FJRBandit
Well-known member
I was just reading about the ironic tragedy of the guy who died after going over the handle bars while protesting the helmet law in NY, helmetless! It's so sad when serious injury, especially death, could have likely been avoided if the person had only been wearing the proper gear. Here's my story from today about the ATGATTless....
My wife and I took a cage ride to Knoxville yesterday to take my aunt home (thus we couldn't take the feej). Since this was about a five hour ride from home, we decided to ease over to the Smokies and spend the night instead of just turning around and coming straight home. We stopped for the night in Bryson City and then this morning struck out for home. Although I wasn't on the FJR I was looking forward to tackling Cherohala in my 4.8 Genesis, after all, it is a "Touring" car isn't it? So, we blasted through Robbinsonville and headed for the Skyway. We were squealing the tires pretty good and I was putting the Genesis to the test when we ran up on a parade of three tractors. We got real tired of hearing the obnoxious pipes from the rear tractor so I eased up on him looking for the first chance to blow by him. Before I got a chance to pass we came around a curve to find that their ride captain and his lovely sleeveless passenger were on the ground!
The two other "bikes" in their group pulled off, as did we. Actually, they were down in a fairly large gravel pullout. My wife and I jumped out of the car and went to assist the woman who was lying there in obvious pain, he had already stood up and appeared fine. She, on the other hand, had scrapes on her hands, elbows and knees. Her right knee clearly had taken the brunt of the impact with the ground and had begun to swell on her patella tendon (the big flexible thing right below your knee cap). I'm certain she has, at a minimum, a tear in the tendon. We helped her to her feet and she began to cry on his shoulder, largely from the shock and adrenalin of what had just happened. I helped him get his John Deere back on two wheels and then we started assessing the damage to his bike (which was minimal) while the girls comforted the young lady who is likely in a great deal of pain tonight. The guy told me later that he had pulled over to let his girl take some pictures and he hit the front brake in the gravel. The "Ultra Glide" instantly went down and off they were thrown.
The bottom line is.... they were both in their finest HD riding gear, which consisted of jeans, short sleeves (sleeveless on her part), half helmets and no gloves, although they did have on good riding boots. While this was a slow speed get off on large chunky gravel, the sad thing is had they been geared up properly and been wearing a riding jacket and pants with proper CE armor and gloves, they would have still been a little sore tonight, but she wouldn't have a lifetime of knee problems ahead of her and they probably wouldn't have even needed a band aid! But, as is the norm with these tractor pirates, they're too cool to gear up and now his girlfriend or wife has to pay the price....
Moral of this story, just as with the tragedy out of New York in the article above.... ATGATT people!!!!!
My wife and I took a cage ride to Knoxville yesterday to take my aunt home (thus we couldn't take the feej). Since this was about a five hour ride from home, we decided to ease over to the Smokies and spend the night instead of just turning around and coming straight home. We stopped for the night in Bryson City and then this morning struck out for home. Although I wasn't on the FJR I was looking forward to tackling Cherohala in my 4.8 Genesis, after all, it is a "Touring" car isn't it? So, we blasted through Robbinsonville and headed for the Skyway. We were squealing the tires pretty good and I was putting the Genesis to the test when we ran up on a parade of three tractors. We got real tired of hearing the obnoxious pipes from the rear tractor so I eased up on him looking for the first chance to blow by him. Before I got a chance to pass we came around a curve to find that their ride captain and his lovely sleeveless passenger were on the ground!
The two other "bikes" in their group pulled off, as did we. Actually, they were down in a fairly large gravel pullout. My wife and I jumped out of the car and went to assist the woman who was lying there in obvious pain, he had already stood up and appeared fine. She, on the other hand, had scrapes on her hands, elbows and knees. Her right knee clearly had taken the brunt of the impact with the ground and had begun to swell on her patella tendon (the big flexible thing right below your knee cap). I'm certain she has, at a minimum, a tear in the tendon. We helped her to her feet and she began to cry on his shoulder, largely from the shock and adrenalin of what had just happened. I helped him get his John Deere back on two wheels and then we started assessing the damage to his bike (which was minimal) while the girls comforted the young lady who is likely in a great deal of pain tonight. The guy told me later that he had pulled over to let his girl take some pictures and he hit the front brake in the gravel. The "Ultra Glide" instantly went down and off they were thrown.
The bottom line is.... they were both in their finest HD riding gear, which consisted of jeans, short sleeves (sleeveless on her part), half helmets and no gloves, although they did have on good riding boots. While this was a slow speed get off on large chunky gravel, the sad thing is had they been geared up properly and been wearing a riding jacket and pants with proper CE armor and gloves, they would have still been a little sore tonight, but she wouldn't have a lifetime of knee problems ahead of her and they probably wouldn't have even needed a band aid! But, as is the norm with these tractor pirates, they're too cool to gear up and now his girlfriend or wife has to pay the price....
Moral of this story, just as with the tragedy out of New York in the article above.... ATGATT people!!!!!
