Well, it's not so much a mistake that cost me money, or that ruined the bike.....

...But every time I read the title in the tech section. "Oops, ...That was DUMB!", I can't help but think of this less than stellar moment of pure genius in my VBMX past.

I was prepping my bike for the Worlds at Indy in 1981. In fact, it was late, the night before leaving in the morning. The bike was lubed, adjusted, and polished, and I was pretty anal about performance, so before the bike was ever "done", it had to prove a few things to me. The cranks had to be able to spin like 14 times around with zero free play, the front wheel had to spin for like 4 minutes, ...and so forth.


The final check I was going to do was to make sure the freewheel had been re-assembled with the perfect amount of special grease and oil (secret mixture), lol, and rear wheel bearings were perfect (make sure it spun for an hour, lol). So I grabbed the crank arm and started to spin the wheel, and I spun my index finger right in between the chain, and the chain wheel. I mean, right at dead center of my index finger print, and it landed dead center on a sprocket tooth, and I didn't get the rotation stopped until EXACTLY half way around the sprocket.....Of course, the chain had no loose spots and was adjusted to zero slop, and had it's own special mixture of oil and graphite freshly coating everything as well.

Of course, instinct instantly tells you to pull away! (That's not gonna work, lol)

.... I was so stupefied that I stared at it for a while trying to see if I missed the sprocket tooth or not...it didn't appear I was so lucky as that.

I gingerly tried to go backwards with the freewheel, but the DX pedal had gotten tangled in my shirt sleeve or something ridiculous like that, so I had to pedal the wheel forward the rest of the way around to where my hand was now 270 degrees twisted, and then I had to "pop" my finger off the sprocket tooth. Ow, ow, ow ow...OWie!

It was so squished that there was just an empty crater in my finger, and my finger nail was distorted. So I squished it, and wiggled it, and of course the blood returned to my finger, and the geyser let loose....Pfffft!...

I had bloody band-aids, and a bloody soaked finger of my glove all weekend long. I really had to think twice about using the brakes all weekend. ....It was sort of a "Pavlovian" "conditioning of responses". Brakes = Pain.

Hmmm. Maybe it helped me? ...lol

Looking at the finger nail now, it still grows with a ripple in it! (that can't be why...can it???) lol. D'oh! I really think it is!

Let's see some of those moment's in your BMX history, when you really weren't proud of your place in the proverbial intelligence food chain among your BMX peers.

Dares, repairs, or scares, it's all good so long as it's "Darwinian"....

ted what class did you race at indy in 81? i was in 16x.
mike

Ted I have to say "been there and done" that with the chain and finger thing. How about the morning I was finishing up my paper route. I threw my bag over the bars and took off in a sprint when the bag got sucked up between the front wheel and the forks and OTB's I went. It was right smack dab in the middle of the street, I jumped up and looked around hoping no one saw me crash.

lol I just thought about this the other day. Even with a 20 year absence from bicycling, it is still etched into the peanut perched atop my shoulders to ONLY spin the freewheel from the left crank arm with my index finger. I must have a done a number on my finger back then to so vividly remember that one rule of thumb. (or finger).

Well, at least it appears I was not alone on this indiscretion...lol

MC, funny how those old photo chop gems re-surface in a pinch...lmao.

slayer, that would have been a 14x year.

Keep em coming.....humility here.....

I once took my bike apart, cleaned everything, flipped it over to put the wheels and cranks back on. Sprocket and freewheel go on the right side.... check. Chain goes on and I flip it back over to go ride... oh crap.

For a split second I freaked because cranks spun freely and now had a coaster brake. lol

I have done lots of damage to bikes and parts (I still do, hacksaw). One mistake that comes to mind to me is when people don't hit on the wedge bolt to free a stem. Instead they pound the p1zz out of the bottom of the stem.

I got my finger stuck halfway through the sprocket once!!But the way I did is embarrasing..,

I was riding down the street slowly.I tugged on the chain with my index finger to see if it was loose -while I was still pedaling- .(I dont know what I was thinking and why I didnt just look at the chain)Before I knew it my finger was caught halfway through the chain/sprocket...I panicked and just picked my bike up and carried it in front of me with my finger stuck in it still lol..my house was about a block away,when I got home I forget how but I got it out ,and had a really nasty gash and went to the er..lol

I recall a moment of pure genius during the mid 80's. I think probably around summer of 1986 while riding around town I ran into a friend who had a very nice 450SL Mercedes Benz. It was always clean, waxed and armor all'd. My GT at the time was all chrome with the only black being the tires, brakes, grips and seat. He suggested I Armor All the tires which I promptly did. We sprayed em nice and good letting it soak in. The bike was immaculate looking. When I got on to pedal away I started a turn and the bike just went right out from under me. In anything less than an absolute straight line it was absolutely unrideable. Yep. Never did that again.

The 80's were a confusing time.

12 year old kids leared the hard way. Vise grips and Cresent wrenches were what was avalible.

I’ve told this story before, but is a good lesson what not to do….

Some friends and I were riding down a tar road hanging off the seat seeing who could get closest to buzzin the hiney on the rear tire going down the hill. Well my feet slipped off the pedals and landed on the knobby’s…The tire sucked my crotch in to the brakes like a bear trap. I came to a screeching (and screaming) halt. As my friends were laughing at me, I had to actually pick up the bike, and turn the wheel backwards to get the boys free

haha, rm 125, I did the same thing, turned out i hadn't locked the axle nut down, felt funny so i checkedthe chain cruising down the hill....
But atleast I checked because it was loose

i KINDA had the same deal happen as the finger in the chainwheel, but it was the side of my calf.

see...what had happened was....there was this little dirt track in my neighborhood that we used to ride every so often....it had rained the day before this certain time, so my friends and i were like..."yeah...muddin' time!!"

so were flying around this little circle and all of a sudden, my rear wheel slips in the mud, and for some reason or another (i STILL dont know how i ended up in this position)....but i instantly found myself laying on top of my bike...bike was laying with the right side (chainwheel side) up, but im laying on my left side on top of the bike.....when i try to get up, i realize i cant....my leg was stuck on something....ok...didnt feel any pain right then, so i thought it was under the other side of the bike....nope...WAIT.....AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH................the side of my calf was at about 2 o'clock in the chainwheel.....luckily my friend SLOWLY backed the cranks up....i dont think ive ever been in so much shock and felt so much non-instant pain...like....ever.

Ok,,, I admit,,, I had my finger caught in between the chain and sproket too !
Mine was kind of a bone head moment also,,,, I recently finished building my pro racer and the chrome was bright !
I saw the neighbor girl (who was pretty hot) get dropped off from school or something and she was walking up her drive-way,,, and in a desperate attempt to get her attention I flipped my bike over (hoping that she would see the chrome sparkle) and pretended to be working on it,,
so I grabbed the pedal,, started spinning the crank arm,, and as I was checking her out,,, some how,,, I got my finger stuck into it !!
(She didnt see, thank god)
Instead of screaming like a girl,, I kinda stared at it wondering how I could do something so dumb ! So in pain,, I tried to pedal backward,, not happening,, so I had to pedal all the way around, and pull my stuck finger off the tooth.
I hold my finger up.. and see this rectangular shaped hole in the bottom (bleeding),, and a small hole coming through the top under the tip of my nail !
I stood there and realized I was home alone,, and we didnt have any first aid,, So i still got my wish to talk to the neighbor girl,, I went over and knocked on the door to try and get a band-aid or something LOL ! "oh my gosh, let me help you" she said .
Painful way to meet a girl I guess.

Good topic.

I was goofing around and my little toe on my left foot got stuck in the sprocket and needed assistants from Mom getting it out.. Off to the ER I went to get it stitched up...

Mid 90's I'm managing a bike shop in Michigan, and it had been over a month of working 12-14 hrs a day - 7days a week since my last day off.
The Supercross was coming to town and the owner said he'd cover me so I could go.

I'm ready to walk out the door, and a kid comes in wanting to buy an Elf that we couldn't seem to move for the longest time - but there was one catch ...... it had to have Profile cranks or he'd pass on it.
I get everything finished and just need to give everything a quick "once-over", then I'm outta there.
Spin the cranks backwards to check chain tension and *SNAP*


I've somehow managed to catch the pinky on my left hand between the chainstay and spinning crank arms.

I know what I've done, but I'm not gonna look or do anything about it till I'm on the road.
I roll the bike out to the kid and he says "Holy crap dude - what happened to your finger"?
I look down and it's mangled - It's all out of shape - broken doesn't begin to describe it - lol

Anyway
there's no way I'm getting it checked out by a DR. - that can wait until tomorrow.
I grab a VAR aluminum tire lever and bend the finger to match it's curves as best I can, couple wraps of electrical tape and I'm out the door.

Worked with my "VAR" splint for a few days until I couldn't take the pain anymore and finally go see the Doc.
Two of the three bones are broken, but the bones have already started mending - so I'm looking at an appointment to have him re-break and cast it up for me.

Never did go back.



So now I have the misshapen, crooked finger and a bit of Arthritis - but I got my night off, and that's all that matters ..... right?
LOL



Working with a badly broken foot and shattered ring finger are different stories for another day.
(-:

lmfao......Now that's what I'm talking about! Keep these coming in for sure!

Ok, not old school, but new school BMX related.... and not to funny, from a parent side

I was on my way to a BMX race 300 miles away this summer, at about the 200 mile mark I get this call. from my older son...Hey, do you know where mom is?...ahhh no..."what's going on"? Ummm Logan (younger brother) is on the way to the hospital...WHAT!?!?...Yeah, he got his middle two fingers caught in the sprocket...WHATT!?!?

So, the story was, that he leaned over (while riding over) to adjust his shoe, and got his fingers stuck between the sprocket and the chain

Mark you'll remember this one.

The owner of Rydjor Bike shop owned a Saab and two very nice road bikes.. After a day of riding with his wife he pulls up to the garage door wth the bikes on the THULE (roof rack), and opens the garage door and rips off the bikes off the roof...Damage to the car, the bike$ and the garage... Then I guess he did it again not long after.... LOL!!!!! If knew this guy it would be even funnier.

Couldn't forget that one! Someone had drawn a cartoon of it (eric), I'll see if I can get a hold of it. Ya, think Pat ould have know better

My story will be about trusting my bike rack! It was a hot summer night at the Hampton Supertrack one week before the Grands. My son and I wanted to get in the last race before we left. After a great time at the track I put my son’s bike on first, closest to the vehicle and secured the rubber tie-downs. I put my GT BOX with many great GT extras on the last set of tie-downs furthest from the vehicle. I decided not to put the cable and lock on because the bikes did not move during the 90 mile trip from Richmond to Hampton. Most of my trip is highway driving and I would look back and see two sets of bars in the rear view mirror from time to time. The last 40 miles of the trip I did not have anyone behind me with their lights illuminating the bikes until I got 5 miles from home. This is when I noticed that I had one set of bars on the bike rack and not two! To my horror, I called the State Police and inquired about any bikes on the highway and they told me that they did have one and it was about 40 miles away from where I was. It is now 11PM and I go back to get my bike. When I arrive and see my bike in a twisted mess on the side of the road my heart sank. Not only was I out about 500 bucks for the bike, I wondered what the damage was to what hit it and what that was going to cost. My phone began to ring and it was the State PD dispatcher asking if I got my bike. I said "yes I got it." He replies "the trucker that hit it was mad, but it did not hurt his truck." Long story short. Lock your bike with a cable and don't trust the rack tie-downs. I wanted to thank BV for lending me his bike for the Grands. I also need to thank Mr. Upshaw for fixing my Kuwahara I got at the Grands and made the semis with.

[I tried to curse], atleast it wasn't both I guess.

haha, yeah I remember being in a bike shop one day when some guy roadie came in reckoned he'd done the same thing, "thule roof rack garage incident" a few time this time he was after new forks as a result.
I said that sucks maybe you should reconsider where you put your bike on the car, turns out he seemed to look at it just as an excuse to change parts or something though.
I don't think I'll ever understand some people

BITD I'm riding down the road and don't like the sound my drivetrain is making.

So I look down, I'm tapping the chainring bolts, feeling for bb play, checking the
chain tension, being ever so mindfull as to not catch my finger in there (LOL).

When, you guessed it, I plowed right into the back of a parked car. Did the
old "look around slyly for anyone who might have seen this". Nope. Whew.
Still embarrassed about that, but I always keep my eyes forward now.

Then there was the time I tried to bunnyhop over a couple parking blocks
that were about 6 feet apart. On a makeshift Scrambler I'd cobbled
together the night before. Broken collarbone number one...

LOL !! I did something similar while riding in the street.
I had just bought an ice-cold bottle of pepsi which BITD they were actually a glass bottle,,,
I rode a few blocks and decided to open it up and take a swig,,,,
It was a flaming hot day and I was wearing those 80s stlye shorts,(you know the ones)
Anyway,, I m riding in the street,,, and open it up,, and with one hand on my handle bars,,
and one hand holding the bottle up,, i take one of those thirst quenching drinks where you actually look up into the sky while drinking,
and then all of a sudden CRASH, BOOM, POW !!!! SLAM !!! OUCH !!
Some how there was one lonley rock in the street bout the size of a golf ball ,, and my front tire must of hit it just right in mid-drink , and with one hand on the bars,, I had no chance !!
I went down like a sack of Potatoes !! thanks to those 80s shorts,, I got a scrape about 2 inches long right under my knee cap bout 1 1/2 wide !! I gather my compossier and relize I still have the pepsi in my hand !! LOL !! I rode for a block or so and this old lady saw all the blood flowing and says "do you need a bandaid ?" Ok i said,, and she even put some medicene,,,,, those were the days.

I was nine or 10 and it was the 4th of July. I was riding home in the dark from the fireworks near Broad Ripple (north side of Indy). I was in the street (1st mistake at night) and was trying to keep up with my older step-brother who was riding a wheelie. BAM!! Caught the rear fender/corner of the parked land yacht. A couple inces over and it would have been an abrupt stop. Somehow, when I hit the pavement, I road-rashed both elbows, one knee and chin. All I remember was laying in the street, bawling like a school girl, and no one around. No street lights to see the damage. Nothing. My wonderful step-brother kept on going. I was about two blocks from the house. I picked myself up and got my bike to its wheels only to find that the handlebars were now at a 45 degree angle to the front wheel. I could barely see from the tears and managed to get to the house. My Dad was coming down the driveway when I rolled up. I got the last laugh though. My step-brother still has two a_ _ -holes from that chewing his Mom gave him for leaving me in the street.

When I was 12 (1982-83) I rode with about 6-10 other boys . We all had bmx bikes (I had a Silver Streak) and had a great place to ride with an arcade, a pool, and Krystal nearby. One summer day we all met at the pool were headed to the Endless Challenge (arcade) with an unusually large group of guys. I was never the fastest kid but this day I wanted to show what the Streak could do.

On the way was this long downhill where I planned to take things over so I started cranking my Shimano SX pedals hard. I was making pace when my right Vans slipon slid right into the fork/tire. I would estimate I was going 25mph or so and building speed before it all ended in a terrential endo. After several flips I found myself laying about thirty yards later with ten guys hovering over my body as I moaned and squirmed in agony. They couldn't believe what they had seen and I couldn't believe I was alive.

Miraculously, a dude in van was behind us and offered me a ride home about a mile away. He didn't molest me and I didn't start crying until I saw my mom, who drew a hot bath for her scraped up boy. A couple of the guys even rode back to my house before going on to the arcade. I still have that bike (with those useless pedals) and scars from the wreck but I didn't break a single bone.

When I was 12 (1982-83) I rode with about 6-10 other boys . We all had bmx bikes (I had a Silver Streak) and had a great place to ride with an arcade, a pool, and Krystal nearby. One summer day we all met at the pool were headed to the Endless Challenge (arcade) with an unusually large group of guys. I was never the fastest kid but this day I wanted to show what the Streak could do.

On the way was this long downhill where I planned to take things over so I started cranking my Shimano SX pedals hard. I was making pace when my right Vans slipon slid right into the fork/tire. I would estimate I was going 25mph or so and building speed before it all ended in a terrential endo. After several flips I found myself laying about thirty yards later with ten guys hovering over my body as I moaned and squirmed in agony. They couldn't believe what they had seen and I couldn't believe I was alive.

Miraculously, a dude in van was behind us and offered me a ride home about a mile away. He didn't molest me and I didn't start crying until I saw my mom, who drew a hot bath for her scraped up boy. A couple of the guys even rode back to my house before going on to the arcade. I still have that bike (with those useless pedals) and scars from the wreck but I didn't break a single bone.

I know this was rather painful but for some reason I laughed hysterically, funniest thing I've read allday. Maybe its the mental picture I created oh so fast having been there before also.

I remember the day my dad brought home our new Moto-bikes. I was so happy, riding down the street waving to Mom standing on the porch, when BLAM the mailbox jumped out in front of me knocking me to the ground.

Then there was the time in the not so distant past that I was riding out of the driveway on my newly acquired Sting-ray and forgetting about the coaster brake somehow managed to crash. As I lay in the street hoping noone saw, then I heard my wife laughing from the porch telling me, "Get up you big dummy before you get runned over!"

June 18, 1999. I was racing down a main street on my 84 pro series (i still ride today). I was winning in a race against 7 other kids. one kid was comming up on my left so my attention was on him, trying to keep ahead. while my head was turned and going full speed, a buick regal comes out from a side street! I smashed dead on right in between his door and fender. I didn't even touch his car (bike did), i completly launched over his hood, Dented the crap out of his car. I was out cold on the street. Fractured both wrists, tore up my elbow, and rode the bike home using my forearms! The guy didn't car about his car and my head set was distroyed. good times

I had small ramp about 10" high that I used jump all the time in the back yard. My driveway was on a hill so when you jumped, you would go 3-4 ft high and a distance of 12-15 ft. The problem was one afternoon I was coming home from a friends that was up the hill from my house. I was going twice as fast as normal and my dad had moved the ramp a little when he was mowing the lawn. Well when I jump the ramp I flew twice the normal distance and caught my Mom's clothes line right under the chin; stopped me dead from 5' the the air right on to my back. It must have looked like something from a cartoon.

Funny stuff.,.,.,.only because I did the exact same thing.,.,.,still have the scar on my right index finger. I was pedaling and the chain came off, so instead of stopping and fixing it, I reached down and tryed to place the chain back onto the sprocket while riding, of course the chain was put back on, but my finger was caught between the chain and sprocket. Did a full rotation until the finger came free on the bottom part of the sprocket.Almost cut off the finger right above the nail.

i was in fifth grade and at school one day my best friend and i got into a small playground scuffle during a dodgeball game, he peged me in to boys pretty good and now i needed to get him back somehow. so being a young boy you really dont think first alot of the time, so i hide between two parked cars on the hill he lived on about half way down, now this hill was about 100 yards down and just as he got closer i jumped out and threw a pretty good sized stick into his front wheel thinking it would break his spokes...wow i was way off, over the bars he went and did at least 3 flips on the concret. i thought i just killed my BF and i started to freak out and he was out cold. thank god for the ups man he had just turned on the street and seen the whole thing and he was now freaking out also so he poured water in my friend and he came out of it but did know what happend. no broking bones but i got i hugh trouble with my parents. within two days all was forgoting

I witnessed this next really dumb thing. Must've been 83/84 when my buddy and I were cruising around our neighborhood on our GT's and headed back to my house which was down a street called Whittier Blvd in Bethesda Md. It had a nice S turn kind of hill and it was the fall when everyone rakes their leaves into the gutter so the street crew could use those big vacuum trucks to suck it all up. It's just one big continuous pile for however long the block is.

So as was our habit we'd get up some speed and then go diving into the pile scattering the leaves. In some places the piles were high enough to bury the bike up to the top bar of the frame. So we get our speed up and go flying down the hill when he swerves over the left side of the street to start riding into this pile. No sooner does he get in there when suddenly he's still in a seated position but the bike is no longer under him. It wasn't quite an endo and I'd never seen a bike go out from under someone so cleanly. A split second of surprise and THEN he was tumbling end over end in the leaves. We go back and it turns out one of the homeowners had put cinder blocks in the pile to keep us from riding through and messing it all up. No damage to the bikes or bones.

one of the homeowners had put cinder blocks in the pile to keep us from riding through and messing it all up.


Nice.....

This guy would have a great story.
Visit My Website

Could you imaging balancing a bicycle on a piece of 2x4 a foot in front of a 500k car. Then running to take the shot and having the bike fall. Now that would be a story. Especially if it was not your car. Goof.

Everyone likes Chicago style bars...

My fav was riding my halfpipe as my ma yelled that I had a phone call. As I rolled down the westside tranny, I gave the pedal one last stomp to make it to the deck. The freewheel shell exploded, sending me face and shoulder into the next wall. As I laid on the ramp with about 200 slivers in my shoulder. That cool Atom freewheel wasn't so cool.

Everyone's seen the ever-so-familiar shot in the movies, when somebody knocks
over the first Harley in front of a biker bar...and the domino theory takes over...

....well a couple weeks ago I was lining up my rides in their plush new bike-room...

....it's really not very funny...


I had almost forgotten about it until I saw that GT in front of that Ferrari...

Oh yeah... The Roof rack incident.
I had one of those too........

I had just spent an enjoyable day Mountain biking at our local trail mecca. During the 45 minute car ride home I put on some tunes and just kinda "zoned out" a bit. While pulling in my driveway I noticed that my young daughter had a bunch of friends over playing in the front yard. I continued down the driveway, into my carport when I heard, and felt a loud slam. It then hit me.... I had just crushed the front end of my Cannondale suspension mountain bike into the concrete roof. If that wasn't enough, the yakama roof rack that it was bolted to ripped off taking a chunk of my Ford Taurus roof with it.
Dazed, I backed up my car and got out to look at the damage. It was then my neighbor's 6 year old girl asked me "Did you know that there was a bike on top of your car..........??"

That sucked!

Just so you guys don't think your all alone, I also had that moment of genius where I found my index finger between the chain and sprocket, remember that well.

Another time a buddy and I were sitting at the top of a jump looking down in the distance at a berm around a tree. I say, "hey why don't we each go a different direction and pass each other on that distant berm and both come back and launch off this jump at the same time". Sure enough we get to the berm at warp speed and slam right into each other, slamming the stem into my crotch....could have used a bandaid (or stiches) at that moment, I'll spare you the details.

Another moment. There was this road running along a railroad nearby. Along the tracks there was a favorite jump, but I needed to ride up a side street, turn around , get speed up, cross that road along the tracks and hit the jump. 2 houses prevented you from seeing any oncoming traffic. I figure, what the heck, what are the chances of getting hit. I'm racing toward this blind intersection, just beyond the houses I see a car coming and it slams on it's brakes and is skidding toward me. Instinctively I bunny hopped as high as I could and landed on the other side of the road..in some random schrub/bush. I remember being in shock and shaking as I sat there. The guy runs over and says " Are you crazy?!, you just jumped over the hood of my car!". And no riding buddys around to see it, oh well, never did that again. Bunny hopping skills could pay off!

But!!! I was riding with a friend who was doing the same stupid thing and I tried to warn him, however different intersection, a car came and plowed into him. He ended up flying through the air and landed on someones lawn. He was amazingly fine, then asked "What were you yelling to me?" I believe I answered, "Never mind" :-)

Good Times.

Ed

My friend Jeff was sitting here reading this thread lhao, and I was reminded of a lesson in "Volunteering" that he gave me.

We were hanging out at a jump we called the roller-coaster. It was a downhill run winding through a woods, across a school bus storage driveway, up the ramp, across the 18 foot table top, and down the 30 foot landing hill to the parking lot below. We would jump over people who were standing up on that one....! Had some great stories that happened there....lol.

On this day we were further down, trying out a smaller jump area, and I "Volunteered" to be jumped over while laying down. Jeff hits the jump a bit too conservatively, goes straight up, does a big kick-out, and suddenly it is apparent to me that I am laying flat on my back looking straight up at a snake belly that is coming straight down , and it's also apparent that the kick-out isn't going to be making it back to center either, and the snake belly is headed straight down at my face. ....At the last second I turned my head and squinched my face as the snake belly came straight down, and firmly squished my melon between the grass and the tire with all his weight stacked on top of it. The tire buzzed my ear and squished my temple.

A classic moment of apologizing while laughing his A off ensued....."Great, that was just great, thanks man, now it's your turn"..... (yeah right!)....


Volunteering for anything really is stupid. ...So is saying, "watch this"......

Yeah, wildlife experts will tell you. The vast majority of animal related injuries
are preceded by the words, "Hey Guys! Check this out!"
The same probably goes for bikes too.

While I thought the low-clearance stories were a riot, (can't stop picturing it)...
....
....
Ted, Dude, a bike landing on your HEAD?! That's just plain terrifying!

Those stories are so funny!
I was the "Wheelie King" bitd. So one day I disassembled the front wheel and pulled wheelies for miles. Then at the end of the street I had to brake. The Bottema forks crashed into the ground and the whole upper end of the steering tube broke of my '82 GT. The GT is gone but I still have the forks in use on my Murray X20C. LOL.

PS. I guess everyone has a chain story. LOL

Cheers

Oliver

Anyone remember the Uni wheel covers? They were an "aerodynamic" aid just as the plate and seats were supposed to be. So I got these things and promptly put them both front and rear wheels. This experiment lasted all of about 2 weeks and a couple of windy days both on and off the track. I finally pulled the front cover off once I got tired of fighting the bike all over the place or worse, having it vanish from underneath me while jumping the step up at Howard County, Md bmx track.

we lived on a dead end street and it was slopped well we set up a ramp and my adopted brother came down the hill hit the ramp and let go of the bars well mid air his button up shirt caught the seat no hands on the bars no feet on the pedals came crashing down on the seat bike landed going straight bars and all he grabbed the bars with squished n@#$z and rode away in agony it was really funny cause it was my adopted brother i will remember it always

ok, here is the stupidest thing i can recall doing bitd. i got my dad to get me a nice. new, red anno race inc for my birthday, at age 13. one of the cheapest complete bmx bikes at our local schwinn shop, haacks cycle in janesville wi. i loved the bike, but in a couple years i had gotten pretty big for it. a local kid had a nice used red 1980 proline , and loved the idea of having a sub-20 pound bike which my race was at about 19 pounds.(all alloy race components, and the heaviest item, the single piece cranks.) we decided to swap frame/forks and keep the majority of our original parts. this of course included seats and posts. you now know where this is going ? the seat post going from the race to the redline was a bit loose, but we cranked that clamp down hard , but when the post from the redline (fluted alloy) went into the race inc, man was that tough ! as i recall, a file was involved,a screwdriver to the slit in the frame, and after a thorough bout with a mallot it was inserted about 4-5 inches, and stuck ! we then advised the new race owner that if he needed the post any lower it would just need to be cut ! i bet that seat post mast was broken off in the near future. 7/8", 9/16" , whatever !

i chromed over an original yellow paint job on a bassett 26" cruiser frame/fork i bought off of ebay. in my defense......i hadnt thought about bmx for over ten years prior to this and didnt realize you could spend ALOT of time and money searching for these rare items, making original finishes/decals something you would want to keep. i was still in the frame of mind that i could find a good 80s bmx cruiser out of the recycler for less than $100...ha!

Find a cheap BMX in the recycler huh? Not if I find it first!

2 of them for ya.

1) A buddie of mine was racing down a hill shirt less with one of thoses 80's big sliver boom boxes. Raido falls off his bars and lands in front of his bike. Goes over the bars a completely scrapes his left nippel off. If I remember correctly he got a skin graph from his rear to replace the skin that he lost on his chest.

2) Another buddie and I were "trick" jumping. Had 2 ramps set up and we would jump towards each other and see how close we could get. Well we got a little too close. Mid-air collision about 4 feet up. It was a perfect crash. When we hit we just stoped and fell. Guys that we were riding with said it looked like a Bugs Bunny cartoon.

O-yeah Finger in the sprocket right here. Also did it on my CR250! That hurt big time.

Old-skull

This has got to be one of the funniest threads I've read - anywhere

Two things I remember quite well:

It is 1982-83 and there was four of us and only two bikes. The two without bikes get stuck riding on the bars. We are riding through a downhill parking lot with a speed bump in the middle. My buddy on my bars says hit it. We get a some air and my friend loses his seat. He is running as fast as he can while still holding on to my bars behind his back. I am trying my best to stop but my brakes never worked very well. Still holding onto the bars, my friend hits the ground and gets violated by my front tire.

Same time priod; we used to ride our bikes down the boat ramp at out local lake. When you hit the water, the bike would stop and you'd go flying. I get the bright idea to try it with no hands. I hit the water and instead of flying over the handle bars, I get hung up on them and smacked my head on the front tire. Gave me a nice tire burn right in the middle of my forehead