bikes were made to be crashed

...'cause if you don't crash, you ain't ridin' hard enough. or, you're just plain stupid.

the ingredients: slick ground from the overnight rain. thin road bike tire not providing much traction. dropped sunglasses, which had been hastily shoved into spandex, as the overcast morning rendered them extraneous. urgent braking -- no reason to stop suddenly, but the conditions were such that a moderate application set the bike in a tail spin. a quick moment of realizing what was happening -- bike sliding sideways, tires slipping -- before i hit the ground. thigh, elbow first. feet jarred from the clipless pedals, bike in my wake. then a recoil, and the back of my head slammed into the ground.

when i'd first met tara that morning, the first thing she said to me, as she stared at me in modest wonderment, was, "where is your helmet?!" half-asleep, i'd set out without it. i turned back to get it. good thing, too, as it probably saved me a concussion. as it was, my head was ringing. then aching.

the plastic cover came off. i placed it back on, not wanting tara, who was a ways behind me, to know that i'd hit my head. i limped back to my dropped sunglasses, the cause of my braking and crashing, which were sitting in a puddle. the way the water sat on the lenses made them appear cracked. "awesome," i thought. but really, they were fine. more fine than me.

tara inquired why i was off my bike. i pointed to the glasses in the puddle. she then noticed my leg, and its road rash, and pointed out that my elbow was bleeding. so it was. it would later achieve a dull ache, and cry out when rested or touched against armrests and tables. my crash revealed, i played down its severity, and the scare i'd gotten from the impact of head upon concrete.

my lessons learned: don't bring sunglasses on cloudy mornings. don't stick them in the back of spandex shorts. brake carefully on slick ground. always go back for forgotten helmets.