Ducati Sporting Club UK > DesmoDue Race Series > DesmoDue - General Questions and Chat > Timmy Topanga: Otei's So-Cal Adventure.

[Otei]

You remember the first day I was here I told you all about that crazy dude that was going to ride his bike of a cliff. Well it turns out that he did it. Not only did he ride it of a cliff...he rode it of THE cliff to beat all cliffs. The Grand Canyon!

Turns out that he's a very experienced skydiver who designs his own high performance canopies (I think that means something to do with parachuting, not a go faster sun shade for the garden!).

It was only going to be his 7th ever base jump though, so he needed to get it right.

Things went well to start with, but what he hadn't reckoned on was the effect of the bike pulling him down as he tried to make enough space between it and himself to safely open his parachute. He fell 1200 feet before the bike went on its side, started to float from side to side like a feather and he made enough distance on it to deploy his big handkerchief!

Below are the pics of the wreckage that's in the local bike shop I was in when the crazy Hispanic dude was planning his stunt. There is literally nothing salvagable from it...not a single useful item.










If you look carefully, you can just see the remains of his ear sticking out of the mush...

[Otei]

Spent today mainly prepping the bikes for this weekend at Willow Springs. It'll be my 36th birthday on the First practice day, which is the Friday 15th. Happy boithdaaaay tooo meeeeeee!

I'm such a good lad, I even brought a pack of sponsors stickers with me to put on the bike, which is, incidentally, a 2003 R6 with 50,000 miles on it!. Uprated front forks, and an Ohlins rear shock. Braided lines and that's about it. It has a full arrow system, but isn't fitted with a power commander, so i don't know how much difference that'll make.