craziest thing you've done on a bike?

[Stig / Major Tom]

...and certainly one of the most fun things I've ever had on two wheels!....was the following...

We entered our buddy's new CB350 in an off-road 24 hour Enduro!

In Army  training, in San Antonio TX, the late 60's, a couple of us talked a buddy into entering his new HONDA CB350 into a 24 hour Enduro out in the plains of Texas.
He argued that his CB was not as appropriate as would be the CL model with the high-rise pipes (as though any of these 350's were off-road bikes!??) His had the low-slung  exhaust of the CB model
I had a green HONDA CB350 like this one....


We of course assured him that everything would be fine......

We pooled our Army pay to make the entrance fee. Bought a tire patch kit and a hand pump....and maybe 2 spark plugs. The pit-lane tools consisted of some channel-locks and the bike's tools-in-a-pouch, cigarettes and a cooler with Cokes. If you were careful - you could smoke while negotiating the course. Two of us  new medics - the owner of the race bike was a new RTO. (carries the PRC25 field radio)

The layout of the desert course brought most "racers" back around past the lawn-chairs pit area @ every half hour. Then there was us, on our street bike. The three of us took it in turns for the 24 hrs.


The bike lost its chain guard early on. "Did anyone bring a flashlight?" The right exhaust snapped off near the engine just after dark. Too hot to bring back - it is still out there in Texas. The blue flame coming through the dark let us know when to get a Coke out of the cooler...!

We did OK in the daylight - but each of us had 'offs' out there in the dark!
I went down hard once when I lost the course and hit a small stream bed. And came off one other time in deep sand and hit a cactus. My wife was digging that cactus thorn out of my heel with a needle for an hour when I got home. We were slow enough, and the course was soft enough with deep sand - so the bike didn't suffer much. A mirror or two.

We had a blast! I do not remember if we wore helmets. It was a 'trials' course - a proper course if you could see it in the dark!. We just worked hard to stay aboard!
We won a $1.50 plastic trophy - for something. Warranty took care of some of the damage. Loose spokes, etc.

Why? Why do this to a new Honda?
We were 19 & 20 - and had just received our orders for overseas, (two to 'Nam, one to Germany) and it was time to shed our new bikes.
I loved that Honda!

Perhaps one of these CL versions of the 350 would have been preferable...


What was the craziest thing you've ever done on a bike, or scooter?

Stig

[Neil955i]

1986 Charity Run for the UK Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Society which, over the course of a week was to take us to each of the UK geographic "corners" plus the end to end* thrown in as a non-stop run.  Now arguments rage about the most westerly point with some stating it is in Wales (St David's) while the purists opt for Scotland.  We fell in with the latter.

We started in the Midlands of mainland Britain then headed East to Lincolnshire and on to the coast for the first point, a plaque on the sea wall.  Then it was north to Scotland  for the hatrick of both the most westerly, northerly and then the start of the end to end run.  1,000 miles and 19 hours and loose change later we reached Land's End with only the most southerly point at the Lizard to go.  By this point we reach the "craziest" thing I've ever done on a motorcycle (BMW K100RS in case you're interested), which was to continue onto our digs for the night whilst hallucinating from lack of sleep.  I was having out of body experiences and have absolutely NO recollection of that 15 mile ride which I must have done completely on auto pilot!   34 years-old then.  I could not do it now.  I shouldn't have done it then!


* OK they are as follows, North -  Dunnet Head, South - The Lizard, East - Lowestoft, West - Ardnamurchan Point; plus the furthest distance apart in the UK by road, John 'O' Groats to Land's End.
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowUserReviews-g735233-d1873743-r461479310-Ardnamurchan_Point_and_Lighthouse-Kilchoan_Ardnamurchan_Peninsula_Lochaber_Scott.html

[randyo]

crazy by who's definition?

I don't think so crazy, cause turns out, it's easy and doesn't take any special skill, just the proper tires

riding in blizzards and ice storms

[Iahawk]

wow, I hope to have some crazy stories at some point...but as a newer rider the 'craziest' thing I've done is drive to Chicago to buy an almost 40 year old motorcycle, that had not been ridden much in the last ? years...and proceeded to ride it 206 miles home on old tires with some dry rot, no front brakes, leaking front fork seals (everything was soaked up front), a marginally working clutch (clutch plates were frozen when I first got on bike..you'd think the seller would have ridden it a bit before offering up for sale).

The ride home took about 6 hours, with lots of stops. Luckily I had a buddy follow me in my van in case something went very wrong.

Oh, yeah, when I first hopped on and rode to the nearest gas station, the tires were severely underinflated (had 9 lbs in the rear?), oil was overfilled and there was clearly a bad oil leak somewhere underneath as the bottom frame was wet with oil.

Not the smartest thing I've done but very glad I did it.