stunts.
As a youngster, my cousins and myself had our idols. Ricky tended to want to be just like Evel Knieval. In other words he wanted to break every bone in his body and scare his parents half to death at every available opportunity.
Jumping bicycles was a talent he showed a certain proclivity for at a very young age. Unfortunately his grasp of simple physics wasn't as advanced. I'm sure if he just would have taken the time to understand why an apple hit you on the head when it fell, he would have saved his poor mother a lot of gray hairs and would have certainly reduced the family's insurance rates.
On the road that runs near the house is a wonderfully steep hill. Daredevils that we were, we took great pleasure in riding our bikes down this hill at speeds that would strip the tread off our tires, if there were any. I now look back on these days and wonder how we survived, our bikes were constantly doing annoying little things such as shedding wheels at inopportune moments, and handlebars, when they stayed on, were constantly twisting. Our jumping exercises had left the frames twisted in all sorts of directions and we were constantly straightening them enough to ride using such instruments of delicacy as 16 pound sledge hammers.
It was only a matter of time before we built a ramp on this hill.
Dragging concrete blocks and boards to the road, we constructed ramps at the middle and the bottom of this hill. It was great fun to ride down and jump these ramps, we felt like we were flying for miles. Nowadays kids do this sort of thing on tv for money, but back then it was a joy to simply ride at a breakneck speed and launch our poor bicycle into what we knew had to be low-earth orbit.
Jumping the ramps on the road instilled a bit of confidence into our young, dumb souls.
We have a lake on the property that was built by a couple of my Uncles. This lake, like most man-made lakes, has a very steep dam. Steep and tall. Steep and tall and alluring. I can't recall just who came up with the idea to ride down it, probably Cliff, being the oldest. He also knew that he could get Ricky to try it first and if he survived, then maybe it would be fun. As we watched Ricky and his bike part company halfway down, we figured we were on to something. All we had to do was get him to blaze a good trail, then it should be a fun ride. My dear cousin was more than up to the challenge and in short order had ridden down a path through the weeds and blackberries thereby opening safe passage for us to follow.
We had great fun riding down that dam, but as with all things it began to get a little boring. The natural progression was to build a ramp! Again we dragged concrete blocks and boards and built a ramp that I can only say was similar to what one might find at a daredevil show. Fortunately for daredevils there are laws and insurance regulations intended to keep them alive. Unencumbered by such restrictions we began launching our bodies and bicycles into space from the bottom of this very steep slope. Rarely were we attached to our bikes on landing, which was probably for the best. Although I can proudly say that we each fathered several children in later years, the resulting impact upon landing attached to the bike led me to believe that I might be sterile.
Ricky, of course, somewhat mastered the art of the landing. This was his downfall.
One day when I was absent for one reason or another which may or may not have been related to an injury of sorts, Ricky had our friend Tim over. Now Tim was a good country boy like us and just as wild so he had naturally brought his bike to ride the dam. After several rides down and just as many upside down landings, Tim was in awe of Ricky's skills.
Now I think Ricky's pride started to get the best of him. He figured that if he moved the ramp up the hill he could get a lot more distance. So, they dragged the boards and blocks up the hill and built a nice little ramp that basically sat at a ninety degree angle to the dam. I mentioned that there has never been any danger of him going into the field of Physics. It didn't occur to him, until he was airborne, that not only would he achieve greater distance from the increased speed, but now his elevation was also increased by approximately thirty feet due to the intense slope of the dam.
Upon impact with the ground, landing would not begin to describe the violence involved, Tim stated that Ricky's bike basically exploded. When he was able to stop laughing long enough to slide down to where my unconcious cousin lay, he attempted to revive him by shaking him. This was not working so he figured he could at least remove the bike pieces as a trip to the hospital seemed inevitable. Strange thing happened though when he went to pick up the one remaining wheel, every time he lifted up on it Ricky's leg raised. Seems the axle bolt had penetrated his calf and was now stuck. It did have the desired effect of bringing him back to consciousness, although the blackberries along the dam never did produce again. I think due to the stream of particularly foul language, which is another of his specialties.
Jumping bicycles was a talent he showed a certain proclivity for at a very young age. Unfortunately his grasp of simple physics wasn't as advanced. I'm sure if he just would have taken the time to understand why an apple hit you on the head when it fell, he would have saved his poor mother a lot of gray hairs and would have certainly reduced the family's insurance rates.
On the road that runs near the house is a wonderfully steep hill. Daredevils that we were, we took great pleasure in riding our bikes down this hill at speeds that would strip the tread off our tires, if there were any. I now look back on these days and wonder how we survived, our bikes were constantly doing annoying little things such as shedding wheels at inopportune moments, and handlebars, when they stayed on, were constantly twisting. Our jumping exercises had left the frames twisted in all sorts of directions and we were constantly straightening them enough to ride using such instruments of delicacy as 16 pound sledge hammers.
It was only a matter of time before we built a ramp on this hill.
Dragging concrete blocks and boards to the road, we constructed ramps at the middle and the bottom of this hill. It was great fun to ride down and jump these ramps, we felt like we were flying for miles. Nowadays kids do this sort of thing on tv for money, but back then it was a joy to simply ride at a breakneck speed and launch our poor bicycle into what we knew had to be low-earth orbit.
Jumping the ramps on the road instilled a bit of confidence into our young, dumb souls.
We have a lake on the property that was built by a couple of my Uncles. This lake, like most man-made lakes, has a very steep dam. Steep and tall. Steep and tall and alluring. I can't recall just who came up with the idea to ride down it, probably Cliff, being the oldest. He also knew that he could get Ricky to try it first and if he survived, then maybe it would be fun. As we watched Ricky and his bike part company halfway down, we figured we were on to something. All we had to do was get him to blaze a good trail, then it should be a fun ride. My dear cousin was more than up to the challenge and in short order had ridden down a path through the weeds and blackberries thereby opening safe passage for us to follow.
We had great fun riding down that dam, but as with all things it began to get a little boring. The natural progression was to build a ramp! Again we dragged concrete blocks and boards and built a ramp that I can only say was similar to what one might find at a daredevil show. Fortunately for daredevils there are laws and insurance regulations intended to keep them alive. Unencumbered by such restrictions we began launching our bodies and bicycles into space from the bottom of this very steep slope. Rarely were we attached to our bikes on landing, which was probably for the best. Although I can proudly say that we each fathered several children in later years, the resulting impact upon landing attached to the bike led me to believe that I might be sterile.
Ricky, of course, somewhat mastered the art of the landing. This was his downfall.
One day when I was absent for one reason or another which may or may not have been related to an injury of sorts, Ricky had our friend Tim over. Now Tim was a good country boy like us and just as wild so he had naturally brought his bike to ride the dam. After several rides down and just as many upside down landings, Tim was in awe of Ricky's skills.
Now I think Ricky's pride started to get the best of him. He figured that if he moved the ramp up the hill he could get a lot more distance. So, they dragged the boards and blocks up the hill and built a nice little ramp that basically sat at a ninety degree angle to the dam. I mentioned that there has never been any danger of him going into the field of Physics. It didn't occur to him, until he was airborne, that not only would he achieve greater distance from the increased speed, but now his elevation was also increased by approximately thirty feet due to the intense slope of the dam.
Upon impact with the ground, landing would not begin to describe the violence involved, Tim stated that Ricky's bike basically exploded. When he was able to stop laughing long enough to slide down to where my unconcious cousin lay, he attempted to revive him by shaking him. This was not working so he figured he could at least remove the bike pieces as a trip to the hospital seemed inevitable. Strange thing happened though when he went to pick up the one remaining wheel, every time he lifted up on it Ricky's leg raised. Seems the axle bolt had penetrated his calf and was now stuck. It did have the desired effect of bringing him back to consciousness, although the blackberries along the dam never did produce again. I think due to the stream of particularly foul language, which is another of his specialties.
posted by PK at 10:55 PM
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