Nine weeks since my knee injury [biking, health & lifestyle, life] (Clint Ecker (clintology)) by Clint Ecker

Welp, it’s nine weeks since I ripped my knee open while riding my bike on the way home from work in Chicago. I spent 3 of those weeks off my bike and recuperating. I also took two trips in the first two weeks after the crash, to Boston and San Francisco. That was by far the most difficult thing about the injury as my knee would begin to stiffen up and hurt if I spent more than 20-30 minutes standing around—lets not even talk about getting my knee to bend into an appropriate position for coach seats!

When I first started riding my bike again, the first 2 weeks were difficult. I had lost about 25% of the power in my injured leg and I really had to lean on my right leg for big pushes of acceleration, which was tough. Rides went from 10 minutes of pain, to 30 seconds of pain at the beginning.

After two weeks I would look forward to my morning ride as tool I work my knee a bit before I got to work. For a while there I would wake up in the morning with an extremely stiff knee and the bike ride was just what I needed to loosen it up.

Now that I’m nine weeks in, I’m 99.9% back to normal! I get the occasional weird tinge in my knee when I’m really cranking, but overall I’m faster than I’ve ever been. That last 0.1% is due to the fact that I no longer have any feeling on the top of my knee, but it’s not exactly at the top of my priority list ;)

Posted in: biking , health & lifestyle , life

Biking injury: one cut knee [biking] (Clint Ecker (clintology)) by Clint Ecker

First I should say that I am absolutely fine and the only injury I’ve sustained here is this big cut on my knee. I’m sorry if you’ve come to my site and seen the photos of cuts and x-rays and didn’t know what was going on! No broken bones, no ligament/tendon damage, just a big nasty cut.

So here’s the low down, if you want full details, IM me or email: I was riding in a narrow gap between parked cars and moving cars on the left (aka. what passes for a bike lane on some streets, Milwaukee to be exact. Near wood/damen I guess). Long story short, some shit went down and I hit the back of a stopped car in traffic.

Not just any car, but a brand new 2008 Lexus that some poor guy was test driving.

Anyway, I must’ve hit the car with my knee because I dented the back of the trunk lid, broke the taillight (here’s a candidate for what sliced my knee open) and tore up the underside of the bumper (my bike maybe?)

I bled a lot right away and there was blood all over the street/sidewalk. Fortunately about 2-3 bikers stopped and called the ambulance, gave me tissues to put pressure on the wound, helped me sit down, elevate my leg, and all that good stuff.

Bike turned out fine, I mostly just laid it down as I fell and flew a bit. I think I scratched the paint here and there and it looks like my pedal must have hit the concrete a little.

Ambo came, rode to hospital, cleaned me up, xray’d me, stitched me up. All good really. 23 stitches.

I asked the doctor a lot of questions and he said what’s exposed in those pics is just a bit of my tendon/ligament(?) and what got pulled off is just skin. No broken bones, a very very tiny nick on my tendon, so he’s sending me to get an MRI to be sure everything is cool.

Stitches will come out in 14 days. The worst part about this whole thing is that I can’t do any crazy stuff with my knee for a month or two while it heals up. That includes biking …. IN THE BEST WEATHER OF THE YEAR. Bah.

If anyone is interested in looking at the nasty photos, click through to my Flickr pics here:

1. My knee, cleaned, but prior to being stitched up
2. All stitched up
3. Another stitched up photo

Anyway, I still plan on going to Boston this weekend, so see some of you guys there!

Posted in: biking

Summary of my saturday [biking, food, health & lifestyle, life] (Clint Ecker (clintology)) by Clint Ecker

• Woke up at 5:45am
• Chilled, ate ramen
• 7:30am hopped on the bike with Jacqui and rode down to Lincoln Park and the just-opened-for-the-season Green City Market

• Bought a bunch of delicious food for dinner, watched people and dogs, laid in the grass. Watched Mayor Daley congratulate the operators of the market (it’s the 10 year anniversary—just like Ars!)
• Stopped at Trader Joe’s to pick up some items for the mashed potatoes (and wine)
• Chilled out at home for a while.
• Around 12:30pm, rode our bikes down to Division/Damen, got some sandwiches from Jimmy Johns and ate lunch in Wicker Park (the actual park). Lounged in the sun on the grass, chilled, watched people.

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• Around 3pm, took a 3 hour nap
• Around 7pm, cooked up a feast of a dinner from our purchases from the market. Over roasted, pastured chicken breast. Mashed french fingerling potatoes, and grilled, giant purple asparagus!

Best day ever… yet :)

Posted in: biking , food , health & lifestyle , life

Photos of us on our bikes at Critical Mass [biking] (Clint Ecker (clintology)) by Clint Ecker

Adam Turetzky emailed me last night with links to photos shot by user donsorsa at last month’s Critical Mass. Surprisingly, two of them contained both me and Jacqui!

Here’s me:

and of Jacqui—she’s claims not to look very happy in this photo, but isn’t sure why:

Fun stuff! Thanks Adam!

Posted in: biking

Pedal bit me: blood [biking] (Clint Ecker (clintology)) by Clint Ecker

My foot slipped off my pedal on the way home today and it took a few good bites out of my leg. Thought I’d be a good internets person and take a short video and show the world.

Posted in: biking

Biking around Wicker Park [biking, fun] (Clint Ecker (clintology)) by Clint Ecker

Rode to Walgreens to pick up some vital supplies and thought I’d try my hand at the Flip.

Posted in: biking , fun

Bike ride on beautiful spring Chicago day [biking, fun, health & lifestyle, life] (Clint Ecker (clintology)) by Clint Ecker

It was 60°F yesterday and it was the perfect opportunity to take Jacqui out and hit the pavement on her new bike. We rode from our place out to Lincoln Park zoo, saw all the animals and then rode down to North Avenue Beach, up and down the lakefront trail, and then took a break and snapped some photos:

It was a great day. Jacqui’s a little sore, but well worth it. Here’s the whole Flick Set (18 photos) and a map of our photos and where they were taken.

Posted in: biking , fun , health & lifestyle , life

Panaracer Tserv Tires [biking, health & lifestyle, life] (Clint Ecker (clintology)) by Clint Ecker

Anyone have any idea where I can buy non-black colored Panaracer Tserv 700Cx32 tires? They come in some cool colors (pink!) but it only seems possible to get them in black stateside.

Another option are these Tufo Prestige tires:

However, they seem kind of expensive for something I may not end up liking too much.

The state of 700Cx32 tires is pretty drab. Black, black, black. Oooh wait this model has a reflective strip! Meh.

Maybe I should just bite the bullet and get some 23mm wheels and never look back. The variety of tires for that width are pretty dazzling! :)

Posted in: biking , health & lifestyle , life