Three miles less than 30 with my pal Jacob on the SRT.
I had a funny incident when leaving the Marymoor velodrome for the return leg. I was looking down at my front wheel when we left the same way we came in. There is a small pavement/dirt/pavement transition at the entrance and I was looking down to ensure I tracked over it in the best place. Going out, that was to the left. Unfortunately, I didn't notice that only one half of the chainlink entrance gate had been open when we entered. I didn't know it but I was on a collision course with the closed gate!
Of course, I was already going slowly because I was taking care over the transition, so it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. I pushed into it with the top of my head and my front wheel, realized what was happening and emergency braked. I began an endo - and then the gate began to swing open. I was not expecting that; by the time the gate began swinging I was fully-stopped, but had forward momentum I could not arrest. As the gate continued swinging open I simply rolled forward; as the gate continued to swing open wider I let go of the bars and the bike simply dropped to the ground behind me. The DS chainstay must have contacted the steel tube of the gate because there is now a small dent there which wasn't there before. Just another battle scar on the Casati
However, the DS brake lever and pedal dustcap - unfortunately an alloy Barelli - were scratched up a bit, but that was it. Don't know how, but the Cyclone RD missed hitting the ground; shellac kept my bar tape from ripping
Before and after pics of the damage and clean-up:
My biggest worry when getting up off the deck was whether I'd just killed my new old recently-acquired camera, but it survived just fine. Whew!
DD