Wow.
This is one of those ones that I never thought would happen.
This one carries some pretty strong emotions too.
Picture the year. It was 1998. The new millennium awaited, and people were excited yet a bit afraid. No one knew why, but yeah
Well at that time I worked in a computer shop in SW London. We used to host our own email servers for the local schools and businesses, and at the time I was in charge of keeping them up. No mean feat back then ! what it did do, however, was given me access to the internet all day and it was fast. ISDN, so 3x faster than dial up.
And that was where I met who would become my first wife.
Well in 2000 (we wanted to play it properly and not get stupid) she came to stay with me in the UK. She was in London for 3 months and hated it. I knew she would !
Well at the end of 2k (October 3rd) I flew out to the USA. She decided she did not want to live in London (I don't blame her) and I was going to fly out there for 3 months and see how I liked it. I loved it. Why wouldn't I? space, clean air, and lots of fun.
So we decided that was where we were going to be. We flew back to the UK and I returned to work, and she stayed at home with the chipmunks we got. She would come up at lunch. Any way, whilst I was out there the first time I had a terrible BMX wreck. I mean, really bad.
My brother paid for freight on a bike. She had me get rid of my Mirra Pro (2000) and get a race bike. As we both agreed it would be safer. Yeah ! safer my arse
Three days after arriving in the USA it landed at Phila cargo dept. She drove me there to get it, as it was 85f and beautiful and I wanted to ride. The bike was a NOS 84 PK Ripper in gold. With gold LG, NOS ACS Z in blue and Primo Powerbites. I built it, but one of the lock nuts for the rear wheel was missing (Gsport 50p). I was so desperate to ride I rode it any way. I flew up the drive from the barn (far left, big building) and got to the street. I then turned left, and I really gave it some. I was flying. At this moment the back wheel slipped, the chain jammed and I went flying. Straight over the bars. All I had on was shorts (no top, nothing else). I landed in the road full force on my right elbow with 14 stone behind it. It wasn't pretty. My elbow exploded, tearing all of the skin away from it and the bone was gouged something awful.
I just remember lying there groaning and winded before being scooped up by the neighbour and driven back to the house. My mother in law said "Let me see it" and winced. She said "Oh no, that's bad" and I was encouraged not to look at it in case I went into shock.
This is where I lived.
As you can see the road is basically sharp flint thrown into asphalt. They do this so that the tractors can grip in winter. However, it did a job on me. A bad job. So yeah, we put a flannel over my elbow and went off to the hospital. I remember a black guy sitting outside and said "Hey brother, you're leaking !" and when I turned around there was a huge trail of blood.
The first thing they did was obviously give me lots of injections. I then had to lay prone on the operating table whilst they attempted to repair it. This involved them cutting off lots of skin with scissors before ramming their fingers down inside my arm with tons of iodine. They then fitted a rubber tube about 6" down into my arm so that it could drain, and sewed it up around the tube. However, this took them so long that the injections wore off and for the last five stitches I could feel it. God it was bad
I then returned home feeling awful sorry for myself. When I got back to the USA I sold the PK Ripper to a guy in Dallas for $700 over Yahoo auctions. This was over double the £300 I paid for it. I returned to the UK for 6 months to do the fiancee visa, and when I returned I got my first wedding present from one of my wife's friends.
Cooker. AKA, Cooking Fat, or "Fookin cat". He was an F1 bengal, and would have had a price tag over 20 thousand dollars. But he had a flat rib cage. This was not a problem, because he was a gift any way, but yeah, he would not have been saleable so they gave him to me. Best pet I have ever had. Loved the absolute snot out of the "little" sod. By little I mean like the biggest cat you have ever seen.
Those photos were taken one year apart, at the same house in the pic. So were these.
At 8 weeks he was the size of a normal house cat. After a year? he was a machine.
Think small pit bull in stature and strength, only with a fist full of razor blades. He was so big and powerful we had to let him live outside. Where he would kill anything he could get his claws on. Wild turkeys, and even one day he dragged a buzzard up the drive to leave for me. I am not even lying. That is why his nickname was "killer".
So yeah. As I settled in to living out there I started to get bored. I could not work yet, or drive, so I decided to get another bike. No street, however I got this.
Not mine, but identical. It is called a Mongoose SGX. Basically it was the 10th iteration of the Supergoose. Hence the name. My one was a 2001 as per the pic. It had ICT and etc. Any way the following summer I got over my fear (I was shaking the first time I rode it) and dug some jumps with the digger. The main field used to be fenced in like this.
As they had horses. Well over to the right of that pic there was a 12ft part that was not fenced in and I used to have to cut the entire thing on the ride along mower. Well as I was doing so I discovered my brother in law had once dug some dirt jumps there. I found this out when almost getting thrown out of the mower
so I asked if I could rebuild them. Family agreed. I spent that summer jumping my ass off. God that was a good fookin summer. Mum came to visit that year too.
So yeah, very fond memories of my SGX. Sadly I had to sell it to fund my first ever car, so it got sold. I've always wanted another one. Problem is whilst not terribly valuable (I don't know why, they are really nicely made) they are hard to find. Especially here in the UK.
Well yesterday this popped up on FB.
It is the year prior to mine.
Not sure if it was the pro model or just the regular one, but the cranks on it say Pro to me. Cost? 30 quid. So I bought it.
I then bought some stickers for 8 quid from Spain. That is posted btw.
Another frame resto for another day. No more completes, but if I fall in love I may break down my Fatboy. We will see.
