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

[lksseven]

Raymond,

I take it you'll be a Presidential candidate in 2008?  

Larry Seale
I choose to ride

[Tennessee Vol]

Larry,
 I cannot speak for the other 11 states you quoted in "God's Country" but in Tennessee the last 15 seconds before a crash is.

 "Pop will you hold that dadburn light still I have got that big sonofagun in my sights"--- Then--"Floor it yonder comes the game warden"!!



Bobby Stults

[firstturn]

Bobby,
  I thought that was Alabama...actually down near Prattville[].

Ron Carbaugh

[Dennis Jones]

In the early thru mid 80's we rode 3 wheelers alot (I owned every model 250 2stroke Honda made) in the lead belt of MO. The mine tailings were piled into giant dunes. One day I was haveing trouble with my rear disc brake not releasing. Will climbing a dune the brake was dragging and I barely made it the top.I came to a stop as I crested the razorback and looked down to see the disc smoking hot.As I bent over to crack open the brake bleeder (are you laughing yet) I grabbed hold of the rear grab bar. As soon as I cracked the bleeder the bike took off down the dune faster than I would have ever rode down it with me holding on to the grab bar and literally skiing behind it. I just knew it was going to go into a tank slapper with man and machine rolling down the hill in a ball. Some how I made it all the way to the bottom and came to a stop.At this point I'm thinking I just had a religous experience when my brother rides up and falls to the ground laughing to the point of exhaustion and hurting his ribs. He still gets winded whenever this story comes up.

Dennis Jones

[idiotboy]

How bout leaving the rag in the airbox,putting the filter in anyway,kicking the bike and actually have it fire once,sucking the rag through the carb ? Or taking the expansion chamber off a project bike,fixing a couple dents,brazing a crack, then wire brush, prime and paint and not realise til you try to start the bike that it's packed solid with about five pounds of mouse nest material? Maybe rebuild a Pursang motor the night before a race,almost finished bolting the seat back on ,find a circlip on the floor and aren't QUITE sure if it's an old one you just took out or a new one you dropped? Nope, never done that.

[Tennessee Vol]

Ron,
 
 I forgot to mention Alabama,since it is about 400 yards through the woods behind my house to Alabama I kind of consider it my home state also.

 It is pretty much the same saying there also.

 But you have the area wrong also it is not Prattville it is Maplesville.

 One more last tidbit is they considered South Alabama for the movie Deliverance but they had to pick East Tennessee to keep it clean enough for a "R" rating.[}:)]



Bobby Stults

[Big Mac]

Several years ago I was chasing the series points lead in the Open Amateur class in our local Vintage Dirt Racing NW series on my trusty CZ 400 (BPE--before Penton enlightenment). After an 8-race series, I was within 2 points of the leader, a young up-and-comer on a Bultaco, so the final 2 motos were make or break time. The CZ wasn't exactly jetted right...it started fine cold or hot, but was kinda spotty in between and often flooded when it was very cold out, necessitating a quick plug swap to get it going.

Plug 1 (of 2 in the head) had faltered in the rush to start before Moto 1, and I'd already switched to Plug 2 for that race. A smart guy (not me) would have put in two fresh plugs immediately after the race. When it failed to start again just minutes before Moto 2, I then figured I'd better quick throw in a fresh new plug from the toolbox to be safe. I grabbed for the closest NGK box and the plug wrench. I switched the cap to the shiny new plug and it finally fired up nicely so that I could take my place on the line.

About halfway through Lap 1, my good start and early lead were lost when it started to misfire and finally died altogether. After some fruitless kicks and watching the entire field pass me by, I switched the plug cap over to old Plug 2...and it fired right up! I figured the coveted Amateur (ha!) class series championship must have been lost to a faulty factory sparkplug!

Nope...in my hurry to put in a fresh plug, I'd stupidly grabbed and installed one of the NGK B8EG long-reach plugs (for my modern KTM) by mistake. The reach was just long enough that the piston had mashed things to the point that it was running on just a hair's breadth of gappage, until it finally fouled out. Fortunately no damage...but I now keep Husky and modern bike plugs in one box, Penton-KTM and CZ plugs in another.[B)]

[lksseven]

Big Mac,

that's one of my biggest fears, so I'm anal enough to tape and label each spark plug when I buy them.  One starts out thinking one will always keep everything clear and straight in one's head, but enough living will change one's opinion. []



Larry Seale
I choose to ride

[firstturn]

Bobby...ya down around Demopolis or Union Town..  Great come back.[8D]

Ron Carbaugh

[pketchum]

Stupid human tricks?  Yeah, I've got a few to my credit, just like the rest of you.

How about pressure testing my Hodaka Combat Wombat engine and then installing it into the frame?  For the life of me I couldn't figure out why it wouldn't kickstart worth a darn.  It sure sounded muffled somehow.  Eventually, that evening I figured out that I had forgotten to remove the 1/8" thick rubber gasket I'd used to seal the exhaust manifold during my engine pressure leak-down test.

Then there's the time I was showing off my wheelie technique on a friend's newly purchased 60cc Yamaha Mini-Enduro at the local campgrounds, with all the chicks watching.  The asphalt was the type where they pour tar and then spread gravel on top and let it set, GNARLY stuff.  Anyway, while in the middle of the wheelie, the left handgrip comes completely off.  Unfortunately, I wasn't trained in the art of one-handed wheelies!

Just about two months ago, while leading my class in the 125cc Sportsman Intermediate, I heard my exhaust note become very loud.  I figured the headpipe had come out of the exhaust manifold, and continued racing, but a somewhat reduced pace since I couldn't see my nearest competitior.  Then someone started pointing at me while I crossed their position; he was pointing to my exhaust pipe on my Hodaka Super Combat which was being dragged behind my bike by the rear hanger and its bracket.  I still finished in 1st place, albeit dragging my pipe across the finish line jump.  The pipe had come out of the header and the mid-bracket had broken off completely. While this doesn't count as a stupid human trick, when was the last time you saw the 1st place rider cross the finish line before their exhaust pipe?



Phast Phil
Moderator, Hodaka Owners Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Hodaka

[Rain Man]

No No Phil, theres just me thats never done anything dum or funny with a bike, I dont fit in the "like the rest of you" category [8D]

Raymond
 Down East Pentons

[thrownchain]

OK I might as well add my moment to the list. When I first started riding we had a Heathkit minibike. Anybody remember those? 5hp BS motor, big tires, snowmobile type drive, Would do 30-35 mph. Well anyway, when someone was around we'd show off by coming around the barn  on full song. The pegs on those were in front of the motor on the base of the frame curve, so if you lean too far over, all of a sudden your doing big circles thru the yard. It was even more fun on wet grass. When I moved up to a big bike [ Yamaha CT 1], I was riding at my cousins in the southern tier of NY. We had three or four places where we would "hillclimb", a pretty good grade,too. More than once I'd lose momentum about 10 ft from the top, then try to figure out how to dismount gracfully. Got laughed at alot, of course it wasn't funny when it was someone else.

[ksithumper]

I once hurled my big CCM motocrosser at a tabletop jump in a vain effort to keep up with the fast guys. On the take off ramp I hit a bump which sent me off slightly diagonally. By my standards it was a massive jump, and while up there I had plenty of time to realise that both wheels were going to land pretty close to the ropes. It turned out to be rear wheel just inside the ropes, front wheel just outside the ropes....

The spectators loved it.

[behindbars]

It must have been the summer of 1978. I was at a summer camp in northern Michigan. Got really bored with some of the classes I had....such as edible wild plants. Got the bright idea of skipping that class and seeing if I could "borrow" one of the CT70 minitrails that the camp had for trail riding. Got to the barn where they stored them and nobody was around so......I got one out, fired it up and off I went. One of my classes was trail riding, but none of the kids had a clue how to ride and I was getting very frustrated at the pace we were riding. Now I was FREE with nobody to slow me down. [] Didn't know the trails very well and that would cost me dearly. I had the CT wound wide open when I crested a hill. To my horror I realized that the other side of the hill was much longer and MUCH steeper... and at the bottom was a steeply banked drainage ditch. I tried to slow down, but it was way too late. I planted the front wheel squarely into the steep bank of the ditch and smashed the "family jewels" into the triple clamps with a tremendous thud. I had hit the bank so hard I had bent the forks all the way back to the frame. The front wheel would barely roll. What to do now? My "jewel sack" was cut and swelling at an alarming rate. [xx(] I knew if I went to see the camp Doctor they would put 2 and 2 together and I'd be busted for sure.... so I took the bike back to the barn and leaned it against a tree. Nobody had seen anything! I pulled off that one, but my fun for the rest of the week was over as I could hardly walk. Looking back now it was poetic justice. I sure got what I deserved. I often wondered what the camp mechanic must have thought when he found the bike all mangled up. Stupid kids.....

[thrownchain]

OUCH,OUCH,OUCH!!!:(