General Cycling Discussion - Silly act results in biker's death

A friend was telling me about a man he knew who was 42 years old, a real outdoors person who had gone with his girlfriend to go mountain biking. He hauled the bikes to the trail head in the back of the pick up. He handed down his girlfriends bike to her and then decided he would ride his bike down a plank that led off the back of the truck. As he hit the plank, it slid off the tailgate and he fell, breaking his neck which resulted in his death.

I know this is the kind of thing that I might have done and wanted to share it with the group to remind everyone of how some of these "cool" ideas may be very dangerous.

Let's all try to learn from his lesson since he paid an awful high price for the mistake.

Darwin Award on that one!

Thanks for posting, but specifically what should I learn from this? You thread title and scarry's response say it all.

Originally posted by detrieux
A friend was telling me about a man he knew

The hallmark of the urban myth.

Agreed with John E. It was just stupidity. Not even my crash last weekend was that stupid.

I wont even go down a curb much more the back of a pickup truck, I am a low risk taker:D

Must have been an awful heavy bike if he needed a plank to load and unload it.

This is my principle - never make cycling more dangerous than it is.

This sounds really stupid. My friend knows a guy who dated this girl who knew a guy that flashed his brights at someone on the highway who was driving without the lights on and they turned out to be a gang that followed him home and killed him.

" Must have been an awful heavy bike if he needed a plank to load and unload it."

Excellent point. Why would he need a plank just to get the bike off the truck. Sounds fishy to me.

Originally posted by djbowen1
This sounds really stupid. My friend knows a guy who dated this girl who knew a guy that flashed his brights at someone on the highway who was driving without the lights on and they turned out to be a gang that followed him home and killed him.

that's the ****s man ... those gangsters just don't have any sensitivity ...

I don't think that the rding off the truck thing was very stupid, just a horrible accident. It was bad that he fell but it was worse that he ... hurt himself. That's just bad luck. Really sucks to hear these bikers go down, dang.

Guess we'll have to e-mail Strong Bad to find out...

Originally posted by fishepa
" Must have been an awful heavy bike if he needed a plank to load and unload it."

Excellent point. Why would he need a plank just to get the bike off the truck. Sounds fishy to me.

It was a pickup after all. Maybe he had the plank for offloading other stuff and decided to have a bit of a stunt! Think outside the box lads ;)

Yeah, it was stupid. Couple times in all our lives we take stupid risks. Remember in middle school a red haired and red faced, friend would hold his breath, until once it got so advanced he was unable to catch his breath; when he decided to re-join the living. The teacher had to have Kevin breath in a paper sack to resume normal breathing. Thought it impressed the girls.
I know we are supposed to be adult.
I can recall walking atop bridge railings when I was like 15- young and stupid. Guess, thought it would impress the girls.
Even, like 5 years ago we had a great dinner and like three bottles of wine in a walled city called Vezelay, France. The stars were beautiful and we were like plotzed. We decided to look at the stars by lying on a railing. Went back the next day- the railing over-looked the valley- it was a rampart we decided to appreciate god's creation from. And I have almost a height phobia.!
The next day, we discovered the way down would have been like 300 feet. Just said wow, great view, and walked on. That much wine makes one pretty sleepy too.
Stupidity is still tragic. Guess, walking a plank off a truck-bed still almost merits a Darwin award,though.

Sad to hear about this story. I am sure he did not mean to break his neck and die this way. We all have taken risks, if not on the bike, then often on the way to the ride.

Even if it's a myth similar things happen everyday. If the wife had started off down the trail and was not witnessing the stunt, then the incident would never have occured. I do not however in anyway intend to blame the wife! I merely wish to point out that showing off is probably the #1 cause of accidental death and injury in recreational sports although I have no statistics to back that up.

Why is he stupid for trying something. I don't get that at all. I probably would have skipped the plank and wheelie dropped it. If the guy was a capable rider nothing about that was unreasonable to a reasonably skilled mtber...just a tragic accident.