling the wheel. I untangled myself from the handle bars, pulled the wheel out of the gap, and walked the bike to the other side of the bridge. I did not look back at the young couple strolling on the bank, who were probably in fits of laughter by now... I put my chain back on its sprocket (greasy oily fingers... yuck!) and carried on with my bike ride. On my return trip, I assure you, I walked the bike across the bridge! (I am a quick learner, I am!) The stupid thing is that when it happened, my very first thought was, "shit! I knew that would happen!" I had seen the gaps and recognised the risk!? How stupid can you be?

It reminded me of childhood bike rides. There were still tram tracks embedded in the road in the Queens Gardens area of Dunedin. I recall more than once as a child getting the front wheel of my bike stuck in those and crashing onto the road in the middle of traffic.