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2006 July Slush
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Troops are thick, but this???
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fool with chainsaw
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man cuts off penis on a bet
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More Bike Tricks...
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Darwin Awards, page 175
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Darwin Awards
2006 Slush Pile

This item was recently submitted by a reader.
Should I include it in the archive?
Vote to tell me what *you* think!

More Bike Tricks...

2006 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance

Personal Account.

Having read the slush pile story 'Bike Tricks' I recall a similar experience

When I was about 12yrs old my friends and I had a favourite bike trick called a 'broadside'. I'm not sure if the term is used outside the UK but it is where you shift all your weight to the pedals and lock the rear wheel with a sharp yank on the rear brake lever. As the skid develops the bike starts to turn side-on with its ultimate aim being to reverse ends. You steer into the skid and lean back slightly so's not to flip over sideways in the direction of travel. A good bradside would result in a 20-30 ft skid mark on the pavement. Poor ones destroyed your reputation so you tended to go for the max. Right, that's enough scene setting.

We were showing off one evening pulling this stunt and decided to switch bikes. I was the first to go using my mates cool American racing bike. I jumped on, rode some distance away and raced back. As I approached all my friends I got balanced and showing full committment grabbed a huge handful of brake lever. Did I forget to tell you that US bikes have the brake levers reversed?

I hit the ground in front of the now upside down, airborne and riderless bike at about 20 mph and ragdolled down to zero mph using just the skin on my bare back. I rock!

Submitted on 07/28/2006

Submitted by: Steve Veal
Reference:

Copyright © 2006 DarwinAwards.com

Great? 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Awful?
Love it! Hate it!
>> Moderator Scores <<

James said:
Neutral: Personal Account
another one for the "Buy American!" category! :-) Even though you were 12, I like this enough to at least let the other mods (and hopefully the readers) have a look. If it weren't for the brakes, this would be just another lesson in "rough riding" (such as we've ALL had growing up), but I like it so I'll keep it! Thanks, Steve!


Fitzroy said:
Neutral: Personal Account
Yeah, the age issue is a big deal here, but I honestly laughed out loud because of the way this story was told. I can't bring myself to go negative on this Personal Account even though I don't think anyone expects 12 year olds to exercise consistently mature judgement.


Jorge said:
Definitely Keep: Personal Account


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