Posts tagged bike

Back in 1990, when I was in the 6th grade my friend David and I would always play with my brother’s stuff when he was working. I remember one Saturday morning when we took his skateboard, and we would ride it around like it was a sled. We would start at the top of the drive way, and then roll down to the sidewalk to see who could go farther just by the momentum we gained going downhill.

Later on that day we started laying face down on the skateboard, and we would pretend we were superman. Unfortunately we were not going very far when lying down, and we wanted to go faster. That’s when I got an idea! I told David to go get his bike because I wanted to try something. David had pegs on his bike… Pegs are these little metal rods you screw on to the bolts of the rear tire of your bike that would allow another person to stand on your bike while you pedaled. They were really cool, and I don’t really see people using them anymore. Anyways I had the idea that if I lay down on the skateboard, stomach down, and held on to the pegs of David’s bike he could pull me down the street. Eventually when he was going fast enough I could let go and fly like superman down the street. I’m such a genius right?

There was one problem with my plan though… the back tire on the bike. Since I was holding on to the pegs of the back bike tire, my face was like right up on the back tire. I had to really focus on not letting the back tire of the bike rub my face off.

So we headed down the street, and I was being very careful not to let the back tire rub against my face. Maybe I was concentrating on that a little too much because the next thing I know my right thumb gets caught between in the back gear of the bike and the chain. My thumb goes almost completely around the gear before part of it rips off and I go flying off my skateboard into some bushes. I got up, and saw all the blood pouring out of my thumb, and I go running as fast as I can back to my house leaving a trail of blood on the sidewalk.

My mom ended up taking me to one of those urgent care places which was down the street from our house. Once the doctor cleaned up the wound I could see part of my thumb bone, and I passed out. Since we couldn’t find the piece of meat that ripped off my thumb, we just had to wait for the skin to grow over the area. It was a long painful couple of months waiting for it to completely heal.  Now one thumb is slightly flat on top and smaller than the other.  Boo!

In the end I still think it was a good idea… I just wish I would have thought about the gears of the bike, but hey… at least I didn’t rub off my face with the back tire right?

And that… is one of Nick’s Greatest Moments.