First rides after having my knee scoped.

[altagirl]

We were pretty lucky with weather this weekend - we went to Moab despite threatening weather forecasts and were amazed to have pretty sunny but cool and breezy days with rain only at night. I was also totally psyched to find out that riding my motorcycle in the wind is actually fun - as opposed to being sandblasted and drowned with sand when you're on a mountain bike. :)

Anyway, I did my first riding since my knee surgery a few weeks ago. (And prior to this weekend I'd only ridden 4 times ever.) My electric start decided to die somewhere in between picking it up from it's first service and unloading it in Moab - and kickstarting with a weak knee didn't seem like a great idea, so I spent most of my riding not only taking it easy, but keeping a death grip on the clutch every time we stopped and praying I wouldn't stall it. That was the only bad part of riding - it was bad enough having Craig kickstart it for me to get started on the trail - but I stalled it a few times and I hate being the one that needs help. But the trails we rode were fun (if you can even call them trails - like most rides in Moab they were wide enough for Jeeps to pass each other, but that was probably a good thing for my ability level right now. Just enough little rocky sections or stretches of sand to keep things interesting, but nothing too challenging. Well, except for one spot on Gemini Bridges where Craig came riding back up a ledgy section and told me to stop because he wasn't sure I'd be able to make it back up. I got the bike turned around okay but then I was sitting there with a 8" rock ledge about a foot away from the front tire and no room to back up to get started (more ledges behind me). Ugh. I made it up but my hand moved on the throttle when I hit the bump and I nearly dumped it - Meanwhile, Craig is standing there asking why I didn't just pull in the clutch... Um.... Good question! One of those things that wouldn't have even made me blink if I was already in motion, but from a dead stop, it sucked. Luckily that was the closest I came to falling all weekend. We did some mountain biking and hiking too - luckily I had two other girls with me who were happy to ride easier trails since I'm still getting my knee back in shape. (My doctor said I could ride my motorcycle on pavement as long as I didn't fall or stand up on the pegs - so I, um, mostly didn't stand up on the pegs and just rode easy trails....)

Anyways, I made it through a weekend of riding both my motorcycle and mountain bike and hiking without so much as a scratch. All my friends kept joking that they'd never seen me end a trip to Moab without a massive collection of bruises, scrapes and other injuries. Maybe there's something to this "taking it easy" stuff.... Nah!

 

[4EverOrange]

Congrats on the crash free ride! It's always good when you come home free from pain! :)

 

[firecracker22]

Congrats on the successful ride! I went to the dunes for my first ride back after surgery (which was more like 3 months than a matter of weeks) and I was so stoked. It's such a great feeling.

 

[altagirl]

My first knee surgery was like that (ACL reconstruction with meniscus repair) - it was like 5-6 months before I could really do anything fun. But this was just a scope to clean up a meniscus tear and it was SO much easier. It never even swelled up this time and I was walking on it right away. I'm so happy do be doing things again, even if it was only 4 weeks of waiting!

 

[firecracker22]

That's good to hear it was so easy--I might need that one of these days in my other knee.

 

[CJ Rider]

Hey Altagirl- Are you still up for Moab over Memorial Day weekend? We're still planning on it, so I hope to meet up with you!

 

[zero_it]

God bless the good people at CTi! I did the imfamous ACL explosion and meniscus tear a few years ago at a hare scrambles. After reconstruction and 6 months off the bike (and occassionally becoming a b**** because of the lack of riding!) the knee brace really helped raise my confidence knowing that it was OK to put my foot down or crash without fear of blowing it again. Finding MX pants that fit well over hard frame knee braces such at the CTi2 isn't easy, but it's worth it. That first successful ride after a major injury sure is a good attitude adjustment (just ask my husband!).

Keep smiling and Throttle on!

 

[altagirl]

Glad to hear I'm not the only one who's a pain in the butt when I'm injured! I start to feel like I'm losing my mind when I haven't done anything fun in too long.

I'm pretty sure we'll be back in Moab on Memorial Day weekend - unless something comes up with Craig's work or something like that, we should be down there. I'm looking forward to meeting up with you too!! Are you guys camping or staying at a motel? Assuming the weather looks nice I think we're planning to camp. (And we'll probably be in a group of about 8 - 4 with motorcycles and mountain bikes and 4 with just mountain bikes). And I'm really looking forward to trying some more interesting terrain since my doc said if my knee's still looking good next Tuesday I'm released to do whatever I want! (vs. last appt where I got the go ahead but be super careful) :yeehaw:

Luckily, when I bought my MX gear I made sure the boots and pants would fit with braces (I just made sure they fit with my big knee/shin guards at the time), and then brought my MX and ski boots to my knee brace fitting just to make sure. That would stink having spent all that money and then having it not work with a knee brace.

 

[CJ Rider]

COOL Altagirl! We plan to camp and plan to have both dirt bikers and mountain bikers with us too! 'Sounds like we'll have about six folks and we'll get there late Friday night. We used to camp up on Sand Flats, but it's all paved and popular now-a-days and we don't think we can get there in time to claim a spot. We were thinking about trying to find a camp spot along the river on the way to the Kane Creek trail. Where do ya'll usually camp so we know where to look for ya? SWEET!!!

 

[altagirl]

When we rode Bartlett Wash we found some campsites out there that looked really cool - I think that's where we're looking at staying. But you know how group consensus things go - it might change, especially since the area we were looking at is a bit off the beaten path. I'll post and let you know once I start getting some decisions from people.

Does anyone in your group have a cell phone that works down there? AT&T is the only one that I know of that works, though I know T-mobile should be up soon. Anyway, if they do we'll have to swap numbers before we go!

 

[altagirl]

My friend Lexi just sent me a couple pictures (she's the one on the Honda). Would've been nice if I was looking at the camera instead of screwing around trying to get the bike back into neutral...

 

[bbbom]

Good to hear your Moab adventure went well. Taking it easy isn't so bad, compared to the alternatives!

I get grouchy after a couple days of not being able to ride, wether it's dirt, water or snow.

Kinda makes you wonder how people that don't ride keep from getting pissy. :think: