we took the Dune Buggy and bikes out on the weekend and had 3 days of riding.
the new engine subframe/swingarm performed very well.
it feels a bit stiffer under power around corners now
my son drove it for an hour or so, and brought it back so i could adjust up the new chain and rear brake caliper.
we had some friends come up and join us on sunday after lunch,
they bought their 2 sons bikes too, a CRF50 and a CRF70, both bikes are 18 months old.
we sent my son and our friends eldest son down to my minibike track to wait for us to get down there with the 2 younger boys on the PW and CRF.
we took it a bit slower due to the bumpy track.
on arrivial i noticed my son on the CB radio talking to my wife back at the house,
i pulled up and he said his friend had dislocated his shoulder, i asked my son if he was ok and he said yeah all good, but his friend wasnt.
i looked over and saw he was holding his arm against his side, almost in tears.
i dropped my bike and rushed over to him, and looked at his arm
it had a big black bruise halfway between his shoulder and elbow, and was sitting at a wierd angle.
then he showed me the inside of his arm, i could see he had broken it by the way the bone was pushing out against his skin
my son walked back over to us and said that they were both in the buggy and had rolled it.
i looked at the buggy and noticed it was parked on it's roof, upside down.
i asked how it had happened.
when they arrived at the track, our friends son asked if he could have a drive of the buggy.
my son said he wasnt sure, the lad said his dad wouldnt mind, so they both got in and took off around the outer oval track.
the other lad hadn't driven a Buggy before and held it flat out, he got about 100 metres around the track and rolled it over.
he said he hit a rock and had lost control.
we didnt know he was going to drive the Buggy without us there so didnt even get a chance to warn/tell him to hold on tight if he rolled it.
and to not put his arm out of the cage if it was going over.
my son thought the other lad had put his seatbelt on too, but i dont think he had.
my son also told the lad to slow down a bit as he took off, but he didnt listen to that either.
the lads dad wasn't far behind me and quickly rode over, he checked out his sons arm too.
we tried to get him to sit down and comfort him a bit while we were waiting for my inlaws to drive down from the house.
they arrived in a couple of minutes, and strapped his arm to his side to support it and took him back up to the house.
his parents were saying to us that they had though he was going to break his arm the previous weekend when out riding.
he must be a bit of a daredevil/reckless rider ?
anyway our friends chucked their bikes onto their trailer and headed off to the hospital, 30 mins away.
he was seen to pretty quickly and medicated more for the pain.
the hospital rang an ambulance and he was taken to another hospital in Adelaide to be treated, an 1.5 hours away.
on the way he was commenting on how cool it was to have finally broken a bone?
the second hospital got him into surgery and fixed it up.
it needed to be rebroken, 2 plates, 6 screws and 15 stitches
he had to stay at the hospital for 2 nights, and will be going back in 10 days to have a half cast put on to help it heal.
he wont be out riding again now for 7 weeks at least.
his parents were so laid back, cool and calm, saying how he had finally broken his arm
they even offered to pay for any damages to the buggy, but there wasnt anything really, just some torn electrical tape, and a cracked plastic light housing, easy fix
i dont think i would have reacted the same if it was the other way around....
he was very lucky he didnt hurt himself more.
when my son was learning to drive the buggy we used the throttle limiter to keep his speed down,
and had warned him about what to do if he was going to crash, or had a blowout etc before he started learning to drive it.
and slowly, over a couple of months, we gradually increased the top speed by undoing the restricter screw
i think in one of the early posts here i had mentioned that broken arms were the most common injury from Dune Buggys.
anyway once they had taken their son up to the house, i rolled the buggy back onto it's wheels
my son jumped in turned the key, it started up easy and he headed off back to the house too.
i'm suprised that not even the steering needed adjusting, or that the rims weren't bent.
we've learnt now how easy accidents can happen, so try and take it easy on your bikes, ATV's/Buggys etc
cheers, craig
