How Not To Ride an ATV
- December 28, 2004
- 3 comments
My sister’s boyfriend is letting us borrow his Sportrax Honda 400EX since we have family over until after New Year’s. He’s wanting me to buy it from him since he’s also making payments on his crotch rocket and truck. He can’t keep up with all of them. I’m thinking about it, but I’m not sure yet.
Anyway, I had never ridden a four-wheeler before, so I was looking forward to trying it out. It’s a standard too, but it’s really easy to figure out how to use. That thing is like crack on four wheels! I’m addicted to it. We have 13 acres of land, so we have at least a little room to open it up and see what it can do. I think it’s safe to say it can go highway speeds though.
The first time I rode it, I went into 3rd gear once and kind of putted around getting a feel for it. Each time after that, I pushed it just a little bit more. By yesterday evening I was gunning it and jumping it off of little rises in the field. This morning, my brother-in-law and I got out there and were fooling around with it. I was even more aggressive than yesterday evening, finally getting it into 5th gear, slaloming bails of hay and stuff.
All of that was fine, I was being pretty safe, even when I was going fast. The problem came when I watched my brother-in-law do some donuts in a wet part of the field and asked him how to do them. He told me what to do, so I went out there and tried it for a bit. I could never quite get it, but kept trying. Finally, I pulled off a sweet donut and began to cheer, but a split-second later it caught dry grass and tipped sideways. An experienced rider would know to let off the gas and use the brakes to right yourself. An inexperienced loser, like myself, puts their foot down.
As soon as I put my foot down, the back tire rode right up my left leg up to my knee. Something in my leg popped so loud I heard it over the noise of the engine! And then there was nothing but sheer pain. I thought for sure I broke my leg or knee. It hurt sooooo bad. I never fully came off the ATV though, I just yanked myself back up onto the seat and yelled some expletives.
My brother-in-law came running over to see what happened. Amazingly by the time he got over to me, the pain had subsided considerably, so I started laughing. He couldn’t tell what was going on until he saw my pants leg and the muddy tire track up to my knee. After a minute, I was able to put weight on it and ride the 4-wheeler back towards the house.
My ankle hurts the most now, and my knee a little too. I was lucky because this 4-wheeler is a light one. If it would’ve been a big utility 4-wheeler, I probably would’ve done major damage to my leg.
So kids! That is how to NOT ride a 4-wheeler. Listen and learn.
Bobcats are addictive. Were you in Austin when we rented that Bobcat to dig out our back yard so we could put in that pool? Dad was nice (or dumb) enough to let me drive it for a while, even though I was only about 13 or 14. I had a lot of fun driving that thing around.
At the end of this post I mentioned that my ankle hurt the worst and my knee was ok. Well the next day was exactly the opposite. My ankle was a little sore, but my knee ached like a mother! I must have hyperextended it because the tendons in my knee were killing me! I could put weight down on it no problem, but lifting the leg to walk was torture with each step. Today it’s a lot better, but still a little sore if I move it a certain way.
Gertrude & Brownie
ATVs never really interested me much. But, I did find Bobcats to be addicting and fun to drive. They don’t go as fast as an ATV, and they have a nice solid cage for the driver.