First real fail........

[houndog]

Well, fellas, 5k miles and my first real crash. On a path I ride 5-20 times a week.
......and if I had not crashed at 45mph and instead slammed or skidded into the trees across the path, that were obscured by a limb hanging down and a slight curve, I'd be out riding today. Had I hit the trees, I'd just be "out" for good, most likely.

Luckily, the excellent front brake worked, locked up, snatched bars, kicked back tire up and the strategically placed stump allowed my head to slow my sliding along the ground to come to a stop just in front of the 2 trees that were dead with bare limbs a couple feet long. The trees were angled down the path and the limbs would have surely impaled me had I not locked that brake.

Super glue worked great to glue my face back. I seemed, other than the face thing completely undamaged, so was the bike! Well, actually I was bleeding from the torn lip, mouth, and nose and had a little bark imbedded in my head. No big deal. Mac was freaked out. He thought I was incoherent and stumbling around. He could not hear me over the Husky and his helmet (he's smarter than me). I was not stumbling! My pistol (PMR30 KelTec,bad ass) had gotten tossed and the magazine was missing! I was looking for the Mag. and he thought I was messed up There was plenty of blood but I really was not "hurt". The mag. was under the trees. It was that close, boys.

Mac did not see the trees until after I got up! They were perfectly camouflaged by the slight bend and the bushy hanging limb. He thinks he would have slammed them even though he was going at least 20mph slower than me. He does not know the path. I could ride it asleep.

My buddy was on his first ride on his completely restored 500 Husky. He can not start it! We towed it to get it going. He had to keep his bike running and could not help me. Of course since all we were doing was a test ride I did not bother to put on anything except my safety glasses and gloves. The stump was rotten and my head demolished it. So we got back and I put some bandaids on and rode the 450 around the block. No pain issues at all,
Had to change safety glasses as they were blood soaked and had bark lodged in them!

Got back. Cut Husky off. Mac tried to start it. No luck, wore him out, I kicked the damn thing 1 freaking time and it fired up! Started it 8 more times with a total of about 20 kicks. I did it easily.

So we go in for a beer. That's when I noticed it (my knee) was swelling. Uh oh. This was last Sat. By Tue. it was big as a grapefruit and turning purple.
Since I'd whacked my head pretty good I did not want to take anything that would thin my blood in case my brain were leaking. Not likely but possible.

My neck and base of skull were sore but not terrible. Still sore when I wake up but goes away as I move around. Super Glue worked like a charm on the flap torn from my lip. It may leave a scar but is healing fine.

Leg is yellow down to ankle now and the purple is dissipating. It seems to work fine, did before swelling too, but still swollen enough to not bend correctly. I think it might take a while to recover, which sucks!

Those damn trees were not down a couple days before. They fell, were not cut.
Man, my legs look like toothpicks!
1st is a couple hours later. 2nd is Tues.
Ed
edit**** I mean first real fail on the EC300 since I owned it and >5k miles! She was a never sold, "new" 2004. If my knee does not heal I'll need an electric start.....or just ride the 450

 

[AZRickD]

Sometimes I'm glad I'm not fast.

 

[houndog]

Hey Rick, I'm not fast. I'm confident, stupid and apparently "tough". I ride that path at 24 mph. There are a couple straights where you can hit 50 or more. This happened to be one of them. I knew Mac was going really slow since he does not know the path and it was the first ride on the Husky. I had in mind to blast to the end and then tease him for driving like an old lady. Knowing full well, we NEVER can bait each other into going to fast! But I can tease him!
Not this time.
Ed

 

[swazi_matt]

That looks like a haematoma. I had a knee like that once the doc drained more than 100 cc blood out of my knee and it felt a hell of a lot better, may want to get it checked

Did I understand right that you were not wearing a helmet?

 

[houndog]

Swazi, boy I was hoping that would slip through. No, I was not. We intended on just going around the block and coming back and getting gear on. Taking the path was an after thought. I may leave w/o a helmet but never w/o eye protection. Grabbed the glasses, gloves were sitting there. My eyes and hands are perfect! Other stuff was back at the house. In this case the helmet would have only saved me a cut lip and abrasions on my head. I am not making excuses or rationalizing not having it. Just stating the facts. It was still a stupid decision.

I was very, very lucky. The main lesson I learned is never blast down my paths again before riding them slowly first!

I'm not kidding here, I have a "method" to insure I don't crash by just going too fast. It's simple and has worked for me for years and years. It may work for others.......I simply never go so fast that I have to take my feet off the pegs. I leave my drive, ride my paths, 10 1/2 miles counting the roads and the next time the feet come off the pegs I'm pulling in the drive. That applies to all riding, no matter where. Now, don't get me wrong, sometimes as we all know you must stick a leg down. What I mean is on "paths" or "trails", like at the forest where you don't need too. Please do not think I'm claiming to be some super rider, not hardly, I just dislike crashing so I found a way to insure I'm not going "too fast". Usually works. Never took my feet off the pegs last Sat. until I was flying through the air!
Did I mention I was a lucky man, at least so far, we'll see how the leg plays out. I sent an email to a friend who's a Doc. in another state, He knows I'll not go actually see one unless it is required. I can take it easy for a few weeks if need be.
Happy trails!
Ed

 

[Coop]

Sorry to read about your knee. Hope that heals ok.

I won't comment on the no helmet, even just "around the block". You can probably guess our opinion on that .

 

[houndog]

Thanks, Mike. I'll say it for you....."idiot". I've always felt indestructible but many times have been shown this is not the case. It's embarrassing admitting I did not "helmet up" but it's the truth and again, I got very lucky. Had that stump not been completely rotten and like mush not even my hard head would have shrugged it off. I don't mind being told I'm an idiot when I act like one. It shows concern. My wife does it all the time only she uses the word "stupid".

I was bit by a rattlesnake in '85. A couple years later was riding (in a car) with a buddy and we came across one in the road. He made the mistake of saying "bet you won't pick another one of those up" when we stopped to let it cross.
Watcha think happened next? No kidding, he was almost in tears (literally) apologizing and begging me not to pick it up. I loved it. I did. Point is, it's hard to shame me into anything or scare me but on the other hand, I am a severe burden on the wife and daughter right now. That works to change my behavior almost every time. And it's just my knee.

I'll always do it for the family.....helmet 100% of the time from now on. First time this concept has hit me!
Ed

 

[bowhunter007]

I'll bet most of us have little skeletons in our closets(referring to your fiasco). I'm of course, not admitting any guilt Hears to a speedy & full recovery.

 

[Cruiser]

Heal fast!! and for god sake dont play with them rattle snakes! get that knee checked out!!
If you really like those snakes they used to do a "rattle snake round up" somewhere near my place.. could always box up a few for you.. I dont like them much..

 

[houndog]

Thanks Steve, don't get the wrong idea. I was not playing with the snake, but I did drive home holding it to get the wife to take pics I got sloppy. I was actually just rescuing it from the middle of the road. It needed to be relocated. Was too near houses. I rescue or put down (injured beyond help) every single animal I see on the road. Turtles, snakes, racoons, possums.......if it's in the wrong place it gets relocated, if it's "time to go" I sadly do that for them too.

Last night about 4am we heard our dogs barking and one whine. I went out and Sha-Blackie was laying down and bloated. I knew she had the "twisted stomach/intestines" aka "the bloat". Her tongue was black. It had been storming all day and she always hid during storms or busted in the house.

She walked inside and into the bathroom where she would go after busting in the house...she was >100 pounds and hard to stop Plus if she was scared we didn't mind. It was a little after 5am when I decided to put her in Jeep and drive to Vet and wait on them to open. She died while I was getting dressed. I buried her at 5:30am.

My knee ain't shit compared to that pain.
Ed

 

[GMP]

I know what you mean, that sucks, real sorry about that. One of the worst times was putting my first pit down when she had cancer.

Hey, hope you heal up fast!

 

[swazi_matt]

If there is one thing i have learnt about dirt bikes is that they are evil animals waiting to take advantage of you. Most of my buddies worst and most gruesome accidents have happened when they were in shorts and t-shirt and just wanted to warm up the engine to drain oil so took the bike for a spin round the block - the bike noticed that there was no protective gear on found a little bit more traction and horsepower and the result was some serious road tax.

Hope you heal up quick, and get the knee drained, it is normally a minor procedure - a needle and syringe op done by your GP

 

[Wheelieman69]

Real sorry about your pup. That is the worst feeling. I agree get the knee drained It will heal quicker with a bit less fluid. If you don't you will create a bakers cyst behind your knee possibly causing you more grief.


Wheelieman

 

[Coop]

Ah man I am very sorry to read about your dog! That makes me sad. 3 years ago we had to have our dogs put to sleep within 6 months of each other. They were 13 & 12 respectively and we had them since they were pups. I really feel for you man.

 

[houndog]

Thanks guys for the kind words. Sha- Blackie 2 was a rescue from a shelter. Sha-Blackie 1 was hit by the UPS driver. She ran right out in front of him, right in front of me. The next day I went and got Sha -Blackie 2 so that Sha-Princess would not be lonely. We'll miss her. The "2 stupids" were dumped in front of our house. Same thing for Goldie, Coffee Creame, Baby, Axl, and Black Ivy aka "Lotion" (the best dog on any planet in any universe or known dimension) . We'd like to be done with dogs but the assholes in the country seem to think it's ok to just dump them. It's a wonder we don't have 100.

Swazi....I know what you mean! I was at these guys house watching them ride around on their Honda minibikes. They ride them on the back wheel and standing on the seat! These guys are NUTS! Well, the Ting Ting was watching and saw each one have a small fail. I am sure that is where she got the idea pitching me would be fun. I'm glad she did, this time!

Guys, mentioning "doctors" and "needles" in the same sentence just does not work for me. I did mention when bit by the snake I really did call a friends Dad to see if he thought I should go to hospital. I was not at first!

No need to worry about getting a Bakers Cyst.......already have one each leg!
My Doc friend said "if it gets too bad you'll have to have it drained and it could be painful" My response? They will never get that bad!

I'm a sissy. Doctors scare the bat shit out me.....ya'll know they call it "practicing medicine", right? Just that alone freaks me out. They admit right up front they may not know what the Hell they are doing!

Thanks again guys, for the thoughts and kind words. It really does suck being laid up like this! I am getting better each day, however! Since I work for myself and am waiting on some parts I at least can take it easy for a little while. The only downside is that it's boring and that leads me to write really long posts on the forums I enjoy
Ed
ps....Doc's reading this......seriously, I do have respect and admiration for what you do. You just scare me really bad.

 

[jhendr3702]

we help a dog rescue org and foster for them.. right now i have 3 of my own, plus a momma dog we found that was prego and sick.. she had 8 pups about 2 weeks later, then they all got sick.. so we have 12 dogs at my house right now.. we live in the country so dumped dogs are always around...

hardest one for me.... we had a basenji ( barkless dogs ) that we had had for 12 years and she was a rescue dog.. i had a foster rat terrier that literallly lived behind my toilet for a year.. she was doing great.. she and the basenji slept in the same bed..

came home one night and the terrier had killed the basenji.. no idea why, but she was bleeding out in my sunroom.. it was horrible.. i had to put her down, which i almost did not get done.. took me 3 tries to get a shot off.. first , unloaded.. second safety was on... crap... took the terrier down that night and had her put down.. no idea why that happened..

hope the knee heals good..

 

[bowhunter007]

we had a basenji

Besinjis are unique dogs. They aren't like most any dog. No real natural fear of anything. Very difficult to train & discipline, using standard methods. My mother-in-law had one. At family gatherings her Besinji(Andy) used to sit next to me, and growl at my brother-in-law

 

[jhendr3702]

Besinjis are unique dogs. They aren't like most any dog. No real natural fear of anything. Very difficult to train & discipline, using standard methods. My mother-in-law had one. At family gatherings her Besinji(Andy) used to sit next to me, and growl at my brother-in-law

she was the coolest dog.. but as you said, not like a regular dog at all.. best description i ever heard, they are like a pet dear.. i had a bud that had one trained to ring a bell by the door when it wanted out... mine.. no
she was completly house trained when we got her.. but she was not ever affectionate.. she would paw you when and if she wanted you to pet her..

at the end, she could not hear or see very well, but that never slowed her down.. she was under 20lbs her entire life.. we a greyhound foster for a while and she would not back down from her at all..

sorry to hijack..

 

[GMP]

All my dogs were/are rescues. I had a pointer that fell victim to that dog food with the Chineese wheat gluten tainted with eyhylene glycol, hence my love for the Chineese. I had a great lab/golden mix for 13 yrs., saved from the west side hwy in NYC, he was super obedient, listened better than my kids. My first pitbull I literally rescued from some ahole's yard from being tied out on a 6 foot chain while he went on vacation. Bolt cutters made quick work of that and I had a best friend for a few years until cancer got the best of her. That dog was the ultimate family guardian and always on the watch for my kids and other kids. Now I have a five yr old female I got as a rescue pup at 12 wks old, and a 3 yr old male I got XMas '11 that was my sister-in-law's first foster dog.

You guys are good people for doing this stuff.

 

[jhendr3702]

gmp.. it can be the most rewarding and the most frustrating thing.. we have placed alot of dogs in great forever homes.. then those that call and want you to take them back after awhile when they have done nothing but stuck them in the yard alone..
my husky/wolf mix was that way.. we placed him and he stayed about 3 months.. he ate their swing set... literally bored.. no input at all.. i went by one night to pick him up and he saw my truck and jumped in it.. we just kept him.. he is so cool..
my dachsund... who is the most likely to bite you at my house.. was brought in by a lady with his 2 siblings to get first puppy shots and for us to help them adopt them.. when we took them back to do that, they left.. all had parvo( which we now have at our house....) he spent 21 days at the vet.. vet called and said come get him.. nothing we can do for him... so we did and he is doing great.. my pure blue heeler.. i asked for her.. got her at 4 weeks old.. would fit in your hand... great girl..

i am working with our shelter to make a fairly painful way to detect how stupid someone is before we adopt to them...