In reply to toddmh's post What protection equipment do you ride with?? I wrote;

I never wear anything but boots and that's only because I squeezed my foot between the bike and the side wall of a wash out one time. I also let my daughter and son ride without any protection. (what a dumbass your thinking?) Read on.

My thinking has always been the speed, where I ride it's 90% heavy woods trails and mud holes. The fastest I ever get is maybe 15-20 mph but most of the time I'm doing 5-10. Even after my son plowed my grizz into a pine tree and all but totaled it I didn't change my ways, I guess mostly because he didn't get hurt there by positively reinforcing my poor or at risk behaviors.

My son bought a used big bear 400 because he was no longer welcome on my bike and I rebuilt the carb for him last Saturday. I asked him to follow me into the woods in my bike (I know) while I was adjusting on the carb. We got to a short open spot on the trail and I ran the big bear up through a couple gears and made a U-turn. He was standing next to the bike with a funny look on his face. I asked what happened and he said "I fell off" I said what do you mean you fell off. He said he was just riding along and the bike pitched up on two wheels and through him off. I looked back and spotted a huge Texas size fire ant mound covered in grass. I asked him if he was ok and he said yes and we rode on for about 20 min and then went home.

About 45 min after the accident he started walking around the house acting weird, disoriented, and asking what happened. He did not remember riding, mowing the yard before riding, that he attended his sister's softball game that morning, hell he didn't even remember that he had bought a bike 3 days prior. His short term memory was reduced to about 2 to 5 min, by the time I finished explaining what happened he would start all over with the same line of questions.

Needless to say I spent the rest of last weekend at the Texas Children's Medical center he has a category 2 concussion the good news is he will be alright they said he had no bleeding or swelling of the brain and his memory will return (it has).

Well in 4 to 6 weeks when he is cleared for activity we will be riding again but you can bet everybody in my family will be geared up from head to toe. If you are still riding without protection or worse letting you kids ride PLEASE PLEASE don't wait until something happens to change your mind. I got lucky twice you may not be so lucky. Think about the feeling I had in my stomach thinking he could be brain damaged for the rest of his life, think about how you would feel if you put your child in a situation and the result was the loss if their life. Don't have kids? Well picture you wife, or mother sitting in the hospital being told you will be a vegetable for the rest of your life. Please just think about it I had plenty of time to think while I was in the hospital hoping my son would be alright.

 

Repost away..

I am Glad he is ok... Also glad you learned your lesson - albeit a hard one.. but still

HELMETS HELMETS HELMETS.....

Everytime I ride and I don't see people wearing helmets I ask them WHY.. then they look at me like I am on Crack....

You can even get a cheap one for as little as $30... I just bought a $160 HJC CL-X Sapien left over for only $71 !!!

 

Hopefully some other people will learn from your experiance!

 

Good post, it is definitely something to think about.

Safety gear is definitely not something to go without, if nothing else...wear a helmet.

This picture is of my helmet after I had a little crash out on the dunes last spring:



Imagine what my head would look like if I didn't have that on. You can see the cracked and chipped area where either the handlebars or the foot peg slammed into my head, and the sun visor part got ripped off. To make a long story short, I hit a big rut on the downside of a sand dune while doing about 55, it tossed the back of the quad up...when I landed, my right foot broke through the footboard and I started tumbling. I did a few rolls, and the quad flipped and landed on my head (500+ lb wolverine 450 4x4)...I was knocked unconscious, and ended up with a few broken bones in my hand. But just picture what would have happened if I didn't have my helmet on that day, I definitely wouldn't be here typing this right now.

Hopefully it wont take something like this happening to somebody to make them realize that they aren't invincible, and they can easily get hurt...safety gear is hear for a reason, wear it!

 

Same thing for people who still don't wear seatbelts...WHY? When I get in a vehicle it's natural to me to put on a belt...why can't it be the same for a helmet on a quad?

 

Is that the case, he was not wearing a helmet?

 

Great post...any help to get the word out is a good deed...

 

Yes, he was not wearing a helmet. We were not out riding persay he was just following me while I worked on his bike in case it breaked down. But two things 1. it just goes to show no matter how slow or short of a ride you can get hurt. B. To be honest I would'nt have made him wear one if we were riding but never again!!