gtx,
Try to picture this scenario, take your DS bike, strip it of all lights,
ride it at night with no moonlight in an unfamiliar area cross country, no
real roads and cattle roaming loose over thousands of acres. There were 20
or so of us riding single file about 20 meters apart. All you could really
see of the bike in front of you was a silhouette. One of the guys in the
middle of the group fell, going slow so no real injuries (except maybe his
pride), by the time he (and the rest of the group) got back going again, the
front of the group was nowhere to be seen. The guy who fell thought he saw
one of us ahead and proceeded to catch and follow that silhouette. Turns
out he was following a stray cow. We weren't riding fast, just putting
along in 2nd gear about 10 or 12 mph. When the back part of the group
realized what had happened, they shut off their bikes to try and locate the
rest of us by following the sound of our bikes. Taking off in the direction
of our sound, the leader of the "lost" group rode his bike into a ravine and
crashed hard, turns out there was some "junk" concrete left by one of the
local ranchers in the bottom of the ravine, he hit his head on the concrete
and his CVC helmet split down the middle and came off with the chin strap
still intact and fastened. The guy immediately behind him saw the first
rider just drop out of site, so he laid his bike down right at the edge of
the drop off. The second rider got off his bike at the top with his bike
perched at the edge, the third rider bumped the second guys bike and pushed
it over the edge right on top of the guy laying under his bike at the
bottom. Keep in mind that all these bikes had been crashed many times in
the dirt, and most of them had the rubber ends torn off of the grips,
leaving a bare steel end sticking out. When that second bike landed on top
of the first, one of the handle bar ends went right into the rider's eye
socket. End of story for his career and a normal life.
The whole idea of Masters Testing programs when I served in the Army was to
try and put one years worth of wear and tear on a piece of equipment in only
90 days, to try and get an idea of reliability and maintenance costs. It
was the opinion of most of the people in my unit, myself included, that had
we been equipped with real helmets, the rider most likely would have
remained conscious after the impact and would not have been laying
unconscious under his bike after a seven foot fall.
----- Original Message -----
From: gtx
To: DSN_klr650@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, July 14, 2001 6:38 PM
Subject: Re: [DSN_klr650] Re: NKLR Sad News
> Sorry to hear of the loss of you're friend, but in the interests of other
> riders myself included, how did the other guy lose his eye?
> I think it is this kind of injury that makes people sit up and take
> notice,road rash in my opinion is an acceptable risk to take[in moments of
> madness] on severly hot days[ t-shirt,vest,etc], however I just never ride
> without a helmet,and it depends on the type of riding you're doing
> ,challenging offroad or you're favorite bit of tarmac .
> But when it comes to sight I for one am very safe,or hope to be!
> The worlds a shitty place sometimes!
> with one eye shittier
> To be blind, well you get my point
> Gary
> ----- Original Message -----
>