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158 Comments
- Gregd, on 10/12/2007, -1/+119What's utterly amazing is that he wasn't immobilized on the spot. He should have been put into a neck collar, backboard and shipped off in an ambulance or medivac. Instead, they stand him up AND undress him? WTF? If that's his "safety" team, that guy has more to fear after the crash, then the crash itself....
- gamabunta, on 10/12/2007, -34/+124....and that kids is how Lance Armstrong lost a nut.
- sert, on 10/12/2007, -10/+87If he was in America he could have sued the company that made that bike.
- zyang, on 10/12/2007, -3/+65and the worst part, they stripped him naked in front of the camera while he was half unconscious
- Lorian, on 10/12/2007, -1/+47Damn... I have to say whoever was controlling the camera did a good job following him.
- ContactRose, on 10/12/2007, -4/+44I doubt it... while I doubt it's expressed in as many words, I'm imagine that their defense would be something like, "Umm, judge, we didn't design our bikes with the intentions of insane bikers riding down dirt mountain paths faster than most cars would."
- hammerattack, on 10/12/2007, -0/+40The guys name is Eric Barone. The obvious is that he was trying to set a downhill record, and I believe he did. What led to the crash was... Eric had originally planned to go with a sturdy aluminum frame bike. At the last minute he decided to switch to a carbon fiber composite frame. For anyone unfamiliar with carbon fiber composites, you typically want to not use them on non-linear load bearing members because they fail in unpredictable ways.
What really shocked me in this video was his 'medical' assistance. After a head/neck/spinal trauma like this, you never move the patient any more than you have to in order to get their ass strapped to a board, immobilized, and off to an emergency room. You certainly don't have him take his clothes off unless there's swelling, and even then that is what scissors are for. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+41heh, it looked like he was transforming when the bike broke, and the old G1 transformers sound effect played in my head
- recoil24, on 10/12/2007, -7/+47Buy that man a drink...A strong drink at that..
- OneEye, on 10/12/2007, -2/+40Eating dirt @ 100mph+...that really sucks. He's lucky to be alive.
- KathyAlbrecht, on 10/12/2007, -2/+36owww......i feel his pain, when i was younger i wiped out going down a really steep hill like that(maybe 30 or 40 mph) and it left a 3 inch hole in my leg :( its not fun when the doctor won't continue the surgery cause he wants to show you the bloody rocks he finds inside of you
- bigpeeler, on 10/12/2007, -4/+37I was wondering why he didn't have training wheels.
- hmmm, on 10/12/2007, -0/+30The video says he broke 11 bones (i think). Painful...
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+28I like how his helmet immediately comes off.
- roguescout, on 10/12/2007, -4/+28He would have been fine if the bike was a Schwinn Beach Cruiser.
- raygan, on 10/12/2007, -1/+22I've got to admit, I screamed out loud watching that. Seems like the sort of accident they would have been able to plan against. Wish the audio was in English, all the neat videos like this are from Japanese TV lately.
- DoorFrame, on 10/12/2007, -3/+23He was. I'm pretty sure I saw it go flying off during the crash.
- MrBound, on 10/12/2007, -1/+20Looks like the helmet was for speed/low wind resistance, not protection, unfortunately.
- TheOneGreatX, on 10/12/2007, -0/+19I totally expected the guy to get up and be like "That was awesome!"
but he didn't. - RaistlinMajere, on 10/12/2007, -29/+47He lost a nut to cancer, you retards.
- bg_27, on 10/12/2007, -0/+17he was wearing a helmet, it flew off when he crashed!
- PaulOwen, on 10/12/2007, -0/+16Absolutely. People underestimate how strong steel is.
These days it seems to be a given that downhill racers are made of aluminium or carbon composite but actually those materials will give no warning and *SNAP*. The presumed tradeoff is weight but actually weight for this kind of stunt is a good thing!
Steel just wouldn't do that, it would flex and in extreme cases, buckle but never snap - the more stress you put it under, the more malleable it becomes. Years ago when I worked on a ship in the North Atlantic, I asked the captain of the ship whether I should be worried about the steel hull creaking in a storm. "Nope" he replied, "you should be worried when it STOPS creaking!".
That's the nature of how strong steel is, and that crash could have been completely avoided if the correct materials were chosen. - compu73rg33k, on 10/12/2007, -3/+18Yeah I thought that crashing on a bike at 110mph, he would get up and go for another run. Oh wait, the bike snapped in half too.
- PaulOwen, on 10/12/2007, -1/+15@hmmm
The video actually says he "broke bones in 11 places" (agreed that could total up to 11 bones).
The 11ヵ所 means "in 11 places", I think. - bking, on 10/12/2007, -3/+15Growing up filming skaters, nasty injuries don't do much to me... but that guy's arm made me say "ooooowwhhhh"
yeesh. - captaindan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12Never mind the helmet, I'm wondering why he was riding a bicycle down a mountain at 110 MPH.
- gamer31, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/9687/ouch3qb.jpg
look at the helmet flying off his head - SuperSloth, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10IIRC, the bike was purpose-build by him and his group just to do this.
- drawkbox, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11Or pee-wee's bike
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10Holy *****! That medical team should be bitch-slapped........
- Suspected, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9None of the Kanji give such an advisory. Japan isn't as sue-happy as we are in the US. However, for anime, they always tell the viewer to watch the TV from a distance and with the lights on. Not too surprising considering that one anime that induced seizures.
- dexOtaku, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Oh, MAN would that suck.
Sitting here watching the kanji [correct me if it's not] fly by, thinking, "Which one of those says, 'DO NOT try this at home!'". - swizzcheez, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8"That's why you maintain your bike and always, always, always search it for cracks and hairlines."
It wouldn't surprise me at all if there weren't any (cracks and hairlines) on the bike _before_ he started down the side of the mountain. At those speeds on that sort of terrain I would expect some serious stress on the machine. - gumby05, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10He would have been in a real pickle if that volcano was erupting.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9his fork didnt break, it broke where the main frame connects with the "fork holding" part of the frame... sorry english is not my native language
- rocjoe71, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9He was wearing a helmet, it flew off during the crash. Lucky for him, his head did NOT go with the helmet.
- Nodren, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7undigg his comments all you want, but german engineers much like a few other foreign engineers take alot of time and effort to produce things so they last longer, not so they can make alot efficiently. try taking a car like a volvo and compare it to a ford and see which one can go the longest with out a rebuild(i've owned the two cars, my volvo made it 50,000 miles longer then my ford, and the volvo was still mostly running when i got rid of it, the ford needed a complete rebuild to even work again)
- haochi, on 10/12/2007, -12/+19Wondering why isn't he wearing helmet.
- Toupee, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8When I was thirteen, I was flying down the steep dirt road by my house on my bike (as usual). But when I went to turn into my driveway as I always did, I hit a patch of gravel and the front wheel flung out from under me. The bike immediately fell sideways and I flew about twenty feet across our asphalt driveway. I had nasty patches of skin wiped off of both of my elbows and my right knee.
The worst part, though, was having three nurses violently scrub my injuries with those brushes with plastic bristles to try and get all of the asphalt out.
Sort of pales in comparison to that guy, though. - rocjoe71, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Carbon fiber composite. That's a shame. Never would have happened if he'd watch more NHL hockey-- about half the players out there are using stick made of the same material. The composite sticks flex differently from traditional wood, adding 20km/h to the average slapshot. However, they fail with regularity, snapping in two-- the failure of these sticks is so complete that the puck doesn't even move.
- devoinregress, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7or why it wasn't more securely attached to his head.
- whisk3rs, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9It looks like his fork bottomed out. Common thing. All of downhill parts have warnings and disclaimers on them, stating that if you accept the risk of doing downhill riding, you waive the company of any liability.
- fitchmicah, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7are you saying that you have in the past claimed that bikes going at 140 km/hr will snap in half?
- BassJunkie, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Looks like you can grow something on the side of a volcano.......the face plant! Mucho respect to the guy tho, u gotta have massive kahuna's to try and ride a bike that fast!
- Kwipper, on 10/12/2007, -4/+10Hmmm. I don't think bikes were made to be going that fast. The video proves my point. I highly doubt he would be able to sue anyone.
- lenwood, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6The 124 mph that you quote is for a human body falling straight down with arms & legs extended. Adjust into a dive (or standing up) position and a skydiver can reach speeds of 200+ because the area that the wind 'sees' is reduced. If he was in a tuck, his exposed surface area would have been less than that of a skydiver. Plus, if he was pedaling (looks like he had some really tall gears since they had to push him to get him going), he would have been propelling himself down the mountain.
Given all of these factors, 100+ mph seems plausible.
I agree with most others, for the type of forces that this bike would have to endure, he would have been better with a steel frame. Who cares about weight when you're going down the mountain? Carbon fiber was a poor choice. And are those clincher brakes? 100+ mph and no disk brakes? How else was he planning to stop? At those speeds he'd have brake fade within a couple of seconds of hitting the brakes. - mrdoolittle119, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6its funny how the Japanese announcers always seem to be happy
- retawd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Heh. Yeah a lot of people cant tell without a smiley face.
- golfe, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6That's nothing, I once did the same thing on my incredible hulk big wheel at 109 mph.
Shake it off buddy, you'll live. - rtwolf, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6That was crazy. The bike literally broke out from under him, he didn't hit anything that I saw. Wow. That's why you maintain your bike and always, always, always search it for cracks and hairlines. I seriously hope he's ok.
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