Ivan's crash

Flipping through the photo album, I come across Ivan's famous crash from February 2007.  I was in LA and every time I'm in LA I visit Ivan and Jenise (and Ike) and make sure to ride Ivan's Trail.  Ivan's Trail (as dubbed by the local mtb community in Santa Clarita) is one of the most fun local loops I've done, it's about an hour and fifteen mintues long with a gradual dirt road climb, and a ridge-line gnarly singletrack descent.  It's beautiful.

Mike P was with me and we were determined to ride Ivan's trail despite the fact that Ivan only had 2 mtbs - a 40-pound DH bike and a dirt jumper.  Then Ivan found the solution - he proposed to ride his beach cruiser.  Sounded like a great idea at the time.

The whole crew set out, Jenise came with us with Ivan in the sidecar as far as the trailhead.  We were a surly-looking bunch.
Ivan was looking tough on the beach cruiser.  With only one gear and a rear coaster brake, it was going to be a pretty monumental task.  Was he up to it?
Ivan is taking the pictures on the climb because he was KILLING us on the beach cruiser.  With only one gear, he stormed up the hills while Mike and I took our time in tiny gears.  
The DH bike was not suuuuper fun to ride up...but it went.
And eventually we made it to the top.  There's a concrete platform of what used to be a cottage (or what was going to be a cottage), with big, sweeping views of the mountain ranges north of Los Angeles.
Spirits were high before the descent.
Ivan schooled us even more on the descent.  The long wheel base and huge tires of the cruiser made it extremely stable and fast on the trail.  

Was this a warning sign?

Mike and I pause to laugh at Ivan's first crash.

So we got going again.  Trail conditions were loose and fast and we were ripping it up.  Bringing the DH bike was beginning to pay dividends.  Here Mike was bombing a steep section.

Here is Ivan, again flying on the cruiser.  We made it to the very end of the trail with one last sketchy section left.  It was about a 30-meter trail that was very very steep and all loose, impossible to get any traction and hard to keep the wheels turning.

Ivan started and I turned to talk to Mike when all of a sudden there was a scream - the coaster brake, all the grease cooked out, was locked and he was heading at about 30kph straight into a concrete wall at the bottom of the descent. 

He hit the wall head on at full speed, the bike bounced, Ivan bounced, laid on the ground, and screamed.  After all the commotion and ambulances, Ivan thought he was ok, only to find out that he had 5 broken ribs and some internal bleeding.......nothing more, thank goodness.  If it had been me, I would be dead for sure.

Just goes to show - wear your helmet.