The Saving of A Life; When Was The Last Time Your Bike Saved Your Life?
To all at Brodie Bikes, My name is Luke Simson and I live in Colorado. I bought your 2008 Devo from your retailer in Crested Butte Colorado; the owner’s name there is Jeff. I have ridden this bike with great satisfaction for the last two seasons, it’s just sick and I love the way it runs and does everything right. As a bike mechanic I like the component spec and over all build of the bike. I have very recently moved to Fort Collins from Crested Butte Colorado and I have taken a job at a shop called Lee's Cyclery. I was really looking forward to getting back on the bike this season especially because I was going to get to ride a get deal of different terrain with some guys that are just fun to ride with.
On Monday May 24 we decided to go out and do some shuttle laps at a trail in a place called Beaver Meadows. It takes about an hour to get there and the whole time we were looking at these clouds that were looming on the horizon and also watching the wind blowing very hard. When we started seeing these conditions we all started to second-guess the choice of riding today, but we were desperate to get some riding done so we kept going. We get to the top of the trail and see snow and I started to think to myself that this might not be such a good idea, but we hike down a little and it seemed that it was only patches of snow. So we unload the bikes- there where four of us out there that day, my brother Matt, my roommate Murphy, and a friend of ours Adam- so Matt ends up driving the first run and Murph, Adam and I set off down the trail. Now if there was a bit less snow this trail would have been sick, the perfect amount of tech and speed with a mandatory drop at the end, nothing big, it was about eight to ten feet. So we get to the drop to check it before we hit it and there is a fresh cut fire road right in the landing, which just SUCKS cause this was a sweet hit. We end up having to go around and take the road out to the end because they cut up the end of the trail to not just the landing of the drop. So I was the last down and I start going on the fire road and right after I start a branch rips off my derailleur and snaps the hanger. So I get off look at the damage and decide to walk the rest because I was pretty close to the pick up point.
I walked down about a hundred yards and got to a clearing with one tree, and I started to walk past it and head up a little hill to the truck. As I do I hear SNAP SNAP and then the tree falls right on me, I didn't even get a chance to see it fall or even try to get out of the way. It struck my head first (luckily I had my helmet on) and took me right off my feet. Now I didn't lose consciousness but the next thing I know was my helmet and head were stuck between branches. I pulled my head out and saw that I was on the ground with my bike next to me still upright. Then I look down to see that the only thing holding my foot to my leg is skin, the tree had crushed both bones in my left leg. The other guys saw the tree fall and started to come back to see if I was ok, I wasn't but Adam helped, holding my foot while I crawled to the truck. I got to the truck and asked the guys if they could grab my helmet and bike. They got the helmet but the bike was stuck under the tree and they said they would come back later for it. So we drove to the hospital that was an hour away.
I ended up having surgery because my leg was broken too badly to just let heal, they put in nine screws and a rod that’s about eight inches long. While all of this was going into me everyone went back out to get my bike, they had to cut like eight big branches off to get to it. It ended up that the bike had stopped it just enough so that I didn't get stuck under it, and that would have been a great deal worse, perhaps even life threatening and the only major thing that happened to the bike was the front wheel got crushed. I am off my bike now for at least another month and a half so I might get a little more riding in this season but not much. It ends up that because of how strong you make your bikes (or at least the Devo) I get the chance to ride again. So I would like to say THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart. I don't know if I will be able to ride anything but Brodie after that. I have sent along some pictures for you, so you can see the actual size of the tree and what happened to the bike.
Also I had a few quick questions for you guys. Do you have any extra Devo derailleur hangers, if so how can I get my hands on one or two? Are you going to make a new DH bike again and if so how could I get my hands on one? Also are you hiring at all right now? I am a good mechanic and would make a great addition to the crew. Well again THANK YOU my life would be dramatically different if you had not built those bikes the way you did.
