Erstellt am: 8. 10. 2009 - 15:15 Uhr
Rough Riderz
I remember yelling out in unadulterated fear as I was about to hit the tree. I remember the impact on my helmet and feeling my neck snap back. And I remember lying there on the forest floor, consciously wiggling my toes and fingers, frankly amazed that I hadn’t done any serious damage to myself.
When I fell off my mountain bike while downhilling I was very lucky. It was probably my helmet and my back protector that saved me from serious injury. Or maybe it was partly the angle of impact? Or the fact that I always imagine that I’m going faster than I really am? A lot of 'maybes' separating a fortunate escape from a life changing disaster. But that night I lay awake asking that chilling question: What if? What if I had been paralyzed? How would I cope? Probably, I fear, not at all. I have severe doubts about my psychological fortitude. But how can you know unless it happens?
That’s why I have a massive respect for those people who have the fighting spirit to pull themselves back up from disaster. People like Phil Hall, who, despite breaking his back in a motorbike accident in 2007, can now be regularly seen hurtling down downhill mountain bike tracks at up to 50 kilometres per hour in what looks like a cross between a mountain bike and a dune buggy.
rough riderz
Phil's contraption is basically two mountainbikes welded together with a high-tech bucket seat on a frame between the wheels. The front wheels are BMX wheels to give the bike a buggy look. The bike has discbrakes and the same suspension system as downhill mountainbikes. The whole contraption, which was custom made in Canada, set Phil back around 7 thousand euros, he says, but restored a vital part of his personality: the need for freedom and the delicious kick of speed.
After his accident Phil lay in his hospital bed, depressed, ticking off all the things he could no longer do. No more motorbike riding, no more hiking and no more moutain bike riding. "I thought that I couldn't do anything. But that's just not true."
When surfing the internet one day, Phil came across a bunch of never-say-dies using these no-pedal bikes in Colorado. He went to America, rode with them and never looked back!
"It makes you feel alive!"
Now he has set up a club in Britan called Rough Riderz. He and his fellow wheelchair bound riders ride along-side mountain bikers on the same root-strewn tracks. I wondered if, after one serious accident, Phil hadn't had enough of bone-crunching adventures. Briefly I was worried that my question might have been insensitive. But a deep northern English chuckle came almost immediately :
"No. I still want to challenge myself and put myself on the limit. I still want to excite myself and perhaps even sometimes frighten myself. It makes you feel alive."
Downhill tracks lend themselves to disabled outdoor freaks more than say cross-country tracks. Because the special bikes have no pedals – you either move with arm power or with the force of gravity. Easy choice there!
The Rough Riderz pull each other up the mountain on motorized quad bikes and then let it rip from the top. When they get moving downhill, the Rough Riderz use similar skills as those used by mountainbikers, but with a few added delights and challenges mixed in! With the extra stability of four wheels Phil and his fellow riders can take steeply banked turns at high speed, riding up the side as if they were driving a toboggan, whereas the two-wheeled mountain biker would have to slide the back wheel.
But the Rough Riderz do have to watch their height on jumps since the extra weight of the bike compared to a two-wheeler can mean some heavy landings! You can get a rebound kick that can throw you dangerously off-balance.
It sounds terrifying and you can get an impression of the risks that these riders take on a Youtube video that Phil has produced. Personally, I was struck by the note of Galgenhumor on which the video ends. A mocking warning straddling a picture of a chuckling skull and cross bones reads: "Caution: this is an extreme sport and can result in serious injury."
rough riderz
To ride these bikes Phil says you have to have great upper body strength. It's a deceptively physical activity. The riders are strapped tightly into the fibre-glass seat so the bike can respond to every twist of the upper body. And you need strong arms to grip the handle-bars over the rugged terrain. The riders then pull back hard on the nose-heavy bikes when hitting the lip of a jump and thrown their weight to the back of the back to ensure a smooth trajectory on landing.
There are currently only a few dozen Rough Riderz in Europe, mostly in the UK, but Phil Hall hopes the sport will grow. And the best way to get more exposure is just to go out riding. The mountain bikers who share the tracks are typically seduced by the sight of the 4 wheeled bikers. Many want to have a go themselves. Many of them do. Indeed Phil doesn't see his club as exclusively for disabled people but rather as as 4-wheel mountain club where able-bodied adrenaline junkies are equally welcome - if they dare. Although with such an expensive bike, Phil is wary of lending his wheels to just anyone!
rough riderz
Phil says that after a trip to Tenerife this year, he and his friends are plannign to visit Austria because this country has "some of the best bike parks in Europe."
If they do, I'd love to ride with them. I take my hat off to their indomitable spirit and determination to grab everything life has to offer. To quote Ernest Hemingway: "Man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but not defeated." .