"Too big a bearings!"
- Thread starter Wildcat
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when I was twelve my friend popped a wheelie and his front wheel went rolling away. Good times.
When I was in 7th grade we ditched school to go ride, we made a ramp out of an old door leaning on a tractor tire. My buddy Hal (or was it Ted?) went first and nailed it so I was next, I hit the door, it buckled sending me face first into the pavement. Bit through my tongue, broke a front tooth and had cuts and scrapes everywhere. Now at 65 I still have the scars and a fake front tooth set on an implant into my skull, oh to be young and dumb.
I think it was Eugene that tried making and jumping a ramp. The ramp sucked and it broke when he hit it. Minor crash. No big deal, besides the gang laughing at him hysterically. Later that summer he had brainstormed to really show us a thing or two. And he came up with this. The plan was to start on his BMX bike at the top of the barn style garage, then go at ape snot speed across the attached carport roof and ramp out and over a huge homemade stone BBQ fireplace chimney, landing safely in the dirt yard. There was great fan fare as he shouted from the garage rooftop the stunt's daring and undoubted spectacular fearlessness of yours truly, EUGENE! (Hooray!) And the small gathering of us looked up with wide eyes so as not to miss a moment of it. 
His older sister yelled out, "NO EUGENE! DON'T..." but it was too late and in a split second he was grabbed by gravity and shot down the garage roof and hit the first geometric hurdle. 120 degree angle of the barn roof to the car port roof, BAM! But he pulled up on the handle bars and kept rolling on! Albeit rather slowly having lost momentum... On to the very edge of the carport roof... and what should have been a beautiful flight over the real stone chimney and alighting rear wheel first in the dirt... but instead, in that very moment, gravity grabbed and yanked him and the bike forward with a jerk and he nosedived right down, missing the chimney, onto the hard stone BBQ! BAM!!! CRUNCH!!!
OOOF!!! and Eugene slammed face first into the top of the stones and grill and then his limp body kept slithering down into the dirt... of the back yard. And there was a brief pause of silence with the dust still hanging in the hot summer air... Then his brother and sister screamed, "NOOOO!!!! EUGENE!! MOM!!! HELP!!!" And the rest of us kids still trying to fathom what we had just witnessed,
once we heard MOM! ran for our bikes and took off outta there as fast as we could. I never had the guts to ever try any ramping unless I saw a few kids do it first without breaking anything, bike or bones.
It was a rule of mine. Still is.
His older sister yelled out, "NO EUGENE! DON'T..." but it was too late and in a split second he was grabbed by gravity and shot down the garage roof and hit the first geometric hurdle. 120 degree angle of the barn roof to the car port roof, BAM! But he pulled up on the handle bars and kept rolling on! Albeit rather slowly having lost momentum... On to the very edge of the carport roof... and what should have been a beautiful flight over the real stone chimney and alighting rear wheel first in the dirt... but instead, in that very moment, gravity grabbed and yanked him and the bike forward with a jerk and he nosedived right down, missing the chimney, onto the hard stone BBQ! BAM!!! CRUNCH!!!OOOF!!! and Eugene slammed face first into the top of the stones and grill and then his limp body kept slithering down into the dirt... of the back yard. And there was a brief pause of silence with the dust still hanging in the hot summer air... Then his brother and sister screamed, "NOOOO!!!! EUGENE!! MOM!!! HELP!!!" And the rest of us kids still trying to fathom what we had just witnessed,
once we heard MOM! ran for our bikes and took off outta there as fast as we could. I never had the guts to ever try any ramping unless I saw a few kids do it first without breaking anything, bike or bones.It was a rule of mine. Still is.
So what became of Eugene? Did he survive?
Like so many of the characters of my youth, I lost touch with him and many others.
But, since I still live in the old neighborhood I know from his parents that he's a
good dad and husband. Could be the kind of dad that says, "Hey, wait a minute
there son/daughter. It's a great idea but let's think it through a little more and be
a lot more careful while we attempt it with the proper PPE."
Or he could be the same old Eugene we all remember and yells out the window,
"What the heck did you kids do now! Sonovab.....!! Let's go to the hospital again!!"
