Thanks to Jeremy George, I got to hear a noise that I haven’t heard a lot of in twenty years: the sounds of a Yamaha two-stroke at full chat. It was a sound that I used to love, but in 1998 there was a rather painful incident that involved a Douglas fir at high speed that got me to walk away from dirt bikes for a while. I’ll still ride when given the chance, but that was the moment I realized that I’m human and that one of the things the miraculous item called the human body does not do well is bounce off a permanently rooted plant. Hauling serious amounts of ass along fire roads is one thing, but some of the more radical riding I did back then got shelved for good.
Every now and then I get the itch to ride again. I’ve scratched that itch a few times by borrowing a street bike, but for the most part I don’t ride anymore. My body isn’t as ready for the abuse as it was back then. And if I ever need a refresher course on that line of thinking, all I need to do is to play this video over and over until I get the point. Not everyone is Travis Pastrana, not every trail is perfect, and not every landing from a jump is going to be a winner. For every good, there is a bad. For every good day of riding, there will be a day where you find yourself laying in a muddy puddle, aching and trying to recover the wind that got knocked out of you, and you will question your choices for a moment or two, I promise you.
That is painful to watch.
Thank You Bangshift/McTaggart ! It Only Hurts When I LAUGH !! No matter how BAD you think your day has gone ? You Watch those CLIPS and You Can’t help but end up ROLLING ON THE FLOOR LAUGHING !!!!