Riding Alone

The Lhorba listserv sent an article last week about a guy who went to ride some local trails at a park while on a visit to the area. He apparently lost control on a downhill and hit his head on rock between his eye and temple and died. He was wearing a helmet. It was tragic. Here is the exact contents of the email:

PLEASE POST THIS - NEVER RIDE ALONE - ESPECIALLY ON UNFAMILIAR TRAILS

http://www.timesonline.com/articles/2009/08/24/news/doc4a92092694ad9066878620.txt

This f'in yanked my chain. First it was an accident! Second there is no basis that riding with a partner would have saved his life. I think it is very uncool to add your personal opinion (as fact) to this tragedy. I'm still pretty hot about it.

Why? I admit I like riding with a partner but 'never ride alone'. That is a little draconian. Most beginner riders always ride alone. Most training rides SHOULD be done alone! Commute to work? Wait, never commute to work alone! WTF?

So lets look at some stats. 700 bike fatalities a year, 500,000 injuries. But guess what, 59% of those injured are children (less than 19 yrs). Mortality rate by mtb vs mortality by road vs mortality by commute vs mortality by recreation I could not find. So what about mortality while alone alone vs. mortality not alone? It is going to take someone really serious to pull these stats. I'm talkin' PHD candidate. I doubt the poster had anything remotely factual as they are not available on Google.

The only information I could find was mtb specific. A pre thesis on mtb injuries in New Zealand that is really good. Surprisingly it never broke down the alone/not alone question. But it did tell us without question that downhills cause injuries. The injury rate on downhills is far above any other type of mt biking - NEVER RIDE DOWNHILL! Other interesting studies were done at race events to look at male/female injury rates. They didn't address the alone/not alone question either but did let me know women get injured just as much as men! At least the racers do. Must be the downhills...

So where did this 'never ride alone' mantra come from? Just a tangent of general outdoor safety I think. 'Always let someone know where you are going and when you should return', correct. That's smart but its unrealistic for mtb's. My profile, single, live alone, family far away, neighbors would more likely TRY to kill me. I could tell my dog??? But we have cell phones, the trails are not deserted, and there are no human carnivores in our region of the world (unfortunately!). So is this still accurate?

I checked 3 bike forum for 'riding alone'. Guess what, every single mtb rides alone at some point. So this 'never bike alone' is being ignored by 99.999999% of the biking community. Where the F does this idiot get this sh*t??? Why am I the only one who cares?

I'll be the first to promote riding with a partner. But if it is between riding alone and not riding? RIDE ALONE (cue scary music and evil laughter). Until I see the statistics, the facts, I don't believe riding alone is any more dangerous than riding in a group. And I certainly believe it wasn't the prevailing cause of death in the tragic death in the article.

Now get out and RIDE!!!