Took my first fall of 2009 yesterday. We were coming off two straight days of rain, it was 7:45am and the temperature was right around freezing. All of that adds up to (you guessed it) ice on the road. Most of the roads were treated and in pretty good shape, but in my infinite wisdom I decided to extend the ride with a lap through the State Park. And in the park, the roads were.. not good. Long story short, I was coming down a hill, braking a bit, hit a previously-unseen patch of black ice, and the bike promptly came out from under me.
Falls happen so quickly and suddenly that it’s often hard to tell right away what happened and if there’s been any damage. Sometimes it doesn’t become apparent until you try to get back on the bike and resume the ride. In my case, I ended up completely undamaged (yay for slippery ice and multiple layers of winter clothing) but my front wheel was knocked out of true. Turned out to be a loose spoke. A quick twist with a spoke wrench got me back on the road. I also had to re-position my front fender, which I did after the ride. So apparently my front wheel must have taken some kind of impact, although the fall was so smooth that it’s hard to picture how it could have happened.
I guess I should count myself lucky that this was such an easy fall and it happened in the park where there’s no traffic. It’s been north of 20 years since I last did any regular riding in the winter, but this was enough to remind me of the perils of icy roads..