Lisa & I were out in front of our hotel in Charlotte while I was cleaning up the poor, abused, filthy Ultra. We saw some twit trying to figure out how to do a wheelie in the street out front. About 10 minutes later, there’s a big noise from the parking lot of the TGI Friday’s next door, engine screaming followed by the sight of something on the far end of the parking lot rocketing along and slamming into something. Hard. Lisa and I went to see what happened, since we’re both over 40 and first aid trained.
The poor bastard had somehow managed to low-side across the parking lot about 20-25 feet, then judging from the debris hit a small offset between the asphalt and concrete that separated two parts of the parking lot. As near as I can figure as it sheared the left side of the engine off, it probably started to right the bike and he then high-sided. The remains of the shattered bike (some kind of 1100cc Power Ranger bike) was crumpled up in the bushes after self-destructing against a curb, and its former pilot was on the ground with a compound fracture of his right tibia & fibula (which you could plainly see between the shorts & the sneaks). I helped the doc in the crowd of onlookers keep his leg stable until the paramedics & cops arrived.
He wasn’t talking much about how it happened… some story about how his glove got snagged and all, but oddly enough I didn’t notice he was wearing gloves. His buddy had removed his helmet by then, so I don’t know. Anyway, we’re pretty sure it was the same guy trying to learn to do wheelies out in the street a little while earlier. I’m sure he’ll feel better in a few weeks.