An Ounce (a few grams) of Prevention
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@s-leon Glad you’re okay, what a spill!
Guess it was a good thing the ground was smooth so you didn’t get any sharp body busting deceleration D:
That gear pays for itself in saved bandages and trips to the doc. -
@lia -- Yes, indeed! Good safety gear can be life-saving! Laundering the wind breaking jacket I had been wearing in the fall on Sunday, I noticed it is somewhat tattered, including new holes in the sleeve and shoulder area near the neck. So, I was prompted to look more closely at the Fox Titan Sport Jacket protection I was wearing over the windbreaker jacket when I went down. To my surprise there are scape striations not only on the elbow and shoulder, but also all the way down the back, from the neck to the tailbone. The hard plastic sections of the armor in back acted as a pavement sled for me -- on which I rode out the surprisingly long slide.
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Maybe it's the fall, or perhaps it's the cool, chill autumn -- my average speeds and top speeds are lower. A contributing factor to slowing down could be riding a much slower and attention-needing V1 daily on the Greenway pavement, carrying over some to the way I ride the OneDanXR and my Onewheel Plus. Anyway, instead of regularly 22, 23, or 24 mph top speeds, lately it has been 19, 20, and sometimes 21 mph.
Reviewing my Onewheel fall history in my mind, it seems I fall backwards equally or more often than forwards. With that in mind this week I added freewheel brakes to my latest V1 reconstruction. Once before it had had them -- to good effect -- then I took it all apart and it just sat, with me thinking I was through with riding the V1. Then I got fresh inspiration.
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@s-leon I know from my first fall I stopped pushing above 15mph so there might be something about the fall that led to your slower speed.
First year I was sometimes coasting 18+mph before my fall and decided I'm better off chilling at 15pmh. I feel that little pushback nudge and ride it comfortably only barely hitting 16mph sometimes.
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@s-leon i want to bomb every damn hill i come across but pushback reminds me we're not there yet...
XR's got what plants crave!
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@notsure -- Interestingly, caution -- going slow and using your brakes -- while going downhill at full battery will more likely result in overcharge cut-out than Onewheeling with abandon. The braking regen is the culprit. Onewheeling slowly uses less of the battery, allowing it to be more easily overcharged by the regen when you do brake.
Onewheeling with careless abandon or acceleration UPHILL is a different story. In that case it is too easy to overwhelm the battery and end up rolling on the pavement (and rarely with laughter at your mistake)!
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@s-leon yeah i just rip it! id like to just go nuts n bomb it, but that cutout scares me. would love to be able to just ride out those moments at minimal cost to performance (if possible), but i hear its a technical challenge. not my area of expertise so i have to wing it sometimes. getting the motor to spin fast n not lose torque or fry stuff is understandably challenging.
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Hmmph. Today, Onewheeling around sunrise in soupy early morning fog through the woods and wetlands on the Greenway, eye protection off because it was fogging up so bad, an insect — a bee? — came at me at its full throttle, and me at mine, and we collided, it hitting me just below the eyebrow and into the eye socket. The impact itself was a sharp, blunt hurt — but then the hurt kept getting more intense. Stung with a chemical sting! Oh my! A half inch lower and I would be blind in that eye.
Turned around, Onewheeled the five miles back to the bicycle, ratchet-strapped the Onewheels on the rear bike rack, and pedaled home the four miles. The distended swelling around the eye did not really start until I was home for more than an hour. Now it looks like I had been in a fist fight and took a hard blow. Do they sell safety glasses with heating elements in the lenses? To burn off condensation? Perhaps I should get a helmet with a face shield — or at least an eye shield.
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@s-leon ouch. Lucky it wasn’t worse as you say. Phew.
Once many years ago I was on my motorbike and a bee climbed in through a gap in the visor on my helmet. I nearly lost it trying to stop on the side of a main road, it had small stones (like on a beach) for drainage which as we know are not really good for driving on. I avoided being stung, just.
You may still find fogging with a helmet, but maybe the type which is open face but with a visor would be suitable indeed. I just know that motorbike helmets fog up, and unfortunately holding you breath isn’t an option ;)
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@s-leon I’m so happy you got back safe and wasn’t blinded by that!
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Twice bloodying the same knuckles on my leading hand (a couple years apart), I have come up with a solution. An old Triple Eight knee pad with one elastic strap wrapped around my wrist and wrist guard covers the knuckles nicely without interfering with finger movement.
After this latest fall, too, I am stuffing a CE level 1 pad under the knee/shin guard I that wear right on my leading hip. That should take care of the mild soreness I have noted there after each fall. I also put an extra CE level 1 pad in the shoulder -- even though I have not felt any soreness there. A couple years back I added an extra pad at the leading elbow.
Why a chest bruise (left, leading teat) on this most recent fall, and how to protect against it? -- I have no idea. The one time I cracked ribs was from landing on an EGO battery in a shoulder bag -- now, I no longer carry a shoulder bag or a backpack.
And although I have never injured an ankle in a Onewheel fall, I have taken to wearing a child's knee pad on the outside of my leading ankle -- partly because I attached a flashing red bike light to it, for moving visibility while bicycling on the rural roads. That and fear of ever being laid-up with a shattered ankle.
My goal is to be able to fall hard -- and laugh with no injuries! It has happened more than once!
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@s-leon I ate my fair share of shit today! Was cruising around, enjoying the beautiful weather. I saw one of my neighbors walking down the street, so i took my eyes off the road for a moment, failing to notice an unusually deep pothole concealed by a tree shadow overhead. I hit the bowl like depression cock-eyed, the wheel rotates out from under me and i basically trust fall the pavement at a few mph. Knocked the wind right out of me! Just writhing around on the ground trying to catch my breath for a few minutes. Visited the ER as a precaution... Gonna be sore tomorrow but probably fine.
XR's got what plants crave!
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@notsure Oh no I hope you're okay! Heal up soon!
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@notsure -- Very scary when air won't go either in or out of lungs.
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@s-leon Yup that's exactly what happened! Took quite a while to get it back too.
XR's got what plants crave!
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@notsure -- How're you doing a after a couple of days now?
I'm curious, too, what gear you were wearing? And whether it prevented or mollified some of the injury?
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@s-leon a coffee mug and a pair of sunglasses. nope!
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@notsure
To anyone that asks....
"Yeah yeah, I'm fine...." Ride off into the sunset.On the inside... 'Owwww ffffff that hurt....'
Well, that's what I do lol 😂
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@puzz360 said in An Ounce (a few grams) of Prevention:
Well, that's what I do lol 😂
I took a baby aspirin the next morning and I'm feeling much better now thank you.
I mentioned the ER... Purely precautionary! So was the ambulance!
Plus, my RN was hot, so...
I give the whole experience about 4 stars.
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@s-leon here's something interesting Im just noticing now... I've been experimenting with different riding profiles. Pint was Skyline, XR was Delirium, and up until a couple weeks ago- GTS is Apex. I wanted to try out the others so I've been using Highline the past couple weeks. First time falling after a few thousand miles was while riding something other than the most aggressive riding mode... I think that's interesting. Pothole was bowl shaped and I hit it off-center on my heel-side (I goofy!). Rolled right out from under me. I wonder if that would have happened in Apex? I switch mid ride just now and the difference was quite noticeable!
