Flying the chair

YOWSA!

Once upon the time a good friend showed me a photo of his Unimog jumping over a dune in the Sahara from his first Sahara crossing in 85.
Soon after he had to weld the frame... What wonder!? (compare photo below)

What have to outstand these rigs?
No wonder solid frames will not survive motocross competitions.
Sven

I have had daylight under some of my rigs many times, especially when I was younger, but not quite to that extreme.

When I was in Germany the second time, I was working at a small dispensary in Butzbach, they asked us to provide medical support for the motocross races up above the town, these were international racers and were very, very aggressive. They had several heats of regular motocross bikes, then they brought out the sidecar rigs, the first heat the lead bike got a little squirrelly, and wiped out on the first hard jump, the driver got thrown clear, but the monkey fell back into the hill, he was hit several times by the rest of the pack, he had a knee where there wasn't supposed to be one, below the original one, and we got the race stopped, took him to the clinic to shoot some films, and splint his leg to go to the local hospital for more definitive treatment. I started to cut his boot off, and he grabbed my hand, and said he would remove it, himself, I'd have said go ahead and cut it but he didn't want to have to replace the boots, he pulled and tugged on the boot and finally got it off, but it was very much like this video when he went down.
Apparently the rider was tougher than I am. He did leave the hospital after they finished pinning his leg. I'm sure he was racing again asap.

Doc

Doc, he must have figured a leg will always grow back but good boots are hard to come by... Tough guy. I've known a few but prefer not to join their club.

I had a similar experience in 1990 after being T-boned by a nice drunken lady in a 1978 Chrysler. Had a crushed right foot where the brake pedal of my 1987 FXLR got wrapped around it.
I had a new pair of Frye harness boots on and wouldn't let the EMT cut it off. I finally got it worked off by myself.
There was a big gouge in the heel so I had to replace them anyway. Donated them to another Harley rider who didn't mind the big gouge in the side of the heel.
Foot healed after 6 months but is still tender 25 years later.

Lonnie

He had just spent 500 Marks ($250) on his boots, and didn't want to spend it again.

Doc

Like in old joke. A guy wakes up in hospital after crashing his Ferrari. "My new Ferrari, completely crashed, my Ferrari" etc. Doctor says "Man, you lost your hand and you only 'My Ferrari'.. " Guy looks where his hand should be, and cries even louder "Aaaargh, my new Rolex!"

All legs don't grow back Tom. I got t-boned down it Tallahassee, Florida about six years ago and the medic got out his xacto knife to start on the boots, I said man this is the first trip on the only new Harley boots I ever had but he just kept on cutting. It didn't make any difference though, after four operations in the Tallahassee hospital they had to take it off anyway.

And of course made the comment about legs growing back in jest. I rode for many years with a good friend who lost his right leg up high in a farming accident in the early '60's. We were both on two wheels at that time. Good guy, Harvey. I miss those days.