Sketchiest Riding Moments?

Locked up on the face of a jump that's barely even doable on a 125.....just went loose and let the cross bar pad punch me in the face.....last Sunday. Didn't crash but I saw some stars. Kinda did what roczen did (not that extreme tho) in SX this year when he came up short in the triple. But this double jump was out of a corner and maybe 55 feet with a terribly unforgiving landing. Damn countershaft bearing let go. Luckily rest of the engine wasn't phased. Just a Shift fork damaged and the bearing.

A few weeks ago I was at Perris MX and I was hitting the big quad there, and this trainer was having his kids on 65's practice the whoops, and if you're familiar with the track, there is the big quad then a quick berm to a whoop section. The kids were hopping onto the track in the very short straightaway after the quad. I was in the air and I see the little kid pulling onto the track. I just hit a fat panic rev in the air. And when I landed, I just looked at the trainer and shook my head. And the trainer threw his hands up at me like it was my fault. Hard to believe someone like that is a trainer .

And with stories like this is it any wonder why our sport doesn't grow? Maybe we just need to add more quads. (inset sarcasm emoticon) Should only be ONE track entrance and one exit.

If a fraction of the stupid stuff that happens in our sport happened in kids' soccer programs there would be no kids' soccer programs.

This weekend, went out of momentum halfway thru a whoop-section 4th gear pinned (came in sideways, so the "set up" was not that good either) started kicking sideways full lock 4-5 times.

I have no clue how I managed to save it, and the people that stood by almost got up their phones to call an ambulance right away

Damn it, I freaking hate woops the more I think about it, 1 lap you nail it, next lap you almost die..

I was at a private track, meaning you had to be a member and put your time in plus pay fees to earn a key to the track. It's generally a good system that keeps idiots out. But not always. I'll never forget coming over a blind table only to see a fucking lady in her jeep driving up the landing. I can't even begin to understand what the hell she was doing there and how she got there. I was lucky that I had been landing close to the edge and not the middle of the track where she was. Just thinking about it today many years later, still gets my blood boiling.

First moto of the day. Got a top 5 start, 2 corners later there was a little table top and I forgot how little it was.

I remember looking down at everyone underneath me, I nearly landed on the guy in front, I smashed my balls so hard of the petrol tank my eyes watered, locked the back the wheel up and went sliding through a rope fence.

But somehow I didn't fall off. Sat there for a few minutes ( I had to check If I still had 2 balls or not) joined back in the race and got 12th.

Been racing for 25 years. Where do I start??

I hate when you get a good start and you magically forget a small jump

Probably going through fast rollers in fourth gear at Rausch Creek in Pennsylvania when I almost go head-on with a dude on a quad who was riding the track in the wrong direction.

One time I was behind my buddy at a track near Houston. It was only us two practicing mid day while no one us was out there. The owner was doing some maintenance around the track all day on the bulldozer. I was following my friend through a large rhythm section and luckily I was staying out of his line to avoid roost. As we went over the last double I saw his bike plant into a huge pile of sand and he went flying straight over, about 15 ft to land in the berm hard. Knocked the wind out and bruised him up pretty good but luckily nothing else. The owner thought we would have saw it. Just dumped a load of sand in the middle of the track while we were clearly doing hard motos and decided not to say anything. I thought that one was pretty unbelievable. Could have been much worse.

This is what makes the beginner class so fun to watch

Coming out of the Taladega turn at Glen Helen into some real nasty chop, I swapped violently, left hand came off the bar, chin to the crossbar, all this happens at the start so I was surrounded by bikes. I don't know how I rode out of that but I overshot the left hander going up Shoei hill without taking anyone out.
Anyone that says you don't use all 5 gears in moto never rode Glen Helen.

I could never figure out why they do that?

every time i get on a bike i get sketched out at least once before i shut her down, it's the alpha in me bro.


probably my spookiest moments have come on goat trails in the mountains with no bail-out areas and full commitment. my ass has been puckered tighter than a gnats ass too many times to count.

Corona raceway, 1983, Doubles were starting to come in, but they weren't like they are now, they pitched you in the air. I was doubling and about halfway through the jump there was a bunch of bikes laying at the landing and I had plenty of time to think about how bad it was going to be. I somehow managed land in the 6 inch path through the bikes.

Mammoth 83 or 84, I locked bars with another rider coming down the big downhill and almost sent it huge.

I do not always agree with what the Rock is saying on here. But on this point I could not agree more. These public tracks need to do more to stop this easily preventable incidents from happening. Coming from a guy that hit a blind landing camel back and literally set my front wheel down into the front end of a FORD 4x4 big ass tractor. These types of things really bother me. I will suffer the affects of that collision for the rest of my life. I am still able to ride but my body is beyond fucked. There is no reason that there should ever be heave equipment anywhere near a track while people are out riding. Tracks need to be made idiot proof. Even then there will still be accidents but we can do better than we are currently doing now.

END RANT

THIS!!

I think for me, I had some pretty sketchy moments when I switched from a 250F to a 250 2 stroke. The lack of engine braking in the air took me off guard many times, and I had to learn how to use my body a LOT more to make the bike do what I wanted.

SO many air wheelies...........

( I also agree that a "sketchy riding moment" is one that doesn't result in a crash. When I crash - I frickin crash! )

I have had way to many to list but I would say I've had most on a 125! Coming up short!
I do love the 450 now!

Every bomb run I've ever done..

About 16 or so years ago when I was racing 250b. Was on my 98 cr250, which as most people will contest was a handful. I was coming through the mid pack, after an awful start. Parking lot section at Hagerstown md. Section was tight left, seat bounce double, table, double into a right hand corner. Wouldn't you know it, I almost landed on "that guy" who got a good start and wasn't jumping everything. Somehow he was going just enough to the right across the landing, and I managed to be just enough to the left to only clip him in the back of his chest protector with my throttle. This activity caused a huge whiskey throttle which sent me off the track almost into the traffic coming back up the hill. After that I just backed it off, and decided to mail it in.

Second to that, about 2 years ago in ab practice at blue diamond. Section was about a 15 foot, very deep double to step on-step over headed back to the parking lot. Valley in between the double was about 8 feet deep and I had NO idea he was in there until I was on the face and he was putting up the face of the landing. That's another thing that needs to stop. Kids thinking it will be cool to ride with ab when they have no business being out there.

Cased a jump on my 250F back when I was a super beginner. I got bucked into a big Flying W and thought I was for sure going over the bars. I somehow managed to land with both knees on the seat, rode it out shaking my head and everyone ooohing and ahhing at me (obviously not in admiration).

The other time was more recent and much more scary. The finish line section at Albany is a whoop section into a small double. Well I was already not feeling the best and the track was extremely slick from poor track prep and over watering. So I hop the double and slip out in some ruts and roll over and right as my head spins back around I see a fast local pro coming full speed ahead down the back side of the double. His foot peg missed my head by an inch or two, at most. I thanked my lucky stars and got a rain check for the day. It really shook me up!

I was at Swan mx on a practice day with my son's and my dad. We were all riding. Back then 4 wheelers could ride the track also.
My dad was going up the big uphill jump in the center of the track on the left side. I was gaining on him fast approaching the top of the hill, right as he crests the hill he looks at me as I was about to leave the ground and he waves.
I didn't know what to think till I was in the air.
There was a 4 wheeler stopped on the back side of the long hill on my side.
Luckily I wa d going fast enough that I jumped over him. When I landed I went back and lit into that guy and he said that it had quit running. I toldhim he should have gotten it off the trtrack instead of just sitting on the back side of that hill like that.

A little slower on my part and we both would have been hurt pretty bad or worse. It scared the crap out of me !!!!!!!

Well for me there is 1 stand out moment and i am still not sure how i even survived it let alone not crash...

Story goes like this, at my local track they sharpen the jumps about once or twice a week and they had this 1 big tabletop finish jump. I am not sure what they did to it but it was allot steaper then usually and very dangerious.

As usual on practice day i was casually rolling around first laps checking everything about before starting to ride more agressive and start hitting jumps completely. I figure i should be able to clear the finish table easily since it was really sharp / steep that day.

About 3rd lap i go for it and was a tad bit to fast, overshooting it and landing just barely past the 'landing' of the jump. No biggie i rode it out no problem hurted my hands / wrists a bit but nothing to bit being able to soak it quite allot by landing on the back wheel.

Then next lap i was thinking like this time im going to huck it perfectly and stick the landing perfect. Well ... I don't really know what happened but i made a huge error on the run up and was going way, way to fast .. Keep in mind this was like a 30 meter tabletop (no clue about ft sorry). As soon as i hit the face of the jump i was in a horrible situation. After a few seconds i am so high up in the air and see i will flattland allot past the landing .. I think about aborting in the air but somehow i stayed on the bike. Then my mind and memory kinda are deleted lol (really wtf moment) - I thought i was going to die or either be critically hurt at that moment, i vividly remember it even after 4 years since it happened :/

Next moment i just fall out of the air and hit the ground again completely soaking it on my back wheel / back suspension. But the impact is allot worse then my previous time this happened, Both my feet get blown of from my footpegs and drag in the sand, my hand on the throtthle is snapped of the steer from impact and i somehow magicly ride it out with 1 hand on the steer lol.

My head / neck was badly slammed into my steer and i was kinda in shock i rode out of that cause seconds before that i thought i was done lol. i rode back to the car and went to lay down on the ground to come back to reality haha. Funny thing was there was multiple friends and family watching me ride that day and nobody / none of them saw the incident happen. Neither had i any marks or imprints on my body indicating anything like this happened, i thought my wrist / hand was broken but it was actually fine.

took a break and rode more that day.

by far my biggest wtf moment in racing.