Riding Stories!

[alan]

I had this idea, I know most all of us here have been ridding for multiple decades.  I thought I would start a topic where those of us who wanted to share some of our riding experiences could do so! If it goes over we will make it a sticky.

Alan

[alan]

The Double Yucca Event!

For those of you that haven?t ridden the desert as anywhere else it has its own unique set of hazards. I am not just talking about the obvious stuff like prickle pair and barrel cactus.  Mesquite bushes have some of the longest thorns you will ever have to pick out of your body. They will go straight through your leathers and I do mean leather!
( Remember how old I am!) (LOL)
I have just brushed them and had thorns go straight into my knuckles and I couldn?t straighten out my fingers till I pull them out of my knuckles. They will go into your shins 3/4? and brake off and it will be a week later when they pop out. The only way you know where they are is a red spot with a ring around it and it hurts when you press on it. My favorite is Yucca?s they are the sneakiest of them all, because they grow and fall over and get half covered up with sand and you come flying along and hit one and go over the handle bars and you never saw a thing. The other thing they do to the unexpecting rider is that the send up blooms in the spring that is 10 to 20? feet in the air and when they finish blooming the dry out and fall over, then they become jousting spears. This was on of those days!

It was on one of those summer days must have been 105 in the shade in the desert. There must have been a dozen of us spread out over a mile chasing each other. I was up front with my arch rival Bart right behind me. Bart was on his 250 Maico and I was on my 250 Montesa Capra. Bart was bigger stronger and probably a little better rider than me, but my bike was always just a little faster. I am not sure how we got into riding with out our shirts, but we had full riding gear on with the exception of jerseys. These were the days before the camel back hydration systems, so I guess we were just plain hot! We were running in 3rd, 4th and 5th gear really flying chasing jack rabbits as well as each other each other.  I just shifted back into 5th and came around a Mesquite bush and ran straight into a out stretched Yucca shaft. It hit me in my bare chest just below my bell star and broke over and over as I impacted it. I came to a stop with blood running down my chest from multiple wounds as Bart came by laughing. He was so busy laughing at me he didn?t see the half buried Yucca in his path. End over end he went landing in the middle of the biggest and nastiest Mesquite bush you have ever seen. So know I had blood all over are chest and he had blood running down his back. I wonder if he still has the scars that I carry from that summer day in 1970! I don?t remember either of us riding without jerseys after that day.

Then end!

Till Next Sunday!

[air]

Ahh my favorite thing to talk about, Riding! Ill start off with my first dune expierence back in august of 04.

I was at christmas valley and didnt know much about razor backs/ drop offs or anything like that, Well I was crusing behind a buddy of mine and we start to go up this pretty big hill and I see him launch off the top of it Im like cool ill try it, I get to the top and launch off it like 4th gear well the other side is almost straight downhill and at a way different angel then where I launched off of. Needless to say I landed almost sideways and rolled about 5 times down this hill, I climb back up to my bike and my buddy comes upo nexty to me and says "Now that we got the ragdoll down lets try o land some" lol..., I try and kick my bike over and its dead! I fouled a plug somehow during that prolly while It was lying on its side. He had to ride about 3 miles back to camp to get a plug and 3 miles back to bring it to me. After sitting on a huge razor back out in the middle of nowhere for about an hour I see him! there he is with my plug put it in fires right up and off we go! One of the best times Ive ever had at christmas valley.

[alan]

Once upon a time I had just gotten a new bike  and I was climbing up this hill from the back side and we had many wind storms since I had been on this hill. What I didn't know was there was no longer a nice flat top and that the wind had piled up the crest into a point. I ripped over the top and then there was nothing under me! I dropped about 60' down standing up bars high, when I hit my back tire dug in and I rolled out of it my goggles cut my nose and it broke my front finder! He He He! Come down and ride and I will show you the hill and the scar on my nose!

Come on guys I know you have stories!

[Timbowe]

  I'll probably be telling a story about this sundays ride. Last years event was a pearla. We had severe frost after severe frost. Down in these parts we get our sun from the northern part of the sky. In turn the south side, in mid winter days with the sun lower in the sky, gets very severely frozen. Clay tracks frozen solid! There were people scattered all over the show after a dozen or more had atempted to tackle the teflon track and failed miserably. Bike strewn from ashole to breakfast! Over the banks, parked up on the middle of the track.

 So we get there (It465 and 92 K5) and decided to get on with it. Ride past 50 uneager participants who start abusing us as we pass through. One of them clouts me helmet and calls me a F#&kin petrolhead! Craig gives him a good chunk of verbal back and I turn to the dickhead and give him the thumbs up. Hit the hill at speed.

 Half way up a 600 metre slippery as all F^3k, rock hard surface, some dude wrestles his bike on to the track in front of me! I have no other option but to stop. Bad move, should have gone over the top. Cant get started of again!!! Nothing! Craig zips past on the Yama big bore, Laughing all the way! Get of the bike, feet slide staight out from underneath me. Wham hit the deck! Bike hits the deck! Battle to me feet, grab onto bush, find some traction for mew boots. Drag the bike towards me, throught the leg over, stilling holding onto the bush and atempt to fire up the dirtyfive. Second boot shes away. Find unfrozen patch and get a short burst of hook up. just enough to get us mobile and the momentum back to a sustainable level for propoltion.

 As for the tossers down the bottom, a marshall droped by shortly after a gave them an alternate route. Frost free. But we made it.

 Got to be positive and have suffient MOMENTUM!

 The rides on again this sunday. We have had buckets of rain, the ground is soaked, the winter is really starting to set in. Kiwi, you keen for a ride bro?


                                           

[KXcam22]

This is an old one.  I was racing a 1979 400 maico, leading the provincial 500MX championship. In one MX race I got taken out in the 1st corner and had to make up time the whole race.  Last lap I was in 2nd with a few corners to go and did a suicide jump past the guy in first. We tangled in the air and I lost and went down hard on my side.  I jumped back on my bike and finished second, or so I thought.  When I went to check the results they had me in about 20th. I was upset about the "mistake" until I wandered back to where I crashed and talked to some spectators.  Their comment was " Oh man you laid there forever and didn't move, the firstaid guys almost got to you with the stretcher when, with no warning, you jumped up like a scalded cat got on your bike and took off!".  Turns out I knocked myself out and didn't even know it.  I won the next moto but a 1st and 20th don't get you very far. Ah the good old days. I did win the championsip though. Cam.

[FuriouSly]

   Awhile back (1990), near a place called Amargosa Valley, my brother Mark and I were coming back from a desert race that some friends of ours were entered in.  Needless to say, our friends blew their buggy motor 2 miles into the race !  !  haahaa.  But, we took some quads and 3-wheelers with us in case of just of such an event.  Anyway, our riding group took off up a very scaley rock ridge to the base of the mountains and we took a refresment break ( Beerskies ).  On the way back the group arrived at the vehicles and my newlywed bride asked "where is Robert?".....  Uh ohhh.  Some of the group took off back up the trail and my wife hooked four-wheel drive and took of in the 4by4.
    There I was, wadded up in a 20 foot ravene, laid out on top of 5 foot boulders!  I was awake, but nowhere near alert....  Nothing broken ! ! except the frame and forks of the 3-wheeler    They loaded me up in the rig and the wife hauled ass back to Las Vegas, about 120 miles.
     Here is the funny part, like Cam's story....   Me and the wife had just been married and she was obviously pregnant with our first child.  Picture this:  I am sitting in the passenger seat, I look over and ask....  "what happened"  she says you wrecked down in a ravine.  I then ask  "Are you pregnant?"  the wife says yes.  I reply "Do I know the father?"   the wife says yes, you are....   POW..  then she drops the bomb..  "We are married!"     Ahhhhhhhhh..  just a minute ago I was having a good 'ole time riding with the bud's and now I am married with a kid on the way??   LOLOLOL  She said about every 5 minutes the whole 2 hour drive, I asked the same questions over and over.
     Well, I went to the hospital and was kept overnight for observations.  Severe concusion was the diagnosis.  The next week I was pretty much incapacitated and stuck at home in bed and no work or driving.  Everytime I feel asleep and woke up....  total amnesia.  The wife left multiple legal pads with my name and her work phone number, so when I was awake and confused.... I called her and she filled me in with the same story....  "You are married to me, we have a kid on the way, and you are done riding bikes for awhile ! !"    ahhhhhhh,  that was the last time I rode a bike and after having some beers.....  But thank goodness for the wife, she is the best!!!

[Danger4u2]

The first time I took the K5 to Little Sahara State Park Oklahoma, it was still a new bike. I didn't consider it quite broken in yet. I ran 2 more tanks of gas thru it and decided it's broken in. I put the K5 to bed and got the 400EX quad out for the night ride. The next day back on the newly broke in K5 we went out to the big dunes. I still had not got on the gas hard yet. I'm on top of an 80 ft. dune with the same size dune across the valley, about 2 football fields distance between them. I get this bright idea, I'll gas it real hard down the dune and stop at the top of the next dune. Man I did not know the power of my bike. I hit 3 gear at the bottom and could feel the G force. Before I knew it I was at the top of the next dune. I slammed on the brakes but didn't get the cluch in and killed the bike as I lanched over the top. It felt like the back wheel was going to come over and I would land upside down back wheel first. With luck on my side I pogo sticked the front wheel half way down the dune. Kind of like doing a stoppie. Need less to say I repositioned the family jewels on the gas tank. When the rear tire finally came down it skidded me to a stop at the bottom. Since I had killed the bike at launch, you could have heard a pin drop in the sand. My buddy comes over the top and says "Man I've never seen anyone fly off a dune that big at that speed. I thought I was going to find you dead or hurt real bad". I told him (in a high pitched voice of a girl) "That's a KX500 and I meant to do that. Now can you please start my bike so I can go back to camp I don't feel so good". He still gives me a hard time, he calls it the nut cracker story.

Danger

[alan]

Thanks guys for sharing your stories!

Tim, I can't even imagine riding in those kinds of conditions, especially when it is 95 now and it will be 102 later today! I did grow up in Colorado and I rode my bike to school in the winter and I spent 6 months in Europe riding in the rain back in the 60's. But you are talking frozen clay elevations, sounds pretty scary to me! He He!

Cam, that was one of the funniest stories I have ever heard! I guess it was like anything but a DNF, glad it wasn't a week later when you woke up!


Sly, I want to hear more about  Amargosa Valley Dunes! I am glad you didn't forget that riding was a really fun thing to do. So I see where your priorities are! He He He!



Danger, that stories reminds me of one of my buddies when the first YZ's came our and the still had metal tanks and had the two little indentations on the back of his tank! He also had a rather high voice!

Alan

[KXcam22]

Alan,
  Check out the "impact" picture in my galley. Maybe I'll tell that one one day. Cam.

[KXcam22]

This is fun.  My wife doesn't like to listen to these anymore!
Killer Bike.
  After a winter of humming and hawing on what to race the next season I finally settled on a bright orange 1978 Canam 250.  This was actually about the 4th bike I had decided on over the winter. With each choice I had painted my helmet in team colors to match, then repainted it as I changed my mind (hey what else do you do in northern canada in the winter). I recall going thru honda, yamaha, and husqavarna colors before the paint got too thick.  The Canam ended the indecision. What a bike! rotary valve engine, big hp, fast and indestuctible. Turned out to be a bit too fast, pulled from the moment you cracked the throttle so you were always a bit behind the bike wherever you went.  On a jump it was typical to be going so much faster than you expected that you would jump way way past the landing and land right in the whoops. And that was when the minor problem showed up...no handling no suspension.  Big crashes everywhere! A typical race result was me crawling back to the truck on my hands and knees while the bike never so much as bent a lever.  I remember one race I got a massive holeshot then the bike spit me off in the first corner.  I had to lay there on my back and fend off the other 39 bikes coming my way with my feet! Nice! This happened lots.  It bit others too.  Before one big race, two of my friends were the favorites to win but they both wanted to try my bright orange Canam.  The bike got both of them, cracked pelvis for one and broken ribs for the other.  Neither could race so I got the win.  I finally wised up and sold the bike part way thru the season to preserve my health.  That bike was a killer. Cam.

[kiwikx500]

Along long long time ago in the same land i was following a m8 on a single track who decided he would suddenly lose his balls on his xr80 lol and ride down into the deep ditch - i jumped it but now had ballsless directly below me in my landing area,Descision time ? Land on my m8 with a good chance of him being killed or lean my big er125  and me to the right and hope for the best - the best was me scattered along a barb wire fence with cotton wool on every barb from my newley purchased by mum zip out sleeves jacket.Timbowe cheers for the offer,ill be hungover 2mrrw-go the crusaders - enjoy your ride and showing the peasants who the Boss is !

[alan]

I thought I would revive this post since we have a bunch of new members that may want to post some of there riding stories!

[stewart]

one morning in 1984 i was at little sahara okl. i got on my new 84 red tecate went as fast as it woul;d go probly 80 mph  racing my buddy on his three wheeler and i was out front when i saw what looked like a sand lip when i was about ten feet from it it was a almost 90  degree dropoff     i never let off the throttle  did not have time to  its the farthest ithink any one has jumped a three wheeler  i thought i was giong to die it hit sqaure bottemed out so hard pegs and feet got in the sand and bounced  i killed the bike and coasted to a stop  scared out of my mind my buddy came up beside me where i had stoped he thought i did that on perpuse . and ask if the seat cushion got sucked off the seat by my behind  i told him i did not plan that wow,,,,, probly went 150 feet 30high

[Platypus]

The year was 1987.  A friend of mine was moving and he had an 84 YZ80 that they wanted to sell.  I talked to his older brother about it and he said 50 bucks and it's mine.  I went home and told my parents about it and they said no until my older brother jumped in and said they should do it.  Nobody in my family, including myself, had ever owned a dirt bike.  So I go over there with 50 bucks and bring it home.  It is missing the right footpeg and the gas cap.  Well my parents had just shelled out 50 bucks so they had no intention of buying replacement parts as well.  I found some pvc pipe in the garage that had the perfect I.D. for the spline and put some duct tape over the tank and took off down the street.  There was a dirt road behind my house so I headed straight for it and the first little jump I hit the makeshift peg broke.  So I rode back home to cut myself as many pegs as I could fit in my pockets and headed straight back to the dirt road.  Eventually I had enough money to buy a new peg and a gas cap.  The whole dirt bike thing was all mine, nobody else in my family was involved and I had to learn a lot of crap the hard way.  I seized that bike after a few months because I had no idea you had to change the oil.  I ended up selling it for 250 bucks or something to a guy that wanted it for parts.