I ride a 99 honda recon 250 and love it alot and last month I had my most painful crash of all so I just thought I would talk about it.I've been riding atv's for about 5 years and always thought I would never get hurt.Well,me and 5 other friends were out riding 3weeks ago and of course I was getting very radical on mine.We were riding up some hills through the timber area (just having a blast)when my friends decided to go out across the pasture. I was the last one out of the timber and I was going just a little to fast when I came out and slammed nose first into a washed out rutt that was about 3 feet deep.I tried to get stopped in time but it was to late! The wheeler didn't flip over luckily but when I went flying over the right side of the handlebars,I was'nt so lucky! I came down on my right leg and twisted my knee real bad.(Man,did it hurt)!My friends turned around and came back to see what happened and I just laid there in pain for about 10 minutes then somehow crawled back on my wheeler.They helped me as much as they could ,but I was stubborn and told them (Oh! I'll be alright).I rode for about 3 hours afterwards crippled before I went home and got cleaned up and went to ER. X-rays showed a fractured and severly twisted right knee and surgery had to be done to repair a chipped off bone.It has'nt been to pleasant since.I am recovering well and looking forward to more safer riding ahead,but I guess I learned the hard way.
I just wanted to tell my story and would like to hear about mistakes other people have made.We could learn alot from other peoples mistakes and mishaps!

Thank's for reading......

I learned my lesson on a 300ex about 5 years ago. We had a trail that led up to a small shopping center and one night at about 1 in the morning I was doubling a friend up to the gas station to get some smokes. Well it was late the all of the stores were closed so I decided to cut through the middle of the shopping center, down these fast hallways that led to the other side. I was crusing about 30 mph when all of a sudden a two ft high brick wall came out of nowhere. I slammed it head on with out even hitting the brakes. I started to go over the handle bars when the guy on the back slammed me and pinned my legs under the bars. I did not go all of the way over just enough to slam my front teeth into pieces on the bricks. I yanked my hip out of place and had chunks of teeth in my upper lip, the guy on the back was fine. The only damage to the atv was the front bumper was flat against the frame. We rode 20 minutes home then I went to the hospital after alot of blood loss, I can still feel those chunks of teeth in my upper lip. :( No more riding around shopping centers for me!!!

Steve

Well I can tell you this post is working I'm sure as hell not going to ride in the malls,have learned my lesson, thanks Steve.LOL I know it's not funny but,could feel your pain as I read that you were lucky could have been worse.Wouldn't it be great if we did learn from others mistakes.How many guy's do you suppose that read this, will think about it on thier way to the bottom of a ditch in afield some where.It's that old it won't happen to me thing. COB

About 2 years ago, I was riding my old 350 4x4 Polaris. I was just checking it out, as I was going to Glamis for New-Years. I went through a ditch, like I have done 1,000 times before, when it started to go over backwards. I let go of the bars, and landed in the bottom of the ditch {frozen}, good move. Then instead of scrambling out of the way, I just watched it fall over onto ME, bad move. It dislocated my shoulder, and broke my arm. I used my feet and pushed the quad off me, I turned it over so that the rubber side was down, and rode it home. I was off work for 3 months, and it took 1 and 1/2 years to finaly quit bothering me.

Geeeezzzzz myscrambler. That hurt me just reading about it. About 3 months ago I was ridding my 400 Xplorer back in some seldom ridden trails miles from nowhere by myself and no one knew where I was at. As I droped off a steep hill with the throttle pined my left front tire hit a stump that was covered in weeds. The bike jerked hard to the left and hit a very large tree at about 35 miles an hour. It stoped instantly!!!!! When it hit the back wheels poped up in the air and sent me flying over the handle bars past the tree. I landed on my feet and by some mircle I didnt get hurt. I was shaking so bad it took me some time to regain my composer and check out the bike for damage. It broke the front bumper in half and wrecked the front rack but nothing major. I replace the broke parts and all is well now but if I had got hurt or killed they would still be looking for me.
Andy G

Me and two of my buddies where planning a weekend ride so we loaded the quads the night before so we could get an early start. We drove for three hours to get to this camp site where some other friends were camping and riding. We unloaded and took off down a mountian road. My buddy Goerge was leading. I was second and in quite a bit of dust so i held back a ways. I came around a corner and hey no more dust. COOL But where did George go. When I looked back I saw my other buddy Aaron stop get off his quad and run down the hill. I got back to the corner to see George off the side and down about 40 feet. The bike was upright but the front wheel had smack a tree after he had over shot the corner. He could not stand up so Aaron went back to camp to get help. Lucky for us one of the guys there is an EMT and another is on the local fire department. The EMT said that he had broken his femur bone. So he got an ambulance ride. He is fine now but still has a steel rod in his leg from that. We still kid him though, about driving for 3 hours for a five minute ride. At the time it was kinda scary for me and Aaron cause we were running around like 2 of the three stooges not knowing what to do until Aaron decided to go get help. When we went to get his quad out we decided to ride it out and had to kick the shifter down 4 times which meant he was in high gear and flying.
Well that is my most eventful story. thanks
Mike

I was doin a little showing of on my Blaster. So I decided to fly up my driveway. Well I didnt realize how fast I was going and my right front tire slammed into a rock retaining wall. Rolled the BLaster 3 times right into some bushes and i got thrown into the yard. Upon rolling the quad back over i discovered that i had
1 bent the steering column
2 bent the rim
3 popped the tire
4 bent the frame
5 broke off the frint fender


the moral: DOnt show off for your friends


tony
'97 banshee

Here is two quick stories where the rider was uninjured but it was scary watching.

I was riding behind one of my friends and he was on a 91 250X. He was hauling straight down a trail in a field towards a thick wooden fence, the kind that has a 4or 5 inch round post stuck in the ground and two 3 or 4" poles going across at different heights to the next post. Well the trail turns right before the fence so usually we come around the corner sliding hard. This time mike started to make the turn and he was to close to the fence and his front tire jammed under the lower fence rail and he bounced and spun a 360 in the air before he hit the ground. He looked like a rag doll spinning in the air. We had to let the air out of the front tire to get it unstuck.

The other wreck that I just recently saw was when a friend on a brand new 00 blaster came up to a creek. I went first and stopped down the creek and turned around to see if he would make it. The trail lead down to a 2ft drop off right before you get to the creek. Well matt came down the trail and as he drove off of the drop off he put his front brakes on and as soon as the tires touched the ground he did an endo. The atv went right up and over and as I was watching it looked like the atv slammed him flat into the ground. I thought he broke his back, it was greusome looking. I ran over and he got right up but he was alittle dizzy.

I have been riding carefully and made some mistakes before. I was once climbing out of a hole we call the "pit" Well the walls are about 2ft high on the sides. I kept getting high centered while climbing out the normal way, so i decided I was gonna put one side up out of the hole and the other in it. Needless to say it flipped over on its side. I just jumped off and didnt even get TOO muddy that time. After that accident I was riding along a creek bank that had smooth rolling washouts that you can usually get some air out of. Well thelast time I went there I was hauling butt and hit one that had washed out alot more than the time before I almost went over the handle bars but instead my knees caught them and I got kinda scraped up but not seriously hurt. The last time I have had an accident I was riding in a clay bottom creek. It was pretty much like riding in a concrete bottom canal, but it was uneven on the bottom. Well in one of the deeper spots, It got really crooked in about 3 ft deep water and it flipped over. It was funny because my quad was the only one with enough muffler clearance to take down the deep creek so I had about 3 other people riding on it with me. When it flipped on its side we all fell in the freezing cold water. It was kind of fun after we made sure everyone was ok. Next time I think I'll just let big boy float through that spot, then maybe it wont flip on me again.

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Matt Sibley

1999 Honda 300 4x4 Vampires and 2500 lb. winch

Well, i'll add my two cents in. One day me and a bunch of friends, maybe 8 or 9, were riding. we had decided to race down a long straightaway dirt road that goes right behind my house. I was in 2nd place on my 300EX and was eating dust like crazy. I was just hitting the rev limiter wide open when my friend, that was way ahead of me at the time, stopped in the middle of the road to turn into my driveway. dust was everywere so when i saw him, it was to late, i slammed into the back of him going wide open. i flew of the front of the quad about 20 yards down the road. the EX rolled and rolled until it caught up to me and ended up ontop of me and i was face down in the road unconcious. when i woke up, i was in my garage surrounded by my astonished friends with a broke rist, cut up back, and a headache you wouldn't belive.


also, this one was neat!! My best friend was on his 300EX when he jumped out of a clay pit we were riding in. the quad did a 180 barrel roll and landed right on top of him. it endoed back over and he ended up on his wheels pointed back at us. it was still running so he just popped the clutch and dropped back into the bowl.it was an accident but he says it was on purpose to this day.