I’ve shattered bones and broken teeth, and while misery is difficult to quantify, I suspect that the broken teeth hurt more. I went long hours without treatment or pain medication when I broke my leg—then as now, medical care in the States was price-rationed, and I had to come up with the ready first—but bad as the pain was then, I kept my wits about me. When I split a molar in half, though, pain defined my world. Nothing else mattered. So, yes, broken teeth do hurt more than just about anything else.

Which is why backcountry travelers and touring cyclists should give a few minutes’ thought to their teeth when they make their plans and assemble their medical kits. Are you prepared to deal with a troublesome tooth when there’s no dentist nearby? If not, begin by reading “The Whole Tooth: Backcountry Dental Care.” Then put together your own dental first-aid kit and carry it along with you on all your trips.

Better yet, get a copy of Where There Is No Dentist—it’s available as a free PDF from Hesperian Health Guides, though I’m sure they’d appreciate a contribution—and study it carefully. Now find a place for it in your pack, or load the PDF on your e-book reader. The day may come when you’ll be very glad you did. And that’s the tooth!

Further Reading

• • “Beyond Band-Aids—Medical Handbooks for Paddlers” Useful reading for ALL trekkers!
• • “Bibliotrekking, or… How to Carry a Library in Your Pack”

Questions? Comments? Just click here!

Anthony Jancek, our indefatigable photographer, was at the Tour of the Battenkill bike race again this year. And he shot over 1500 photographs, so he’s sure to have shots of most participants. His photos are now processed and uploaded to our Zenfolio Galleries. Each field is segregated into its own gallery to make it easier to find racers, but if you have trouble picking your face our of the crowd, just drop us a line with your name, a description of your kit, and your bib number, and we’ll do our best to help. And congratulations to all participants!

This post is a “sticky”. It will remain at the top of the home page for a couple weeks. Scroll down for more recent articles.

Despite an early brush with death on an icy ski slope, I still enjoy a fast downhill run on two wheels. Not everyone does. And even the pros acknowledge that speedy descents are dangerous. But what goes up must indeed come down. Unless you limit your rides to the salt flats, sooner or later you’ll find yourself facing the first of many long, steep drops, and since these can’t be avoided, you might as well make the best of them. Staying on the road at speed is Job One. Here’s how to get on the right side of the odds:

• Keep your bike in good condition. A steep downhill is no place to discover that your brakes are losing their grip. And a front-wheel blowout almost guarantees a hard landing. So check your bike over before each ride, and keep your tires inflated to the recommended pressure. Make sure no clothing or cargo is flapping around in the breeze either. Nothing brings a bike down faster than something tangled in the spokes.

• Never take you eyes off the road ahead. Whether it’s a pothole, a fan of loose sand from a driveway, a downed tree limb, or just somebody’s playful puppy, trouble comes at you fast at 40+ mph. You need all the advance warning you can get. Downhill runs are a dangerous place to daydream.

• Ride like someone’s out to get you. Assume that no motorist sees you (many won’t), that every shadow conceals a pothole (a lot do), and that all the dog walkers on the road shoulder have just let Fido off the leash (some will have done just that). Eternal vigilance is the cyclist’s lot.

• Single up and keep your distance. The only thing worse than one rider down is two (or more). As your speed increases, widen the interval between your bike and the bike ahead of you. And save the side-by-side chats for deserted country lanes.

• Give yourself some room to roam. You can’t take sharp bends at speed and stay on the shoulder. Sometimes you have to take the lane. And be sure to give the fog line a wide berth, especially when it’s raining. Reflective paint is slippery stuff.

• Be mean and lean. The art of descending is best learned by practicing on progressively steeper (and twistier) roads, in places where motor traffic is light. (Good luck!) Overcoming your natural fear of leaning into tight turns is probably the most difficult part. As Daniel Behrman once wrote, “If you lean far enough, you can go around anything, but your whole body screams that it doesn’t want to lean.” So you have to learn to ignore your body’s protests. You also need to keep your inside pedal UP. Grounding the edge of a dropped pedal on the inside of a fast turn is not a recipe for staying upright.

• Hold your head high. If you’re going too fast for comfort, just sit up. On downhill runs, air resistance is your friend.

• Go easy on the brakes. If you need to kill your speed, it’s best to brake before you enter a curve, rather than wait till you’re halfway through it. And it’s always a good idea to apply the brakes gently. Locking a wheel during a speedy descent is a no-no—especially if it’s the front wheel. On very long, steep downhills, when rims can sometimes get hot enough to raise tire pressures sky high, it pays to “rest” your brakes by turns, alternating front and rear and giving the unbraked rim a chance to cool down. (A word of warning: This isn’t always possible. The rear brake is much less efficient than the front. That’s another reason to look—and plan—ahead.)

• If you’re feeling shaky, take a break. There’s no shame in walking down especially steep hills. After all, it’s a lot easier than plodding up them!

Downhill runs are a cyclist’s reward for hard climbs. But there’s a fine line between pleasure and panic when you’re speeding through sharp curves. Needless to say, it always pays to stay on the pleasant side of that line!

Questions? Comments? Just click here!