Proof that I do actually ride!
#1
08-28-2006, 02:47 PM
Proof that I do actually ride!
We spent the day Saturday at Linclon Trail Motorsports Park in Casey IL. I got some pics to prove that I really do ride my KLX.
Not bad for an old man!
This is my son on his RMZ250. He's young enough that he still has "no fear"
Not bad for an old man!
This is my son on his RMZ250. He's young enough that he still has "no fear"
#2
08-28-2006, 03:29 PM
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Posts: 12,584
RE: Proof that I do actually ride!
sweet pics... looks like loads of fun, i wish i could find a dirt track or something like that around me.. only problem is that you didnt get muddy... mud is half the fun... i went out yesterday right after it stormed played in the mud for 3 hours, when i came home my wife said that it was the muddiest she has seen me and the bike, then she started hosing me off.... lol...
#4
08-28-2006, 06:52 PM
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Washington
Posts: 21,060
RE: Proof that I do actually ride!
Awesome. and your son has good form on the jump. Yea those days are long gone for me........wait even when I was young I didn't do that. The only thing I did when I was young was ride without a helmet.....but that was on a quad, and as we all know quad riders don't need helmets right? Well I preach to everyone to wear a helmet now, it must come with age. I have seen three different quad riders in the past few months on the trails and fire roads that have had a parent and a small child and neither had helmets. I just don't get it[&:]
Read on:
There's no reason for safety to take back seat
The Lowell Sun
Lowell Sun
It was another news story perfectly suited for television. TV news is a sucker for police tape, and this one had yards of it.
It also had a villain. TV news loves villains, and this story had a perfect one because it wasn't a person, wasn't anyone who might be nasty or hire a lawyer.
The villain was a quad, one of those four-wheeled dirtbike-like behemoths that roam through woods and over fields and too often down neighborhood streets.
A kid reportedly had gone roaring down a paved bikepath in a city park in Rhode Island, swerved to avoid some walkers and crashed against a tree to his death. Certainly this was an irresponsible act, but the focus wasn't on the victim himself.
Lying on the pavement was a ball cap, the one evidently worn by the victim of the accident. It was one of the visuals still available to the camera when the crew arrived on the scene, and it didn't prompt even a comment from the TV reporter. But it prompts one from me.
Some of you might realize that in addition to my newspaper columns on motorsports and my publication of Shorttrack magazine, I still provide consultation and counseling services to survivors of traumatic brain injury looking to find some kind of employment.
It is, I'm sorry to say, a growing industry. Thanks to modern medicine, more and more people survive brain-traumas to which they might have succumbed in years past. Thanks to modern life, more and more people suffer them.
Many of the people I work with are young. Many of them suffer injuries in auto accidents, of course.
The majority of the balance are injured on recreational vehicles.
Needless to say, these are tragic injuries. Usually the kids involved are normal, healthy kids with healthy egos and big plans. Seeing a kid like that sentenced to a life in a wheelchair, or incapable of ever returning to school, no longer able to hang with friends or ever live alone, is a hard lesson about the vagaries of life.
But the frustrating thing, the infuriating thing, is knowing that almost every one of these injuries could have been avoided.
Why was that ball cap sitting on the pavement? Perhaps it fell off the back of the quad. Perhaps the young victim was wearing a helmet, as well as boots, gloves and upper-body armor.
Perhaps, but I doubt it. I doubt it, because if he had been he likely would be alive. I doubt it because invariably the survivors with whom I work lacked such gear when they had their accidents.
I am not here to tell you that helmets should be required by law for anyone riding a quad, motorcycle, bicycle or even a horse. That's not the point here. What I'm railing at is the lack of sense of responsibility on the part of riders, parents, bike shops or anyone else who might have an impact on this behavior.
Forget legislation, where is the common sense?
I got my first dirtbike in 1972. Neither I nor any of my riding buddies considered for a second not getting a helmet, boots and gloves with our bikes. It never crossed our minds. That was part of the deal. We knew how we'd ride. We knew we'd fall. We knew we needed them. And it was part of what made riding cool. Certainly no parent would have approved of the stupid act of riding helmetless.
I see quad riders all the time without helmets, and they're obviously kids, and they obviously didn't buy the pristine quads they're riding. Where are the parents who bought these machines?
Where are the more experienced riders who should set the example?
And this is not about the new generation. When I drive by the local skateboard park I realize that in that sport helmets obviously are part of the culture -- part of what's cool. Why don't quad and bike riders think that way?
Maybe it's because so many streetbike riders don't have the brains to wear a helmet, or wear a worthless piece of crap only under the duress of the law.
Face it, for cruising riders at least, helmets are decidedly uncool. I have news for you. I work with plenty of those folks, too. Their biking days are over.
So the next time you're thinking about your freedom, try thinking about your responsibility. And give a thought to me, maybe. I'm sick of trying to clean up your mess.
Read on:
There's no reason for safety to take back seat
The Lowell Sun
Lowell Sun
It was another news story perfectly suited for television. TV news is a sucker for police tape, and this one had yards of it.
It also had a villain. TV news loves villains, and this story had a perfect one because it wasn't a person, wasn't anyone who might be nasty or hire a lawyer.
The villain was a quad, one of those four-wheeled dirtbike-like behemoths that roam through woods and over fields and too often down neighborhood streets.
A kid reportedly had gone roaring down a paved bikepath in a city park in Rhode Island, swerved to avoid some walkers and crashed against a tree to his death. Certainly this was an irresponsible act, but the focus wasn't on the victim himself.
Lying on the pavement was a ball cap, the one evidently worn by the victim of the accident. It was one of the visuals still available to the camera when the crew arrived on the scene, and it didn't prompt even a comment from the TV reporter. But it prompts one from me.
Some of you might realize that in addition to my newspaper columns on motorsports and my publication of Shorttrack magazine, I still provide consultation and counseling services to survivors of traumatic brain injury looking to find some kind of employment.
It is, I'm sorry to say, a growing industry. Thanks to modern medicine, more and more people survive brain-traumas to which they might have succumbed in years past. Thanks to modern life, more and more people suffer them.
Many of the people I work with are young. Many of them suffer injuries in auto accidents, of course.
The majority of the balance are injured on recreational vehicles.
Needless to say, these are tragic injuries. Usually the kids involved are normal, healthy kids with healthy egos and big plans. Seeing a kid like that sentenced to a life in a wheelchair, or incapable of ever returning to school, no longer able to hang with friends or ever live alone, is a hard lesson about the vagaries of life.
But the frustrating thing, the infuriating thing, is knowing that almost every one of these injuries could have been avoided.
Why was that ball cap sitting on the pavement? Perhaps it fell off the back of the quad. Perhaps the young victim was wearing a helmet, as well as boots, gloves and upper-body armor.
Perhaps, but I doubt it. I doubt it, because if he had been he likely would be alive. I doubt it because invariably the survivors with whom I work lacked such gear when they had their accidents.
I am not here to tell you that helmets should be required by law for anyone riding a quad, motorcycle, bicycle or even a horse. That's not the point here. What I'm railing at is the lack of sense of responsibility on the part of riders, parents, bike shops or anyone else who might have an impact on this behavior.
Forget legislation, where is the common sense?
I got my first dirtbike in 1972. Neither I nor any of my riding buddies considered for a second not getting a helmet, boots and gloves with our bikes. It never crossed our minds. That was part of the deal. We knew how we'd ride. We knew we'd fall. We knew we needed them. And it was part of what made riding cool. Certainly no parent would have approved of the stupid act of riding helmetless.
I see quad riders all the time without helmets, and they're obviously kids, and they obviously didn't buy the pristine quads they're riding. Where are the parents who bought these machines?
Where are the more experienced riders who should set the example?
And this is not about the new generation. When I drive by the local skateboard park I realize that in that sport helmets obviously are part of the culture -- part of what's cool. Why don't quad and bike riders think that way?
Maybe it's because so many streetbike riders don't have the brains to wear a helmet, or wear a worthless piece of crap only under the duress of the law.
Face it, for cruising riders at least, helmets are decidedly uncool. I have news for you. I work with plenty of those folks, too. Their biking days are over.
So the next time you're thinking about your freedom, try thinking about your responsibility. And give a thought to me, maybe. I'm sick of trying to clean up your mess.
#5
08-28-2006, 07:09 PM
RE: Proof that I do actually ride!
Helmets for sure! I used to be a quad rider and spent hours at the sand dunes, logging roads (my personal favorite) snow and ice.
I have had some wrecks and I would not be as handsome as I am today if it were not for a helmet and proper gear
I have had some wrecks and I would not be as handsome as I am today if it were not for a helmet and proper gear
