My Best Bike Stories - Part 2 - The Nectar Debacle

I've wrecked a lot. My friends wrecked a lot. Whether it was youthful indiscretion or the lack of fear, we found ourselves on the wrong side of the pedals countless times. We did a lot of fun and stupid things on bikes. In this mini-series I will try to describe our most notable adventures, they aren't all fairy tales but they're not all gruesome either, some are even hilarious.

The Nectar Debacle ~1988-1990

As youths we were addicted to sugar. It didn't matter what it was but if it had high fructose corn syrup in it we were all over it. After school we'd stop at our local market, pick up our junk food and speed off to a place to scarf it down.

On this particular day there were three of us heading over to a another friends house. I was on my 12 speed road bike (and obviously in the road) with J and Jo on their mountain bikes in the sidewalk. (Yeah yeah yeah they shouldn't have been on the sidewalk in the first place but then there would be no story). We were in the old section of town and by old I'm mean most houses were built between 1700 and 1900. There were large trees and large hedge rows dividing the front yards and the sidewalk. The sidewalk was concrete, narrow and very bumpy.

So there we were, buzzing down this well traveled street with our sugar loot and screwing around as per usual. J and I were side by side (he on the sidewalk, me on the street, remember?) and Jo lagging behind on the sidewalk. J had bought a 2 liter of cola ("nectar of the gods" as my wife calls it) and was carrying it on his left arm like a football. His right arm was on the handlebar.

Next thing I hear is "OH SH......." I look to my right and J is gone. I look over my right shoulder and he's still no where to be found. I jack up on the brakes and turn around to see Jo doubled over on his bike. I ride up to hear Jo laughing uncontrollably and pointing towards the hedge row.

At first I'm taken aback by what I saw but then had to laugh once I processed the image in my head. There was J stuck in the hedge still on the bike just like he was riding it but his rear wheel was a foot or so off the ground. He was still clutching the soda bottle like a running back. "I saved it" he said glancing down toward the bottle. The image of him stuck in the hedges matched the last image I had of him riding down the street perfectly only with the rear wheel off the ground and him being stationary.

Then he said "help".

Naturally I took the bottle from him and threatened to leave him there. Eventually I did help him out and pull the needles off of him but we sure weren't going to let that one go for a while (20 years later and I'm still writing about it!).

Apparently he had veered into rock at the end of a driveway and was launched into the hedge. He and the bike were unharmed except for the blow to the ego and we continued on our way.

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