Thank you all for your input, I truly appreciate it!! Additionally, thank you for taking the time to read through that post!! lol I thought it looked lengthy on the computer last night when I wrote it, but then I looked at it on my phone this morning…wow!
vapidoscar562 and rmap01: Sound advice for sure!
I finished work early today so after I got home, I decided to take some time and go out and get a little practice in…just riding up and down the street, hopping off curbs, hopping back up, manuals, manuals off curbs, and in general just getting used to the bike. I already feel much better (by no means 100% ready to go back and show that roller who’s boss, lol), but still had a few squirrely landings here and there which I attribute to my rear tire pressure. I could feel the tire folding over as I would land on the side walk after paralleling on the street and hopping up at speed. Brought it back into the garage and it was down around 20psi, after setting it to approx 30psi before my little practice sesh. I’ll have to keep an eye on it to see if there’s a slow leak. I also intend to look into some skills clinics as I find proper instruction combined with practical exercise is one of the best ways for me to learn.
breathinghard: I very much understand and agree that falls and crashes are bound to happen if you ride long enough. I don’t think I’m invincible or immune by any means (not that you’re saying that), but more so I understand that I don’t have enough experience to determine if the type of bike was a contributing factor.
rmap01: Aside from what I said above, I am grateful that I always wear protective gear to one extent or another when I ride the trails. MINIMUM is helmet and gloves, though I do have knee and elbow pads as well but was not wearing them that trip. Had I been, I would not have a good half dollar sized patch of essentially road rash on the outside of my left knee.
abegold: Congrats on the upgrade!! I agree with you in the sense that many of us have or will start out on an “entry level” bike, and a time will likely come that the enhancement of your skills/abilities may be limited if you don’t upgrade your bike as well (you likely won’t become a pro level DH rider on a hard tail Huffy). That being said, I tend to side with rmap01…it certainly wasn’t the bikes fault, it was my experience level in general and my disregard for my skill set. The fact that my buddies and I dissected it for at least 15 min (our “expert” analysis that I mentioned before, lol) before deciding to go for it should have been enough for me to say, “eh, maybe another time”.
Well, that may not have been as brief as I promised before but since you all took the time to read and respond I wanted to give appropriate feedback. Thank you all again!