Total Frivolity

[deezdad]

Oh & got you to thank for looking into a dam kx 500 .. need that bike like I do a hole in my head

 

[skidlid]

Nigel, some of my stories:
In late 98 my daughter was born. My first time on the bike after her birth was a muddy spring day. Coming out if a berm there was a water puddle leading up to a big double. The bike stutter in the water. Rather than just let off I stayed on the gas thinking I would just land in between the doubles . Instead the power lit back up and I jumped farther than I wanted but not enough to clear so I had to jump off in the air . I landed on the top of the jump. Broke me left fibula and had surgery to hold it together. I told my wife I would quit but wanted to ride one last time with my daughter there so I could tell her when she is older that she saw me ride. In July we went to the track to do that . I rode crappy and thought my last ride can’t end like that.
Before you know it I was back riding and racing snocross and motocross.
In 02 I missed a gear in a rhythm section and broke my collar bone and hurt something in my chest. The next day I still went on vacation to Vegas. My chest still hurt there so once I got back home I went to the hospital again. They did an X-ray to check my ribs but nothing broke. Hours later they call me and say my left lung was small in the X-ray. Turns out my collar bone punctured my lung.
In 2006 practicing my yz250f that had just been rebuilt an hour ago by a Yamaha dealer locked up on the face of a downhill triple just as I preloaded the foot pegs and released my grip on bars to prevent arm pump. Bike front end went straight down from valve hitting piston. My body kept flying , hit the ground , tumbled and bike hit me.
Broke my tib and fib in 25 pieces. After a couple surgeries they saved my leg.
2013 I cased a double. Broke my tib, 4 metatarsal and 4 toes on right leg. Surgery again .
On august 21st 2020 racing local supercross track my right shoulder had a tendon rip in half causing my hand to lock up. Throttle now stuck wide open. Over jumped a jump then turned a big berm into a jump. Jumped the berm hitting a light pole and fence.
Broke my jaw, nose, rib, 4 verts in my neck . Fractured my skull, TBI , compressed artery in my neck and teeth through my mouth. Coma for 4 days. Currently riding but wife says no races.

 

[deezdad]

Oh & got you to thank for looking into a dam kx 500 .. need that bike like I do a hole in my head

Umm, thanks to you*

 

[Nigel]

Nigel, some of my stories:
In late 98 my daughter was born. My first time on the bike after her birth was a muddy spring day. Coming out if a berm there was a water puddle leading up to a big double. The bike stutter in the water. Rather than just let off I stayed on the gas thinking I would just land in between the doubles . Instead the power lit back up and I jumped farther than I wanted but not enough to clear so I had to jump off in the air . I landed on the top of the jump. Broke me left fibula and had surgery to hold it together. I told my wife I would quit but wanted to ride one last time with my daughter there so I could tell her when she is older that she saw me ride. In July we went to the track to do that . I rode crappy and thought my last ride can’t end like that.
Before you know it I was back riding and racing snocross and motocross.
In 02 I missed a gear in a rhythm section and broke my collar bone and hurt something in my chest. The next day I still went on vacation to Vegas. My chest still hurt there so once I got back home I went to the hospital again. They did an X-ray to check my ribs but nothing broke. Hours later they call me and say my left lung was small in the X-ray. Turns out my collar bone punctured my lung.
In 2006 practicing my yz250f that had just been rebuilt an hour ago by a Yamaha dealer locked up on the face of a downhill triple just as I preloaded the foot pegs and released my grip on bars to prevent arm pump. Bike front end went straight down from valve hitting piston. My body kept flying , hit the ground , tumbled and bike hit me.
Broke my tib and fib in 25 pieces. After a couple surgeries they saved my leg.
2013 I cased a double. Broke my tib, 4 metatarsal and 4 toes on right leg. Surgery again .
On august 21st 2020 racing local supercross track my right shoulder had a tendon rip in half causing my hand to lock up. Throttle now stuck wide open. Over jumped a jump then turned a big berm into a jump. Jumped the berm hitting a light pole and fence.
Broke my jaw, nose, rib, 4 verts in my neck . Fractured my skull, TBI , compressed artery in my neck and teeth through my mouth. Coma for 4 days. Currently riding but wife says no races.

That supercross stuff is knarly, and dangerous. Glad your still riding. I think I am riding slow enough to keep the risk serious injuries reasonably low. Looks like you did not leave anything on the table. Have you been able to dial it back and still have fun? Or have you thought about staying off the supercross and tracks with big jumps? Or does that take all the fun out of it? I will say, and maybe because I never really had the chance to get into racing at a young age, I find the trail riding a lot of fun. The couple MX tracks I have went to generally are natural terrain type stuff with small jumps, plus I am too old to go for any crazy doubles on trail bike, but racing every now and then is fun.

 

[Nigel]

Nigel I'd say it's gonna be your internal scale that makes the decision for you, your concerns are valid but if the joy of riding (can think of a thousand worse ways to spend my our time) outweighs the fear of what "could" go wrong, & vice versa then you have your answer.. admittedly it's easy for me to say sitting here with all digits intact

I just gotta be honest about skill and keep an eye out for the surprises.

 

[Nigel]

Umm, thanks to you*

deezdad, maybe consider something less of a monster than a KX500. The beta 200 is a perfect trail bike. I almost looped it once, really manageable power with enough low end to be very ridable. That KX500 would be a handful.

 

[Nigel]

Oh & got you to thank for looking into a dam kx 500 .. need that bike like I do a hole in my head

Have you done any more BDR stuff lately?

 

[skidlid]

That supercross stuff is knarly, and dangerous. Glad your still riding. I think I am riding slow enough to keep the risk serious injuries reasonably low. Looks like you did not leave anything on the table. Have you been able to dial it back and still have fun? Or have you thought about staying off the supercross and tracks with big jumps? Or does that take all the fun out of it? I will say, and maybe because I never really had the chance to get into racing at a young age, I find the trail riding a lot of fun. The couple MX tracks I have went to generally are natural terrain type stuff with small jumps, plus I am too old to go for any crazy doubles on trail bike, but racing every now and then is fun.

I quit racing sno cross and tried to just trail ride but it just wasn’t something I enjoyed. Some days on the bike I am not feeling it and ride slower and don’t ride up to my ability . Still just fun hanging out with people that love Moto .
Just like looker room with team mates.

 

[deezdad]

I quit racing sno cross and tried to just trail ride but it just wasn’t something I enjoyed. Some days on the bike I am not feeling it and ride slower and don’t ride up to my ability . Still just fun hanging out with people that love Moto .
Just like looker room with team mates.

Kinda the reason I'm looking at that kx 500.. @ 50 yrs old I really got no business on it but I've been driving my truck into my boyhood stomping ground to checkout a new Beaver dam & all the wonderful wildlife it attracts, there's always ppl on dirt bikes hanging out at a spot where we use to do keg stands & jump off dirt cliffs around the time Buick was building our cars, be cool to pull up & tell some tales haha

 

[skidlid]

Kinda the reason I'm looking at that kx 500.. @ 50 yrs old I really got no business on it but I've been driving my truck into my boyhood stomping ground to checkout a new Beaver dam & all the wonderful wildlife it attracts, there's always ppl on dirt bikes hanging out at a spot where we use to do keg stands & jump off dirt cliffs around the time Buick was building our cars, be cool to pull up & tell some tales haha

I can hardly kick over a 250 now days. Been a long time since I rode a kx500 or cr500. Just remember wore me out keeping the front end down when on the gas.

 

[deezdad]

I can hardly kick over a 250 now days. Been a long time since I rode a kx500 or cr500. Just remember wore me out keeping the front end down when on the gas.

Good point.. when I was 1/2 my current size @ 13 I had a '79 cr250 "Elsinore" that had the kick starter on the left.. that was a bitch to start resorted to jump starting when I could as there was a down hill at bottom of moms street that led into the sand pits .. one time the throttle cable got hung up bike launched like a rocked from under me, I'm laying on the street bike is blocking traffic this black lady coming home from work yelled at me what the hell is wrong with you chiiild!

 

[corsair231]

I'm still into street bikes but I've never ridden off road before unless you count that time I wrecked and landed in the ditch (broke two vertebrae and a rib but was back on the bike before I got my brace off). Dirt and DP bikes have been catching my eye lately and I would love to pick one up. What worries me is although I've gotten older, that doesn't mean I've gotten any smarter about the risks I take. I tell myself that I want one just for the trail riding and it's not about the speed, but the technical aspect of navigating obstacles and getting to the places that a car can't easily traverse. The rub is, I don't heal as fast as I did in the past and since I know me, I'm afraid the temptation to catch some air would get the better of me. Of course, everybody tells me to get a side-by-side but to me, that's like all of these three wheeled things out here that people are calling bikes. It's just not the same and if it ain't got two wheels, I might as well get a Jeep.

 

[Nigel]

I'm still into street bikes but I've never ridden off road before unless you count that time I wrecked and landed in the ditch (broke two vertebrae and a rib but was back on the bike before I got my brace off). Dirt and DP bikes have been catching my eye lately and I would love to pick one up. What worries me is although I've gotten older, that doesn't mean I've gotten any smarter about the risks I take. I tell myself that I want one just for the trail riding and it's not about the speed, but the technical aspect of navigating obstacles and getting to the places that a car can't easily traverse. The rub is, I don't heal as fast as I did in the past and since I know me, I'm afraid the temptation to catch some air would get the better of me. Of course, everybody tells me to get a side-by-side but to me, that's like all of these three wheeled things out here that people are calling bikes. It's just not the same and if it ain't got two wheels, I might as well get a Jeep.

I did some dirt riding as youngster, never any formal competition just a lot of trails, farm land, and gravel pits. After 3 plus decades of time off, it was a lot of work getting proficient(at least what is proficient in my mind). I did not expect to get bit as hard as I did as I got back into it to teach my kid to ride. 3 years later ...

 

[Nigel]

We get election day off as a holiday, I voted early, so spent a few hours this morning trail riding. Pretty much jumped back in, and still having a good time. An absolutely beautiful fall day.