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The beginning of the week was so sweet, my lad and I realised the bike I had bought for myself when he was three in 2015 would now fit him. Specialized Camber Evo, upgraded from new, Pike forks, Hope/DTSwiss wheelset, dropper post, shorter stem, I rode it and loved it for years kept it well maintained too. Meant to sell it three or fours years ago but never quite got round to it so figured by now it would be pretty much unsaleable.
I was thinking that would be a nice wee feel good story maybe even worthy of a paragraph on Singletrack.
There's no school here on Friday afternoons so him and a few of his mates are down the woods, a place I know well, I ride there too but there's trails I don't ride, they're well made but steep AF with big boy jumps, gaps and road gap drop at the end, way above my pay grade.
I told him not go on the big boy stuff, I made it very clear........phone call, sons riding buddy......broken arm, I can hear him wailing.
Fifteen times he hit it before it went wrong, apparently.
Piano Grade 4 exam in two weeks, kayaks recently purchased, football team, summer holidays approaching, ha ha.
Gutted for him but I've seen the videos, wow, impressed, bike's okay too.
A confusing mix of proud and annoyed for you I expect! I hope he gets well soon.
That's tough. Hope he feels fast.
I never knew netball was dangerous until LittleMissMC started playing. The first two finger breakages were just before flute exams.
Life is, as they say, a learning experience. What he’s learned is that coming off hard hurts. A lot. Pretty sure once the cast is on he’ll be able to paddle a kayak, piano test can be deferred, and footy season is coming to an end soon anyway.
The fact he made it fifteen times before stacking it is, quite frankly, bloody impressive! He deserves much praise, and maybe some body armour!
Well done him, he’s got bigger cojones than I have, that’s for sure, but I didn’t start riding mountain bikes until my 30’s, so had a far greater realisation of quickly how things can go tits up, and the subsequent consequences which equal long term pain and discomfort! 👍🏼😎
Oof, sounds rough.
If I were you I'd definitely be focusing on the positives and being proud of my son.
'Stern parent act' to his face, obviously, but I suspect he'll know you're secretly a bit impressed 🙂
Fifteen times he hit it before it went wrong, apparently.
Ask him if he used the phrase "just one more time..."
Cos I bet that's where he went wrong. 😉
Hope he's on the mend soon!
Man, I wish I’d had more balls to try bigger stuff like that when I was that age. You recover from pretty much any injury at that age and it only gets harder to learn to do big jumps as you get older, all the other stuff like piano, kayak etc can just wait a few months.
I don't think I realised just how capable he is.
I appreciate the camaraderie.
Man, I wish I’d had more balls to try bigger stuff like that when I was that age.
Ha! There was no such thing as bigger stuff when I was that age! Any off-road riding was on a BSA Star-Rider with a 3-speed Sturmey-Archer and Avon knobbly tyres on 650b steel-rimmed wheels. We called it ‘dirt-tracking’. When I got my first MTB they were still so rare I had an American tourist come up and ask “gee, is that a mountain bike?” A red Stumpjumper, in fact. It was a long time after that before I got a bike capable of ’big jumps’, by which time I was way past the ‘doing stupid life-threatening stuff on a bike’ event horizon! 🫣😱🤪