I very nearly experienced a tragedy yesterday and it made me realize something.

I have a close friend who I've done a lot of dangerous stuff with. We used to climb around on buildings and blow stuff up back in college. Back when you could make explosives and detonate them without going to jail. But we were never fool hardy.

So I figured I'd share trials riding with him. He took a look a some videos, and being an old mountain biker he was enthusiastic about trying it out.

Yesterday around lunch time I took my GG300 over to his shop and we tooled around on it a little bit. He was having a ball and picked it up very quick. I lost sight of him for a moment and when I turned back around he's trying to jump a curb! I don't know what the hell happened but an instant later the throttle is pegged and he's riding a wheelie across the parking. Actually, he only went about 20 feet, but the acceleration buried him in the rear of my Expedition and put him in the hospital with a broken face and eye socket. The dude is F'd up. Thank God I was running those TAG bars with the thick clamp pad or I think he'd be dead. I was a bastion of strength until the ambulances arrived at which point I sort of turned into a babbling idiot and stumbled around sobbing for an hour or so. They say he's going to be okay but he's heavily sedated right now and is going to need surgery.

Needless to say, the 300 came away without a scratch. I only wish the bike would have been destroyed and we could have laughed about it over a beer at lunch.

That said, the whole thing did not turn me off to trials or even to motorcycles in general. It was a freak accident. Nevertheless I feel completely responsible, will never fully forgive myself, and have gained a new RESPECT for these machines. I feel they definitely fall into the "Don't try this at home," category. Because even a novice rider like me, who can ride safely, has already mastered the basics of throttle, clutch, and brake. And these bikes are just too powerful and dangerous for someone without even that level of limited experience.

Be careful loaning these things out to anyone who is not already an experienced rider, even in a parking lot, because all you need is about 20 feet to wind up in an ambulance.

-John

I just did it again the other day, let a friend ride my newly bought Enduro bike and he trys somthing stupid, no injurys, just some nice new scratches in my new blue plastics.:cry:

Once behind a Bicycle shop in alley, bike mechanic says let me ride your Montesa. Pins throttel on take off, screams acoss main road lucky no cars into parking lot where he finally nailed front brake, result more scratches.

Again, BMX superstar asked to ride my 2000 sherco, right away doing stoppies intill he crashed bending bars.

Nobodys fault but mine!:banghead:

Wow, how scarey! sorry to here about it, and glad he's expected to be ok, i hope it's expected to be a full recovery.
Was he wearing a helmet?

I tried wearing my fullface bicycle helmet for trials practice once, maybe i'll try that some more for better protection.

When I loan my bike to newbies, i try to scare the heck out of them before they ride (within reason, of course), and give them all the info they need so they give it the respect it deserves.

(i've also learned to let them know that THEY need to plan to fix whatever they break, which is exactly what I would do if I mess up someone else's bike. Of course in your case, things are obviously a bit... different)

Helmet didn't make a difference since it was open face and that is where the impact occurred. I just want to encourage everyone to run good bar clamp pads. That is why he is not much more seriously injured. Also lucky it was a TAG bar since they have no crossbrace. Even padded that would have done a lot more damage.

But I don't think it is a matter of teaching someone well. Throttle/clutch/brake need to be instinctive and this entire accident occurred over about a second. Far too little time to react for someone who is not experienced even if they know where everything is. Honestly I have never seen anything like this happen. Guess that just proves I haven't been around bikes long enough.

I would never dream of asking him to fix any of this. His medical bills alone are going to be probably 10 or 20 times my car repair bills. I just feel so horrible about the whole thing. Can't get it out of my head...

-JB

Sorry to hear about the accident.
Remember you didn't force him to get on, or screw the throttle open to take off.
Hope he recovers quickly.

Kem

Sorry to hear about your friend.

For something so seemingly docile, it's surprising how much get up and go these things can muster, and how quickly things can go awry when an inexperienced pilot is on board. Or even with an experienced one sometimes for that matter.

Yes, very sorry to hear... Unfortunately, parking lot accidents with Trials Bikes are quite common and often serious. For that reason, I refuse to put on demonstrations for friends and strangers. Parking lot wheelies are notorious for creating some serious injuries.

These bikes look so cute and harmless and are quite often not taken seriously by the unprepared new rider going for a 5 minute test ride.

With the super grip of the low pressure Trials Tire and the instant response backed by tremendous low RPM torque, these bikes are probably the quickest bikes made coming off of a standing start for at least the first 50 feet or more, especially on asphalt or concrete.

I hope your friend recovers fully.

He was MUCH better yesterday afternoon. Sitting up, talking, looking around, recognizing people. And he remembers the incident up until the last few minutes. Still, it looked like someone had taken a 2x4 to his mug but it is more clear every hour that he is going to be over the worst of it in a few weeks.

I wonder if we should have a warning as a sticky on this thread. I've been on a lot of bikes and these trials machines are just different. Seemingly so docile and yet at the same time, such incredible power. Like a subcritical mass of uranium-235 that goes suddenly supercritical. I honestly had no idea that something like this could happen. Hence the title, respect. Just something simple to help people who are new to the sport understand that parking lot test rides by the uninitiated are to be avoided and that high end trials bikes are not an appropriate introduction to the great sport of motorcycle riding. Maybe not a warning so much as a primer. I'm a writer and would be happy to put together something positive but informative and let the gurus review and add to it. I love this sport and don't intend to change my attitude, but I'd hate to see anyone else be as naive about the danger as I was.

John

Hey John, you've already done alot of good by sharing this story so people can hear first hand of the dangers.
Trials bikes have such explosive power, it's good for us all to be reminded that they don't belong in the hands of people new to motorcycles. Even some riders with some trials experience don't truly understand how much power there is until they've accidently held the throttle WFO for a few seconds.
I'm glad to hear your friend is improving.
That must have been one horrific thing to experience.
Wish him well from the TT forum!

John, So sorry about what happened to your friend. Sharing this with the gang will very likely help us avoid a similar situation, so thank you!
It is so tempting to share this trials experience with others and your story will help me be very careful before I expose someone unfamiliar to my bikes.
Coming from a WR450, I have underestimated this bikes ability to convert power to traction, and been thrown to the ground a few times because of it.
Most of my minor(but painful) injuries have been trying to prevent damage to the bike- after a few of these I have been training myself to LET IT GO- its just metal and plastic, I am much more valuable and expensive to repair.
Hope your friend heals fast!
Doug

Gandalf_WR450 said:

Words to live by.

And thanks everyone. My buddy is in surgery right now to repair his broken cheek bones. Fortunately he is already nearly back to his old self, lying in a hospital bed cracking jokes and recalling stupid (but fun - and occasionally legal) things he and I did in the past.

-John

Man, really glad to hear your bud's in good spirits. What a crazy thing to happen. Hopefully his surgery goes well and he's back to 100% in no time. Nothing worse than something like this happening when everyone's having a good time and screwing around.

Best of luck to him. Let him know the boys on TT are pulling for his speedy recovery:thumbsup:

Good to hear that he's going to be OK.

I think that sometimes it's hard for those of us who's riding experience goes back many years to when we were kids to remember some of the simple mechanics of riding that we now take totally for granted.

I learned to ride a bicycle at age 5, then a motorcycle 5 years later ~39 years ago. Many of the things I do while riding I'm not even aware I'm doing most of the time.

Last night at our regular Wednesday coffee shop gathering of local riders I brought up this thread. We got to talking about all the things we do subconsciously when we ride. One example that we discussed was how the brake controls on a bicycle are swapped from those of a motorcycle.

Many of us have also been riding bicycles since we were kids and frequently jump on a bicycle and ride around and then hop right on a motorcycle and ride. For example, when I was road racing, I used to use my bicycle to get around the pits and then hop on my race bike and head right out onto the track. The switch requires no conscious thought on our part - the hands automatically grab the appropriate lever for the current cycle type.

Armed with the repertoire of subconscious skills we've acquired over time, we (at least I know I have) perceive that a putt around the parking lot on the mild little trials bike should be a piece of cake even for a beginner.

This thread helps makes one think a little more before offering a friend the chance to ride - thanks :thumbsup:

On a lighter note, remember tennis ball cannons?

We used to make them from tin soda pop cans and use lighter fluid as a propellant. Shot them nearly out of sight . . . :applause:

Me and the guy who got hurt the other day made those alcohol cannons back in college - the mid-80's. He was the one who showed me how to make them. Probably the most clever guy I've ever known. And he showed me my first potato cannon. And he and I used to launch water balloons at the tennis courts a hundred yards from his condo down at Auburn. We got pretty good at surprising the players. The dumbest thing we ever did was a lye+aluminum foil bomb from a plastic soda can. You know the kind that builds pressure from CO2 production until the case ruptures. We made them ALL THE TIME and finally got the dumb idea of tying a small one to a bunch of helium balloons. The damn thing floated right out into the middle of College St. about ten feet high and just hung there, cars whizzing right underneath it. And the bottle full of concentrated sodium hydroxide. Now that was dumb. But probably not as dumb as putting a large piece of sheet steel (about 4'x6')over a hole full of gasoline vapors out in Tuskeegee National Forest. Blew that piece of steel about 400 feet high. It was then that we realized we couldn't see it coming back down through the trees. Nearly took another guy's head off when it augured in. Then again, dropping a pumpkin ten stories off of Haley Center was pretty stupid too.

Anyway, he had surgery this afternoon and now has a polyethylene plate and some titanium in his face. But the surgeon said it went well and he should go home tomorrow evening. He's only going to have his jaw wired shut for a month.

So when he gets all healed up we are going to build that trebuchet we've been talking about the last ten years, and toss some V8 engine blocks into the Elk River.
-JB

As bad as these stories are, they always serve to remind us all of the danger involved each and every time we throw a leg over! It sounds like he's in good spirits and on the road to recovery. I hope that he heals fast!

David

A friend of mine and his wife were playing on his new toy, an older cota? She looped it out in short order and has been injured for over a year now. She had riding experience on bigger bikes but not on trials bikes. Just another example to be careful out there! Hope you're friend heals up well, glad to hear he is getting back to his normal self. That sonds like a close call, good luck to you both.

My buddy is home and healing up nicely. Still black and blue in the face but looks like himself again. Somehow he managed to avoid any damage whatsoever to any other part of his body so at least he's not hobbling around on crutches or anything like that. Finally got my truck out of the shop, too.

-John

Glad to here your Buddy is home. Made me think twice about lending my bikes.

I very rarely let anybody but an experienced rider try my trials bike. Even many experienced guys aren't well prepared for the instant throttle response or the brakes.