What's the dumbest thing you ever did?

[Erisianmonkey]

Okay, stupid bicycle trick. I didn't have a front brake on my bike. But I discovered that a well placed foot would allow me to do a front wheelie. One time, however, I had a little too much forward momentum. I went all the way over.

It did however, turn out really cool. I managed to tuck well enough that I turned it into a roll and got back onto two wheels. The sad part is that no one was watching, and I was smart enough not to think I could have pulled it off if that's what I'd been trying to do, so I gave up on the front wheelies.

[Kilted KT]

Once, on an old KDX motorcycle, I thought I'd try a little freestyling... Like you do on a bicycle. You know, stuff like front wheel stands, bouncing on the front wheel, walking, where you hop from the front wheel to the back wheel sideways, etc.

I actually had the front wheel stands going pretty good. Brakes locked, rear wheel up in the air... And I was hopping around like a demented rabbit.

Until my feet slipped off the pegs.

I skidded forward over the gas tank and in to the gooseneck. The bike fell over and landed on me. I had to have over a dozen stitches on the sporran I was born with.

I've done some REALLY stupid stuff on motorcycles.

I'm at a loss for words...that just sounds like it hurt a lot!

[Dreadbelly]

Once, I went mud bogging on a borrowed Honda Fat Cat. If you don't know what a Fat Cat was... Sorry. You missed out on a great ride.

Anyhoo... I had it wide open in a big muddy wash out from a flood. I was doing donuts and crazy stuff... Having the time of my life. I was practicing side slides. The Fat Cat didn't have normal tires, it had tires that were like a foot wide. Gun the throttle for speed, lurch forward, hit the brakes, skid to the side, and because of the fat tires, you'd hydroplane over the mud.

So I was doing this and getting pretty good at it, I mean I really had it down to a science almost. I'd lose momentum and get to the point where I'd just about lay the bike down, and I'd gun the throttle and scoot forward again.

I had a real beaut going. I went for almost 1/3rd of the mudpit at high speed, lurched in to a slide, and hit a log submerged in the mud. Friends said that the motorcycle flipped sideways several times through the air. Centrifical force pulled me outward. I had my hands on the bars, legs straight out. Like a T, with the motorcycle as the top bar.

So what did I do that was stupid?

I let go of the motorcycle.

Letting go of the motorcycle meant that I had no control of what it did in the air.

I also happened to let go when my head was downward and my feet were upward, though I didn't realise this at the time. I lost track of which way was which, as one tends to do.

I landed in the mud like a human lawn dart, head down. Legs sticking straight up out of the mud.

About a second later, the bike landed. On me. Between my legs. Which were sticking up in to the air. Yeah. You know where it landed. The force of the blow cracked my hip and broke my tailbone... Also a complete break of my thighbone. And completely smashed the wee boyos. I was still head down in the mud when it hit. I opened my mouth and inhaled to scream, only to fill my lungs with mud.

Damn near downed.

Thigh bone broke a couple of inches right below where it connects to the hip. Still gives me fits to this day.

For a few horrible seconds, I actually thought that the Fat Cat was going to go up my rear end.

And the really dumb part... I was back out riding not to long later. Sawed my cast off a couple of weeks to early.

[Rob Wright]

Was fixing the only fryer on a busy holiday and the 220 zapped me. Talk aboot a tingle

Rob

[Kilted KT]

Was fixing the only fryer on a busy holiday and the 220 zapped me. Talk aboot a tingle

Rob

"Zapped"...220 does a lot more than "zap" last I heard...good thing you weren't cooking at the same time!

[ckelly327]

Dumb and being zapped just reminds me. A few years ago I had v-tach problems with my heart so I got a defibrillator implanted in my chest. Of course you aren't supposed to do anything strenuous that will cause problems with your heart after that. Hey, I'm a stupid guy so after a while I thought things were OK. About 11 months later we had a big snow storm and my wife needed to get to work by 6 AM so at 5AM I was out trying to start a stubborn snowblower to clear the driveway for her. As soon as I got it started I got a huge shock in the garage that flashed the lights. I thought the snowblower had backfired and zapped me so I got away into the driveway. 30 seconds later, another zap! Sudden revelation - the defibrillator is hitting me with 200V to spark my heart. After two more zaps it finally stopped and the paramedics came to take me to the hospital. At the time of the zapping my heart rate was 180 bpm so the device was just trying to get me back in line. I have been much more cautious since then but I still do stupid things. I just don't want 200V of electricity running through my chest 4 times in three minutes ever again. Darn, that hurts.

[Jerry]

This one is from my daughter. My brother-in-law "fixed" my mother-in-law's clothes dryer. Needless to say he is not an electrician. I'm not either,, but in my vocation as an instrument tech, I learned to read schematics and wiring diagrams. He didn't. Anyhow, I was at home when my daughter called me from her grandmother's. She said she was doing some laundry for her grandmother and the dryer shocked her. I told her I'd be over in about 30 minutes to check it. So, I grabbed my trusty Fluke and headed out. When I got there, my daughter was trying to show me what had shocked her, so she proceeded to touch the same screw on the door of the dryer, and, of course, got shocked once again. I checked with my Fluke, and the screw had 220 volts on it. Then my daughter told me, that was the third time she had touched it. The second time was because she wanted to verify that she had gotten shocked. I can't remember exactly how my brother-in-law had wired the dryer, but I do remember that the ground on the 220 volt plug wasn't hooked up at all, and he hadn't come close to following the wiring diagram. After that, I was the one my mother-in-law called to fix anything electrical.

[O'Cathain]

I've done a few dumb things, but Dread reminded me of the time I cleaned my KZ 750. Buffed and waxed the tank to a perfect shine. The seat was a little fadded from the sun, so I thought armor-all would bring it back to it's original lustre. Well, I hopped on and took off, so proud of how nice my bike looked. I came to the first stop sign, applied the brakes, and found myself with my legs wrapped around the handlebars. Ouch! No more armor-all for me, thank you.

Steve

[Juggalotus]

I was trying to fix our old dryer, its about the same age as the washer and had decided one day to just stop. So I had the top cover off, the dryer unplugged and I was messing with the wiring connections. Basically just cleaning out all the lint and making sure everything was seated.

While doing this, I would plug it back in, hit the button on the front to start it, didn't start, ok, unplug, wiggle this wire, plug it back in and try again. Well, if you haven't guessed it by now, on more than one occasion I forgot the "unplug" step in my plan. Thankfully all it ever did was numb my arm for a split-second. Its like putting your tongue on a 9v battery, just on a much larger scale.

[elitekiltedcommando]

New one from last night... I was awakened around 2 in the morning with an urge to use the facilities. Being that I didn't want to be blinded, I left the light off, deciding to trust on my memory of precisely where the bowl was. To the best of my recollection, I could've sworn the lid and seat were left in the up position... Apparently, I was wrong. Very, very wrong... I'll let you all assume where this is going.