I've still been riding my bike. The weather is sometimes nicer now, so I go out and get some exercise when I can. The odometer on my bike broke 1000 km a couple of weeks ago. Now it stands at 1069.2 km. For you metrically challenged folks that is about 663.9 miles.
That is not really that much when you consider the fact that I have had my bike here in Andong for about seven months. Figure four weekends a month, average about one of the weekend days I go riding, that works out to about 38 km (23 miles) a ride. I know that is not quite correct, though, because sometimes I forgot to start the odometer, some weekends I couldn't ride due to rain, wind or cold, and the fact that I know several of my rides have been over 50 km. In fact, I try to shoot for about 50 km each time I go out.
I couldn't have broken 1000 km, though, if I hadn't finally broken down and bought a new rear tire. When it comes to buying things I am notoriously cheap. I don't mind, so much, buying stuff for others, but for myself, I usually wait until I absolutely, positively need something. It was the same for the tire. Until about a month ago I have had the same tire on the bike as when I bought it. And I have had the bike since at least 1998. And in that time that tire has gone well over many thousands of kilometers. There was absolutely no tread left on the back tire. In fact, some of the threads had started to show through from the base material. I figured I had better get a new tire or I was going to have a blowout next time I ran over a pebble. Now that I have a new tire, I can go another 7 - 8 years with out worrying about anything. Except for the front tire, that is. Maybe there are a couple more years left on that one still.
And speaking of biking ... I had my first accident here in Andong. Luckily it was not too bad. I was going around a curve a little too fast and the bike started to approach the edge of the road. This was an outside curve, and on the out-side was a steep drop of about 3 -4 meters into a muddy, slimy rice field. The mud and slime didn't really bother me so much. It was the drop I was worried about. So I had a choice, ride the bike off the drop and down into the paddy, or jump off the bike and take my chances with the road. I was going too fast for the curve, but it really wasn't all that fast. As the bike started to leave the road and move onto the small bit of shoulder that was there, I decided to bail. I jumped of the bike, and hoped I would survive the road.
This is the result ...
I got off pretty lucky. No it doesn't look too bad in this picture, but you should have seen it when it was bleeding. Unfortunately I had the presence of mind to try and wash the blood off and wash the dirt out of the cut instead of taking a picture right then. Next time I will try and remember to get the bloody picture for you.
Like I said the bike wasn't going all that fast, just too fast to round the curve. And no, with all the sand on the road, squeezing the brakes harder would have put the tires into a skid, and then I would have had
no choice. Luckily, when I jumped off the bike, I pulled it over, and I didn't have to go down into the rice field to go get it. Unluckily, even though the bleeding stopped relatively soon, the cut hurt like a son-of-a-bitch, and I still had to finish my ride and make it back home. It hurt to hold on to the handlebars, so I had to kind of grasp the bar with my fingers only. That meant no brakes from the left hand. I did make it home, and all-in-all it was actually a pretty nice ride despite the pain.
Here is a close up for you. It has been a week now and it still has a bit left to heal. It is fine and will cause no lasting problems, other than the fact that palm readers will have a difficult time trying to figure out what that extra line means. Let's hope I have learned from the experience, though I rarely do.
"Pain makes man think. Thought makes man wise. Wisdom makes life endurable."
~ John Patrick
