Biking Casualties at Michigan Tech

Five years at Michigan Tech means I spent a lot of time mountain biking. From the single track to the technical rides, urban assault to road rides, I've tried to ride it all. Lucky I found some great guys that were just as crazy about biking as I am to go along with me. Unluckily for them, 50% were injured. Here's a few pictures of their injuries and even one of an injuring in the making!

The first injury I can remember hearing about I wasn't even biking with the group. Turns out I had some sort of exam — probably some sort of calculus — that took up my time instead. For this one, the guys were flying down a single track that had a sharp right-hand turn through sand. The last guy was catching up real fast and didn't make the turn through the sand and went over about a 3 foot cliff. Below is the aftermath of his bike. Notice it's a Trek 800 which is a steel-frame bike.

Next, we have a guy that came up for a long weekend while on co-op. We hit up the dirt jumps after a nice technical ride. My buddy and I waited half way through the jumps to regroup, but the third guy never came. We took off slowly back up the trail. Slowly since we didn't want him to just come flying over a jump with some mad air and land on us. We started hearing, "Um, hey guys!?" Turns out he got some unexpected, yet mad air off a jump and rammed the front wheel into the take off of the next jump. His bike wasn't hurt as bad as the first guys, but he did end up breaking some bones by his shoulder. What a way to spend a vacation, huh?

The final casualty ends up with a guy bending the crap of out his front rim. Somehow one of the guys caught him in mid-action before messing up that rim. Lucky for him, has wasn't hurt any more than being slightly sore the next day. By far, I think this is my favorite biking picture from my days at Michigan Tech.