Met up yesterday with my buddies to do a little track riding after work. We all met at the track, sat around for a while, then unloaded to do some laps. A couple of our friends were on 125cc Yamaha dirtbikes, so we let them do some hot laps first. After they put on a great show, one of our other friends took off on his 2003 Raptor. He was almost through the course, then punched it hard at the last part which was right in front of our group. He hit a small bump right in the middle of a power slide at 40+ MPH. The bike came down a planted hard enough to send the bike and him into low earth orbit. The bike went approx. 8 feet up in the air and did a couple of spins before coming down on him, then kept rolling. We all ran towards the wreck after waving off the other riders and saw that he broke up his body pretty good. We pulled the bike off him (which was dumping gas all over him), checked his breathing, pulse, then immobilized him. By the time the firetruck, ambulance, and police got there he went into shock. Turns out he broke his collorbone real bad, among other injuries. I'm positive without his helmet and riding gear he would have sustained much more serious injury. His helmet was all crapped up, but held up enough to keep his skull from getting crushed. He's currently stabilized, and being discharged from the hospital.

The bike ended up have it's grab bar snapped, frame twisted, both rear axles turned into pretzels, one front A-arm tweaked, plastic around the tank all ripped up, sprocket and chain destroyed, and handlebars bent. I love the raptor, but man... it needs a wider stance to be doing this kind of riding. I also want to give a shout out for all those donkeys not wearing a helmet......WISE UP! IT WILL SAVE YOUR LIFE!

Aloha!

 

Glad he's okay. The only way i can relate to that, was that i was on ice goin like 40 then all of a sudden hit a little patch of snow caught one wheel, turned it and threw me off. Thank god i was on ice, because when i landed i just slid and my quad didnt flip either, it just slid. Scared me half to death though...

 

dude that really sux

is there any hope for restoring the raptor to the way it once was or will he just sell it on ebay

 

Howzit Molokai rider,

Sorry to here about your friend. He was very lucky that he had his safety equipment on. I live on Kauai and I was wondering if you are limited to the areas to ride on Molokai. Here on Kauai you can't legally ride anywhere but private land. I checked out your pictures, it looks like you work for a seed company, which one?

Aloha

 

glad hes ok

 

Ikaika, Good to see a fellow Islander on the forum! I work with a company called Hawaiian Research, for about 7 years now.

Riding over here is pretty good, people are pretty relaxed. Lately some donkeys have been trespassing on peoples private land, which may get all of us riders in trouble. Hope not!

[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-mad.gif[/img]

 

sry bout ur friend hope he gets better, i have flipped my old blaster before in 3rd gear did a flip and a half and sent me flyin bout 10-15 ft onto my face, would have hurt like hell if my helmet wasnt on my handle bars kinked all the way down to the gas tank it was a b*tch to ride back

 

Great to hear your buddy survived that mess. I sure hope he heals up well so he can get back in the saddle. Wish him well.

He should become the Poster Boy for Safety gear. Without it, that situation could have been tragic. We should all learn from it. Thanks for sharing.....

Take Care