From: aweaver@epcot.spdc.ti.com (Andy Weaver)
Subject: end of the KLX
Organization: TI Semiconductor Process and Design Center
Date: Tue, 29 Dec 1992 04:02:51 GMT

OK, so I've had some time to write tonight.  I thought I'd put out 
another dirt bike story, or is this group about land managment :)


	One afternoon during the spring of 1982, a friend of mine (David)
and I went for a ride on the South fork of the Red River in southwest
Okla. where I lived at the time. 
	David had a 79 RM 125 and I was riding on my 79 KLX 250.  The
KLX was a great bike.  The motor had been sent to Powroll for mods
and was very powerful.  It had a ton of compression and couldn't be 
started from the seat for fear of a backfire and a broken ankle.
	It started out to be a beautiful day.  We rode the 8 miles out
to the river, then proceeded to blast our way down the river.  
	The Red River at this area is a large sand wash about a 1/4 mile
across with water running through it in a stream or two that are usually
about 10-15 ft. across and at the most 2 ft. deep.  It makes a great
dirt bike playground blasting around on the wet sand with a bunch of
water crossings.  The only problem is that there is a lot of salt in
the area.   Bikes had to be cleaned up good after a ride there, or rust
would soon set in.
	We had played around until we got a couple miles up the river
before I stuck my bike in quicksand.  I was going across a small shallow
stream of water then all of a sudden, I was stuck up over the axels in
quicksand.  We hasseled it for all we were worth to try to get it out,
but it just seemed to get in deeper.  So we got on David's bike and went
back into town to find more people to help get it out.
	We picked up another person in town, Daniel, and all of us piled
on David's bike to go out to the river.  As we headed to the river, the
sky started looking a bit cloudy.  After a 20 minute ride back to my bike,
the sky was becoming filled with omnious black clouds.  
	SW Okla. is a very popular spot for tornados to vacation in and
it was really looking like another was about to pay us a visit.  Bunches
of low hanging black clouds were now all around us and the wind started
picking up.  We were soon being sandblasted by 40-50 mph winds and there
was lightning all around.  We started getting worried since the tornados
sometimes follow river beds.
	We gave up on getting the KLX unstuck and piled back on David's
bike to try to get out of there before the storm opened up.  David was
driving, I was right behind him, and Daniel was on the very back of the 
seat and on the fender.
	David was running the 125 WFO down the riverbed with all of us on
it to try to get back to the river bridge for some protection from the 
storm.  We made it to within about a half mile to the bridge before we
struck it rich on finding more quicksand.
	We hit a water crossing WFO when the front wheel buried in the
quicksand and launched us.  I remember hearing the motor screaming, then
in a split second there was silence and we were flying.
	David flew about 7 ft in front of the bike, I went about 12 ft.,
and Daniel must have gone a good 20 ft. easily.  Daniel wasn't very
heavy but must have been quite aerodynamic judging from the distance.
As he was flying over our heads, I heard him let out a number of spanish
obscenities.
	David looked over at me and asked if I was alright.  I said that
I was OK, then he said good, you better get up because were still on the
quicksand.  We got out of that and finally got his front wheel unstuck.
We spent a few minutes trying to get his bike running before the clouds
opened up.  This was a major storm.  We were all crouched behind his bike
trying to keep the hard blowing sand and rain from stinging us.  Then we
started noticing the lightning striking all around us.  Some hitting less
than about a 1/4 mile from us, made it apparent that we shouldn't be right
there with a grounded metal frame that was easily the highest point on the
river bed.
	The bike was quickly pushed to some slightly higher ground where the
water wouldn't be running and was abandoned, then we proceeded to belly crawl 
down the riverbed to try to avoid getting struck by lightning.
	We had crawled about a 1/4 mile when the lightning started letting
up, so we were able to stand up and walk the rest of the way to the bridge.
By the time we got to the bridge, it was dark out and most of the storm
had passed.  We walked a few miles in the rain before someone came down
the road and gave us a ride some of the way in his pickup, then David's
aunt happened by and gave us a ride the rest of the way back on the trunk
of her car.  She wouldn't let us in the car, but we understood why.
	I was exhausted after walking so far in saturated Alpine Star
MX boots and carrying a soaked helment.
	It rained for the next two days.  David was able to get his bike
out the next day with a fresh plug and some time, but the KLX stayed
about another week until I was finally able to get all the way down to
where it was and get it out with a lot of people helping.
	The chain was rusted solid and I thought that the bike was pretty
much trashed.  It sat around at my house for a while before I traded it
for some car stereo stuff.  I didn't have the mechanical abilities to fix
it at that time.  
	That was a great loss in my life since I had had so much fun on
that bike.  Oh well, live and learn.  At least we didn't get in a tornado
or struck by lightning.


Andy