Swinley Forest fatality
Discussion
i think one of the issues with the modern "flow trail" is that you can actually ride them extremely fast without having any particular skills as such!
Time after time i see people hitting stuff that looks easy on "you tube" etc, but actually needs some skill and more importantly, experience and control, things that for a less experienced rider actually take some time to gain. It's far too easy to watch people on you tube sending massive jumps or whatever and to perhaps think you can do the same.
More natural trails, which you can't take for granted actually make you take it down a notch, simply because you don't know whats round the next corner or over the next jump. Swinley, with it's smooth manicured trails generally doesn't have anything nasty lurking unexpectedly around the next corner, and so it's really very easy to think, "nah, no need to brake going in here, it'll be fine".
It's the same on the final descent on the Blue at FoD, where they are always carting peeps off in ambulances who have binned it on what looks to be a pretty straight forward any easy section........
Time after time i see people hitting stuff that looks easy on "you tube" etc, but actually needs some skill and more importantly, experience and control, things that for a less experienced rider actually take some time to gain. It's far too easy to watch people on you tube sending massive jumps or whatever and to perhaps think you can do the same.
More natural trails, which you can't take for granted actually make you take it down a notch, simply because you don't know whats round the next corner or over the next jump. Swinley, with it's smooth manicured trails generally doesn't have anything nasty lurking unexpectedly around the next corner, and so it's really very easy to think, "nah, no need to brake going in here, it'll be fine".
It's the same on the final descent on the Blue at FoD, where they are always carting peeps off in ambulances who have binned it on what looks to be a pretty straight forward any easy section........
Sure most of y'all will be at work tomorrow anyway, but Red 25 is closed tomorrow between 10.30 & 12.30 for his family to pay their respects.
Theres talk of a memorial ride sunday 9th Aug, but not confirmed yet (too many people and it could be bedlam I guess). If it happens it will probably be a walk through that section. If you are riding in the next couple of weeks be extra careful for anyone stopped on the bottom of that section leaving flowers or tying a ribbon.
Theres talk of a memorial ride sunday 9th Aug, but not confirmed yet (too many people and it could be bedlam I guess). If it happens it will probably be a walk through that section. If you are riding in the next couple of weeks be extra careful for anyone stopped on the bottom of that section leaving flowers or tying a ribbon.
Well here's the link to the Mail article...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3177562/Ar...
...and the latest update on the Get Reading site...
http://www.getreading.co.uk/news/reading-berkshire...
...it's a bit bloody close to home for my liking is all I can say...
Article states death was due to cardiac arrest, but also that the poor chap died after crashing. Cardiac arrest can be a result of injuries sustained in a crash, or a crash can be the result of sustaining a cardiac arrest. Hopefully the coroners investigation will be able to give his wife and kids some answers on that score. Horrible to think that she must have felt she could relax after he retired from the army, and yet she's lost her husband to an accident/medical incident on a bike ride.
A sobering reminder that the sport we all love is not entirely safe, and that we should ride carefully and respect the trails. I'll certainly be a little more mindful of the risks following this sad news.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3177562/Ar...
...and the latest update on the Get Reading site...
http://www.getreading.co.uk/news/reading-berkshire...
...it's a bit bloody close to home for my liking is all I can say...
Article states death was due to cardiac arrest, but also that the poor chap died after crashing. Cardiac arrest can be a result of injuries sustained in a crash, or a crash can be the result of sustaining a cardiac arrest. Hopefully the coroners investigation will be able to give his wife and kids some answers on that score. Horrible to think that she must have felt she could relax after he retired from the army, and yet she's lost her husband to an accident/medical incident on a bike ride.
A sobering reminder that the sport we all love is not entirely safe, and that we should ride carefully and respect the trails. I'll certainly be a little more mindful of the risks following this sad news.
Max_Torque said:
i think one of the issues with the modern "flow trail" is that you can actually ride them extremely fast without having any particular skills as such!
Time after time i see people hitting stuff that looks easy on "you tube" etc, but actually needs some skill and more importantly, experience and control, things that for a less experienced rider actually take some time to gain. It's far too easy to watch people on you tube sending massive jumps or whatever and to perhaps think you can do the same.
More natural trails, which you can't take for granted actually make you take it down a notch, simply because you don't know whats round the next corner or over the next jump. Swinley, with it's smooth manicured trails generally doesn't have anything nasty lurking unexpectedly around the next corner, and so it's really very easy to think, "nah, no need to brake going in here, it'll be fine".
It's the same on the final descent on the Blue at FoD, where they are always carting peeps off in ambulances who have binned it on what looks to be a pretty straight forward any easy section........
This happened to my friend at Coed y Brenin, we went on the blue trail for an easy warm up and he was riding too fast and OTBd, and broke his jaw. I've ridden far harder trails with him previously, it was just that he was riding too fast for his skill level as the trail was smooth.Time after time i see people hitting stuff that looks easy on "you tube" etc, but actually needs some skill and more importantly, experience and control, things that for a less experienced rider actually take some time to gain. It's far too easy to watch people on you tube sending massive jumps or whatever and to perhaps think you can do the same.
More natural trails, which you can't take for granted actually make you take it down a notch, simply because you don't know whats round the next corner or over the next jump. Swinley, with it's smooth manicured trails generally doesn't have anything nasty lurking unexpectedly around the next corner, and so it's really very easy to think, "nah, no need to brake going in here, it'll be fine".
It's the same on the final descent on the Blue at FoD, where they are always carting peeps off in ambulances who have binned it on what looks to be a pretty straight forward any easy section........
Swinley update very sad .
- Member
Everyone, I feel it is time to end some speculation. I have been (or was - I still can't quite believe he's gone) Mark's regular riding cohort for a few years now, but I wasn't with him on that day because I was on holiday.
Firstly I want to express my heartfelt thanks to the riders and ranger that helped Mark in his time of need. I am regularly trained in Basic Life Support (BLS) as part of my job, but had I been there, I am pretty sure I couldn't have done any better than those guys (and it is quite likely I might have been less use due to emotional attachment). They are heroes in my eyes, regardless of the outcome and I sincerely hope that the events on that day have not affected their love for this pastime - Mark would not have wanted that. If any of them are at the memorial ride on Sun, I hope I get the chance to thank them in person.
So.... Yes, Mark was wearing a helmet, which was recently bought, as his old one was getting tatty. Yes, we both knew the Swinley trails well (both the original natural ones and the new ones), we had ridden them pretty much weekly for 6 months since Mark came back from working abroad and we often sessioned red 25 multiple times in succession as it was one of our favourite bits. Yes Mark had ridden it solo quite a few times before without incident. Yes, riders got to him almost immediately after it happened as the guys waiting for their turn on the trail heard him crash and went straight to his aid (it happened quite near to the top of the trail). They called 999 and the ranger (all riders should have the Swinley ranger's number on them to be able to get paramedics to the right place as quickly as possible) then immediately started CPR, which they did until the paramedics arrived ~20mins later. Sadly however, despite everyone's best efforts, Mark succumbed to his injuries a while later as the medical team prepared him for airlift to hospital.
So even though Mark went out solo, in effect he was not really alone at all. Had I been there, the only difference would have been that we would have known exactly what happened because I would have seen the whole thing (although with hindsight it is probably a good thing that I didn't). As it is, after visiting the site, I am just as in the dark as everyone else on here, because it happened on the most benign part of that run - some of the later sections are much faster and far more sketchy than the top bit. So I still can’t imagine what could have happened on that part of the trail that should end so sadly.
To the best of my knowledge the bike was undamaged so it was unlikely to have been a mechanical issue (other than possibly running out of grip or something like that).
That is all I have.
(One last thing.... I hope that the guy that somewhat sanctimoniously told us "that's not a safe place to be" as he rode past us whilst we were paying our respects reads this and feels suitably apologetic).
RIP good mate. You went on ahead, but you've always waited for me; so we will meet again at the trail's end.
POSTED 22 HOURS AGO #
- Member
Everyone, I feel it is time to end some speculation. I have been (or was - I still can't quite believe he's gone) Mark's regular riding cohort for a few years now, but I wasn't with him on that day because I was on holiday.
Firstly I want to express my heartfelt thanks to the riders and ranger that helped Mark in his time of need. I am regularly trained in Basic Life Support (BLS) as part of my job, but had I been there, I am pretty sure I couldn't have done any better than those guys (and it is quite likely I might have been less use due to emotional attachment). They are heroes in my eyes, regardless of the outcome and I sincerely hope that the events on that day have not affected their love for this pastime - Mark would not have wanted that. If any of them are at the memorial ride on Sun, I hope I get the chance to thank them in person.
So.... Yes, Mark was wearing a helmet, which was recently bought, as his old one was getting tatty. Yes, we both knew the Swinley trails well (both the original natural ones and the new ones), we had ridden them pretty much weekly for 6 months since Mark came back from working abroad and we often sessioned red 25 multiple times in succession as it was one of our favourite bits. Yes Mark had ridden it solo quite a few times before without incident. Yes, riders got to him almost immediately after it happened as the guys waiting for their turn on the trail heard him crash and went straight to his aid (it happened quite near to the top of the trail). They called 999 and the ranger (all riders should have the Swinley ranger's number on them to be able to get paramedics to the right place as quickly as possible) then immediately started CPR, which they did until the paramedics arrived ~20mins later. Sadly however, despite everyone's best efforts, Mark succumbed to his injuries a while later as the medical team prepared him for airlift to hospital.
So even though Mark went out solo, in effect he was not really alone at all. Had I been there, the only difference would have been that we would have known exactly what happened because I would have seen the whole thing (although with hindsight it is probably a good thing that I didn't). As it is, after visiting the site, I am just as in the dark as everyone else on here, because it happened on the most benign part of that run - some of the later sections are much faster and far more sketchy than the top bit. So I still can’t imagine what could have happened on that part of the trail that should end so sadly.
To the best of my knowledge the bike was undamaged so it was unlikely to have been a mechanical issue (other than possibly running out of grip or something like that).
That is all I have.
(One last thing.... I hope that the guy that somewhat sanctimoniously told us "that's not a safe place to be" as he rode past us whilst we were paying our respects reads this and feels suitably apologetic).
RIP good mate. You went on ahead, but you've always waited for me; so we will meet again at the trail's end.
POSTED 22 HOURS AGO #
Ddusty in here!
Know that bit of trail well, it's well laid out huge fun. So sad this guy lost his riding buddy on such an innocuous section.
A small aside, if ever your happen across or are involved in an incident out in the wild, dial 112 not 999, the emergency services will get a grid reference from your phone triangulation.
Know that bit of trail well, it's well laid out huge fun. So sad this guy lost his riding buddy on such an innocuous section.
A small aside, if ever your happen across or are involved in an incident out in the wild, dial 112 not 999, the emergency services will get a grid reference from your phone triangulation.
JustinF said:
<snip>
A small aside, if ever your happen across or are involved in an incident out in the wild, dial 112 not 999, the emergency services will get a grid reference from your phone triangulation.
urban Myth that is A small aside, if ever your happen across or are involved in an incident out in the wild, dial 112 not 999, the emergency services will get a grid reference from your phone triangulation.
the GSM protocol treats any programmed number for emergency calls exactly the same ...
mph1977 said:
JustinF said:
<snip>
A small aside, if ever your happen across or are involved in an incident out in the wild, dial 112 not 999, the emergency services will get a grid reference from your phone triangulation.
urban Myth that is A small aside, if ever your happen across or are involved in an incident out in the wild, dial 112 not 999, the emergency services will get a grid reference from your phone triangulation.
the GSM protocol treats any programmed number for emergency calls exactly the same ...
Just read this, as I try not to read threads of this type. Very sad and I hope the riders who treated the rider continue to ride and the incident hasn't put them off, and his friend gets to thank them in person.
Incidently, it has made me think about what I'm carrying on the SDW run I'm about to do with SixPot. I don't know about earlier iphones and other brands, but on my 6, I've noticed via SMS, if you have your GPS switched on, you can send a GPS fix to someone. Ok that assmues that your mobile has a signal, but still a useful feature.
Incidently, it has made me think about what I'm carrying on the SDW run I'm about to do with SixPot. I don't know about earlier iphones and other brands, but on my 6, I've noticed via SMS, if you have your GPS switched on, you can send a GPS fix to someone. Ok that assmues that your mobile has a signal, but still a useful feature.
Celtic Dragon said:
I don't know about earlier iphones and other brands, but on my 6, I've noticed via SMS, if you have your GPS switched on, you can send a GPS fix to someone. Ok that assmues that your mobile has a signal, but still a useful feature.
That sounds like it could be pretty handy in some situations, how do you do it?Gassing Station | Pedal Powered | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff