The story of my new bike!

After a week‘s break it was time to get back on the saddle for another long trip. This time our target was the Nandi Hills. We were very excited; a cycling trip to Nandi Hills was in the top of our wish list for a long time. We planned to start very early. Our enthusiasm and laziness negotiated to settle down eventually for a 5.15 am start from Agara.

I was greeted by a dark and foggy morning as I took my bike out. I reached Agara and met with two of the fellow riders. There were some delay with the other two, so we decided to ride till Sony World junction to meet them up. There were no street lights for our help, and the feeble light from my bike‘s head lamp dissolved into the darkness before it could reach the ground.

I felt a sudden jerk. The bike must have hit a gutter. The next moment I was flying over the handle bar. I was grounded with my gloved wrists taking almost all the impact. I tried to keep my head up, but my chin had to meet the tarmac. As my friends helped me up, I was uttering "This is my third fall!" I could deduce the depth of the cut in my chin from the expressions on my friends' faces. We went to a hospital nearby and got the wound stitched. I rode back home and my friends resumed their Nandi ride. The only thought I had during my ride back was about my three falls.

Seven weeks before...
I was on my way back to home after a dull Friday at work. I was riding on the relatively traffic free Haralur road. An excavator in front was forcing me to follow it slowly. I turned around to see if there was any scope of overtaking it. By the time I looked back, the excavator was dangerously close. Damn! It was braking too. There were no brake lights on the ugly behemoth which could have given me any clue earlier. I pulled both my brake levers hard. My rear wheel lifted off the ground͵ and before I could understand what was happening I was on the ground. I got a hairline crack near my right elbow and it put me out of action for three weeks.

My second fall was just a week after I started cycling again. I was in a hurry as I had started a little late for my daily office ride. My speed was near twenties as I came across a unpaved patch of the road. The cycle skid and I was flying over the handlebar again. This time the injuries were just superficial.

Why only me? That too three times. I remember from my lab sessions during school days͵ we had to get three sample readings to take any result as conclusive. Now that I had fallen three times, it is sufficient enough to tell me that something is wrong. I started drawing free body diagrams in my mind to analyse the mechanics of myself on my bike. My bike was medium sized frame which fits good for people upto 5'10" height. My height is just slightly less than 6'. And my limbs are disproportionately larger for a 6' guy owing to the good old routine volley ball sessions. So I had set the seat of my cycle at the highest position possible - which is a good 2 inches more than the maximum allowed limit. To ease the bend on my back, I had moved the saddle a bit forward too. But I could not raise the handlebar, and it remained in its low position. The saddle being 2 inches higher and closer to the handlebar, when I ride the bike my arms were making just a few degrees from the vertical on the handlebar. The basics of mechanics suggests that a vertical pinned support cannot counter horizontal forces. A significant forward jerk can destabilize me and throw me off the saddle.

Now I have a theory which explains all my falls, though I learned it the hard way. The solution is expensive though. I have to get a new cycle which fits my height better! And so did I!