I sucked Stillmatics WOODley;n29407 said:When I was in my early 20s I had a good size crew of buddies who all got into street bikes, at the time I was riding a 1998 TL1000R. We liked to head down to an area in Fort Langley were there is a section of short but very tight and fun set of turns and just bomb around after getting super baked.
So this time out its me 3 and good friends going and it usually turns into a sort of competition once the turns start. I'm in the front as the corners come up so i get focused and push myself in hopes to get as much space between me and them strictly for bragging rights. As I'm coming into the sharpest turn of the bunch, a left hander, another bike appears coming in the opposite direction and I see him right before the apex and we both acknowledge each other for a split second, bad idea.
Now if anybody here rides you know that the bike goes where you look,period. I wiggle a bit coming out but I'm still feeling fast and I know the next few turns are not as tough so I hammer it on and keep going. Once the turns are done and the road straightens out I look in my mirror and see nobody so I'm thinking " fuck ya, I smoked them....." all while smiling under my helmet. 5 seconds later still nobody so again my head swells. The 3rd mirror check is followed quickly with a shoulder check and i see nothing, I know I'm good but my buddies can ride just as good.
I slow to almost a halt and look over my shoulder again confused so I do a 180. As soon as I straighten out I see a small black cloud of smoke coming just beyond the trees I was riding through. VISOR DOWN AND THROTTLE FULL!! As I approach the scene becomes clear. Its one of my best friends on his back writhing in pain as his R6 is engulfed in flames and the bike right beside it is the guys who eyes I met with minutes before.
Flames are at least 20' high, my buddy looks to be a mess, the other rider is standing motionless beside his wreck of a bike and my 3 other friends are trying to figure out what to do while tires and the radiator are bursting from the heat. My one buddy was aspiring to be a firefighter at the time so he was pretty calm considering and was just keeping my friend who's hurt talking to see what he was feeling and do his best to assess.
Now out come the neighbors and this is a farming community so they look like inbred hillbillies and they are certain that its a good idea to remove the helmet, WRONG. thankfully they called 911 as they came over so fire and ambulance were on the scene in a decent amount of time and we follow Nick to the hospital behind the ambulance. He checked out just fine and only needed 4 stitches or something but his bike and helmet were destroyed and the doctor had to cut his leather jacket off.
The officer involved now is a female so she goes right onto mother hen mode starting to lecture us on how deadly these bikes are and what were we thinking and so on. I was concerned about my friend obviously so I had to call her out, can't remember what was said but she left us alone quickly.
TBH the worst part was me making the phone call to his mom and being all "Hi Patty......Ok just stay cool here ok? I'm here at the hospital with your boy and someone almost killed him but he's going to be just fine" At first she lost it but after a minute of reassuring her she got it together and was just happy he didn't die. We had awesome times on bikes for years, I'll try to put up another one later.
Damn that is a crazy story Bird, Your buddy is lucky man. Fuuuucccccckkkk bikes. I never liked them...not because I didn't think they were cool or fun, but because I didn't trust other people's driving.