I Hit A Tree The Other Day

[Frank79r]

And I won! The tree granted was somewhat small and dried out but always made me yield on my routine route. This day, my bar end clipped it and a watched it fall to the ground out of the corner of my eye.

That was fun.

[rmap01 ✓ supporter]

Congrats!  Clipping a tree – especially at speed – usually doesn’t have a happy ending.  Several years ago I launched off a two foot ledge at speed.   What I didn’t see was this small tree to my left.  My bar clipped it mid-air.  As my balance got thrown my front wheel landed sideways and I did my best Superman impression.  I landed with my arms outstretched to break my fall.  Unfortunately for me, I fractured my collar bone and taco’ed my front wheel since it was January and the ground was frozen.  That wasn’t fun.  But good for you.  Just make sure the landowner is taking inventory of his/her trees 😉

[FredCook ✓ supporter]

I have challenged many trees over the years… I have yet to win…

[mongwolf]

The other day, I hit a tree, a great big tree, oh lucky me … … and you know the rest of the song.

[mongwolf]

I have to confess, one time I hit a flower and crash … … But it wasn’t just a little flower.  It was a great big flower.  =)  I clipped my bar end on one of those super tall thick CO flowers and bam down I went.  Pathetic.

[Noggus]

Reminds of a time I hit, or at least skimmed, 2 trees and won.

There’s a real narrow section between 2 trees on a trail I ride ocassionally. The 1st is on the right and the 2nd is a on the left about 2 or 3 feet further down the trail. Ever since going to wider bars I’ve always slowed down a little extra and turned through the trees.

One day I decided to go for it and shoot through the trees at speed. The plan was to go straight and just leans the bars to one side and then the other to avoid the trees. Well my timing was just a little off and I caught the inside edge of the 1st tree which tossed my bars hard to the the left. Luckily the end of my bars hit the 2nd tree on the left just right to throw them back to center and I continued down the trail.

It’s better to be lucky than good sometimes.

[mongwolf]

@Noggus, the pinball wizard of mountain biking … … and rarely it seems do we have such luck.  Great story.  What have you done in that section since?

[FredCook ✓ supporter]

Mongwolf: “ @Noggus, the pinball wizard of mountain biking”  🙂

Cleaned my bike a couple days ago and realized I was missing a grip end cap.  Then remembered clipping that side trying to squeeze between two trees a couple days prior.  Again the tree wins…

[mongwolf]

And as Jeff has mentioned on another forum, trees always have the right-of-way.

[Moto Bike Mike]

Hooked a front brake lever on a tree once. Walked around bug eyed for a few days. Can you say wicked deceleration? Lol.

[TwiceHorn]

I have a new bike with 780 mm bars.  There are several tree gates on local trails that it won’t go straight through.

 

I was on a group ride the other day and clipped a tree (not a gate, just got careless) that turned my front wheel 90 degrees.  I launched myself from the bike and luckily didn’t land in anything poisonous or thorny.  Didn’t even hurt.  Kind of embarrassing though.

[Author]

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