What were you wearing when you had your last off or near miss?

[arthur dunga]

Over the years i've had quite a few crashes,from dirt ,road , track & even those mini moto's u could go & race.Worst was in perth 24th dec after a christmas break up on a honda 750,was wearing jeans t shirt & thongs,one of those hot balmey evenings, all i remember was doing cart wheels down the road on my stomach, trying to save my dick i guess.It was about a block from were i was living & i managed to get home & shower,then i noticed i could see my knee caps,ended up in hospital for 4 months with skin grafts on my knees & arms.I was in a ward with other blokes from bike accidents,it was when you could smoke & drink in there,they used to bring a beer cart around .Recovery was quite a party until we smoked a reefer in there ,then the shit hit the fan & they split us all up.Crashed at track days at the island a couple of times ,lost the front end & another time high sided at siberia,full leathers , just bruising & sore (ego).Spent another week in monash hospital when a car turned in front of me ,i cannoned over the boot into oncomimg traffic,i can remember watching the road slide by from my visor & waiting for the car to strike me ,but they had seen me coming & swerved.Leather jacket & gloves saved me again ,dislocated all my fingers on the left hand where i hit the boot ,like they were all facing 90 degees back wards.Had a half arsed attempt at racing to ,had done a novice racing course & one of the things they taught us was starts where just before the light changes to green you hold the throttle wide open & feed the clutch,Well come race day we do the warm up lap & i take it easy cause i want to be on the back of the starting grid but by the time i get there all the back grid positions are taken & i end up on the front ,the last place that i want to be . I remember adrenilin & fear , don't know which was more,just glad i was wearing my underpants with the elastic sides, when the light went green i just let the clutch go to quickly had to shut it down & go again ,any way went into the back off camber left hander & lost it,saved by leathers again,It's my firm belief if you don't hit any thing ,it doesn't matter how fast you come off there's a 99 percent chance you will be ok.On the rare occassion in summer i ride without the right gear i've never forgotten what it feels like to slide down the road & it still sends a shiver through me .One of the pearls of wisdom i've taken with me from this board that someone said is, remember, stupid hurts.