IPMBA News

What the Hail?!

by Rance Okada, PCI #246T
Westminster (CO) Police Department

 May 24, 2016:  Day Two of Westminster (CO) Police Department’s Police Cyclist Course. 

Dark, ominous clouds appeared over the Rocky Mountains to our west, curtains of rain hanging underneath.  Closer and closer the clouds came, the rain eventually descending upon us, forcing us to don rain jackets as we kept practicing the skill stations. 

Thunder and lightning followed, but my motivated students kept practicing as I watched the dark clouds above us churn and roil.  “Hmmm”, I thought, “keep practicing or call it?”

Moments later, hail started falling, the small white pebbles bouncing on the pavement all around us and striking our helmets with a loud “SNAP!”  One came through a helmet vent, striking my scalp with a stinging blow.  “That’s it!  I’m calling it!  Follow me!” I yelled, and we hurried into a nearby Walmart.

For the next 30 minutes it hailed.  And hailed.  And hailed some more.  And then, it abruptly stopped.  The sun emerged, revealing our cone course:  the offset serpentine submerged in six inches of hail, the lock-to-lock buried in leaves stripped from a tree, the 9-foot box covered with thousands of white super-slippery ball bearings.

Ever the curious PCI, I thought, “Wow…a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see what effect hailstones have on bike handling!”  Cautioning my students to stay put and observe, I tried the offset serp and the box. 

Here are my findings:

— The offset serpentine is do-able, providing the six inches of hail float on one inch of ice-cold water, allowing the tires to contact the asphalt instead of pressing down on slippery ice balls. 

— Use lower gearing, because your front tire is now an ice-breaker, plowing through masses of ice.

— Putting your foot down results in your foot and ankle getting immersed in icy water, which quickly improve your bike handling skills.

— When the slow box is covered by a thin layer of 1,657 pea-sized super-slippery frozen ball bearings, you have to trackstand and ratchet constantly.  It is impossible to continually pedal; the hailstones disrupt the front wheel’s rotation and displaces the wheel outwards.  (Read:  wheel slips out, Rance falls down.  He repeats three times.)

— I recommend IPMBA add to their “On Bike Training Equipment Checklist”:  Snow Shovels (three minimum)

Postscript:  after half an hour of sweeping with a push broom and a “borrowed” snow shovel from Walmart, the cone course was clear enough to allow safe practice.  I was NOT going to forward an Incident Report reading “…student’s front wheel lost traction after sliding on pea-sized hailstones.  Student’s right knee was injured during the fall but swelling was reduced through ice therapy.  Ice came from a convenient natural source.”

Rance Okada retired from the Westminster Police Department in 2008 after 28 years of service.  He was a police cyclist for 15 years and a SWAT member and sniper for 20 years.  He was awarded his department’s Medal of Valor, Meritorious Service Medal, and the Purple Heart.  He has been an IPMBA Police Cyclist Instructor since 1997 and has taught more than 44 Police/Security Cyclist Courses.  He was certified as an Instructor Trainer in 2014.  Rance is a Master Firearms Instructor, a Colorado POST Full Skills Instructor (Firearms) and teaches at a regional police academy.  He can be reached at abnrgrcol@comcast.net.

© 2016 IPMBA.  This article appeared in the Summer 2016 issue of IPMBA News.   

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