Riding buddies from hell

[Jeff C]

Post your stories about guys you brought out for a nice day or two of riding and then turned out to be a complete nightmare.........

I am sure we all have had a few of "those" people in our group one time or another.



I got a little story for ya................

About 10 years ago, I invited a brother of a friend of mine to go out to West Yellowstone. I knew this guy, he is my buddies younger brother, how bad could he be?

We wanted to leave the Twin Cities at 1-2 PM.

"Hey Jimmy, we'll be over there at roughly 1pm, be ready ok?"

Well we get there and he is out in the garage just starting his track change out.

I am immediately pissed off, but we help him get the track on and we are on our way. Just before we take off he throws his gear bag between two sleds on an open deck trailer. "Hey Jimmy, do you want me to strap that down for you"...... He says, it will be just fine to leave it.

Jimmy gets a speeding ticket somewhere in Western North Dakota in the middle of the night.

At every gas stop I notice that Jimmy always was the last one to get out of the truck and into the gas station to take a leak, and the last one back in the truck.

After several stops I can start to smell pot on his clothes and on his breath.

Oh great, we have a dope smoker among us. I let it slide, did not say anything at the time.....

We get to West Yellowstone, go to unload our gear, and Jimmy's gear is nowhere to be found. It blew off the trailer somwhere between Minneapolis and Montana.

So Jimmy has to go into the Arctic Cat dealership and buy about $700 worht of helmets boots, bibs, jacket gloves.

Ok the worst is behind us...........

NOPE!

The first night we go out drinking. I tell all the guys, hey just dont drive on two streets, keep your speed down. Stop at the stop signs, be cool and everything will be just fine.

At bar close, Jimmy is taking his time getting his gear on for the 5 block trip back to our condo. "Jimmy, we will meet you back at the condo"

Next morning, we get up and have breakfast. WHERE's JIMMY? WHAT HAPPENED TO JIMMY?

I go and take the truck around town to see if I could find him or his sled.

Oh there it is,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, right in front of the small Police station in West Yellowstone.

WTF?

I go into the cop-shop and ask what is going on. One officer tells me that Jimmy got a DUI last night, and he had drug pipes on him. He will be staying at the jail for the next two days.........

Apparently Jimmy had blown a few stop signs and was speeding..

A few days later, Jimmy shows up at our condo.... He is all depressed (WHich he should be).

One night on my birthday, at the end of a day of riding, we decide to go over to the Happy hour bar which if memory serves is on Hebgen lake somewhere.

Back then we used to drink pretty heavily and think nothing about getting on a sled.

Everyone is buying me shots, and trying to get me good and drunk. After a few shots, I stop and say "NO, more shots for me" They continue to stack up on the table. Jimmy does his best to down the "extra" shots for me.......

Everyone in our group is three sheets to the wind. We have a 15 mile easy trail ride across the lake and back to West. I tell all the guys,l everyone stay in a pack, no speeding.

Well that lasted about 100 yards onto the lake. We get to the far side of the lake and stop on the shore to get a head count.

We are missing one,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, JIMMY.

After a few minutes here comes Jimmy across the lake, we can see his lights. He gets about 50 yards from our group and turns his sled around and pins it in the opposite direction. He just takes off, his headlight disappears after a few minutes.

I take off after him, knowing at the far end of the lake there is potential open water. I need to catch him before he gets to that open water. Literally 10 minutes of WFO, I finally catch up to him, try to get him to stop and then my belt blows. HE keeps going towards the open water. Change my belt, and take off again following his track.

It is now snowing really hard. I follow his tracks until I see black ahead of me. Is that open water he went across?

I can see that he made it to shore across slick black ice. I follow his tracks across the black ice to what I think is the shore. Does not seem to be the shore, but at least it is solid, so I will keep following him. I Climb up the bank and continue to follow his track. All of a sudden I fell 10-15 feet off of what I now know is a marina. I fell down one of the cuts on the marina rip/rap lake entrance, flip over the hood of my sled and then the sled runs me over and stops right on top of me.

I am laying on just frozen over slippery black ice with a 500 pound sled on top of me.

Mother F*(K#$!!!

Got the sled off me, and caught up to Jimmy riding down the highway (Right in the middle)

Get Jimmy to stop finally.......... "Jimmy what in the heck are you doing"

"Just trying to get home" he says.......

This guy was completely out of his mind drunk/high.....

Get him back to the condo in West finally...

A few days later it is time to leave for home. He drives really fast, and got another speeding ticket outside of Jamestown, ND


That was probably the worst riding "buddy" I have ever had. Needless to say, he has not been back.......

Jimmy's trip:
(2) Speeding tickets
(1) DUI
(1) large duffel bag lost off the trailer.

WIth the DUI, that trip must have cost him at least $10,000

That has to be the worst, can anyone top that?

 

[CO 2.0]

That's a pretty bad story. Hard to top that one! I almost would have let him kept flying off across the lake by himself. Natural selection at its finest LOL

 

[NorthMNSledder]

I'd have left him in the garage changing his track.

Wow, man my worst story is not even close to that.

 

[tudizzle]

I got one....


About ten years ago I get invited on this "sled" trip with my brother and his buddies who all claim to be these hot shot snowmobilers.

I should have known the trip was going to be a doozey when they showed up and got all pissy because I was swapping my track. They acted like it was going to take all day....but I the skilled mechanic that I am usually do it in 15 minutes.

Of course they thought they would do me a favor by helping...but ended up just slowing down the whole process and pissing me off while doing it.

Well I knew I was going to buy new gear so I decided from the start to just mess with these guys. Grabbed an old duffel bagged stuffed with garbage and threw it on the open trailer. They about crapped themselves when they saw me do it. Trying to strap it down and getting all worried about my stuff. I just waved them off and said it was no problem...but I could see it had gotten to them.

It was a long haul to West Yellow so I of course had the pedal to the metal...even got a speeding ticket..big deal. One of the guys acted like it was a capital offense....as if he had never sped and got caught before?

What did I get myself into????

When we got there I wanted to stop at the local cat shop to gear up. (time to replace that lost "gear" that flew off...lol) Almost no one even wanted to hit the shop up...then when I dropped some coin on new gear...they acted like the money was coming from their wallets...easy boys....its an expensive sport...be prepared to pony up. Shoot it wasn't even expensive..they were having this big sale and I scored everything to ride...including boots for about 7 hundo...score!


Once we got unloaded and ready to ride the real nightmare began. I thought we were here to ride but I guess this just meant traveling to the bar to get wasted. Well when in Rome. Took it a bit far the first night..had a blast but found out the hard way why sledding and drinking do not mix.

After a day of drinking it was time to leave the bar. I was kinda behind because I stayed to make sure we were all paid up before we left...which we weren't. After I settled up I ran outside to see the group taking off over the horizon. I fired up my sled and tried to speed up and catch them...but in my hurry I ran a stop sign and got pulled over by the pokey.

Dammit...DUI Looking back it was a valuable lesson. I mean it cost me a few dollars but it made me realize that drinking and sledding just do not mix. I learned my lesson and no one had to get hurt...just my wallet. I will take those any day.

What really sucked was I had some weed on me...remember this was ten years ago..at the height of the fake war on drugs being put on by the Bush administration. I had just gone thru chemo to remove a cancer mass in my chest. My doctor had prescribed Marijuana after most of the pharmaceutical drugs had just made me sick and unable to eat. The sad part was I had to sneak around to use this natural medicine...or risk being judged by others or even prosecuted by the law. Thankfully legislation has now changed.

But back then it meant another night in jail...fawk.

Once I got out I headed back to the condo only to find out all these guys still wanted to do was drink. Guess it was one guys birthday and the only way he could figure out how to celebrate was to get wasted...yeah. I followed but didn't even drink. The shots were starting to get out of control so I was even taking shots and throwing them over the shoulder...they were all so wasted they didn't even notice.

After a full night of drinking they stumble out of the bar and the lead drunk..."birthday boy" starts spouting off telling everybody how they should ride back to the condo. Ok boozey....they start off...the long way and I head across the lake to take the short cut. Birthday boy gets in a panic because I didn't follow single file behind him...ok. He chases after me but slams into the marina flipping his sled on top of him. I ride up to see him splayed out like a upside down turtle arms and legs swinging in a drunken mess...damn where was my camera.

Funny part was he started blaming me for his actions...haha some peoples kids.

Well you could imagine I wanted this trip over... speeding home I get another ticket,...doh....cheap though to get away faster from the worst riding group ever!!!


I can honestly say that is the most I have ever invested in a trip...with the littlest amount of riding!


Make sure you do a day ride with somebody.....before getting stuck on the road trip from hell like I did!

 

[94fordguy]

Holy cr@p dude, LMAO!!!!!


Nice

 

[christopher]

This thread has the potential of becoming an EPIC SUMMER event!!

 

[Arctic Thunder]

tudizzle oops, Jimmy, you weren't "the riding buddy from hell" that Jeff C was talking about.

Story is way to close to be a coincidence.



Thunder

 

[Himark]

I am usually pretty particular to whom gets to go riding with us. Not because we are any great riders or anything but more along the lines of not wanting to get a super crappy guy that slows you down all day..anyway this guy is the friend of a friend that rides with us. The guy in our group keeps telling me "so and so keeps calling and wants to go out" he gives this guy MY# after saying its all up to me. He calls and I reluctantly said "ok" Same senario late to get there his sled is a POS and is constantly screwing with it. Then after a day of chasing around looking for him stuck somewhere off by HIMSELF (I was getting super tired of that) Then he thinks he has the super sled from he11 and points and shoots a big mutha hill and sticks it straight up. He is just high enough that he is out of reach but not quite. We wait for dang near an hour and he aint moving it. He signals he wants help...I reluctantly shot up to his right and was hauling azz trying to get the high side then chissle the hood in on way down. Well, sounded good in theory till I was flying by him to the right of his trench and his trench pulled me into same line as he had and i rode right over the top of his sled and then the sled slides backwards hooking my ski in his rear grab bar. I ended up pulling my ski off on the hill to unlock the sleds. Well we finally get the group back to the hwy and he says he wants to drop this last creek bottom area on the way back. It was getting dark and snow was deep. I said no and he drops in there anyway out of sight...I told the group to head on in and I would get him out of there and meet them at the bar. I go in looking and finally find him buried at bottom. Not near enough room for a turn around in steep and heavily tree'd creek bottom but I made a shot at it near where he was buried..got myself squirled around and close to a shot out but still stuck never the less. I help him get his sled out and get him moving towards a ledge up about 40 feet where he can comfortably stop. Well he didnt..(stop) he made the 20 minute or so climb to the top at the hwy and never looked back. I thought "you $@$@^$%&!!r"!!!I dug myself out and was nearly exhausted trying to get enough floatation to get on top again but finally maded it to the top. This took me multiple attempts and it was well after dark before I seen the hwy and over an hour had past since I last seen him take off.. After that whole thing I made it to the bar where I found my group and him sitting swilling beers and giving me crap why it took me so long to get there..needless to say after dinner he peels off early for bed. no big deal till I get the tab and he didnt pay a dime! I had to pay his way. I thought I will keep my cool since tommorow morning we are pulling out and I will never see him again. I get to where I am dropping the trailer and he jumps out of his truck and goes over by where I am backing it up. I think he is going to help out and unhook it but no. I get out and he has his pants around his ankles leaning against my trailer and is taking a big ole nasty chit! right by where i need to un-hook. <-------if you have been on this forum for a while you will remember me saying this..(really happened). It may not of cost him 10k for the weekend but it cost him some riding buddies for a lifetime. So choose your riders wisely.

 

[driftjumper]

How about a guy who locks the pickup on cruise at 70 mph on glare ice. Shortly after you could see the trailer tail lights because the whole rig was spinning down the highway. The genius somehow got it straightened out, then put the DAMN CRUISE back on!!

 

[go high fast]

How about the guy who you have never seen before walks up to you in the gas station parking lot and introduces hmself and asks if he can tag along. He shows up with a flatlander sled on an open trailer with no mudguard or cover. You arrive at the trailhead and his sled is so covered with mud, dirt and slush that it's not even recognizable as a snowmobile of any kind. The dope pulls out a towel and wipes it off......actually pretty hilarious.

With no gears and clutching for the mountains he is getting stuck and burning belts all day long. Finally you have to drive it out for him or he aint gettin' home. Obviously he is a goofly little nerd who never rode a sled before in his life. Clearly he has not the first clue about riding sleds in the back country and he is not mechanically inclined in any way, shape or form.

You stop to have a nice lunch with your riding buddies which, on this day, include your wife and kids. You build a nice fire and whip out the hotdogs, buns, and chips and cant believe your eyes as this unprepared mooch reaches into his seat pouch and discovers an exploded 12 once can of diet coke. Not to be detered he joins right in and has a huge appetite.

To make matters worse the little nerd has made a mental note of your name and calls that evening to thank you for all the help but also to invite himself along for your next ride. From this point on and forever after he looks to tag along on all your rides and you become his first call for every single sled repair imaginable. Of couse he has not a single tool....changing a belt is unimaginable to him. He has no clue on gear and clutch changes to make his sled suitable for the mountains and understanding suspension adjustments......forget about it!!! Guess who ends up doing most of the work on his sled? He has a DG aftermarket can installed on his sled and he likes the noise so much that he goes out and finds some PSI modblasters. Now he loves the noise. He finds decals to put on his sled and he swears they are good for couple of HP.....3 to 5 he says.

On ride #2 and #3 it is becoming painfully clear that this person is inclined to seek out and dive down real deep into tree wells...the kind that are not easy to get out of and Snobungies have not yet been invented. He's not making the connection that his poor riding skills and cuttin' close to tree wells are not a good match. What's unclear is how he's repeatedly going into them nose first.

Apparantly he subscribes to every snowmobile magazine imaginable. He devours every avialable tech guide untill he has worn pages. Over many years he developes into a sled ethusiast second to none and to all the speed shops and local dealers he is a pain in the butt.

 

[POLZIN]

this is where it pays to be such a dick no one will ride with you !

Im the kind that will let you store your sled in my shop and tune it up for the trip so you dont slow me down!

 

[ruffryder]

Himark, if you hit enter after a couple of sentences, it will make a new paragraph... FYI.

 

[ModZZilla]

Thanks for the read guys, and for starting it Jeff. I got a good one, but the guy turned out to be a hell of a rider after we took him under our wing. And he may read this thread.

 

[tomk]

all the guys i ride with are great guys so I dont want to hurt there feellings too much, but the first time we went out west, rode the first two days all good, one buddy had a hard time with his sled and was stuck alot. 3 of us went to be early one night the other 5 went to the bars. over the course of 5 hours at the bars they figured the reason the one guy is always stuck is because his track is on bassakwards,

"ooooooohhhhhh yeeeaaahh good point" well tom is great at track swaps he is always workin on sh*t. when we get back we will get him switch it around"

so 3am everyone gets home and makes sure to wake everyone up, "hey the tracks on backwards we gotta switch it around" (in the trailer, in -15 cold with minimal light and minimal tools.) so 45 minutes later we are good to go.

next afternoon we finally get out and ride, we get way back in the backcountry and Mr. Bassakwards sled locks up solid, engine wont move at all!!!!!!!!!!!! in some spots it took 3 sleds hooked together and everyone else pushing/pulling to get that pos out of the woods.

needless to say drinks were on Mr. Backwards that night, and he picked up a new sled the next morning. we had a ton of fun and everyone laughed about it later. wouldnt trade my riding buds for the world, but I know idea of the thread, it sucks to get stuck with a tool.

I know I was that guy last year sometimes sleds just wont work the way we want. I was working on that old iron every morning i think and every night

 

[WyoBoy1000]

Thanks for the read guys, and for starting it Jeff. I got a good one, but the guy turned out to be a hell of a rider after we took him under our wing. And he may read this thread.

So, spill the beans.

 

[sevenhundo]

There is always 2 sides too the storie

 

[Himark]

There is always 2 sides too the storie

correction usually 3.

 

[Turbo11T]

Some bad stories here. We have a friend whos roomate started coming with a few years back. The first trip he ran off into the woods by himself and got stuck. Did I mention this was his first time out west. Either way he needed to be babysitted that whole first trip. The next year he was just as bad. This year he was getting stuck constantly. He kept stopping going up hill in deep snow. He claimed he had to much power. Hard to explain how frustrated the other guys were. But there were pissed. One would think that one would have some common sense. Needless to say this last winter was his last trip out west with our group.

 

[christopher]

One would think that one would have some common sense.

 

[WyoBoy1000]

Take them out, scare the chit out of them (don't kill them but push them to there limits) If they come back for more I would bet in short order they will wind up being good riders, 90% find someone else to ride with so no worries.