Story #1 by John

The style at the time was to wear tight jeans and platform shoes. (I was a professional musician at the time... guitar).

Anyway, there we were riding down the highway between two semi trucks. I could have reached out my right or left hand and touched either of the trucks. We were doing about 90 miles per hour.

Suddenly, without warning, the engine blows up.

Now my bonehead friend had decided that he really liked his clutch really, really, really tight. And it was so tight that the wheel locked up and he could not pull the clutch in.

The rear end of the bike swerved so that the bike was now east/west, but we were going north/south.

The bike started to tilt forward into the slide. So we both put our feet out and straightened the bike.

By now we had slowed probably to 60 miles per hour.

My bonehead friend turned around and said "I'm going to ride it down."
I said "What?"

The next thing I knew, there was no bike under me.... AND I'M DOING 60 MPH!!!

So I thought to myself, "I'll get killed doing this."

So I started running. And run I did. I slowed down to about 40 mph, was running along a lady driving a red Toyota. I was in the center lane, she was in the right lane.

She looked out her window at the same time I looked at her car. She kind of freaked, and drove off the road.

I thought, "I'll get killed doing this... I know what I'll do; I'll act like I'm skiing." So I planted my platform shoes on the asphalt, and started sliding down the highway, in a prefect crouch.

Then it happened... I hit the tar they put in the road to stop the road from buckling up in the heat.

I tumbled forward, did a perfect somersault. And as I was somersaulting, I thought "No problem, I'll just come back up to my feet and continue skiing."

Ummmm Nope! I ended up somersaulting down the highway, which is about when I hit my head on the asphalt.

But I thought if I keep this up I'll kill myself. So I stretched out, and started rolling down the highway.

Then I thought "if I keep this up I'll kill myself.” So I swung my legs out in front of me and went sliding down the highway digging in my heals, kind of like the commercial on TV when people have no car, but they sit on the street, and move like they are driving.

Finally I came to a stop. Passed out for a second. Another biker came by and helped me to the side of the road. The Ambulance showed up, took me to the hospital.

I remember telling them I was really tired, and wanted to sleep. The EMS technician told me that if I went to sleep I probably would never wake up. As we got close to the hospital he told me I could go to sleep now, and they could wake me. I told him, I was wide awake.

As it turned out, I had no concussion, no broken bones, nothing wring except a part of my scalp left on the asphalt. My friend shaved off half of his small toe (the bike was on top of the toe when he rode it down.).

I went home that night, did some Qi Gong until I felt healing energy flow through my body, and it told me I would be all right.

A week later I went back to the doctor to get the stitches removed, and I had healed over the stitches. The doctor said he had never in his life seen someone heal as fast.

So, I got a good story out of the accident.

Have you been on the back of a bike since, or do you stick to four wheels now?

Yeah, my best friend at the time, came over (he had a Harley) asked me if I wanted to drive it (a few days after getting my stitches out. I didn't want to get back on a bike, but he convinced me. I told him as a passenger only at the time.

So we took his bike and went to a bar. Unfortunately he has a sense of humor like mine, and he kept doing wheelies at every stop light (with me on the back) until we got to the bar.

But I got him back. About 10 years after that, I was out visiting him and his wife. He had a brand new 1200 sportster. He had it completely custom chromed. I had not driven a bike for about 5 years.

Anyway, he spent over an hour pointing out every single bit of customization he did and explained why. Then asked me if I wanted to take it out. Of course I said Yes.

So we started the bike, took it to the street, he said you are driving, take it, I'll wait here until you get back.

So I started off, and promptly did a wheelie (not on purpose) panicked, and crashed the bike into a foot high curb. The bike running and laying on top of my leg. Got a few cuts and scrapes. He and his wife both their jaws dropped to the street with looks of shock. Quite funny really.

I did about $800 damage to his bike. Though I didn't wreck it on purpose. So bikes and me don't get along so well.

John, U.S.A.