Pretty sure these killed a bunch of people.
Wednesday, 12 Mar 2025
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I flipped over pretty bad once. No permanent damage, but it hurt like hell. Could have been much worse.
Me & my 185s about 25 years ago 😆
I wanted one so bad and parents were like NOPE! I worked with a guy who got killed on a 4 wheeler. He hit a tree with no helmet, only 25 years old.
I have a cousin who broke both arms at the same time on one of those.
I was a dirt bike kid but these were so much fun. Especially drifting the back end in turns. I did the dirt bike mistake of running over my own leg.
My dad was going to buy me one and then they were banned here
A friend of mine rolled one on top of himself when he was a teenager. The back injury put him in the hospital and caused chronic pain. He was prescribed pain pills, got hooked on them, and the story didn’t end well.
I had ‘81 model. The smaller 110cc. Thing was great for pulling sleds in the snow.
Grew up with an 185 flipped it twice by rolling over from turning but eventually understood the threshold to back off. My Dad eventually put a deer rack on the back which prevented it from rolling over backwards. Spent several summers hauling friends around and it taught me safety and responsibility. Best times.
One of my brother’s classmates got permanent profound brain damage.
There’s a reason three wheelers are no longer sold.
There’s a kid buried next to my uncle (died young), who was killed in an ATV accident. He was born a year before me. I always felt so sad for the kid.
I know a guy who lost his sister in a 3-wheels ATV accident. She was driving up a slope, it overturned and crushed her skull. It happened in ~1998.
First time teenage me touched a girl, in a bikini no less, was riding on the back of one of those holding on for dear life.
I hit a rock cornering at about thirty mph. I went flying up in the air and landed on my hands and knees. A split second later the ATC landed right next to me. Foot peg nicked my shoulder.
A kid in my high school was literally beheaded riding one at night.
“it’s got 3 wheels. Let’s get drunk and watch the toddlers drive it around” is what got people killed
As a rural girl: the sound of these and dirt bikes in the distance is pavlovian to me lol
I had an 8 or 10 year old patient who rolled one of these in about 1985 and something with just the right shape caught him where the sternum begins up near the larynx. It cut him open from the top of the sternum to lower than his belly button. Paramedics covered the open wound with gauze and brought him to our ICU in Tyler, TX.
It turns out that the kid was really lucky because it missed all his vital organs. He just needed to be wired and stitched up, put on antibiotics and a ventilator for a day.
I’m a mailman and there’s a woman I deliver mail to who had a son that was killed in one of these. I found out because one day we were talking, she asked my birthday and I told her. Turns out her son, the one that died, was born same day and same year as me. He was 15 when he died. Every year she wishes me and her son a happy birthday. I can’t help but think when she sees me she wonders what would have become of her son had he lived.
Donorcycles.
Used to ride ‘em all the time. Your legs were easy to get sucked down by the rear tires
Yeah i almost got hurt really bad at least these times i can remember: i had a red Honda 110 model, whatever that was.
– was following someone in a place i didn’t know. They drove “straight up” an embankment and i thought it leveled off at the too. It did not, it went straight down. Hit the brakes and slid and rolled (flipping front first) down the embankment and ended up with it on top of me. No injuries. Was terrified.
– thought i would jump a dirt embankment some friends made. Jumped it at high speed. Woke up laying in the dirt road next to the junping point(glad no one ran over me) on my back looking at the sky (i was not wearing a helmet). Couldn’t figure out what happened, and as i recovered the 3 wheeler slowly putt putted over my body. It was surreal. I have no memory of the jump or how i got on the ground.
– had someone on the back. Went up a steep hill and it flipped up and rolled back onto us.
– racing in the woods on a motorcycle trail. Hit a small “jump” and when it landed i bounced randomly and ran into a tree. Lucky my foot was not crushed but it bent the footrest/foot shifter if i remember correctly.
– rode it barefoot and with shorts a lot. Many small leg burns on the engine. Had my left foot slip (it was wet) and hit the front of the left back wheel and started pulling on me on the back of my foot/achilles spot with those bumpy tires. Lucky just got some tire burn/rash.
– had the front tire fall off partially while doing wheelies/jumping around (because i didn’t tighten it well. I was like … 8? And was always taking parts iff to clean them/repaint/make it cooler). Always remembered to tighten everything after that.
Also: saw 2 other kids on one lose control and bounce into a barbed wire fence. They were not hurt.
Edit: i was given an old helmet motorcycle helmet to wear at some time. Prob after one if the crashes.
We would pull sleds behind them, they would roll easily, or the sleds would hit stumps or random rocks. Still alive somehow, but that was a different time. Get off my lawn.
I know I cheated death more that once on those backing the day. Still have a couple of scars
I was born way back in 1976. Practically born on a dirtbike. I rode one of the contraptions once. I told it to turn, it politely declined.
The best way to describe these things.
Speed – Uneasy. Throttle sticks, but not always. It was fashioned from a bmx brake lever. Parts are discontinued.
Steering – Use the throttle, or forget it
Suspension – You mean the tires? Spooky. There’s no telling what the front tire will be pointed at next. Doesn’t really matter though. The direction the front tire is pointed in is rarely related to direction of travel.
Brakes – They used to work. Parts are discontinued.
These things were all over Pismo Beach. Every summer we’d go for a week, and every time someone would be seriously injured by slowing down and turning and braking down a dune. Absolute death machines
They were not easy to control. But to be honest having ridden a 3 and 4 wheeler a lot along with dirt bikes. The kids who would flip the 3 wheel would also flip a quad too. They were reckless regardless of what they rode.
They still do. Two teenagers in my neighborhood were killed on the 4th of July after crashing into a light pole. Neither were wearing helmets.
I dumped one, it righted itself and then ran me over before I could get off the ground. Walk of shame limping into the house after my mom told me never to ride one. I’m lucky I just had bumps, bruises and ripped clothing. Probably a concussion too but no one checked.
I loved mine, never had any bad wrecks.
Older sisters friend died flipping one in 89 or 90.
I still got my 1985 Honda z50… fucker still runs… I ride it to the store every now and then
Greatest ATV ever. These things were so crazy fun.
Sure, but they all died doing what they loved.
Paralyzed an FSU student back in the 80’s 😔
Just don’t turn and you will be OK
Risk Level = Level of fun