High-Speed Crash Story

[400exracerguy]

I had an interesting crash a few weekends ago.

Me and a friend were at my cabin in Mountain Knight, which is the mountainous region of California, near Twain Harte. Anyway, it had snowed the night before, about 11 inches. That is a lot of snow btw.

We go out and ride, and we're flying down this mountain trail, 4th gear wide open racing each other. Low and behold, one moment i'm passing my friend and the nexty moment i'm in the air. I fall ahead of my quad on my back, and to my horror, i watch as my quad hits the ground and starts flipping .... towards me very quickly.
Just as I think i'm about to be steam-rolled by my quad, it stops at my feet. The heavy snow slowed it down.

After I recoverd and uprighted my quad, my cause of crash was the snow hiding a small jump, about 2 feet tall.

Luckily nothing was damaged, my handlebars were bent slightly, however I was already planning to replace them.

Well, just another snow story for ya. Anyone have any other high-speed crashes?

[sam the brave]

that gotta suck did u get hurt

[400exracerguy]

I wasn't hurt at all, suprisingly. The heavy snow buffered my fall. That's the best thing about snow.

[Mr.Offroad]

Originally posted by 400exracerguy
I had an interesting crash a few weekends ago.



Well, just another snow story for ya. Anyone have any other high-speed crashes? Well, back in the 80's, I was in the local search-and-rescue. We were looking for some lost hunters on a logging road, when we got word they were found safe-and-sound, and to return to base camp. Me and another guy were on our brand-new '83 Honda 185S three-wheelers, and decided to race back. He was wearing a handkerchief over his nose and mouth (bandit-style) to keep the dust out. I finally got a chance to pass him, and took advantage of it. As I passed him, I was laughing so friggin' hard at his Billy-the-kid look, that I didn't see a washout rut right ahead of me. At the last second, I looked ahead and saw it. All I could do was scream some bad word (which he heard behind me), and yank the front end up as I hit it wide open in 5th gear. The back tires went into it, and it flipped up and over. We paced it off afterward, and it went 32 feet in the air before contacting mother earth again. I flew off of it, and fell partially over the cliff on the side of the road, landing on my hip on a rock. I walked (limped) away from it, and the bike was laying on the road upside-down with the motor still running. It hardly hurt the machine at all. That was just one of the first times I realized just how indestructable Honda's are, and humans aren't!:eek2:

Ouch!! Good stories:devil: :blah:

[Jonesy21]

I've got one.
I had just bought my 400EX and got back to Little Rock with. I work a grave shift from 3-11pm. Well I got off early and decided I wanted to ride the new toy. I was riding the trails by the house when I tried to power slide the rear around a corner, well needless to say i was going to fast and instead of turning I went straight into to nice sized rock and was bounced off the bike. Did a couple rolls on the ground and didn't think anything of it while I watched my bike smack a boulder at the bottom of the hill and bounce over it. So I got up and went to get back on the bike and noticed I couldn't lift my left arm at all. Bike damage=0 me = type 5 ac speration of the left shoulder, basically I seperated the colar bone from the shoulder and tore 2 legiments and one tenden. Had surgery the bone was cut 1/4 of an inch to be put back into place. Put me down for a month, 2 weeks before surgery and 2 after, then 2 months of rehab. I've been riding dirt bikes and quads since I was 8 now 21 and that was the worst of all crashes everything else was scrapes. If you check out my web page that is my quad after all this happened.
Brandon

[Racerjoey1]

Mine isn't as painful as yall's but it still sucked. This was back in August after I had just bought a KDX200. It was my first real ride and I went with a buddy who was really fast on a bike (he passed in october ...MC 1984-2003...). We were having a blast and I was really slow and kind of nervous since it was my first bike and first ride. Well he took off on his KTM and I tried to catch him. I was going in 3rd or 4th at a pretty good speed and didn't see this big rut. Well my front tire fell in it and I tried to steer out of it and it bucked me off the right side at about 30mph. The first thing to hit the ground was my kneecap. I laid there for about 10 minutes saying some choice words. No damage to the bike but my knee was pretty sore. I worked with this guy I was with so we had some stories to tell. I limped around for a week and couldn't sit on that knee for about a month. I can still feel a little knot in it but it'll buff out.

Peace, be safe,

Joey

[cabex]

that exact thing happend to me a while ago, except i was driveing through a road ditch.

[KWalsh]

This crash took place down the shore in Jersey last 4th of July weekend.
I hadn't been on my bike in over 3 weeks. I was itching to go riding.
Overexcitement got the best of me.....a bunch of us are heading out to a lake to cool off....the trail split....
should I go right, should I go left, should I go right/left....too late.....here I went straight up the middle
and hit some nasty bumps.
I tested the laws of physics and lost.
4 broken ribs, stress fracture in the shin and collar bone.
nasty concussion. no riding for 6 weeks.

[Nausty]

me me me

I was hitting a 80-90ft jump one day time after time to finally decide I wanna really fly and land at the end of the landing of the step down. So instead of riding the track I get a huge run up at it and hit the jump 4th gear pinned to get crossed up in the air and get slammed down into the ground after landing.

Broke my collar bone


happened again fall of last year when i was at bussey hitting the gravity cavity to get crossed up in the air again on about a 60-70ft step down, 4 gear 3/4 throttle jump to get slammed into the ground again.


All in all I hate high speed crashes and step downs now.:o

Sucks hitting a 4th gear jump and just watching the ground drop out from under you from a almost sideways position.

[Matt756]

I went riding with my friends we were hill climbing in the snow they had 4x4s they made the hill look easy the one on the kodiak said he climbed it in 2wd im on my 250ex with stock worn tires i went for it spinnin the whole way up the hill this hill is huge and i got 3/4 up the the hill the quad stops and looses traction so i start leaning forward and backward tryin to get traction i leaned back and the wheels caught and stood straight up and i jumped off the back and jumped off the back and landed on my left wrist and broke it and this was on on the day of my birthday so i got to have my party with a broked wrist that night we went to the hospital and they said i couldnt ride for another 6 weeks the worst birthday ever
my injuries: broken wrist
quad injuries: bent steerin stem,bent bars, torn seat and i blew the tire off the rim good thing the we had the portable air pump

[pure insanity]

this just happened 3 weeks ago as im still down from a broken collar bone. me and a group of friends was riding at durhamtown plantation in ga. the day had been alot of fun and i was feeling like king of the hill as the people riding with me are less experienced and had a hard time keeping up. i was getting tired so i let another guy take the lead for a while. everything is cool were flying down a woods trail in 3rd or maybe 4th gear, when all of a sudden i see him flagging me down and hes stopping wayyy fast. i knew i was gonna hit him but i was on the brakes and downshifted as hard and fast as icould. decided i better try to slide beside him but there was only about 3 ft. of room and i needed at least 4 ft.almost made it but my left front tire climbed his right rear tire and sent me over. so here i go on the way over, fully expecting the bike to pitch me off but instead its coming with me. this aint good as i dont know whats in our way. as we get completely upside down i was afraid iof the bike landing on me so im hanging onto it and its riding me at this point. im upside down on my back with the quad upside down, feet still on the foot pegs and hands on the bars. shiny side down. were sliding and im trying to pitch the bike and finally get it to go off the side of me but not before i can slide across the only rock in the spot. this rock wasnt a big major rock at all, maybe 6" in thick and 8" wide by about 10"in long. but with the force we was traveling it broke my collar bone as i hit it then proceded to clean off all the hair on my back, and a little skin. in just a few seconds my group was right there to help me up, and we got the bike upright and i was checking myself out. now one of the members of the group was a female and the wife of another memebers wife. her maternal instincts kicked in and shes doctoring me up like im ripped apart. i wasnt worried about me im trying to fix the bike, bars was bent a touch and the controls (brakes, clutch and throttle) was rolled around downward and the headlight was pretty much history. then i hear hey your backs tore up and she has me taking my shirt off and i thought i was ok at this point. knew my shoulder was gonna be sore for a while but it felt like muscles. well my friends straightened my bars and controls up while i got my head together and i decided i was ok. i knew my day was finished but i told them i was going back to the truck and for them to keep riding, but they was a loyal bunch and we called the day over.
this was the wacked part, i rode back to the truck, with my broke collar bone i didnt know i had. something close to a mile in distance and even rode around the parking area a bit to check others bikes out. helped clean up the bikes and load them all into the trailer. my buddy drove as we was in his truck. got to his house and unloaded the bikes then really cleaned everything up. i loaded mine on my truck and went home. my truck is a manual transmission and a lifted 4x4 so this wasnt easy to shift gears with my right shoulder hurt. still thought it was just muscles.
the next day i called the g/f and she came to see if i was dead or not. my bike stays at my shop so its inside and safe. well it was at my house on the truck. i was gonna take it there and let her unload it, so it didnt have to sit at my house in the open and risk of being stolen. well i was moving my gear out of the seat so she could sit down and as i went topick something up the bones must have shifted and i knew something was horribly hurt inside my shoulder. the pain was so bad i almost passed out and couldnt hardly stand up. i couldnt scream i couldnt speak, i couldnt walk or do anything. meanwhile the g/f is screaming at me to get in the car and were going to the hospital. there was no way, i couldnt even move from the pain. after what seemed like 30 mins i managed to get enough up to get me in the house to the couch. and had her find me some pain pills. she found some leftover lortabs and hands me one, so i took two.finally after what she says was 2 hours i got relieved enough to go to the hospital. went and seen a doc and sure enough its broken in 2 places.
doc says he doesnt know how i didnt pass out he says i hit a bad nerve and its pretty painfull. sent to a specialist and gives me a nice prescription for more lortabs.
now its 3 weeks later and lots of lortabs under the bridge. im getting there but im out of work and bored as crap. unable to do anything and cant even drive. doc says i got another 3 months before im good to get back on the bike. i think hes full of it.

[big250exrider]

that sucks

[quad_quazy]

It seems the collar bone is a pretty prevalent broken bone in our community. I broke mine at an MX race. I was a little behind this guy and we were coming up on a double jump that I knew he didn't do and I did. as we rounded the corner I noticed he was all the way over to the left side and was (so I thought) leaving me plenty of room to jump the double and pass him. Well as I'm at the base starting up the face he swerves over into the middle of the landing ramp. So I swerve going up the face of the jump, to avoid landing on him and hurting us both, and I end up halfway on and halfway off the side of the landing. Well I managed to save that one but the landing went down into a gravity cavity about 10 foot lower than the track surface and I hit the side wall of it and it pitched me off in the middle of the track in the bottom of the cavity. Then to my astonishment my quad turned around and came back and ran my *** over just for good measure. Well not really but I swear they do. It always seems like I get run over by it. Now this whole time I'm down in the cavity and the safety guys (who seem to always take a break when the quads run) didn't know I wrecked and weren't waving the flags. So now I'm dodging quads down in this damn hole while I try to get my quad, that came to rest pointing straight up on the side of the wall, off with a broken collar bone. It hurt like a son of a *****. After I get back to the pits I reached up under my chest protector and felt my collar bone...it went crackle crackle. To top it off I had to drive a 100miles home, unload (thank god it was a low trailer), and then go to the hospital. That was the longest day of my life.

[250EXpwns]

My story's kinda dumb but here goes. Me and my best riding bud who has a 250ex were just coming back to his house from our rural gas station. There was a snow patch on the outer side of this one corner that he roosted through and I just had to do it too. Since I had only had my 400ex for a day now I wasn't totally used to its massive torgue(compared to a 250ex & Recon) and I went to make a roost on the patch. When I was returning from the roost my rear end somehow swooped around the other direction and I spun over 180 degrees around and it through me in a sideways-front flip onto the hard rocky road face first. I quickly turned over VERY painfully and watched hopelessly as my 400ex turned over on its side and hit the handlebar. Luckily all it did was make a huge bruise on my rib cage and bend the left handle a bit down on my 400ex. After me and my bud got it turned over we just looked at each and laughed. Guess that'll teach me, huh?

[Xrider06]

wow those storys are all amazingi have a story about me braking my arm but i wasnt using my quad at the time so here it goes

me and my 4wheeler buddies and one of there dads head up to the mountain for some sledding. the place where we sled is a state road and we would go up the mountain about a mile and sled down an the old runner sleds and go around a pretty sharp S turn b4 the bottom then come back up on the truck. At this time the entire road is pure ice and you can get up to about 40mph ifthe conditions are right and they were on this particular day they were very good. we were flying down the hill and having a good ol time. on the last run of the day we were heading down and i think it was my fastest run all day and i made it down to the S turn and was doin good and then i got down a few hundred yards more prolly doing atleast 35 and i start to slow down by dragging my feet. i got down to this cabin along the road and there were some guys standing there and for some reason i decided to look at them for a sec and not watch where i was going and got off track and went to the side of the road where it was all plowed back (all of the plowed banks were frozen stiff) and i looked ahead then and saw i was going to hit but i cicnt have enough time to get outa the way or to even think really and i hit the plowed bank head on.(incase u didnt know we lie on our stomachs facing forward while doing this) i hit the bank and flew off the sled and spun around a few times and finally stop and then my friend who was already done stood there and laughed at me but then he saw i was hurt. im not sure how exactly i hit but i broke the left bone my right arm. i cudnt even pull my glove off of my hand after the wreck. the thing that kinda made me mad was that i went flying and my sled stopped dead in its tracks from where it hit without a scratch.

i am very glad i had my old 4wheeler helmet on because i still hit my head on the bank through the opening in the helmet and scratched my face all up. i just got my cast off yesterday and am so glad.

[morphius]

it was the second week i had my 416 ex ,me and my friends were just playing around on some jumps in second gear .i went to hit this jump like only three feet tall in third gear.as i hit the ramp my throtle stuck and i couldnt push it any farther.apon landing my bumper dug into the ground and nose wheelied 4 feet. it then fliped frontward throwing me off. the grab bar came down and crushed the mouthe piece of my helmet. it landed back on its wheels. luckily i was not hurt niether was my 416

[Traxxrida12]

I didnt rly get hurt lyk most ppl in other stories but had some serious pains.

One day I decided to take out my 250EX, about 6 months after I had just gotten it. I was hitting my mini tabletop nd also decided to try out my new chest protector and gloves. the gloves felt weird since they were new but i still wanted to try em out. So I took out my quad into my backyard where the jump is pushed to far back towards the end of my property and not too far from a big willow tree. I hit the jump about 7 times nd decided just a few more times and then ill go in. Well the next time around i went off it and wuz heading straight towardz the tree. I tried to hit the brakes but my gloves felt strange and i couldnt find the brakes. I usually never use the footbrake so i didnt. I went flying at about 35 mph into the tree. I landed on some rocks and hurt my knee. My new chest protector had saved me from some major bruises. I suddenly glanced at my 250EX in horror because i didnt wanted ruined but wen i saw it it was fine. the tire was the only part that hit the tree and i had gone flying over the handlebars. i limped back t othe veichle and rode it in. i was lucky i hadnt been rly hurt or my quad in pieces.:D

[kamsdad97]

This just happened last saturday. i went riding at a local at park that opens at 10 and by 10:30 i was back atthe truck iceing my knee. They have an 800 ft drag strip that loops around back to the start point. after everyone races the straight line then they speed back to the start. i was doing this and when i tried to slow down i hit a few bumps that threw me sideways and then rolled me over . it happened very fast and my buddy was right behind me, he saw the whole thing. the 400ex damage was just to the handlebars and the starter button was missing. the damage to me didnt seem too bad. i hurt my knee a little so we put ice on it for a while then i finished out the day taking it easy. i went to the doctor today and found out i might have torn my a.c.l. , it can ontl be repaired by surgery. have to go back in 2 weeks when the swelling goes down to be sure? i think that if i had nerf bars i wouldnt have hurt my knee.

[1eyedracer]

Here's one that happened about a year ago. I was at my buddy's place trying to see just how high a gear I could run in a wheelie. Well, the time I shifted into 4th, my bike decided to use my grab bar as a wheelie bar. That was fine until I must have shifted my weight. I go face first (with helmet on of course) into the dirt. My quad does an act a gymnast would be jealous of.
Total cost: dirt and gravel rash, my shin bone visible, right arm in a sling, 3 stitches to fix that shin bone problem.
Quad: bent stem, bent bars, upper right a-arm broken in half, bent right rear wheel, bent axle.

At laeast now I've practiced enought that I can now ride one 4th gear 3/4.:devil:

[IL400EX]

Well I didn't get hurt, but anyway. It was my first race at a local mx course, I was doing great during practice but got a little excited during the race and overjumped a big table top by about 10 ft, no big deal just hard on the ankles. Rounded the next corner in 2nd to make a short double with a steep approach. I laid in the throttle and the motor fell flat on it face, to late to abort the jump, I nose dove right into the face of landing. Felt like I broke both wrist, both ankles, and my helmet took out my headlights. The problem with the bike turned out to be that the landing from the tabletop, snapped off both plastic tabs that hold the air box in place, thus the air box fell and ripped the intake loose from the carbuerator, thus causing the motor to run extremely lean.

Funny Stories

Snow.

I was doing 3rd gear donuts on frozen snow when the right rear tire fell through, catapulting me across the frozen ground, I look to see that my bike had managed to remain on it wheels, and of course crusing away with out me on it. So I haul myself off of the ground and chase after the thing only to fall down about 1/2way to it. Get off the ground again just in time to see it nose dive into a small ditch.

Sister Story,
Heres the Background.
Sister just an ok rider
Sister no clutch experience at all
my buddies 2week old yamaha raptor.
a girlfriend on back
At a river camp.

Buddy lets sister get on 4-wheeler, demonstrates clutch and explains throttle control. Sister starts ATV, applies throttle, RELEASES Clutch. ATV Stands on grab bar, sister and friend fall off back, ATV lands on all 4's, jolts 10ft forward, goes off 15ft bank. We all learn Raptors float upside down. Sister Cries and Cries and....... Tie pickup to ATV pull up bank, Load ATV in Truck, Buddy heads back to dealer to try for a warranty.