Tree sample
 

I'm riding much better, and faster, lately... which is both a good and bad thing. It's a lot more fun to ride, and the crash damage hurts a LOT more too. Saturday I was riding slippery rocky single track at Capitol Forest, coming up on the pipe in third gear, when an errant [it's always the rock's fault, right?] rock knocked me offline to the inside of my right hand corner. First my foot and right handlebar hit a tree hard, resulting in full lock right turn, into the next tree. Which I hit solidly with my head. Next comes a little imagination on my part: The third tree was hit with my left shoulder, also hard, but I have no memory of this. Next thing I know I'm sitting side saddle on the bike, which is laying on it's right side in the middle of the trail, happily idling away. I'm stunned at the quickness with which it happened, and can't move my left arm at all. So I guess I'll just sit here a while and wait for movement to come back or the next rider to come along and help me get out of the middle of the trail.
Soon enough I was able to get mobile again, at a much slower pace. Balance, muscle memory and energy had all deserted me. Got to a safer spot to remove myself from the trail, had an energy bar, and continued on my way, but didn't feel right or come back up to speed for an hour or so.
Results? Stiff neck, a right foot that is turning lots of pretty color, a numb left shoulder and two sprained fingers on my left hand. Rode the short course today...

Were you riding the Smuggler poker run, or just riding?

I'm not a medical doctor, but if you have a loss of short term memory, you should get checked out. You might have a concussion.:)

I am a doctor and my bet is a concussion. More importantly, your helmet possibly should be replaced. It has performed it's one time job.

I'm an advocate of helmet replacement. Had to cut back my riding for a couple months, last year...so I could afford new helmets. Last year I replaced three. This year, so far, so good...no head strikes.

I am a lawyer, thats why I qualified my statement.:)

Boy! Hope you're OK. I agree on the helmet replacement.

Smugglers was awesome and brutal. Did the long course yesterday with my brother. He had a very similar hard get off in the rocks. We were going through one of the many wet rock gardens, going at a pretty good clip when he hit a large imbedded rock which rocketed him across the trail to another large rock where he slammed down on his shoulder. Took a minute to take inventory and his shin was hurting pretty bad. Took about 5 miles for him to recover and get back up to pace.

Totally agree on the consequences of stepping up the pace. We now ride at a fast B, slow A pace and get offs hurt a lot more.

I'm not a lawyer but I spend a lot of time talking to them so I'll offer this disclaimer.

No renumeration - financial or product - was offered for this opinion ...

If you're apt to be hitting your head on rocks or trees, you need to take a good, long look at the 6D helmets. Spendy, but designed to mitigate exactly the '... wait, where am I?' moments on the trail.

When my Arai runs its course the 6D is at the top of the list. The rest of my life depends on me having a clear head, and I can't really afford a concussion or the lingering after effects.

I also agree with.........what? What were we talking about? Living proof of hitting your head to hard one to many times......:D

Oh yeah, sometimes I would pay big money to have a selective memory...lol..that 6D helmet is on my list too!