Other 'Dangerous' Hobbies

Mountain bikes bite! Be careful. Nice Giant Trance btw.


This was from a downhill crash at Snow Summit, broken humorus, dislocated shoulder, nerve damage and massive chunk of meat out of the forearm.

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Nice wake @KeslerDesignWorks. I started out riding boat, but now I only ride cable. I can barely clear the wakes when I go out on a boat now. Boat hurts way more when you fall cause you gotta ride at like 23-25 mph depending on your wake size/rope length vs. 18-19 for cable and it feels like the rope yanks you downwards out of the air as the boat moves away from you on your way down from a jump, whereas on cable it pulls you up towards the cable and seems to make you fall in slow motion. It’s also way more expensive to ride boat. I guess the social aspect of being out in the boat with your lady and friends is cool and I respect the difficulty and danger of boat riding, but I find it more stressful and scary, where cable is almost relaxing.

Yikes. That’s why I try and take it easy.

Just cruising on my old nimble 27.5”. Somehow I still haven’t killed the carbon frame. I use it more for cardio than smashing downhill trails.

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I’ve always wanted to hit a park just never had the chance or been close to a place with a park.

I let my buddies handle the expensive part of boat owning. I just chip in for snacks and gas.

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Same here…ive a ktm carbon hard tail 27.5. I’m even running flat pedals now. I just go out and enjoy it. I had a bad fall last year…down hill. Hit a rock…crashed hard. Picked up bike and slammed it hard as i could…so pissed (it was the bikes fault) well it popped a tube. Now i’ve got to walk back a couple of miles bleeding and pushing my bike. Dumb!!!

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Last year I picked up a MINT almost unridden Gary Fisher Joshua Y-frame for $100. It was one of the originals with urethan bushing front forks (Rock Shox, iirc) So I swapped that out and did a disc front conversion, and swapped the rear shock (which was blown) for an air shock with spring, and now have a minty FS that’s faster than me for $350 or so total. Beats the dept. store bikes all day long, and will take the drops I plan to do (48" ish) and any jumping I throw as long as I land it correctly. I ride with clipless as it’s so much more efficient on the flats and climbs, and I’m used to if from street. If I do more hardcore loose stuff I may ride flats… Keep the rubber side down!

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When I worked at Trek, Gary would stop by the office on occasion. What a wonderfully interesting and quirky guy.

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That’s awesome!! I’ve always admired Gary Fisher I love bringing neglected stuff back and making it great again. It’s also my inter-tightwad side. Lol

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can we rewind a bit here…

100cc back pack helicopter?

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My first “real” mountain bike was a Gary Fisher Hoo Koo E Koo, steel hardtail frame with 80mm of fork travel. Still hanging in my garage!

I used to mountain bike competitively in high school, stopped riding a ton after college due to time. While mountain biking in the midwest is nothing like riding in the PNW or Moab, or AZ or somewhere with mountains. The trail makers over here really do a nice job with the land they have available. I have a Diamondback Line right now. 27.5 hardtail that I can do whatever I want with. It’s a blast.

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As dangerous hobbies goes, I got my motorcycle license. And I would like to track a bike

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Off Trail Deep Powder
Snowmobiling . Big Horsepower Great Fun !!!

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As I have no background in snowmobiles, I can’t tell if he’s mid turn falling off or doing some sort of fancy body-pivot variable. Either way, dope!

Yep its a pivot to go back down hill.. The ones I had were 144 inch long track 2 inch paddle. 250 H.P. 2 cylinder 900 c.c. Naturally Aspirated . Polaris - Skidoo.. Kind of same engine as Rotax but with 2 cylinders for the Skidoos.. Rotax is a BRP company same as Skidoo owned by the same company. Use to build a lot of High Horse Power Sled Motors… Thats were I get my expertises in 2 cycle motors and other motors.. 40 years of it..

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So pull flaps using body? Dig the feet in and whip it around? Sorta like a cutback?

Yep a way of turning in deep powder. You jump from side to side to turn in deep powder. Same thing when you do sidehilling its quite a workout.. Use to go all over have done all of Michigan -U.P. - Utah - West Yellowstone - Pennsylvania - New York - Maine - And a good majority of Canada .. Over 40 years.. Retired now.. At 63 now 2 heart attacks and Diabetes .. Cant take cold weather anymore..

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Alan – I did quite a bit of research on it as aviation was my first love… and a guy here in North Carolina USA has one built (a copy of Franz’ design) with a Rotax FR125. A salient choice, perhaps, as the Rotax is hard to kill…

The ‘pilot’ sits on a bicyle type seat on the rear ‘leg’, and the front two legs rotate the rear ‘vane’ for yaw. Pulling or pushing tilts the whole rotorhead fore/aft for maneuvering. If I find the original link of him ‘hopping’ at a high altitude location, I’ll post here. Apparently the lower air density made it hard to actually fly there.

I’m not sure why he switched to 125cc TaGs vs the 100cc other than perhaps the notorious habit for 100cc engines to suddenly quit…lol

I should add that there’s an additional danger. Much like fixed pitch r/c helicopters, the inability to increase lift through pitching the rotor blades means that there’s no way to ‘autorotate.’ In autorotation, if a normal helicopter loses engine power, you can ‘flatten’ the blades, and the motion of air through them as you ‘glide’ (poorly) will keep them spinning…as you near the ground you pitch them up again and the momentum of the blades keeps them spinning a bit, and you can flare and land softly. With this fixed pitch, the blades just stop due to the drag, and you tumble. And as wtih most helis, a recovery parachute is a difficult proposition with whirling knives above your head… So, perhaps hopping as he does is the only ‘mostly safe’ way to do this.

There have been some fixed-pitch coaxial experimental helicopters, but they relied on multiple engines for redundancy safety. The smallest ‘true’ heli I’ve seen is a Mosquito XE or the prototype Gen H-4 from Japan. I think the Gen was fixed pitch, but used 4 small 2 cycles for redundancy.

Ahh, here it is:

An electric version has since been built also. Franz’ is a retired Austrian military pilot, and this was his hobby invention.

Among my other interests is also Yves Rossy with the skydiving wing with jet engines:

Yyves Rossy will forever be my hero. What a a mad lad.

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