dumbest thing you've done in the 2-wheel world?

[tomale]

Lynn, nice to hear from you, I was thinking of you the other day, when I was posting on this site. Good to hear that you are still kicking around. I do not trail ride much, but if you ever get up this way, let me know and I will ride with you, There are several other Poggers in the area and we can make a day of it.
A couple of summers ago my son and I were riding in the high mountains, I have pictures of it some where on this puter, there were alpine lakes and meadows, beautifully! The trails were steep and narrow at times but it was sure fun. We did not have any trouble until we stopped. I had pulled over to talk to a rider comming the other way and when my son stopped he lost his footing and he and the bike fell over, breaking the clutch lever, I managed to tape it so that it would still work, but he was feeling pretty red in the face too, We called it a day and rode back to camp. I remember seeing the panic in his eyes as he fell over, He was fine and the clutch levers.... no big deal. He could not seem to believe that I was not upset about the lever, in fact I was proud of him. That was a tough trail and he handled it like a champ. oh the memories!!!

Thom Green,Still crazy after all these years!
76' 250 MC5 (orginal owner)
75' GS400 (project bike)
72'sixday (project bike)

[Mike Lenz]

I got three that come to mind.

Once as a kid riding near my house in the woods I watered out my bike in a stream crossing. I had the trusty spark plug and wrench holder hosed clamped to the frame so I took out the plug. Still got spark, thats good. So we turned the bike over and tried to pump out the water, still wouldnt start. I figured I know what will get this going and had my friend ride me back home for some starting fluid. So I shot the fluid in the spark plug hole while my buddy cranked her over (if you have ever tried to kick start a bike upside down you know its fun in itself), but I forgot one thing...I forgot to take the spark plug out of the cap. All of a sudden I had what seemed like to me a very large flame ball all around me. I jumped back, then realized my trusty steed was going to go up in smoke unless i did something so we thru it back into the stream...and started over again.

Another one my buddy and me were trying to cross a busy four lane road that was raised up about 15 to 20 feet from the field to the sholder of the road. Finally a gap came and we both gunned it...except my 400 Penton had almost died and caught running backwards. Well this shot me back down the embankment backwards, crashing at the bottom. Also had this happen on a starting line of an MX once. Very susprising indeed!

The last is a Super Hunky story.  One day at a race he had to go to the bathroom. So he went into the porta potty to go and was thinking about some possibly better lines he could employ to beat his buddy. He went in, shut the door, took off his gloves...and casually tossed them into the toilet pit. Then just stood there for a bit pondering the situation.

[cubfan1968]

Mike thats a great Super Hunky story. I did the same thing with my rain jacket before a fishing tournament. Took me almost 20 minutes to fish it out of the hole. My buddies thought I was crazy, until I told them my lunch was in the pocket. [)]

I thought my running into the cow story would take the cake but you guys are mad men. My story ain't got no chance amoung folks like y'all.

Rod Whitman
1972 6 Day (Rider)
1972 6 Day (Project)

[thrownchain]

Thats what I like, some are funny, and we all can relate.[^][V]

[Gary Roach]

While riding an Enduro in 1980, I came out of a wood section a few minutes late. I turned onto a really dry and dusty gravel road, and just ahead of me were two buddies that started on a earlier number. I was thinking more about passing them than what I should have been doing....like checking my odometer and route sheet mileage to the next turn! I caught the first buddy, Jeff, with no problem, but the other rider, James, was faster, and he was trying to get back up on time like I was. After eating his dust for quite a long time, he finally slowed up to let me by....so I thought. But when the dust cleared, to my surprise the gravel road ended, and all I could see in front of me was a paved road (that if I had looked at my route sheet, we were to make a right turn on to), and the tops of trees. I did a panic two wheel brake lock-up, but that didn't do any good in the loose gravel. I got a lot of the speed scrubbed off as I crossed the pavement, so when I went over the edge, I was able to slid the bike down the thirty foot embankement on it's side. Lucky for me, it looked like an automobile had been over the same hill, and it pushed down a large area of the trees. I crawled (it was that steep) back up to the road bank to let my buddies know that I was OK, but when I looked across the road, there was James' bike in the road ditch, and he was off in the grass holding his sides from laughing too much.

It took twenty minutes to drag the bike back up to the road

Gary

[LynnCamp]

OK Rain Man......... hate to admit that I haven't got any smarter with age... so here you go with more recent experiences.

This summer, I did a respectable 90 miles of rocky mountain trails... and had come off the mountains on to a jeep trail so was totally relaxed and on the way home.  So..... was thinking about how wonderful trail riding is... and how we should be able to give handicap people access to these incredible trails and views of the mountains and valleys and so... I was mentally engineering a handicap-enabled dirtbike.  All of a sudden, i realized i was going way, way too fast into a turn, went off the road, laid the bike down and tucked my arm into my side (a trick that I had learned this summer in order to avoid the continous injury of my hands as i try to block my falls).  Wellll.......... instead of annoyingly injurying my hands/fingers by bailing, i jammed my arm (in that little space between my front and back chest plate) into my side -- and cracked my ribs!

The Fortune 100 company I work for has spent gazillion dollars training me to "Be Here Now".  Now I understand what they mean!

[LynnCamp]

quote:Originally posted by lksseven

Lynn,

I'll have a cup of coffee with you and you can pick the place.  But if you ask me to go riding with you, I'm gonna have to see a topographical map first

Larry Seale
I choose to ride

Larry,
Great thread you started!!!  I am certain that our ISDT/RR and National Enduro heroes have tons of stories, but it is nice to put in our two cents.

Regarding the cup of coffee......... I look forward to sharing a grande latte with skim milk at Barnes and Noble at a city of your choice ....... but will have to warn you that the only physical mark I have from my escapades is a scar on my wrist from hot, burning coffee spilled while negotiating a surge on our boat in florida.

Along those lines, I second your vote for Gavin.  There is nothing in this whole world more painful than burns.  No drug can even touch the pain!

Thom,
Thanks for thinking of me.... one of these days we will be able to connect for a great ride... The good news is that Colorado has a wide range of trails and we can introduce your son to some awesome views -- at any skill level.

[rob w]

Lynn,

 I found your High School, and you must have made quite an impact there since they re-named it after you. I went trail riding in the Daniel Boone National Forest in the southeast section of Kentucky. Staying and riding out of London, Kentucky.
 Well, driving down I-75 south of Lexington, and north of London (can't remember exactly the name of the town) I saw a sign on the side of the highway and the school that's named "Lynn Camp High School".
 By the way, I found it to be a very enjoyable area to ride. It's about a 9 hour drive for me but we don't find hills that big up here, and it's about the closest good place we can find that's out of the snowbelt for riding in the winter season.
 The locals down there don't ride this time of the year, they thought we were crazy. But compared to the snow and cold that we typically have in MI., it's wonderful.
 Lynn, You once talked about relocating out of Chicagoland and were searching for utopia. Have you discovered where that is........let me know, I'll be heading that way myself someday.

Bob W

[LynnCamp]

Hi Bob!!!
Have seen photos of Lynn Camp River/Creek and it is truly beautiful.  Wish I had known that there were open trails there....I would have visited.

Funny you should ask where we settled...... as you may remember, my husband was newly introduced to trail riding -- and went absolutely berserk about the sport. So after we found this -- seemingly perfect -- place in Colorado (see my response to Bill MacKinnon's post for the ultimate retirement location) we returned from vacation to Chicago.  There is absolutely no place here worth riding and Jim was driving me nuts.... so I told him to take one of our (rodeo barrel racer) daughters and go scope out Salida, CO to see if it was as good as we thought.  Wellllllllll he sent my daughter back, but he is still there!!!!  I am not ready (or able) to retire....... but I will join him as soon as I can.  Right now, I just visit as often as I can.

[Frenfroe]

In high school I considered myself un-breakable. If it took little brains and no one else would try it, I got the task. Always around cattle and a foolish horseless cowboy I often herded cows with my bike. Hard to rope one and ride though.

A guy who worked with my Dad had a horse and was allowed to let him roam in a neighbors harvested corn field/woods. He figured it would be cheaper than feeding the horse all winter. All went as planned until the farmer needed the horse gone so he could plant again. The mild-mannered saddle horse had turned wild. No body could catch the horse. They ran the devil all around the field trying to rope him out of the back of an old p/u. Beer WAS involved!

The problem was they were too "happy" to rope him and he soon tired of being chased aroud the field so he took to the woods and swamp to hide out. Here I came in the picture. They called my Dad and asked if I could herd him out of the swamp with my bike and wedge him close to the truck while they throwed ropes at him. So off we go.

Several attempts were made and I finally got tired of these drunks missing him. It wasn't a real big horse I thought. I've bulldogged bigger calves before. If I get real close to him I can just jump off this here bike and bulldog that devil down. Yeah, right, great plan. I gassed it and as I pulled by him, off I go, arms 'round his neck, plant my feet, nothing....I still got him around the neck but I can't get my feet planted to throw him, son-of-a-guns too blame tall, I don't have any leverage on him. His front legs have been kicking the daylights out of me the whole time with every step he takes. 'Fraid to let go, he'll stomp me as I go under him. 'fraid to hold on, El Diablo drags my tail across the field, though the woods, and finally stops standing in the swamp. We were both too tired to go anymore. One of the boobs finally arrives and puts a rope on him. I collapse in the mud beat all to crap.

At least they had beer left, Dad let me have one or two. Probably first time he and I ever drank a beer together, I was 15 or 16. I hurt for days.

Never jump out of a perfectly good airplane, never jump off a perfectly good bike.  

Frank

[tomale]

Lynn I totally forgot about you wanting to relocate. That must be hard to be seperated. I did that for a couple of months and it was almost more than I could handle. Whats that about hearts growing fonder..... I sure missed my wife during that time.
My son has moved to California to live with my Sister and go to school so his bike sits gathering dust. I will be seeing him in a couple of weeks so that will be great.
I thought of another funny story, Last summer I entered a trials event... my first... I was moving from one section to the next and had to traverse a off camber grass road. As usual I was going to fast and I was not really paying attention and the next thing I know I was on the ground with a head ache. I was fine but I broke the throttle. I tried to finish out the day but some of the tougher sections were even trickyer. Going through a creek and turning left on a grassy bank, my trottle caught and the bike wheelied and landed in a vine maple that was on the edge by the creek. I landed in the mud and the bike is screaming. I got it shut off and I sort of finished the section... no points... and to add insult to injury I lost my score card in the water. some one found it but I did not know it until I had got to the next section so then I had to go back and retrace my steps. boy did I feel like a fool!

Thom Green,Still crazy after all these years!
76' 250 MC5 (orginal owner)
75' GS400 (project bike)
72'sixday (project bike)