Mount Wichita To Home Base Death Defying Bike Malfunction

Yesterday I had myself a mighty fine time adding a snippet of Google code to the head section of a few hundred webpages.

I had not had this sort of fun for several years. I think the last time was way back in 2015, also inspired by Google.

This morning, after a long, peaceful, cinematic nightmare laden, night's sleep I decided going on a long bike ride this morning seemed like a good idea, what with the temperature not even in the 90s. And me in need of some much needed endorphins.

All went well with the bike ride, til near the end.

At the midway point I stopped to take a photo of Mount Wichita, a Wichita Falls landmark which has been rendered brown by the ongoing drought.

You see the lower right side part of the photo?

I had no idea, when I took this photo, that a few miles later that bike seat, part of which is what you see in the lower right side of the photo, would cause me excitement of the sort I've not had for awhile.

I was almost back to home base. Had just exited the Circle Trail, was within a couple hundred feet of my abode when suddenly I found myself popped off the bike, with the sounds of something breaking and hitting the ground behind me.

I landed hard on something hard. It hurt.

After landing on that something hard, I hopped off the bike without crashing to see that the bike's seat had popped off, popping me off the bike.

I picked up the pieces and soon saw the bolt which held the seat to the post, which is stuck to the bike, had broken. The bolt looked as if it was made of cheap pot metal.

A couple hours later I don't think I have had any damage done to my personal self. When this happened I thought my most vulnerable location had taken a direct hit on either the now seat-less seat post, or the top bar of the bike frame. But the immediate sharp pain has not translated into anything more serious, as of now.

This losing the bike seat seems sort of deja vu to me. But I can not remember details of a previous seat loss incident.

My last catastrophic bike failure, which I can remember, happened way back around the turn of the century, on the Horseshoe Trails at Lake Grapevine in Grapevine.

The Horseshoe Trails are classic mountain bike trails. A bit treacherous in some locations. I was pedaling along, swooped down a steep downhill, then up, fast, then hit a bump to find myself quickly halted due to the bike frame breaking where one leg of the triangle broke like a fragile twig snapping.

This did not cause a wreck. The only thing I suffered was a long walk back to my vehicle rolling the now broken bike.

I soon thereafter bought a new bike. A K2. That one lasted til 2010 when it was stolen. The first of two bikes I have had stolen whilst living in crime ridden Texas.

I may be taking a break from bike riding. Today's incident could have had serious consequences had it happened a short time previous, such as when I roll at high speed down the trail from Lake Wichita Dam, continuing fast through the turn under Kemp Boulevard.

I was lucky the bike seat decided to pop where it did. A convenient, safe location...