Friend down!

[2strokd]

I was out for i little ride with my friend that owns the 07 DiTech last night. We were coming up on a pretty slow(15mph) set of turns that are usually pretty fun to take at speed.
A couple hundred feet before the turn he told me to watch him carve it.
Before i go any further let me tell you my buddy can ride and ride well.
He has road and raced everything from BMX(still does) to 1000+cc Sport bikes.
He took off WOT heading for the turn as i paced back watching. He took the first turn text book at around 30-35mph with his knee centimeters off the ground.
He pitched and went through the second well, but the exit was not so well . There was still a bit of salt and sand dust from the winter still on the road causing the back of his scoot to shoot out almost in the other lane...I think him being a darn good rider helped him keep it in his lane, but he couldnt stop it from 'highsiding' BAD! It threw him about ten feet in the air and he hit the road HARD ! It sounded like a car accident! I felt so helpless just watching that unfold and not being able to do anything to stop it. Of course i pulled up as fast as possible and hoped to all good in life he didnt hit his head because neither one of use had our helmets on . And yes i feel dumb for not having it on! Normally i do, i when i dont i ride 'as safe as possible' but as ive said before, who the hell plans on this shit? 'Hhhmmm, its a nice day, let me see if i can go out and break my back, or bust my melon?' NOPE, not anybody with any sense anyway! So then i ask myself, why the heck didnt you have it on? Not again!
So then im thinking, Thank you!!!! He didnt hit his head! Ohh, no his shoulders arent supposed to be that way ? FFFuu*&! I didnt want to scare him by saying anything just yet.
He was in shock a bit and kinda shouting for me to pick his scooter up. I was more worried about him of course but went ahead and picked the poor Ape up outta the ditch, still running BTW . He got on the thing and road it the mile or so to my house with one arm. We pull into my drive and he gets off, puts his scooter on the freakin centerstand without saying a word. Then looks at me and says "i gotta go to the hospital, i broke my colar bone". I said, Holly ffnn sh!t, ya think man! Are you there? Sit down and let your head clear a little!" He says, "Nope, be too late then. The pain kicks in too hard if ya wait." LMAO! Ok, thats right who am i talkin to?
So off to the hospital he goes. He asked if i would stay and look at his scooter. I said sure, i hate hospitals.
He was right, he broke his collar bone. We had a little talk after he got home and things calmed...I told him that i didnt want to rag on him but he knew better, and we shouldnt be riding w/out helmets at all, let alone pushing it to the edge. We already have lost too many good people from lack of helmets when head hitting pavement.
Not saying they will save your life, just your head...And a huge ass chewing .

[90GTVert]

That sucks, but I'm glad it was no worse. Hard riding on the street just isn't safe. Not saying I don't do it either, that's how I crashed T1. Hope he heals quick. I'm sure you can take care of his Ape.

[2strokd]

Yea, we gotta take it easy on the streets...You might remember an old post of mine from last year when i mentioned him. I talked about Skeedr smoking my buddies DiTech in the straights but he out cornered me on it.
We only road once together last year and agreed we probably shouldnt ride too much together
cause we get too nutty.
His Ape held up real well considering how hard it hit. No broken plastic or bent anything, just a little road rash that im gonna "blend in" for him today. Then i will take it home to him. Hopefully he will cheer up some when he sees how well it looks, if all goes well?

[90GTVert]

I do remember that now. Sounds like you guys were right back then. I wouldn't quit riding together though, just try to keep it to some degree of sensibility and wear gear in case that plan fails. I'm sure it'll be nice for him to know his scoot is mostly OK and doesn't need a bunch of money spent.

[2strokd]

I think he will be happy when im done. Im no body man, but its nothing a file and light sanding wont fix. I know we will be riding again soon, but yea, safer!

[shiftless]

Sorry to hear about your buddy's spill
Broken collarbone is a bitch... I broke mine racing mx once
It'll heal in time
Cool of you to tend to his bike for him

Wear your bucket...... Sh!t happens when you least expect it

[Fox]

I broke my collar bone 5 years ago when I first got my blue scoot. Luckily I had my full-face helmet on because if not my head would have been hamburger on the left side and I would have had a concussion for sure.

I will never ride without a full-face helmet again. Those half dome things are worthless.

Glad your buddy's going to be okay. It takes 6 weeks til you can use your arm again and another 6 month to a year til the pain goes away.

[Reign]

I broke my collar bone a few years back as well. It took a few weeks to heal, and now its stronger than ever. I honestly think sometimes about breaking my other one just so that it's stronger. When I lift weights, my unbroken one hurts, but the broken one is fine

[90GTVert]

Good lord! How much weight do you have to lift to make your bones hurt?!? I used to lift a lot and never really hurt my bones.

[stepthrutuner]

I meant to comment here earlier but I had to work on my Daughter's car again. Problem w/O₂ sensor heater circuit. I hurriedly assumed that replacement of the sensor would fix it but $75 later and a time-consuming 'patch-in' for a generic Bosch unit, no such luck. Oh well, that'll teach me to not get in a hurry and assume.

Anyway back to the thread subject. I'm as guilty as anyone about riding w/o protection. Both of my 40mph offs (one on pavement and one on gravel) were w/o a helmet and I'm damn lucky that I was not more seriously injured. The first one (on pavement) happened right after I had just put on my brand spanking new NextR (and that probably had a lot to do with it, sampling that new found power ). Luckily the scoot went down on the opposite side. In the other one I hit a crater in the road I didn't see right after topping a hill. Needless to say I am a bit more cautious now.

Sorry about your friend's collar bone. Hope it heals quick and fine. We all need to take this lesson to heart.

[2strokd]

Hes doing pretty good. On pain meds, but came over for a while today and was happy to see his scooter wasnt bad at all really. Even happier when i told him by the time he could ride again he would have a new vari and torque spring.
Ended up about taking both our heads off today though! Man, im tellin ya! It gets nuts round here sometimes. I was showing him is cvt in action because hes never seen one working. Since we had his cover off so i could see if his vari was restricted (was) i figured it was a good time to show him. Only problem was, some were in the middle of talking to him and whatever else i was thinking i forgot to tighten the vari nut. I fired his scoot up w/out the cover and started to slowly rev it as we watched it shift (closely). It rounded 3/4 of the drive when, BOOOM! The vari exploded right in front of our faces!!! It was nuts! I thought we were had! Pieces of rollers and vari parts were everywere. The crazy part is, we didnt even get as much as a scratch! I think we had someone looking over our shoulders cause i still dont see how? It was my fault and i felt miserable. He told me not to worry about it, he cant ride it anyway and a new vari is on the way.
That helped but the thought of vari shrapnel in our heads and faces sucks. I will NEVER forget to tighten a vari nut again!

[stepthrutuner]

Reminds me of the time I was replacing a head gasket on an ohc Datsun engine for a little extra cash. I had wedged the cam chain between the guides with a hardwood wedge. The owner was talking to me as I was finishing up the job (putting the cam/valve cover on etc.). Anyway, I buttoned it up and started it up only to remember that I had forgotten to remove the wedge. I quickly removed the cover only to find the wedge pretty much in pristine condition and no resulting damage. Seems with one side of the chain going up and the other going down the piece of wood more or less just kind of floated in place and no harm was done. Whew, I put the cover back on and collected my money.

[90GTVert]

I left something inside of an engine because I was talking to someone while I was working on it. I forget what it was. Never started it. I realized whatever it was was missing and said oh sh... My father was a mechanic most of his life and he always said lots of people felt the need to watch and talk to him. Maybe those people should read this stuff and reconsider. Just be happy in the waiting room or waiting for a phone call to tell you it's ready.

[2strokd]

Still kinda freaked out about that! I was real lucky! Still picking up pieces of rollers all over the garage. I got lucky in more than one way. The aftermarket vari doesnt come with a fan half. Somehow his made it through fine? He said he saw it fly right in front of his face before it bounced off my garage wall leaving a little dent, then hitting the garage door....Not a scratch on it! Man, im starting to think a stunt Ape would be a good idea.?. These things are tuff!

Ive done stuff like you mentioned too Reg. Live and learn lol. Too darn easy to get sidetracked when someone shows a real interest in your favorite thing, and asks all the right questions while your working on it. Credit to the teachers out there!