How Fast Can We Go???

My best friend, Stu, and I were riding out of Rock Springs one night, on the way to Flaming Gorge (national reservoir). Stu was riding his Yamaha 850 Virago, I was riding my 1100 Honda Gold Wing, both of us highly experienced bikers, having ridden desert racing on dirt bikes for 10 years. With us were a couple of lesser experienced guys on bikes, two 750's. We'd be riding down through the canyon to Flaming Gorge, a fun ride, but not for novices.

Hard cornering, hot brakes, my bike's saddle bags were loaded down with beer and ice. Stu's Virago was just clean, no fairing even.

We turned off the highway up above and set down the canyon road. It was just after sunset, the road still warm in the August night. Tires good and sticky, we were running hard, leaning hard over into the corners...probably too fast. About halfway down the canyon I began to think about my other friend who was behind us on his 750. He really wanted to keep up, but he was inexperienced...we were crazy. I slowed down, and so too did Stu in front of me, seeing me fall back.

There were no words spoken, we just rode 'slowly' down the rest of the way to the Gorge.

We had a really great night that night, by the bonfire, drinking a few beers and sleeping on the beach. The next day we rode home, all without incident.

A couple years later I sold the "Wing", giving up road-biking forever. It was just too dangerous. We'd played the odds and won; no sense in tempting fate.

Fast forward 10 years...Stu got into Harley's...really nice Harley's (he worked in the oilfields).

Fast forward 20 years...I'm driving to work one morning and my one buddy (the one on the 750 that night on the Gorge ride). He calls me up and says "Stu crashed last night....and I don't think he made it"

"You don't "THINK" he made it?????" I exclaimed! "What is this "THINK" stuff???".

"Bob...Stu's dead, he died last night in Casper"

I drove my truck into the ditch right in that moment. Just skidded off the road, right into the ditch. The best friend I ever had just blinked out like a light switch. He was my brother.

I always thought he was immortal! I thought we all were!

I'll always just remember...."how fast can we go?"

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Has anyone ever told you that you have the words and soul of a poet?


I just realized, you post poetry.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

You will see him again ... when it is your turn.

It is hard when we lose someone that close, always hard!

Remember the good times with him.

I have a story about speed, but this is not the thread to mention it in. Mine had a great, even comical outcome.

Could have been otherwise and that is always the possibility.

P

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

I'm so sorry to hear that you have lost your dear friend! I bet he is riding fast and free as the wind where he is now without a care in the world. Hugs!

a reply to: pheonix358

Sadly, as a former EMT, I've had more than enough occasion to "try" to rescue 'speed' disasters, but on this day...I wasn't there.

I've had to pull broken bodies from broken cars and the like, but...I wasn't there.

I've had to steel myself to death, but I didn't know them (mostly)

I've had to "let go" when the helos lifted off, never to know what happened.

I've had to hold the hand of a friend who said..."Don't let me die, Bob...just don't let me die!" I've had to do that. (He didn't make it)

It breaks your heart...it's devastating. Just devastating! The 'not knowing' takes a toll, the whole thing takes a toll, but never a toll like getting a phone call like that one!! Never one like that.

A future blinked out in a second. Just a single second.

a reply to: Night Star

I wish something like that could make it feel better, but it doesn't. Sorry.

I've seen a lot of really unfortunate circumstances, and I'm okay with all that.

It's just hard losing a friend sometimes.

I'm over it. It's just a story. It's a part of life. I've had to say "good bye" way, way, too many times.

It's all okay. I just thought it might be a compelling story here. It's real, and sadly, it happened. Others should know.

I'm so sorry your loss. Truly is shocking somebody can just go.
I'm glad you decided to give up the bike tho.

Now I'm really concerned for my son. He's about age 35 and just bought a Harley. Never owned a bike before. Can he not start off small? Put it this way he's all about showing off being a tough guy. I fear he doesn't t grasp how your life can be changed in an instant. Nobody does you know.

I found out by a friend who let it slip out, I guess he was hiding it from me knowing full well how I'd feel. I'm so scared he gets in an accident being he's had two accidents in his trucks and can't claim he's safe on the road. When he was a child I banned him off his bicycle because the neighbour said that kid of yours doesn't watch where he's going, I've seen him almost get hit by a car three times, he shouldn't have a bike.

I'd have him read your story which was so well written and had real meaning, but in his mind it's being negative to give examples. I'm just a caring mother!

Again I'm so sorry you lost your friend, thank you for sharing

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

I have never had those experiences except one.

A Nun wanted to let me know that I could not protect all of the boys all of the time. She had taken a dislike to one little one. I had been keeping close to him when she was around.

As he passed her, second to last in the line, she lashed out with her elbow and caught him on the side of his head.

I can never forget those staring eyes. I was next to walk past her. She blamed me for his "fall."

Never saw him again ... they buried him on the grounds ... at night.

Yeah, it is hard. My 10 year old self took the blame for that one.

P

a reply to: violet

I'll never tell someone to not ride. I still love bikes, Harley's even the best. I just knew my days were numbered. 125mph out in the desert for 10 years before was pure suicide.

Just know this...Stu, my buddy, wrecked on a gentle right curve, on dry pavement, on a 80F night. There were no obstructions. We'd ridden that road 1,000 times, if we'd rode it once. He could have ridden that road in his sleep. There was no explanation. He left the left edge of the pavement, with not even a single sign of braking...right into a berm of landscaping boulders. The Wyoming Highway Patrol analyzed the bike and found no mechanical failures. Stu had (3) kids and a wife, was not suicidal. He was the best guy I ever knew. Tough as nails, and the most experienced biker I've ever seen.

Gone in one instant. Just gone.

Just one phone call.

Gone.

a reply to: violet

Tell your son...I grew up on a motorcycle. Had my first bike at 12. Between the ages of 12 and 15, I rode every single day of the year (seriously). We used to pride ourselve's on riding every single day. I rode every kind of bike imaginable.
Started on 125's, moved up to 250's, then 400's and open 500's. We're talking big open-class bikes, riding off-road, sailing 50-80 feet off bumps in the high desert roads. We had long since left the motocross tracks behind...they were just for kids.

Yeah, we had some experience. Honestly though, when I got my first street bike, it was a whole different game. They're a lot heavier, and slower. They can't brake as fast (not that we ever braked), and they can't accelerate as fast to avoid something (usually the case).

Honestly, your son is likely in grave danger without that level of experience. One thing we always knew was when to put a bike down and get off...and that's an art. Putting a big, expensive, bike like a Harley down (intentionally) is not something which is intuitive. Yeah, you're gonna crash, but you've got a choice...lay it down and get off where you "know" what's going to happen...or hang-on and slam into something which doesn't move (i.e. post, tree, truck, guard-rail post, etc.)

This is why I worry so greatly about my ex, a woman I still love with all my heart. Her new bloke is into harleys, bought himself a new one and she rides his old one. When she's not a passenger on his. She used to ride years ago, but it still plays on my mind. We're so far apart, and her family and I parted on not speaking terms, though she and I do still speak. so should anything ever happen, I fear I will be either the last to know, or never to know...

Ride free, but safe, Bink...

Sorry to hear of the loss of an old friend, fcd.. Hoping there is a great poker run up there somewhere...

a reply to: violet

You've concerned me. Concerned me about your son. I've lost too many friends.

Here's the thing...

Bikes are fast, they're fun. They can be deceptive, but you know what? 99% of most wrecks are not caused by something the rider did, but rather something which happened the rider couldn't react to quickly enough.

A lot of people think something like a semi-truck can't stop quickly, or a car can't turn fast...both things are false. A semi can stop faster than a car or a bike, and a car can turn faster than any bike can. It's an illusion. It is. People get in trouble on a bike when they start thinking a bike is faster (turning and stopping). A bike can accelerate faster, but this only works under certain situations (and the rider needs to know EXACTLY these situations). Otherwise, the bike is the "victim" every time. Unless the rider has already anticipated the event, taken measures to avoid it, planned an escape and is willing to execute that escape...he will be a "victim". This level of planning takes nerves of steel (not to be confused with "bad-ass" bravado) and experience.

There are a lot of careless kids out there on sport bikes (his Harley isn't a sport bike). There are countless videos on Goo-Toob of crazy bikers on sport bikes. People only see the successful ones...the (far more prevalent) videos of the body parts on the highway don't get published. They're too horrific.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk
I don't know what to say. Nothing can take away your pain.

It's really hard to lose somebody so suddenly. All you Can think right now is what you are saying, that you can just be gone. You can't believe it and it seems so unfair.
None of us are immortal.

Sorry to hear about the wife and kids.

Take care

I remember a story about a time I rode a roommate's bike in college. I had an open-class Yamaha TT-500 desert racer and he'd bought a new Honda water cooled CR-250 motocross bike. He wanted me to ride his bike. My bike was a high performance 125 mph bike, running on aviation gas, with 14' suspension (which at the time was great). I think that CR had like 20" mono-shock suspension.

Anyway, I took this bike out on the track, thinking I was going to tame it like nobody's business. HA! I'm coming around the track, sailing off jumps (hey, this is a hell of a bike!!). I come down through this hollow and there's a big jump. Now, I'd been off plenty of big jumps in my life, but this bike was running hot...way too fast into the jump. I made the fatal mistake of braking on the way up the jump and left the lip front wheel down. I'm like 15' in the air, thinking to myself how pissed my buddy is gonna' be for wrecking his brand new bike, because I just know I'm going to crash! (probably a 75 mph wreck)

I'm getting ready to exit, let go of the left bar and I'm standing on the right side of the bike (sailing through the air), getting ready to leap. Don't know why I held on with my right hand, but landed on the edge of berm and that suspension soaked up that whole madness...back down on the seat, grabbed the left bar and BRAKES, BRAKES, BRAKES...skidded to a stop on a flat spot.

HOLY CRAP!!! To this day, I still can't believe I kept that bike in one piece. I figured I was going over the front and rough and tumble after that, but no.

THAT's the kind of experience it takes to ride the big bikes on the road!! And, not even I am good enough!!

Seriously.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

My son won't learn that art. I really think he's just trying to be cool. Thry sound cool. So not a reason to get on a big bike. He's never expressed a liking to ride. I was stunned. His friend has one and it's likely he wants to hang out with that friend. so he lacks experience and is a risk taker by nature. He went sky diving once. Another thing I disliked. He does really stupid things.thinks he knows what he's doing. One of those types.

I've not seen this bike but knowing him it's the fanciest model since he can afford it and is all about showing off. Won't accelerate or brake fast enough Hey? Well that isn't good to know. I hope he knows! I have a feeling deep down I'm gonna get that call . He has three kids as well. Just had a baby boy.

Thanks for replying. I know absolutely nothing about bikes. Ridden as a passenger on one, that about it.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Never nice to get "The call" man...

I got it a few months back about three friends - Twin sisters and another lady friend... the trio wrapped their car around a tree in the wee hours of the morning...

I share your pain man. I'm truly sorry for your loss. If words could ease that sense of loss I think we'd write them all; unfortunately they don't, and we can't ever know the true pain of others' losses.

But you do have my honest, sincerest sympathies...

a reply to: Havoc40k

Thanks.

I appreciate it. Still hurts.

Just the suddenness of it. Shock that doesn't go away.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk
Oh dear.

The thing about bikes is you're not protected. I fear he could skid under a semi , skid off a cliff. Plenty of cliffs here in BC. Or the bike falls onto him in the crash and mangles his legs. It's just not a good thing to get into an accident in. Your body isn't designed to hit hard pavement and not sustain an injury. You know that being an EMT. It also gets to me when someone says I'm careful. I know. What about the other driver who's texting or not watching? Nobody ever thinks about that. Never. Even though you said your friend had nothing wrong at the time he crashed, its that your body is so open to the elements. By the way it rains here a lot. Not lately being summer.

I read a terrible thing in the paper last week. A guy rode his bike into a farm or something, got clotheslined on barb wire, slit his throat. That wouldn't happen in a car!

a reply to: violet

The hardest part is the wondering, the questioning. "If he'd have been wearing a helmet?" "What would his life have been like if he lived?" "Would he have been able to walk, or would he have been severely brain damaged?" "Did he have a chance????" "Did he say anything???"

They "dead" part is easy compared to those questions which haunt you. That's the part which haunts me. It's why I say what I do.

You know, I have classmate who is a good friend and an ER Doc at UCLA Medical Center. He told me something once which resonated with me. He said...

"The human body cannot fall on the ground without hitting it's head (on the ground) if it is moving faster than it can run on it's own two feet...it's a fact!"

I did not know that. I used to race when I was younger, so I always wore a helmet (always), no matter what kind of crazy stuff I was doing, and I spent the best money I had on buying the best head gear. I just thought that was interesting...if a human is moving faster than they can run, and they fall, they WILL hit their head on the ground...and the ground doesn't move (i.e. bad thing). As Newton said, all things have an equal and opposite reaction.

I wish you and your son well.

P.S. Tell him to always wear a jacket (with a back plate), a helmet and gloves. Riding with shorts will just teach him a lesson, but it won't kill him.

A sad sad tale. You but tell them so well, keep them coming.