If you’re interested in reading the feel-good story of the year — in the sense that every basement-dwelling incel on VWVortex will feel good about the idea that I was injured — then it’s time to hop, skip, and jump over to the Road&Track website and check it out!
On one hand, I would encourage you to do it. On the other hand, realize that you are going to be the terribly slow guy that is in the way, Think of how you would feel if this was an auto event.
While it might not be as emotionally satisfying and certainly not as good a story, consider entering the 40+ beginner race. It is shorter, so you may have a chance of actually finishing it. But more importantly the speed differential between you and the top runners is going to be quite a bit less.
Instead of getting ready for the Mushman, you can also watch your kid race in the event prior.
In the old days, they raced through town and the surrounding countryside - which was a blast. The race lost a lot if its appeal to me when they changed it to a dedicated course a while back. Now it is just another Grand Prix, but with a historic name.
Good Luck!
I don’t do facbok B.S. so I’ll reply here :
Well Jack ;
You know I don’t think you failed and if you want to give it a go again , DO IT ! .
-Nate
BTW : my Son and his Wife simply _tear_up_ that Glen Halen track , it scares me to look at it .
-Nate
A guy I kinda knew as a kid had a Husqvarna dirt bike, so probably 35 years ago or so. He went to kick start it one day, it backfired or something like that happened, and the kick starter kicked back and broke his leg. I assume they don’t do this anymore?
any of them can, especially if it’s a two stroke of a type which can run equally well in either direction (e.g. reed valve.)
The modern bikes are four-strokers that have a very effective electric start.
I enjoy kicking over my CB550, it turns the women on, or so I’d like to think. Motorcycle starters are the least cool-sounding thing on a motorcycle; witness how the starter noise is always edited out of “Sons Of Anarchy”.
well, he did say 35 years ago. reed-valve and piston-ported two strokes can run just fine in either direction. the timed-inlet nitro engines we run in our R/C hydroplanes don’t; they go like stink the “right” way, and they’ll idle but make no power the “wrong” way.
Yeah, but my CB is 42 years old. I hope it never breaks my right leg, which is currently the “good” leg. 🙂
I’m sure it was a 2 stroke, so that probably explains it. According the his dad this wasn’t an uncommon occurrence with Husqvarna’s at the time, and it was the kids fault for not getting his leg out of the way. Whatever size engine it was, I am sure it was top of the line stuff. The family had several 60’s Corvette’s of varying configurations in their large pole building. My dad and his dad played Bluegrass together, so I was over there fairly often bored out of my mind. He was maybe 20 or so, I was 10 or so, and he was nice enough to get me out of there a couple times and look at all the nice things they had.
Steve is dead!!!!! And, it is said that, like Hemingway, he always doubted his own masculinity. Stop, already.
Damn dude.
Clint was a contemporary of Steve so I will repeat “A man’s got to know his limitations” or how about
“dying ain’t much of a living”
“dying ain’t much of a living”
Crashing sucks pretty badly too lemme tell ya .
I basically survived a fatal Moto collision and the pain never ends .
I still enjoy riding a bit though =8-) .
Once you swing a leg over two wheels , you’re either hooked for life or not .
-Nate
” witness how the starter noise is always edited out of “Sons Of Anarchy”.
Seriously ? that’s lame , no wonder I’ve never watched that show .
Older Motocycles often had manual spark timing advance on one hand grip ~ when I lived in Guatemala , C.A. I found , resurrected and restored a 1937 EL Harley Davidson Knucklehead , all the local boobs insisted I let them ride it and I got tired of explaining why not and so instead I’d leave the timing fully advanced and tell them ‘ if you can start it you can ride it ‘ and then watch the highjinks as they’d go flying over the handlebars or get their shoe heels ripped off etc….=8-)
A lot of entertainment out of a 61″ engine .
I can’t imagine being bored when Bluegrass was being played , even of you don’t like it , it’s never boring .
-Nate
With the kind of medical materials miracles being created these days, you’re living in the ideal time to engage in the craziness you do.
When I was a kid, we knew when the adults talked about someone breaking their hip(s) it was a death sentence; the injured would be gone in 2 years at best. Today a hip injury can be a major and expensive inconvenience, but you can have printed and sintered Ti+polymer inserts installed to get you up and running once again.
And damn, that arm pump “fix” is the true definition of a dilemma: a decision between 2 equally unpalatable choices. Now I’m remembering Benford and Brin’s lovely little dilemma demonstrated in Heart of the Comet: your immune system laughs off everything thrown at it, but because of its hyperactivity you’re afflicted with a life-long head cold.
Great read. Hopefully the screws were made in Warsaw, Indiana.
You know you’re getting old when…
The ‘good’ in ‘good’ leg is in quotes.