Any Good Riding Stories?

[MysterYvil]

I've been in riding withdrawal for a while now. The recent rains have exacerbated it.

I had to hang up my spurs last year. Between post-stroke and medication (damn Simvistatin experiments to hell!) effects I could no longer responsibly ride. Sold my Ninja, gave away my gear. Mrs. was having post-double-mastectomy issues at the same time, so she sold her trusty GS500 and gave away her gear as well.

I got 30 years in the saddle. Mrs. got 28 as the best pillion rider ever then two in the saddle. It was a good run.

So I'd like to hear some of your stories. I'll start with one of mine.

In November '10 we were headed from Salinas to Alice's. The weather went from chilly to cold, then cold and rainy, then to cold, foggy, and rainy. We turned off of Bear Creek Road onto Skyline. Down where Skyline is narrow and goaty. I kept the speed down because it was slick as hell and the oncoming locals were fairly thick. Came around a blind right-hander, hill to the right steep dropoff to the left and hit an icy patch.

The wind was just right (wrong?) to create such conditions.

I leaned forward, Mrs. matched. Our front stayed planted, the rear lost traction.

I did a stomp-and-drag. Kept the moto up. Didn't hit the hill, didn't go down the ravine. Just motored on.

We made it to Alice's and over a pleasant meal discussed it. Mrs. was unruffled, but wanted to know exactly what I had done to stay up.

When she got her moto my teacher and I taught her how to do the maneuver in an unpaved lot.

I miss riding! I miss people getting together to share techniques. I miss mid-ride meal talking.

 

[RRR70]

In the Kitchen Sink? Everyone knows we don’t ride.

 

[rodr]

Have you browsed the ride reports on advrider.com? Good stuff there.

 

[budman]

Which story do you want??

Teenage stuff:
Hiding in my high school
Trapped in a culdesac.
Wheelie for grandma.

Rally Stuff:
Caught by an aircraft. (Not)
Yellow banana ahead
Hitting sand
I am 1mph faster

Race stuff:
Helmet becomes unstrapped.
Out cold bees attacking.
Bad day in the mud with grandma.
Foot on fire.
Exxon Valdeez.
Damn I am fast grandma.
Tumble weed shake up.

Since it is in the sink I think it is OK to share.
Bummer on the current end of game brother.
Hope that changes if you want it too.

 

[i_am_the_koi]

This one time, in motorcycle camp...

 

[JesasaurusRex]

In the Kitchen Sink? Everyone knows we don’t ride.

This, nobody in the sink has a moto

 

[bikeama]

I will take "Out cold bees attacking" for $500 Alex.


My bee story, actually a yellow jacket. Riding by Camanche Lake in 1967 on my new Suzuki X-6 Hustler, loved that bike. A yellow jacket went down the back of my t-shirt. O'shat :wow what was happening to me. Pulled over and dropped my bike started to rip off my shirt. Felt so good to crush that wasp after the pain it had inflicted. Got home and my mom counted 20 bites on my back. :mad

 

[budman]

Out cold bees

I used to have the combo to the MX PAL track at the corner of 237 and Great America and would go practice there when it was closed. Early 80’s.

This day I took my 4 yo son with me and set him up at a picnic bench with his Tonka Toys and I went out to ride. I would stop by every so often...”How ya doing DJ? Hungry? Thirsty?”

After a few of those I thought is was cool to drop a 30 minute moto and went to work. Not sure how long I was at it before my front wheel climbed a berm and I face planted knocking me out cold and jacking my right knee.

Who knows how long I laying there. When I woke up my brand new turbo goggles had the fan dislodge. Turbo goggles were meant to keep the air moving as you sat on the start line before a moto at a race. I only got to use them once :rant

Coming to I had this buzzing and motion inside my goggles. The fan was flapping around going full steam just hanging by the wire. I immediately thought I had bees in my goggles and reacted violently trying to get them out.

After a few seconds I got the goggles off and relieved realized I was in pain. My legged had planted just as severely as my head and my knee was in pretty good pain. My next thought was DJ. Holy shit where is he?? How is he??

I struggled to get the bike up and limped it over to him not being able to kick it. I leaned it against the table and asked “How are you?” He said “good. Where have you been?” Thank God he was OK, but now I faced the challenge of getting him and my bike to the truck. How the hell was I going to load it.

There was no option on using a cell phone so I soldered on and got it there putting it into my ‘79 Toyota. Thank goodness it was low!! I remember DJ helping some.

We went home and within a week I was having knee surgery where they found my ACL was barely there from a college football injury that had been misdiagnosed and I had been left to heal on my own.

When I came too the Doc said “I have good news and bad news.
Operation went well but we found your ACL messed up and did not fix it”

I said why the hell not?

“Nobody here to ask permission”

:facepalm

“You can rehab for 9 months and we can fix it then or you can live with it”.

I chose live with it because I wanted to race. Set my course on my future knee issues and ultimately a knee replacement.

Damn bees.

 

[two wheel tramp]

Have you browsed the ride reports on advrider.com? Good stuff there.

No need to go there. Check out our sport touring or adv subsections.

 

[Kurosaki]

I met Eric Bostrom once on a weekend ride. He was cycling the same hill with some of his buddies.

 

[lefty]

About 14 years ago, I used to commute from Capitola to Menlo Park on my ZX9-R at 5:00AM every morning. Because I rode 17 every day, I thought I was speed racer.

Well one morning, as I was starting the climb up the hill (just past the Mt. Herman Rd. exit) I came upon a pack of cars (4-5) bunched together. I got bored of going 55mph, so I weaved my way through them. As soon as I passed them, a deer darted out from my right, I punched it, and veered as close as I could to that center divide on the left. I looked in my mirror and I saw what looked like a multi-car / deer collision!!!

My hands were still shaking as I passed the Lexington Reservoir!!!

 

[Brokenlink]

I was riding Bear Creek road one day a few years ago (East Bay BCR). It was my regular ride and I knew it well. I passed a "loose gravel" sign and thought nothing of it.

I came around a corner about 70 mph and fuck me if they hadn't completely removed the pavement and replaced it with about two inches of gravel. I shit myself. Then somehow I managed to keep it upright. Somehow. Now I pay more attention to the signs.

 

[Removed 3]

When I tell the story of how I met my significant other to non-riders, it takes me a while to tell it ...


The story is short n sweet to barfers. ... If it was not for my interest in learning how to ride after mourning for a year after the loss of my Mother And failing a riders training course late 2008- early 2009, I would not have met my soul mate.


I bought a Ninja 250 from a local dealership. The salesman recommended bayarearidersforum.com for a connection to the motorcycle community ... I bought a cheap trailer online that needed assembly so that I could transport my bike to a parking lot and practice .. the salesman recommended a local auto mechanic they outsourced their work on motorcycles and related work ... short story is, my s.o. was the guy who the auto shop owner gave the trailer assembly project to ... he was certified at the time to teach riding courses ... my newbie story on barf somehow caught his attention and he had made the connection with the trailer assembly project and my need to practice riding before I returned to the riders training course. While he helped get my motorcycle from my garage to spacious parking lots, his patience and lack of judgement really appealed to me and we have been together ever since (over 8yrs). Now that is a story worth telling over and over again ... he's like a gift from heaven. What I am not good at, he complements me. I am Very grateful.

 

[budman]

That is a good story. :thumbup

 

[MysterYvil]

BARF delivers! Your stories made me smile and wince in memory. :thumbup

"Foot on Fire" makes me curious, budman.

I ran across a fully geared and very soaked rider at 7-11 today (it's been pissing hard all day down here). I gave up two line slots so I could talk with him. Young guy, traveling through. Tall as the day is long. Turned out he was going from Los Banos to San Luis Obispo on his Ninja 300. He didn't know Salinas at all but had stopped for gas and food. Gas was okay, but one local diner refused him service because he was dripping wet. I led him to another and walked him in; they had no problem. We had a good lunch- he picked my brain about moto lore, I picked his about life for kids nowadays.

And damn, Ninja 300s are sexy motos!

 

[two wheel tramp]

When I tell the story of how I met my significant other to non-riders, it takes me a while to tell it ...


The story is short n sweet to barfers. ... If it was not for my interest in learning how to ride after mourning for a year after the loss of my Mother And failing a riders training course late 2008- early 2009, I would not have met my soul mate.


I bought a Ninja 250 from a local dealership. The salesman recommended bayarearidersforum.com for a connection to the motorcycle community ... I bought a cheap trailer online that needed assembly so that I could transport my bike to a parking lot and practice .. the salesman recommended a local auto mechanic they outsourced their work on motorcycles and related work ... short story is, my s.o. was the guy who the auto shop owner gave the trailer assembly project to ... he was certified at the time to teach riding courses ... my newbie story on barf somehow caught his attention and he had made the connection with the trailer assembly project and my need to practice riding before I returned to the riders training course. While he helped get my motorcycle from my garage to spacious parking lots, his patience and lack of judgement really appealed to me and we have been together ever since (over 8yrs). Now that is a story worth telling over and over again ... he's like a gift from heaven. What I am not good at, he complements me. I am Very grateful.

And he's a f'ing awesome member of our community.

 

[Removed 3]

wholeheartedly agree!

 

[budman]

Foot on Fire

BARF delivers! Your stories made me smile and wince in memory. :thumbup

"Foot on Fire" makes me curious, budman.

My pleasure. Fun to recall the details.
I consider this a pretty unique moto story. :laughing


When I transitioned to racing from MX my right knee was already challenged. I had a bit of a time bending to not to drag right my right toes.

I developed toes sliders from Mother Earth. In this case left over repaving rubber like goobers.

Ok not Mother Earth more like Mothers Paving.

A little duct tape and a goober and I have awesome toe sliders, well before they were invented. Missed that opportunity.

One day I came to the track for race day and the goobers were gone. They had swept the pits ......everything. Oh shit.

I searched. Hard. No luck.
I went to my SR5 and searched. In the glove box was a plastic domino. Win! Perfect. How did it get there?? :dunno

Tape it up. I thought “Damn this is a better design than goobers. Being thicker I should sense it earlier and have much more time wearing it down”.

Sweet. :thumbup
Stoked.

Line up. Race!!!
They were 11 laps and 60 -70 riders in those days and about 8 in my toes got hot. By the last lap damn HOT!

I thought “Damn - mutherfucker fell off. I am burning off my toes”....and I remember Doug Polen. :wtf :laughing

I was 5-8th or so. First time in the top 10 this late in a race and stoked. There was no backing off.
“Toes be damned” :rant

The last couple laps I did my best to stay toes up! Man I thought for sure I had some damage when on the cool off lap a fellow racer frantically pointed at my hurting foot. I looked down expecting to see some carnage and saw smoke!!

Holy shit!

I was in turn 9 (old school 9) at was almost at pit lane. I sped up to expedite my return to the pit. Wholly shit my foot is on fire!!

I quickly dismounted after breaking the pit speed limit with smoke coming off my foot and my crew (Not really..just a couple friends) were pointing and going ??? Lucky for me Emmo grabbed my fire extinguisher, but his first couple of attempts missed because I was jumping like a kangaroo. It hurt.

When I dismounted quite frantically and when I looked down and saw a solid rectangle of burning embers I was blown away!! It looked like BBQ coals when they are red. That is when I started jumping. :banana

I quickly stopped and he put it out after just a few more seconds. Holy shit. Talk about adrenalin on top of adrenalin. :wow

Turns out the domino was plastic coated solid wood. The friction eventually wore thru the plastic and ignited the wood. Modern moto caveman technique. :laughing

Minor injuries compared to what I thought....and of course ....Polen.

 

[ThumperX]

Recently I attended the wait list ride at the MCMA. I really want to be part of this club. I brought my little CRF230 not the Beta thank goodness.

We do the intro trail over a steep metal bridge, through a rock field, then a gentle maybe 2 mile single track. No problem.

Next we hit another slightly more challenging (Carnegie Blue?) trail and I'm getting it. No problems with the steeper terrain my guide says he's about ready to turn me loose and we go again.

As we decend, I hit a rock, it upsets my posture and I am holding onto the bars. I'm pulling back and of course WFO that little 230. We get airborne and in an effort to not die I'm looking at a soft bushy patch between trees, where I land tangled yet unscathed. My guide looks down, shakes his head. Along comes another rider.

I'm looking up through a dust cloud, sun in my eyes, and this Golden Angel, who resembles a young Captain America is there to help extract the bike all the while recounting the times he's WFOed into that same lush grove of poison oak. As the bike is hauled up the trail I recognize him.

He is Dillon Shepherd :facepalm

He and Niles escort me down to the Women's bathroom, pass me a bottle of Technu and try their hardest not to laugh at me :laughing

 

[Eldritch]

I've been in riding withdrawal for a while now. The recent rains have exacerbated it...

...I miss people getting together to share techniques. I miss mid-ride meal talking.

Man, based on title I thought you were going to be telling Porn Stories.