Here's how it went down: I watch Matt W. go screaming up a little dirt hill, I follow... no problem. I watch Matt go jamming down the hill and decide to follow...big problem. I start to roll down the hill and faster than I can even react my front wheel get's sucked down into a rut, it slides out to the right as I'm going down the hill meaning that the left side of my face is know being flung into the hard packed clay as I'm simultaneously being pitched sideways and forward off the bike. Bang- I just remember reaching my hand out to break my fall... bad move. There's a flash of pain, I hear my bike's engine wind up and take glance at my hand which hurts like hell. Glance down. Oh shit.
Me: Why is my finger bending like that? Is it really doing that- oh shit, this is no good. So nasty: My finger is bent over in a totally unnatural fashion. So what do I do? I grab it, take a deep breath and yank it back straight. Ever watch your mom separate a chicken into pieces in the sink? Ever heard the crunch when she breaks the drumstick out of the socket? Well that's what it sounded like when I yanked my finger. Like I said, nasty. And the pain- the world literally turned yellow. I thought I was going to puke and I had to sit down because I felt crazily light headed. I think I would have passed out had I remained upright.
Now why did this happen? It turns out that the stock front tire on the TW200 is a horrible tire for off road riding. The tire's is a Bridgestone Trailwing but it's also known as the Bridgestone Deathwing for obvious reasons. In addition to a bad design my tires were twenty years old and pumped up rock hard for on road riding- it was bound to happen.
So a new set of tires is definitely in order. I did a little bit of researching and picked out the most offroad worthy front tire that I could: the Kenda Trackmaster II. Check it out:
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| The Kenda TrackMaster! Look at the knobbies on that tire compared to the DeathWing... gnarly! |
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| This shot really shows you the difference in meatiness... the Kenda is a back tire that I'm using on the front of the bike. Using the back on the front is pretty common for the TW200 and plenty of people are running the same set up as me. Check the photo below for a bike with my set up. |
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| Here's a TW200 with the Kenda TrackMaster II on the front rim- same exact size as my tire. |
I also figured that it was time to replace the rear tire since it's 20 years old as well. For the TW200 there's only the stock Bridgestone back tire unless you want to slightly modify an ATV tire. I liked the super aggressive tread of the ATV tires but, from what I read, they are next to impossible to take off if you get a flat offroad. And I didn't want to have to monkey with modifying the bead to fit my stock rim. So my choice was simple, stock back tire:
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| There's a slight difference in tread pattern but, overall, it's the same tire. Notice the wear on the old tire compared to its replacement. |
Eventually, I'm going to learn how to change my own tires and repair punctures to the tubes but since the bike was 20 years old on original rubber, I decided to let the pros do this first tire and tube change. I thought, if the tires are frozen on after sitting for that long, I'd let them wrestle with it. Hopefully this new rubber will prevent any more nasty spills... fingers crossed (because when it's dislocated it crosses on its own).
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