I had been drinking heavily and had had an absolute gut-ful\u2026 Seriously, this guy was going on and on about all the crazy things he had done on a motorbike and in a car.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s it – time to go!\u201d<\/em> I shouted as I picked up my helmet and threw a helmet towards this guy, who I will call Grant. I did it in a way so he couldn\u2019t back out – everyone at the \u2018party’ heard. He followed me to my bike and climbed on as I started it.\u00a0<\/p>\n Before I even put it in gear he was pushing me forward on the seat leaning right over my shoulders and shouting \u201cno monos Adam, no monos!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n What? This \u2018daredevil’ wanted me to stay on two wheels after talking it up for what seemed like hours?? I wasn\u2019t one to do many wheelies anyway – I ignored him and gave it full throttle.\u00a0<\/p>\n Being so drunk, I really don\u2019t recall the first few minutes but I would have been riding fairly hard – that was normal. My memory kicks in when I saw the lights up at the main road go orange. I had slowed to around 100 as I tried to keep a low profile near main roads due to problems with the police.\u00a0<\/p>\n But there was NO WAY was I going to wait at a red light, so I clicked down a couple of gears and held it flat. It was only milliseconds before I crossed the lights that I suddenly realised WHICH set of lights this was\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019M DEAD\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n This set of lights had a hump that was crazy – many cars had lost a gearbox or broken a front end on this one. It was a scary hump at 70, and we must have been going at least 150 \u00a0\/ 180- maybe up to 200…\u00a0<\/p>\n Time slowed down as it hit home that I was about to die. I tried to make sure we were upright and just braced for what was sure to be the last time I landed on earth. I remember I was about to think about how much it was about to hurt when we took off\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n I really mean took off. I have no idea how high we went, but it felt like we would have cleared a double decker bus. I have never before or since experienced anything like it. We were so high I really was expecting not to feel anything as the impact of landing would just kill us instantly.\u00a0<\/p>\n But then something crazy happened. We landed. There was not crash, no broken bones, not even a jolt. It was so smooth it was as if we hadn\u2019t even gone over a bump in the road let alone a jump. We landed about 30cm from the left curb at the exit of the other side of the lights, guessing 15 – 20m further down the road.\u00a0<\/p>\n Within a split second, I had gone from thinking \u201cI am doomed\u201d to \u201cman I\u2019m great\u201d and kept thrashing it. A few minutes later we arrived at a fuel station and I got off the bike. I was probably overly happy, excited & maybe shouting when I noticed my passenger. He was trying to get off the bike, but his legs were not really working correctly. He was shaking uncontrollably and had trouble talking.\u00a0<\/p>\n I remember that I made a point of trying to do some monos on the way home, but don\u2019t recall much else – I had had a lot to drink and it really wasn\u2019t a big night. It was after all a Thursday night and I had work the next morning\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n That\u2019s right – it was just a run of the mill night – nothing out of the ordinary for me at that stage of my life. I would have been in shorts & t-shirt & likely had no shoes on. I would regularly come home with bleeding feet from them grinding on the road – me too drunk & engrossed in speed to even notice.\u00a0<\/p>\n Even with my blacked out memory I can remember hundreds<\/em> of times where I should have been dead. Each time I did something stupid and didn\u2019t die it emboldened me and fed my crazy ego. It\u2019s not like I had a death wish (unless not caring whether you die is classed as) I just loved going fast.\u00a0<\/p>\n My brain had to escape the thoughts I had no control of – I had to be drunk AND doing something adrenalin filled to drown out the thoughts. I spent years of my life without ever going to sleep – I drank and\/or drugged to pass out. But the hours before my mind & body succumbed to the cocktail, I did many, many stupid, stupid and at times impossible things.\u00a0<\/p>\n I look back now and shudder – that idiot flying through the air should never have survived that flight. I know the law of gravity – I know that old ex police bike\u2019s suspension – I know the height & speed we hit\u2026there is NO WAY the combination could work.\u00a0<\/p>\n Seriously, a purpose built bike, a ramp designed for the event and a landing ramp at the exact right angle and MAYBE it would work with the right training. Maybe. But with someone on the back? Impossible. But it happened. How? Why?\u00a0<\/p>\n If only I had the sense to think about it back then – I MIGHT have avoided some very painful wake up calls. Like the one where I came off the bike while the police were chasing me\u2026with an innocent \u00a0passenger on the back. But all I could see was the enemy. The police. I was like people in America who commit gun crime, resist arrest, attack the police, then cry foul when they get shot. I could not see from another perspective at all.\u00a0<\/p>\n I remember being taken to hospital in an ambulance with a suspected brain aneurysm: I passed out in the ambulance. I awoke in ED with tubes & sensors everywhere. My heart beat & rate was up & down like a yoyo and erratic. \u00a0A sensible person would have listened to the doctors and changed their ways. What did I do? I worked out how to turn the machine off, disconnected myself, borrowed a phone and walked out, not even waiting for the doctors bleak news.<\/p>\n\n