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Memorable First Ride with the New Bike

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Turbo Monkey
So I decided to take RED (the name of my new bike :biggrin:) out for a ride today. The weather was slightly warm and it was my chance to finally test him out. It was an experience I will never forget.

I rode down the road that runs parallel to the trail. It’s a narrow, long and winding road, that has lots of hills for me to train on. The trails are really muddy so I figured it was best for my first ride to stick to the road. It’s a good road to ride on since it's been recently paved and it doesn’t get a lot of traffic.

Anyhow, the ride down the road was great. RED got me up and down some hills that I have never been able to do with my other bike…plus I’ve been hittin the gym so I think my endurance is up. Towards the end of the first half of the ride, a huge truck came flying past me on the opposite side. I thought to myself how crazy he was driving such a vehicle on such a small and winding road

Truck was similar to this...



I got to the end of the road and turned around for the second leg of my ride. Towards the end of the ride is a hill that has a mini platform in the middle and then another incline to the top. Right where it levels out is a blind turn. As I approached the hill…I was tuckered out and decided to walk. I had RED on my right side as I walked up the hill.

Well sure enough, the same truck came back down…still flying down. Only this time he was on the downhill and when he got to the area where it levels off he flew off the side of the road hitting an embankment of dirt. He turned the wheel sharply to avoid flying off into the woods. As he did this he continued to struggle to gain control over the vehicle and all I saw was this truck headed across the street towards me. At one point it looked like he was gonna flip over and onto me. With barely seconds to think, I threw RED down, jumped over the bike and rolled down the side of the road into thorns and prickly bushes. I curled myself up and expected to die. No kidding. The guy managed to swerve into the dirt where I was and finally gained control over the truck…screeching to a stop…just centimeters from RED and barely an inch or two from me.

I got up covered in thorns. He rolled down the window where I was able to see a teenager in the passenger seat. He asked me if I was ok. I swear I must have been in shock. He asked “are you ok?” then said “I saw a squirrel”. I told him that was bullsh*t that he was driving too fast for this road. He shrugged and said “yea…but I saw a squirrel” and then took off. He didn’t bother getting out of the truck, or helping me up or my bike.

Luckily, I only have a few minor scratches on my knee and RED came through unscathed. Talk about a “first ride experience never to forget”. If RED and I haven’t bonded from that…I don’t see what any trail can do for us.

Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera with me or I could have shown you just how close it had come to hitting me. But I went back to take pics of the tire marks.