Rick@OCRR

And he wasn't even tired (probably). It's just not fair, Vic. But then, he is under 50!

Rick / OCRR

Daspydyr 

Hoping and praying with you. That is so hard for anyone, but 17..............

Zinger

These are great reading, lmao

My idiot friend carrying a piece of pipe in his hand dangling down over the handlebars on a motorized bicycle.
If you've ever seen "Breaking Away"......pretty much the same effect.

Biker395 

Yea, it really sucks. I've found myself reading some information from support groups, and oy ... so depressing. What is interesting is that depending on the specifics of the injury, it is possible lose the ability to move your limbs, yet still experience pain in them. And even something like bedsores are a huge problem. He needs to be turned every 2 hours, 24 hours a day. And the simple stuff. I got to thinking ... we all talk on the board about how hard it is to eat well and not overeat. He can't even go to the refrigerator and get food for himself.

One of his biggest challenges is trying to remake himself. I think all of us here understand that our physical activity is more than just a pastime ... it's a huge piece of who we are. This kid wasn't a bookish nerd who spent most of his time indoors reading or playing video games. His identity was tied up in being an athlete ... football and dirtbikes. Now, if he's going to survive, he's got to essentially remake himself into a different person than he ever was. Like my mother always told me ... as long as there is life, there is hope. But for him, it sure ain't gonna be easy.

Dan Burkhart 

Well, since most of the posts are of the self deprecating kind, I guess I'll climb on board. The tough part will be which of the dumb stunts I've tried over the years to relate, but I suppose I'll pick the most recent.
Several years ago, when I was still riding a mountain bike, my wife and I were out for a nice autumn ride on a local rail trail. For the locals here, it was the Caledon Trail, near Palgrave.
Anyway, we were riding along, my wife in front, me bringing up the rear, when we came on a couple of kids who were jumping their BMX bikes over dirt ramps they had built built beside the trail.
My wife told me later, that when she passed them, she knew she needed to stop and look back, because she knew exactly what I was going to do.
Sure enough, she looked just in time to see my front wheel hit the first ramp, and me doing a magnificent faceplant right on the crest of the ramp. The two kids were just standing there with their mouths hanging open, not sure if they could believe their eyes.
I'm sure the image of some old fart trying to act like a kid just left them dumbfounded.
The exercise cost me a pair of glasses and a helmet, and the mark on my forehead lingered for a while, but the bike survived, and my pride eventually healed, so I can laugh about it.
Now you can too.

roccobike

Saw a dude, riding a mountain bike on an advanced single track, technical trail, while talking into a hand-held cell phone.
Some are just addicted. I was going the other way and didn't wait to hear the screams when he wiped out.

EriktheFish

I was 11 and didn't have the excuse of looking at a speedometer. I came flying down a hill and turned into my neighborhood and for some reason was staring down at the pavement flying by. I was farther left than usual and hit a car parked on the side of the road. I went up on to the hood and my fork was crunched all the way back. Other than a very bruised ego, (and having to drag my bike the rest of the way home from school) I was okay.

nondes 

Just the other day I saw, yet again, a car slowing to take a right hand turn with the right flicker on, and a competely oblivious cyclist riding through on the inside of the car to go through the intersection.

fietsbob

Thinking I could Bunny Hop a Gravel filled Cut across the Bike Path,
and instead cracking My Femur, in the Fall.

this was 30 years ago..

RickBlane

I would say but I Thought this was a family forum?

Biker395 

Resurrecting an old thread ...

So driving home today, again on Hawthorne Boulevard at 6PM. This is a four lane State Route ... a major artery through the South Bay.

I dunno when this pix was taken, but it sure wasn't 6PM. Picture about 10X the amount of traffic here, and all of it going 40-50 MPH.



Note the shoulder, or lack thereof. Note the narrow right hand lane.

And if that picture were taken at 6PM today, you'd also note a cyclist riding the wrong way in that right hand lane into 40-50 MPH traffic.

I suppose it could have been worse ... he could have been texting too.

Wow.

B. Carfree

Gee, and they gave him that nice contra-flow lane there next to the median.

MinnMan

OK, maybe this doesn't belong here, and I didn't actually see it, but the stupidist bike incident I know is of a colleague who deliberately killed himself on a bike - riding down a big hill and crashing in to a tree. A guy who was an experienced rider and who always wore a helmet but not this time. You see, this was 25+ years ago and it had just been revealed that he'd been having a gay affair. I'd like to think that nobody would be driven to such a sad state any more. Maybe it's a better world.

Biker395 

Damn ... that's tragic!

This was so stupid, I honestly thought he might have been making an attempt on his life. Check out the empty frontage road right next to it. OMG.

OldTryGuy

He had double yellow lines protecting him from vehicular traffic, so nooooo problem.

Beic

I used to visit Hong Kong regularly on work trips. You would see all sorts going on, the best was the market traders with live pigs strapped to their carriers and backs.

Myself?

I used to live near a fish quay in my youth.

One day a gang of us rode down to the dock which had just been hosed down, guess who said watch this skid.

All I can remember is a violent dull sickening thud as the side of my head came down heavy on the wet concrete, no helmets in the 60's.

I couldn't get up for what seemed an age, but was probably only 30 seconds, I still feel sick when I think about it.

I tend to wear a helmet these days.

Beic

North Coast Joe

Maybe stupid, maybe just wonderous youth:

I have vivid memory of watching a teen age boy with a 100' (estimate) rope tied to his seatpost, who would get up a head of steam and ride his bike off a concrete pier. He would fly an incredible distance while making the 20 foot drop to the water, making an in-flight dismount before hitting the water. He'd surface, swim over to the rickety, rusty ladder on the pier, climb up and haul his bike out of the water with the rope. Repeated process until exhausted. Youth!

Gerryattrick

Not actually involving riding a bike, but bike related.

When I was about 12 years old I'd been on a ride with three friends and we left our four bikes leaning against each other against a 3ft wall. I used to do the high jump in school and bet I could jump over them and land on the wall. Well I cleared the bikes, and the wall, forgetting there was a 6ft drop on the other side.

Nothing broken but plenty of cuts and bruises, and no sympathy from my friends. Thank goodness it was in the days before camera phones.

dalameda

After college I joined the peace corps for a few years in a country we wont mention right now. We were stationed in remote villages, and got to come to the capital a few times a year. Highlight of our trips to the capital was going to the marine bar (run by marines stationed at the embassy) every Friday night for cheap govt. subsidized booze. Being poor volunteers, our transport there and back to our lodging was on cheap chinese made bicycles. The rides to the bar were usually uneventful even though traffic was horrendous. Coming home was where the fun started. On one occasion I didnt even get on my bike. Reaching over to unlock the lock, I kept on going and hit my cheek on the sidewalk and opened up a huge gash and lost my glasses. I got up, got on my bike and rode off home unaware I was bleeding down my front until I got home(never did find the glasses). On another occasion I did an endo after hitting a cow. luckily I was so relaxed there were no major injuries.

trackhub

It would have to be:

-The woman I frequently see in the area of Newton Highlands, on warm summer evenings. She is riding against traffic, no lights or reflective anything,
and with a 70s vintage, Bell Tourister helmet dangling from the handlebars. She gets the "Trifecta", I guess.

-The now endless supply of people riding and yakking it up on the phones.

-The Suburban parents who explode onto the local MUPS every spring, with the onset of warm weather, with the kiddies. Naturally, the kiddies
are not taught anything about proper riding, so they meander all over the place. It is in this group that I always see at least one with the helmet
on backwards. I still have not figured out how they do this. I still think that would make a find insult term: "Don't ask her. She's got the helmet on
backwards".

mrtuttle04

The stupidest thing I ever did on a bike was racing across some tracks to beat a train. The stupidest thing I have ever seen was my friend following me across the tracks.

ctpres

Century ride head down trying to make it a sub 5 ride. Sag wagon pulls to side of road and opens door in my face. I now ride with bars a bit higher. BTW Stood on wheel to straighten wiped the blood off seat and finished in under 5. Now ride with bars higher.

Biker395 

This morning (utterly dark), yet another cyclist salmoning up the same 4 lane 40+ MPH road ... no lights, no helmet, no shoulder.

I dunno if that is quite up there with the guy doing the same thing at 6PM when there is oodles of traffic ... but it's close.

I think I need a dashcam.

rdtindsm

We had a group on RAGBRAI that always had one day where we dressed in costumes and acted a bit crazy. Fake crashes at RR x-ing, rolling road block, that sort of thing. This particular day, one of the group was wearing a feather boa. A youngish rider, on and mtb and in his mid-teens, jumped in the group on the back of the boa clad rider. He went down when the boa caught in his wheel, and I am still amazed the mtb guy managed to avoid the crash. The crazy thing is he went down a couple miles later the second time he caught his boa..

The other was also on RAGBRAI. Don't know if it was me or the other rider. You have to understand that there is next to no car traffic on RAGBRAI because of the congestion and riders tend to use both sides of the road. If you are going against the flow, you are effectively salmoning, even if you a on the far right of the road. You get tired of hearing that you're going the wrong way, but people to yell out "Incoming" to warn of the danger.

I was just doing a small part of the ride and had turned around in one of the pass-through towns to go back home. A friend had warned me that I should avoid riding against traffic, so I was riding about a foot from the right hand curb. I was passing a group of kids lined up along the curb with their hands out to low-five the RAGBRAIers when somebody shoots across the road with his hand out to make their day. Scared $Ħ!Ī out of me.

rdtindsm

I know there was an -est in OP post, implies one reply. But one more.

Late 60;s and Bob Richards, the Wheaties guy, was doing a promotional ride promoting fitness, Wheaties, and Sears. They stopped at a major intersection near the edge of town in Davenport, IA, so that locals could join the event. One couple was on a tandem. Not a road tandem; a Schwinn balloon tire bike. He was mid 50's, pudgy overweight wearing grey sweat clothes and a head band. She's wearing a blue jumper top with large white polka dots, white pedal pushers, and a big floppy brim, white gardening hat with a hatband to match the jumper. She had lost contact with the pedals and has her knees up around her chin; he's yelling "Pedal, pedal".