Comments on: Into the Fire

By: Unknown

Unknown — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 14:08:40 +0000

Jim, this was way before I acquired any sort of risk assesment ability, that has only come with multiple broken bones and 30 years of cycling. We did both sign up for a lifeguard course the following spring though, so something must have sunk in.

By: Unknown

Unknown — Sun, 27 Nov 2005 22:24:58 +0000

1. Riding down a steep, ice-covered hill at full speed in mid-January in Upstate New York when I was about 14, and "flat tracking" a bunch of bikes through the iced over "T" intersection at the bottom of the hill, doing a two wheeled slide until the wheels hit the huge snow pile, then bouncing down the road after using the snow pile as a berm. Repeat over the period of two or three days with each bike owned by any and all family members, until all bikes have either (a) taco-ed rims; (b) broken handlebars; or (c) broken frames. Oddly enough, my mom’s Schwinn varsity was the first frame to snap. Casualties included the afforementioned Schwinn, a couple training wheeled bikes, my own Schwinn five speed, my sister’s little pink mixte bikes, an old tricycle or two, and a couple pairs of jeans. And my own butt when my father figured out a couple months later that I’d destroyed everybody’s bikes, including my own. Some scars, due to repeated crashes on rough ice. Two wheeled drifting on a bicycle on ice is fun though, and I’m still a very good bike handler. 2) Riding off the three meter board at the local pool, at midnight, drunk. I was probably 15 or so. 3) Riding off the back roof of the garage on a friend’s BMX bike, on a dare. I was about 14 or 15 at the time. But none of this even compares to riding into a forest fire. You deserve to give yourself that bag Fatty. Happy Thanksgiving. Hope you ate too much, so you have an excuse to ride more.

By: tayfuryagci

tayfuryagci — Sun, 27 Nov 2005 18:11:56 +0000

fatty oh brother where arts thou! I’m having the faty-withdrawal-syndrome all over again.so cold…shivering…nauseaaeaae…feeling void, emptiness, falling into an abyss of darkness and evil…FATTTYAYYYYYAYYA AYEEEE!(I know you said you won’t be posting for a long time but we still miss you man. You owe us a big post! :)

By: Unknown

Unknown — Sun, 27 Nov 2005 16:24:50 +0000

Fatty,I am voting for juvenile Tim-D. His story has all the elements you are looking for. It is the only other story with an initial "idea core of stupidity" equaling yours. I have done lots of stupid things in my life. Of course I am still alive, so the final stupidity wasn’t as lethal as the intial stupidity may have been in any given circumstance. Usually, I wasn’t able to assess the actual stupidity until I had the benefit of hindsight, but there you go. Both of you guys are seemingly old enough to have developed analytical intelligence, or "judgement" as it is often called. You; out of control wild fire. Him; high tide with rip tide features during a storm. Sheesh. I am pretty sure I would have passed on both of those rides. But, I am fifty-ish and still riding a lot. Maybe you guys don’t have much time and you need to ride at every opportunity…..

By: Kelly

Kelly — Sun, 27 Nov 2005 16:12:38 +0000

Dang. I’ve been thinking a lot about this and I CANNOT come up with something I’d do again. They all left awesome scars and such and one of them is even captured on tape. But I can’t say I’d like to repeat any of them.Oh, well. How about I just ask permission to link you? That would be a great gift in and of itself. Did I really say "…in and of itself"? Yikes. Brain clog.Kelly

By: Jill

Jill — Sun, 27 Nov 2005 07:45:08 +0000

The fires also did a number on my favorite riding spot, the always people-free Stansburies, back when I called Tooele my hometown. I guess it’s a lesson in never getting too attached.

By: tayfuryagci

tayfuryagci — Sun, 27 Nov 2005 00:16:49 +0000

thats GOTTA be the stupidEST thing. drinking alcohol and riding a bicycle!

By: Stephen

Stephen — Sat, 26 Nov 2005 22:37:46 +0000

Contest Entry: Years ago, when I was a strong virile young man (OK MANY years ago), I was somewhat "into" biking. Mostly fairly short rides of 10-30 miles through the Sonoma County wine country. Now this was NOT non-stop riding. Oh no. Riding the bikes was simply a way to avoid a DUI really. Because as we passed each winery, we would stop and have a "tasting" (read: slurp down as much free wine as we could before they threw us out).By the end of these rides we were usually thoroughly "gassed".Okay, Okay… I’m getting to the point…So this once, a buddy said "Hey! Let’s go do a Century!"Sure I thought – why not?Later, I could think of a whole lot of reasons (and Places) why not. Like for instance: my legs, hips, bum, arms, shoulders, and neck.The century was held near Palm Springs, CA – in JUNE. Gets warm there in June. Real warm.Suffice to say that was the first, last, and only time I ever attempted a ride of that length.s.

By: PEr

PEr — Sat, 26 Nov 2005 21:08:50 +0000

The stupidest thing I have done on a bike… A couple of years back a group of friends and I were in Canmore AB for a weekend of racing including a 40km ITT on the Saturday, and a 40 km TTT and crit on the Sunday. Following a successful ITT we found ourselves a nice cheap motel right on the TransCanada and conviniently also beside a budget liquor joint. We rounded up enough cash to purchase a $10 oversized bottle of red wine and settled down in the motel room with our bounty in anticipation of the following days racing. As the evening wore on and we were thinking about turning in one of my friends puts down his travel mug of Gato and anounces that he has a great idea. His scheme was that we needed to work on our TTT formation…..in the nude. It was late at this point and a Saturday night. Canmore isnt a big place, for those who dont know its a little mountain town at the gateway to the Rockies, its generally a very quiet place, especially in the month of May. After much debate all four of us were ready to roll. We marched out the door with only towels around our waists and t shirts on (so as to not disturb the motel guests or staff) with our full decked out time trial bikes in tow. We wanted to make this experience count so we picked a nice wide street that was lit by streetlights and waited for some traffic. At the right moment we tore off the tshirts and towels and hopped on our steeds for a full flight naked TTT 3 blocks one way and three blocks back. 4 skinny dudes in the aerobars with disc wheels and in time trial formation rotating to the front and with a full fledged turnaround at the one end of the course attracted a great deal of attention from the pedestrians and motorists alike. Most people gave friendly honks and hoots, it was great. The following week one of the riders involved alerted me to an article that was published in the Monday Canmore newspaper that documented (in words only) our experience for all to see. It was pretty stupid, but the rush was incredible. I would gladly do it again if the opportunity arose!

By: Unknown

Unknown — Sat, 26 Nov 2005 19:33:06 +0000

Just thought of another.When I was about 4 and my brother 3, he had a little trike. One day he was trying to go up a curb, lifted the front wheel, went overf backwards and cracked his head open. Dad was at work, so Mum took him to hospital, leaving us with a neighbour. Dad came home and wanted to know what had happened. "Oh, he did this" says I demonstrating. Up comes the wheel, backwards go I and another cracked open head.