I think I'm done...2 wheels.

I started riding motorcycles at 13 and rode till i was 22. I wound up in the hospital for a week from a street bike accident and gave them up. I tried filling the void with cars and personal watercrafts, but the urge was always there and finally gave in to it about 3 years ago at 42. I bought an older dirt bike to see if I would still like it and I was hooked. I bought a new dirt bike in 2012 and slowly got back up to speed. Unfortunately, I've had some spills. Last year I tore my MCL. Beginning of January I broke some ribs on the right side. The end of February, I injured my left shoulder and broke a rib. My job involves physical labor and I didn't miss a day of work. I just dealt with the pain. I have a high deductible and light wallet so I didn't get an MRI until a couple weeks ago because I couldn't take the pain anymore. I had shoulder surgery yesterday to have 3 torn tendons and a torn rotator cuff repaired. I have to take a 2 month leave of absence from work, since it requires physical labor. I'm usually not a quitter, but I think it's time to call it quits.

 

Sorry to hear that Eagle, but at some point your health becomes parmount. I fell on a garbage can while "slightly" intoxicated and I was in pain for weeks. Don't feel like a quitter sometimes you have to do what you have to do. Hang in there buddy.

 

Oh man! Its like watching the Special Features in the first Expendables. OUCH!!!

It ain't quitting at all. Its belated common sense.

 

There ya go Eagle. The wise man has spoken! I rode bikes from soon after we married in late 57 until we retired in 1994. Started out with tiny off road bikes that needed work and when my wife wanted a ride I bought a big bike. It was a Honda 150! Didn't take long to figure out a 150 was not gonna carry two skinny young kids very far or very fast. After my wife complained after slipping back onto the license tag one too many times I sold the little Honda.

With luck?????:confused: I bought a nearly new 1965 Mustang from a used car dealer my dad knew. He had just taken a 1950 Harley Hydraglide on trade. One of the last tank shift bikes.
My wife was shocked when I came home with a 1965 Mustang fastback and the dealer brought the Harley. Both black! We loved it and rode it way more miles than we can remember. Full length of Mississippi river and back. Half way two different years. By luck we lived 100 miles east of Burlington, I. Made several trips across the Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline Drive. Even the "Dragon" at a very slow pace and many other places. Have no idea how many rebuilds, tires, etc. that bike got.
Could have traded it many times for way more than I paid. But there was something about that bike. I didn't ride it. It carried us.
Went down only once. January in Illinois riding to work, on snow packed roads.:confused:???? Laid it down on a diagonal RR track just after a train passed making deep ruts over the rails. Minor damage to me and the bike.

Sold it when retiring and always wanted another. Then a trike as age caught up. Life has ways to change plans. Still bikeless. But since you are young, why not think about a trike. Not exactly an off road bike. But I rode my Harley up hills and down creeks with the trail bikes. I had to go around many hills and along the creek bank but I still had off road fun.

Good luck on getting well and stay off two wheels. Hope this took your mind off the aches and pains.

 

Eagle, I'm pretty sure you are younger than me so let me put it this way...... listen to your body, last thing you want is to be all busted up with more than one surgery like me because of "I'm 10 foot tall and bullet proof" to end up with more problems down the road because of it. Trust me, I know and am living with it...... stick with your 4x4 adventures, they look like a lot of fun. And one more thing when it comes to going back to work, even if the doctors say 100%, listen to your body not them.... another thing I learned the hard way. The older we get the longer it takes and 100% never really seams to happen. Take care and get well soon

 

Hubby had this same surgery, he was off work for three months. Just make sure you do what the doc says, use the pain pills sparingly and you'll be back to work and enjoying the things that you like...bikes...4x4...whatever before you know it.

So I guess you'll be spending more time around here?

 

Good luck Eagle. I walk with a limp, need a knee and have already had 6 surgeries on my knee. I have plates and pins up and down my right leg from when I was 29 and invincible. All from 10 years of riding a motorcycle. I still get the itch but remember what my family went through for the few years I was in and out hospital and under doctor's care and couldn't work, sometimes walking away from something isn't a bad thing! Best of luck to you.

Dennis

 

Good luck! Shoulder surgery is never fun. I just had my 4th surgery on the right shoulder. No fun in the least. At some point I am looking forward to number 5, if that is what you call it! Remember, quitting is something different than STOPPING. A very different thing altogether. Feel better soon, and the very best.

 

Thanks folks. Mike, I like "stopping" vs "quitting". I'd quote and reply to each, but I'm typing with one hand.

 

You done well with one hand. Just take it easy and as fannie wrote, easy on those funny pain pills.
One kind made me light headed and very sleepy.
Heck I still feel that way!:banghead3:

 

Huuummm one handed?, Betcha that has somethin' to do with the rotator cuff being carved on. No soap box Eagle, I'll be as quick as I can about it but I gotta add my .02 cents. I started riding in 1948 with something smaller then ah Cushman that was powered by a single cylinder Maytag washing machine gas engine. By '54 I'd worked my way up thru' several Hawg's, BSAs, Triumphs, and I even climbed on ah Black Shadow for ah while, but that machine itself is another story for another day. 'Tween '48 and '61 I had more road rash then anybody else I ever knew or ever heard of. Lost count of the times I was intentionally run off the road so I sold the last Triumph and got the hell out of SoCal in '61. Remember that Marlin Brando convinced the whole world in 1954 when the movie "The Wild One" came out that we biker dudes were hatched out on this planet just to violate their mothers, wives, and daughters. Nobody met the nicest people on ah Honda 'til the mid '60s. You ever take ah street bike through marbles up to the size of your head while up on the pegs? Up on the pegs don't help much when you've got a street bike suspension under yeah! After ah Wife and ah kid were added to my life I made the switch to Penton Dirt Bikes...KTM today 'cuz the Jap weren't into the dirt bike scene back then. (I figured rocks 'n trees wouldn't look at me and then jump out in front of me, HA HA, WRONG) Like you, there have been more then ah few broken bones and ah few surgery's I think 'cuz we all like to push the limit's and feel the rush. At this point in my life I need two more Rotator Cuff surgery's, ANOTHER bionic knee, and the best pain killers I can get my hands on are Extra Strength Tylenol without risking jail time and that has it's own set of issues, none of which excite me very much. Might be time to take off your spurs, sit on the porch and fantasize about that rush we all know and love in our fond memory's ...And we won't talk about those we've known and lost that didn't make it to a peaceful end when there time came...For the record I'll celebrate #75 in just ah two more days and I made it into the mid '90s before selling the last crotch rocket. I was 9 in 1948 when I climbed on that peace ah crap with no suspension and experienced road rash for the first time. And was 50 when for the first time In my life I said to the lord, take me if and when you want me 'cuz I've lived it all and I've lived it well, and The Big Guy has seen fit to allow me keep on livin' it longer! ...Turned into ah short book, sorry 'bout that, Jer

 

Gee Wizz Jerry I thought I spilled my guts. At least when EagleFreek is reading he's not typing. Welcome to 75. I done hit that in January this year.
We'd still like to get a trike someday and head for the Blue Ridge one more time. But my body says buy a HoverRound and relax!

 

What about me Tedy? You got one in pieces with tools scattered all around it, up on blocks and grass grown up around it?