any news on les richter

[paul]

he had a major off today at the dirt track raceing  ,paramedicics were called to the track

[matcho mick]

turtells' going to check up on him later tonite,was a particular nasty off,mick

[Turtle.Inc]

Just got off the phone with John Hunter Hospital, they still doing all the tests CT's etc, he was complaining of lower back, ribs and major pain around kidneys when laying out on the track, broke the chin piece through on his helmet has knocked him around pretty bad. Didnt quite know who or where he was for a while

He is yet to be admitted and is pretty out to it on the morphine, so no use trying to call him tonight.

Looks like lost a nut on rear brake arm, brake arm disengaged, brake hub spun around and locked the arse end up, front wheel tucked in underneath and major cartwheeling at the end of the Barleigh ranch straight.

[montynut]

That is really bad news. Les has had a bad run with injuries over the last year or so. Hope we hear soon that it is not a bad as it sounds.

[Nathan S]

Not good.
Hope it isn't as bad as it sounds - best wishes Les.

[micks]

please keep us posted on how les is.

[firko]

Shit news. Les is a good friend, and it's true, he's had a couple of nasty offs in recent times including his biggy with Turtle at
Moruya last year. I hope he pulls up with only a bit of bark missing.....

[oldyzman]

Good luck gettin better Les, is he the mainly maico dude?
Cheers Brett

[Nathan S]

Yeah, that's him.

[rocketfrog]

Les is your go-to guy for all your aftermarket plastics, pipes, decals, cables, wheel rims, YSS Susp products, workshop  services and heaps more VMX related goodies. I have dealt with Mainly Maico/VMX Unlimited on numerous occassions and found Les to be a great Bloke. Losing a fastener from Braking systems is bad news and cannot be stressed enough how important frequent checks are required.

From personal experience : 1st time was a rear drum torsion rod bolt fell out - Result ruined Brake backing plate and Brake actuating rod, Back wheel locked up and I was able to recover the bike before crashing out.

2nd time not so lucky, front caliper bolt fell out at high speed - Result, front wheel locked up and tucked under spilling rider unceremoniously into terra firma. Ironically, the Loctite rep had delivered a presentation at work singing the praises of his products the Friday before the Sunday crash.

Everything safety lockwired now - check.

[Mick D]

A friend just text me.
Seems to be no major damage found on his back and kidneys at this stage.
Les has five fractured ribs, a bruised lung, a broken thumb and a humongous head ache.

I have been through a windscreen, four ribs. As anybody that has nursed fractured ribs would know, very painful. Couldn’t laugh, fart, sneeze or cough for two and a half months.

[firko]

Les's daughter Kara just rang to let me know how he was. Mick De has it pretty well covered with his reporting of Les's six broken ribs, a bruised lung and cuts and bruises. The only difference to Micks report is that Kara told me that Les also has a broken vertabrae. The doctors won't know much more until the swelling subsides so until then the poor buggers laid up and in the Morphine Magic Wonderland. I could hear him in the background passing on instructions to his daughter but she reckons he wasn't making a lot of sense. He'll hopefully be a lot more coherent in a day or two so hold off from calling him for the moment, until he's a bit more mobile and able to manipulate the 'phone.

From personal experience : 1st time was a rear drum torsion rod bolt fell out - Result ruined Brake backing plate and Brake actuating rod, Back wheel locked up and I was able to recover the bike before crashing out.

I had a similar experience back in 1992 (ironically, the same day GE was killed) when the torque arm on my DT1 from Hell snapped under hard braking at Pacific Park. The resulting crash found me with four broken ribs, a shattered elbow and loose front teeth and a broken nose. The lessons learned from my crash were many. First, no more open faced helmets, second, no more riding outside my safety/sanity zone. I was racing my A grader mate on his modern at the time. The third thing learned was not to chrome chassis or safety components. When we checked the torque arm we found that it had corroded from the inside by the acids used during the chroming process. The material was half the original thickness. I never really got over that crash both psychologically and physically.

[SAABCOMBI]

Best wishes to Les and his family, for quick recoverary, take care From Dave Alsop.

[dkupf]

Wishing you a speedy recovery. Les. Darcy

[bazza]

Speedy recovery Les-