motorcycle chaos

MANDATORY RULE #1: Ride within your means.

So Friday came along and a friend (Josh) called me to see if I wanted to go riding the next day (Saturday). Checking the weather I thought that was a great idea since it would probably be one of the last nice days of the year. We agreed upon a time, and figured we should make some calls to try to make this into a group ride.

MANDATORY RULE #2: Trust your bike.

Each of us found a friend to join us in the ride, so we all met up at 10am sharp at my house. Amazingly everyone arrived on time and we headed out for southern Wisconsin to hit my favorite road in the world. We took off and made out way down to Prescott WI where we ran into some kind of bike rally. There had to be at least 600 bikes on the streets parked - truly amazing! I believe these bikes were part of the annual Flood Run, which in the spring had a remarkable 5 THOUSAND bikes show up for the ride!

MANDATORY RULE #3: If you don't trust your bike, DON'T ride aggressive.

So after we made it through Prescott we were clear of most of the bikes. We made it down to Stockholm WI and broke for lunch. The place we ate, The Bogus Creek Cafe and Bakery, a small garden/bed and breakfast style restaurant. The consensus: awesome. There really isn't anything like fresh home made bread and country garden vegetables. After the meal we loaded back up and departed on a 20 mile ride to reach our destination, County Road 88.

MANDATORY RULE #4: When you are in a turn, never, EVER hit the brakes.

County Road 88 is in short, unbelievable. Rolling hills, curvy roads and scenery that belongs in a frame on my walls. For a motorcycle enthusiast, the road is the reason motorcycles were created. I've ridden the road twice before, both times I've lead the ride. Yesterday day would be no different... or so I thought.

MANDATORY RULE #5: Keep your mistakes to a minimum.

The highlight of 88 comes about 16 miles in. The road brings you to a base of a hill large hill. At the base, the road dips down and into a large sweeping left before rocketing vertically making two double-S turns and cresting on the top of the hill where the first half of the left hand turn is uphill and the backside is downhill. To your left, trees, to your right, a 20' drop-off to some trees 30' off the road. After you crest the hill you weave down making 4 steep and tight double-S turns while you try to keep the lush farm valley scenery from distracting you - truly breathtaking.

HOPEFUL MOTORCYCLE RULE #6: Don't become a statistic.

As a pack we were riding well over the posted speed limit on 88, weaving, bobbing, and dancing around all the curves. In the lead of the pack, me, followed by 3 crotch rockets. As we came to *The Hill*, we as a group accelerated to 90mph as we climbed. Most of the curves on the way up are posted at 45, so doubling the speed limit usually is of no problem. As we came to the crest of the hill the sign on the top curve says 25, so I slowed to 45 as I made my entrance. I started on the outside of the lane and as I swept into the curve ripping up the hill I crested the apex and as I was heading back down got within 2 inches of the outside line. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem, but on this curve the hill falls away 3 feet from the line and took me by surprise. I compensated by leaning a little harder while pulling through the turn and was happy to have made it over. As I was heading down the hill I looked in my side mirror... and saw something going seriously wrong.

My friend Josh, who bought his bike at the same time I did, came flying over the top and as he headed downhill through the curve his bike suddenly fishtailed. The fishtail quickly turned into a swerve which directed his bike into the gravel. From there things became a blur...

From what I can recall his handlebars twisted completely in one direction in a fraction of a second sending the bike end over end. Josh who couldn't hang on got thrown and began twisting in a tornado fashion (his Y-axis) about 5 feet above his bike. As Josh began rotating about his X-axis his bike below him had already made one revolution and was now flipping at 180 RPM wheel over wheel 3 feet over the ground. Josh quickly left the view of my mirror and his bike became a plastic grenade emitting shrapnel everywhere. Suddenly I see over the crest of the road bike #3 in our group (Mark). Before I know it, he's down and sliding across the road and is lost behind Josh's bike which is still flipping. Bike #4 (Joe) quickly comes into view and appears to stop rubber side down and under control.

I lock up my tires and come to a roaring stop, whip my bike around and gun it back up the hill. I pull over into the oncoming side of the road and leave my bike in the lane as I run over to my friend. Amazingly, Josh is already up and running back up the hill (he was thrown 40' into the ditch and 15' down the hill)! He gets to the top and Joe and I are trying to calm everyone down to make sure they aren't walking on broken bones or have a serious injury that the adrenaline isn’t making aware to them. Unbelievably, Josh walked away with a scrap on his left shin and Mark had nothing but a scratched helmet and a quarter size tear in his jacket.

As for the bikes, Josh's bike is totaled and unrideable. Marks bike which he low-sided, was able to be driven back home. About a minute after the chaos went by a farmer came over the hill in his truck and was able to help us clean up the mess. We loaded up the bike and plastic pieces into his truck and we rode down to his sisters house which was at the bottom of the hill. We dropped the bike off there and Josh rode with Joe 2 up back to Eau Claire where Josh's wife met us to bring Josh home.

Rules broken by Josh: 1,2,3,5 and 6
Rules broken by Mark: All of them

They're both DAMN lucky they weren't LifeLinked out by a chopper. In all, one of the craziest things I've ever seen, and both Josh and Mark are lucky S.O.B.'s to not only be able to walk, but to be be alive.