I'm sure there's plenty of you out there that have 'been there - done that' but what is the worst thing that has happened to you? Give us your best (worst) horror story.

A bit of humour would be good too - there's always a silver lining to every cloud........

.....isn't there???

Tom

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Tom
I'm a country member...

the worst thing that might happen (ofcourse excluding accidents and injuries) would be in my case is breaking the bike engine and return home by plane. hope no one return home by plane in the middle of the journey.

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ozhan u.
website under construction

Explaining to your friends and relatives, who have been fanatically following your grand adventure via the web, that its over because you met a chica. Love story endings are great, but not in the middle of the action scene!

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quastdog
Chiang Mai, Thailand

hi !

this is maybe not the worst thing that could happen to you , but here the worst that has happen to me(my first language is french, so I difficult to me to make you feel what I live this night but I think I can give you a good idea of what happen), (sorry for my mistake)

June 3rd , 2006, somewhere in Alaska 100 miles from anybody (okay, it's a bit exageration, in fact it's more 10-15 miles but that doesn't change anything).(It was a solo trip , so I was alone),

I couldn't find anywhere to sleep, It's getting late and a was tired. sudenly a saw a truck stopped on the side of the road and a guy doing a fire, (remember It was late, so I tought it was passing the night on the side of the road), I ask him if it was legal do sleep on the side of the road... he answer : "oh yeah ! but be careul there is a lot of grizzlys around here", I this big trucker man ,deep voice , full of tatoo, has not sacred me I would have asking to put my tent next to his truck, but I prefer to continu further "about 10-15 miles !!! " to fin something. Than I was so tired and I was thinking .. pfffff Grizzlys .. I was since a more than entire week in there supposed to be ''"Higly pupolated bear area"" and I've never seen a grizzly. So I set up my tent on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. I put my food on a tree 100 feet from my tent, and I go to bed.

At around 3 am , I a big noise wake me up. lot of craking from a tree and branches in the direction of my food.....the stress was rasing minute after minute, what can I do ... all what a have it was a kind of "anti-bear spray", cayennepaper, very spicy, like the police use on people but 3 time more concentrate for bears...you know what I mean,... Maybe 10 to 15 incledibly long minute after, I eard a very deep long breath few inches of my tent,"and no I wasn't the trucker", thant an other one , ahhhhhhh, at this moment, crouching in my very tiny tent , I try to put of the kind of safety pin on the bottle , but I couldn't remember how (probably the stress make my mouvement a bit less precise and shaking), but the fact is that I touch the "release botton"of the bottle in my tent , the higly pressure liquid-gaz spread anywhere includind inside my nose and my eye......!!! Oh hey ! good job FranK ! this give you around 10 to 15 (I think I like those numbers, in fact is less than that) to go out of your non brethable space (the tent) with your %$/"!** anti-bear spray, a quater of galon of water, and look behind you while your running to see if a grizzly is not charging you before you became copletely blind and suffocate from this very VERY irritating product, I was is Im going to die from an hyper-allergic reaction,

I was something like 1 or 2 hours alone in the middle of a road ''where nobody pass" scaried to put water in my face , I tought the water activate the product because, the most burning part of my face was my lips, my eye and nose, It was a cold night,probably around freezing temperature, and a have to put of my clothe who recive anti-bear spray, so my body was freezing, and my face and hand was burning ...so funny your should try...so after all this ...almost 2 long VERY LONG hours, my vision became to be good enough to read the warning on the bottle who says "wash your body with a lot of water " , and all what I have is a quater of a galon ...but wow , I felt a bit better , and could finaly saw the "/**%$*moose who still on the side of my tent !!! I can tell you the next days I was paying an hotel, no matter what the price was.

that was "my 2 cents"

FranK

Nice story Frank - had me in stitches!

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Peter

http://peter-onamission.blogspot.com

Waiting a life time to finally take that first big adventure. We planned for 18 months to travel from our home in Canada to Panama, me and four friends. We all arrange to take five weeks away from our loved ones and our work to make the trip. Due to leaving in January we make arrangements to drive the bikes down to Phoenix in November and then fly down and pick them up January to do the trip.

I spent the better part of a year working out, loosing weight, going to Bikram Yoga three times a week to get used to physical exertion in high heat and humidity environment (just try to image a 50 year old office worker – male – in a yoga outfit sweating profusely). We all did as much pre-planning, bike selection, riding schools etc to make sure we – all four of us – were up to the task at hand.

Things were working out great. We all got along. We were riding lots and making decent time and coping with the joys of riding in a different country with different cultures and languages than our own.

But as we were in southern Mexico and getting ready to head for Guatemala over a couple of days I started not feeling right. I was not sleeping, was very “flushed” in the face and generally a little more anxious than usual.

Then by chance I happened to check my pulse rate during dinner on night and noticed that it was doing some funky shit – like missing a beat every few seconds. I phoned home to my wife who is an emergency room nurse and discussed the issue. Upon her advise I found a local doctor who spoke a little English to match my pathetic Spanish. During his examination he asked what medication I was taking for my high blood pressure. None, I told him, as I don’t have high blood pressure. Nope I did have high blood pressure which at that time was 150/90.

In the mean time my wife was doing some research and found that the next town, about 4 hours away, had a full service hospital. So next day I go to the next town, check into the clinic there and meet an exceptional doctor who spoke excellent English. At that point he used words that scared the hell out of me. Words like “stroke”, “heart attack”, “dangerously high blood pressure”. Words that really make a middle aged man take notice. It seems that by then my blood pressure was up to 180/100 and I was in need of medical attention ASAP. Also my ride was over at that point as they could not guarantee that the medicine would not bottom out my blood pressure causing me to pass out – not a good thing while riding a motorcycle in a foreign country !

My wonderful wife made arrangements for me to fly home within a couple of days to seek long term medical attention back here in Canada. My riding partners carried on to Panama without me and had a very successful trip in my absence

To answer your question the worse thing that could happen is that I did not go to start with! To sit and dream and never try would have been the worse thing. To go and not succeed is devastating but as much and not to go at all.

As a side note, I was treated wonderfully by the Mexican medical system for a nominal cost. Much better in some ways than our Canadian system. I have been home for four months and I am finally seeing the specialist this week. All indications are that the irregular heart beat and high blood pressure was caused by air pollution poisoning and at this point I have no long term affects from the trip. As my regular doctor pointed out to “what do you expect. You work in an air conditioned office, live in a place that has excellent air quality and then go to Mexico and ride for 12 hours a day inhaling all that air pollution and vehicle emissions. And you didn’t think you would get sick”.

I may have soiled myself laughing at that. Nice one!

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Simon

London-Cape Town 2004-06
Buenos Aires-Vancouver 2008-10:
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/tstories/fitzpatrick

Some great stories!!!

Frankyboy - you are a STAR!!!

I'm sure there are plenty more to come.

Tom

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Tom
I'm a country member...

There was the time when I saw dark clouds and rain ahead and said " It's just a shower, we will ride through it." We got soaked.

Then there was the time when I saw some other dark clouds and rain, but I knew it was just a shower. We got soaked.

But there was the time I saw dark clouds and rain ahead and I said " Lets put our rain gear on". We did, and we rode for hours as it got hotter and hotter with no rain.

In 2004 being overweight and unfit decided to race in the Weston beach race, had to wear my Palace shirt over my chest protector, borrowed some knee pads as I'd damaged my cartlidge(should have had some before then and it might not have been damaged!), could not get the shirt over the chest protector so I just wore the Palace shirt, was doing the race on a KDX 125 trail bike amongst hoards of KTM's, up against Knight and Pastrana. beat Pastrana as he went down on the first corner and broke his wrist, went past Knighter when he fell, I was on my first lap, god knows what lap he was on? I then came off the side of the bike on a dune and felt 'a tear' and thought it was the velcro on one of the knee pads, found it too painful to stand so I rode and completed 2 laps before the pain won over adrenalin. In pain and feeling well pleased with myself as my aim was to complete 1 lap, amased all my club mates including myself at doing 2 laps. it took the NHS a year before they operated on my knee that I'd added torn ligaments to. put on 3 stone in that year due to restricted movement and Mcdonalds and still have a limp( leg that is!), but the biggest choker was, in the final results...I was only credited with doing 1 lap.. the robbing barstewards!

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'He who laughs last, was too slow to get the joke'
Never confuse the map with the journey.

This one is shorter but even more stupid

On another beautiful alaskan days, I decide to ride the Dalton Highway , 400 km gap without gas, with my suzuky dr650 who as a 200km range... gess what happen .. no you're wrong (I'm not so stupid)...but almost . I buy a large enough spare gas bottle that a strap with elastic on the back of my bike. something like 150 km north of coldfoot (the closer "town")...The point is that I was again far from anyboby when I turn my head back and saw that my extra gas reservoir has a dangerous inclinaison to the left, I stoped on side of the road (right side naturaly) , but the bike on his stand (who is on the left like most bikes ) .... It important to well konw your right and left to fallow my story, ... somebody can tell me what happened .... YEs , youre abselutely right , I pushed stupidely the heavy extra-gas bottle from is left position to the right,witout thinking the bike could follow this mouvement and he effectively felt upside down in a huge 10-15 (again those number ??!) feet deep canal. It take me 20 of super human power effort to put it back on is wheel on the road when, just at the moment that I've finished , a pick-up pass there ... I tell him "I is Ok now , I don't need help , thank you, I'am used to get in and out of shit by myself "

I'am just asking to my self . From his position in the mountain, Is the dollsheep is enouhg intelligent to laugh to see a guy coming fast from nowhere on his direction , stop before and push is engine off the road ?...I hope they are stuppider than me ..... I hope .....

FranK

the worst/funniest bad (potentially) thing that happened to me was being proposition by a very large Azeri man in a petrol station while the local traffic cop was insisting I have some vodka with hime before I continue. The thing that made it amusing was the way he phrased it - 'you, how much, jiggy-jiggy?' with an accompanying bumping together of the two index fingers.

Probably the worst thing I've had happen (not bike related) that made my mates piss themselves laughing was bouncing on a carabiner during a climbing fall. The carabiner managed to force its way right up my jacksie, then break my anal sphincter into three pieces on the way out, leaving one third dangling from my balls by a strip of skin. That was 8 years ago and I still haven't heard the end of it!

Too much information !

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Blessed are the cracked, for they let in the light. - Spike Milligan
"When you come to a fork in the road ,take it ! When you come to a spoon in the road ,take that also ."

Faackin' 'ell Henry - that is truly horrific......

We were loaded (baggage, not ) and sort of trying to out-do each other (and other traffic) on the rough 'roads' from Pucallpa (in the Peruvian jungle) to Huanuco (in the central Andes). The first section was beautiful pavement, but that ended abruptly at km 60 out of Pucallpa. The dust began (and the deep holes that you can't see BECAUSE of the dust ! Within 3 1/2 hours we were at the Boqueron de Padre Abad, a fantastic pass thru the mountain jungle with waterfalls on each side and Cock of the Rock birds flying overhead.

Immediately after began the REALLY ROUGH stuff. Basketball-sized boulders sticking up everywhere in the road and no path between them. That mixed with tight corners and big trucks and buses elbowing their way past each other. To top it all off, the climb began. As we reached 2,000 ft the bikes began running rough due to the change in altitude. Over a 3,000 ft mountain jungle pass (pix) and down the other side towards Tingo Maria (a town that mostly lives off the cocaine harvesting and processing, but very beautifully surrounded by jungle covered mountains). During the last 50 km I had been feeling like something was not right with the rear tire, it felt like it was going flat. I stopped to glance at it, barely seeing it below the rear saddlebags. It looked fine. But my rear brake was locking up too. I drove on longer, picking up speed as the road got better, but the feel was still there. Finally I reached pavement and stopped, got off the bike and looked closely. It was then I saw the condition of the rear axle (pix) ! The nut and washer had come off and the axle was more than 6 inches out the other side. A moment or two longer and I would have been sans a rear wheel (probably while passing a truck!)



The moral of the story is DON'T have your buddy 'help' you adjust the chain right before you take off on a trip!

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http://www.aroundtheblockmotoadventures.com/
'We build the bike (in Peru) for your Epic Ride of South America.'