I so rarely do autobiographical comics, but I was really struck by all the dumb bike maneuvers I have tried over the years.
Our ad slogan should pretty much be "GUYS: We're not the brightest."
Oh man, I love your comic - this one had me laughing harder than for a long time. Ruefully, it's true, and wincing at painful childhood memories - but laughing nonetheless.
Dudes: we don't grow brains till our hair starts falling out.
Random discovery: I checked out the link to the other autobiographical strip (first, love the ND hat -- nice touch), and was also checking out the strips immediately preceeding and immediately following. The one following (dated Feb. 17, 2006) actually has an early rendering of the Captain of the Machito from "Drive". I'm sure you knew that, but I found it interesting nonetheless. It was also a bit shocking to see her in a previous 'life' as a gradeschool teacher. She's come a long way.
When I was about 12 I had paper boy baskets on my bike, the big ones across the back wheel. I'd go down the street with a foot in each one of these. Then one day I was doing this down the street, got back on the saddle, coasted up my parents driveway and as I got off the bike ..
.. the handlebars came off in my hand. The stem had fractured along the way.
Can you say Guardian Angel?
I was reminded of being 9 years old and deciding to try riding down the street with my eyes closed. The experiment ended as I hit a mailbox. And this wasn't a little metal box on a thin post, oh no! It was one of those fancy ones all made of brick. I lay there dazed and embarrassed until I sheepishly picked myself up and rode home, eyes OPEN.
I was notorious for riding without my hands, almost always. Not a big deal, but funny enough one day while riding with my hands on the bars i lose my chain while conerning fast. 6 days in hospital with a skull facture and sub-dermal hemotoma.
I'm so dumb I can STILL be found doing some of those things. All the kids at the skatepark laugh at the "old guy" (I'm 36) doing "old school" BMX tricks.
Of course, when I first did them at 12 they were brand new. And it hurt less when I, inevitably, fell. Old bones are slow to mend.
Darn kids!
I've done some of these, way back in the day when I had a Schwinn Stingray with the gear shift on the bar in front of the banana seat. I can honestly say I have no idea how I survived my early teen years.
Never got too crazy with the tricks, but I do remember one day in college when I was late for class blasting down the road past the practice fields as fast as I could. Problem was, there was a fence alongside, and there was a tarp hung from the fence so you couldn't see through it. So I couldn't see the Explorer that was coming from my right as I got to the corner of that fence. Didn't really hurt that much at the time- hit him in the fender, slid up the hood, bounced off the windshield back down the hood and wound up face down on the pavement in front of him (he had stopped by the time I fell off).
I'm guessing this strip [sheldoncomics.com] was autobiographical too? Seeing as every graphic designer since the days of Hammurabi has probably experienced it?
Sheldon readers pull some ridiculous stunts @_@ Reading these stories is VERY FREAKING FRIGHTENINGPLEASESTOPDOINGTHEM
Ugh... I remember doing this.. instead of a mailbox it was a parked car and I hit it head on. Broke the windshield with my ol' noggin. I think that pretty much set in my parent's head that I was clumsy and I was doomed to have many stitches throughout my lifetime.
Am I the only one who thinks those little nub things that extreme tricksters are sticking out near the hubs are cheating? I'm not Gramps, but at some point, seems like you design something to do tricks it's not so tricky.
That said, I actually did the now world famous Superman jump with a tiny-wheeled bike when I was a kid, way before BMX made it big. I swear. If that damn Kodachrome didn't melt in the attic, I'd have a picture.
I got the idea because my uncle tried jumping a huge pile of soft dirt on a motorcyle. He didn't really catch on that soft dirt hit by high speed motorcycle equals slow speed motorcyle and high speed rider. Looked just like Superman, except for 1) the horrified look as he came over the handlebars and 2) he landed on his face. Oh, and of course, 3) it wasn't kryptonite that broke his arm and cheek, it was the cow he landed on.
The "size" of the gear is determined by the ratio of the number of teeth on the front chainring to the number of teeth on the rear cog.
Nitro Muscle Mass [buzzfeed.com]
The "size" of the gear is determined by the ratio of the number of teeth on the front chainring to the number of teeth on the rear cog.
Dell Coupon code [articlespeak.com]
