Wear your Armor and Check your Bike

Always be give your bike a quick once over before you bike away, and make sure you are wearing gear with good armor an protection.

Ready about 12 year old Peter Lenz's brush.

http://www.roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=36803

http://www.peterlenz.com/

I'm surprised from reading the article that the young man has top notch safety gear, but when it comes to the bike itself, well, not so much. They were labeling it as old.

Its pretty sad when reading through that the whole thing reads as a massive advertisement for the safety gear he was wearing.

I think the main thing to take out of this story is look after your bike, and your gear (as Hellgate stated), not everyone is lucky enough to get it free, and riding on a machine that you even think could be dangerous is plain stupid.

The crash clearly was uncomfortable for Michael Lenz to talk about. But he felt there was an important message to the road racing community to come from talking about it – buy good safety gear, and use it.

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Probably a better point his parents should take is don't be a cheap*** and value your childs life a bit more, taking proper action before something goes wrong is ALWAYS the best solution, and their child would have been saved from what was definately a scary experience.
Yes I know its easy to be judgemental, but when I get on any of my bikes I have to remember that I'm not just risking myself but everyone else on the road or footpaths if I'm not doing the right thing, I guess the only good point is that we didn't see the typical knee jerk reaction about stopping children racing.

What I don't understand is how the boy was let on the track without a parent/adult checking his bike; brakes, air pressure, gear, etc, etc. Kids by nature don't do that and it is the parents responsibility to ensure they are good to go. Brakes just don't fail, typically. I also noticed on Peter's web site that his father, I assume, bragging about his son's ability to go fast with substandard equipment, "bent forks", etc. This is negligent to put a child in that situation without making sure the bike is 100%. It is great that the safety equipment is the best, but the bike should not put him in the situation to need to use the equipment.

I've got no problem with a child racing however an adult needs to watch them every step of the way and if they can't afford a proper bike, well, they shouldn't race until they can. It is one thing for an adult to be on an old, clapped out POS bike, but not a child. I could be off base, but from what I read this one lands squarely on the parent.

Vegas and Zealadin hit the nail on the head, "Our child is in the best safety gear!" Who cares if the child needs/is forced to use it? The bike and the gear should be in tip-top shape. Peter is very lucky to not have lost a limb, be paralyzed and be alive. I'm more appalled about this after sleeping on the it for the evening.

Hellgate said:

What I don't understand is how the boy was let on the track without a parent/adult checking his bike; brakes, air pressure, gear, etc, etc.

...I could be off base, but from what I read this one lands squarely on the parent.

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I agree! While there is great attention over this kid, it doesn't sound like the adults figures around him have a clue. I think about the others on the track that could be seriously injured - I'm just glad I'm not on the track with him.

Reckless behavior to me.

Deleted. I just read the rest of the article.

Hellgate said:

What I don't understand is how the boy was let on the track without a parent/adult checking his bike; brakes, air pressure, gear, etc, etc. Kids by nature don't do that and it is the parents responsibility to ensure they are good to go. Brakes just don't fail, typically. I also noticed on Peter's web site that his father, I assume, bragging about his son's ability to go fast with substandard equipment, "bent forks", etc. This is negligent to put a child in that situation without making sure the bike is 100%. It is great that the safety equipment is the best, but the bike should not put him in the situation to need to use the equipment.

I've got no problem with a child racing however an adult needs to watch them every step of the way and if they can't afford a proper bike, well, they shouldn't race until they can. It is one thing for an adult to be on an old, clapped out POS bike, but not a child. I could be off base, but from what I read this one lands squarely on the parent.

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Are these parents hicks counting on their living vicariously through their child's success? If they parents aren't mechanics, they need one. Obviously they can't expect the kid to look the bike over just like they probably don't expect the kid to setup his own suspension either. That's why pro's crews have mechanics and engineers. All the rider says is what he likes or doesn't like. he's not wrenching on it and he is not responsible for it. neither should a 12 year old boy.

It's also why it's scary having people with zero experience working on this stuff. Doesn't matter if 99 times out of 100 its fine. the 100th time you're dead.

urbanj said:

Are these parents hicks counting on their living vicariously through their child's success?

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Here's the quote that gets me: "“Peter’s bikes are very old, he’s riding 1996s, and we’ve had perpetual issues with the bikes because parts are fatiguing,” the father says. “On Sunday morning, we had a cylinder detonate, and not in a normal place. There was a machinist (at the track) who builds all the engines in the Northwest, and he took a look and says, ‘Uh, yeah, never seen that before.’ So I’m rebuilding the thing on Sunday, and I can’t get the front wheel to go on without binding. I finally get it on, it doesn’t bind. He goes out, has no brakes, and hits the tire wall."

Lots of reasons, no excuses, ultimately the responsibility is on the parents. Regardless of who you trust your child's safety to, at the end of the day it is the responsibility of the parent's to ensure all is well.

At no point did we put Peter out on a bike that was knowingly unsafe. A parent is dependent on experts for guidance and expertise.

The bike wasn't a clapper, it started fatiguing. Plenty of people run 1996 GP bikes without issue, but they don't run them as hard as Peter did.



The people that told us we didn't need new bikes had run old bikes without issue. But they didn't run the their $6k bikes against $30k bikes and beat them. Peter did. Peter fatigued parts faster than the HRC manual called for them to be replaced. Unfortunately, Dad isn't a mechanic and didn't see this stuff and the builder/tuner didn't either.

There is no excuse for what happened with his crash. If any one of a dozen things hadn't happened, the crash at PIR wouldn't have, but more than likely it would have somewhere else. A process wasn't followed and Peter paid the price. The ultimate responsibility is mine as his Father. Regardless of what happened and who did what, dad is responsible for making sure the child is taken care of, as someone called out, I failed at that straight up.

We don't push him, we slept better when he played soccer.

Through this whole ordeal Peter not once placed blame, pointed a finger or looked for an excuse. He has asked what happened, why, and what was going to be changed to ensure it never happened again. His energy is focused on his recovery and doing what he needs to do to get himself healthy.

Michael - Peter's Dad

Micheal,

Happy Fathers Day........

I wish Peter a speedy recovery, I am sitting here with my 6 year old son and can't imagine having something that bad happen to him.....

Take good care of that boy....he needs it.

T-CLOCS... it's not just for the streets.

T-CLOCS???

Mistakes happen ans there are consquences for them. Whatever it was and whoever made it is moot point. It happened and the past cannot be changed. Peter himself has the proper attitude. Forgive and forget and live for today. This is an amazing kid with his skills but just as amazing with his heart and mind.

Who are we to judge what type of people are around him, what goes on within his paddock before a race, etc... None of us was there so please stop speculating. It is obvious that Michael cares for his son by trusting the opinions of experts and providing him with the very best gear made.

Some folks are quick to jump up and point fingers... come on people... look in the mirror first, ok?

To Michael, I am very sorry about what happened to Peter but very happy to hear about the progress he is making on the road to recovery. Thanks for coming into the forum to explain your position.

FZ1inNH said:

Who are we to judge what type of people are around him, what goes on within his paddock before a race, etc... None of us was there so please stop speculating. It is obvious that Michael cares for his son by trusting the opinions of experts and providing him with the very best gear made.

Some folks are quick to jump up and point fingers... come on people... look in the mirror first, ok?

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I disagree Eric. I see racing like a military operation, there is a process that must be followed to eliminate as many variables as possible. There are two things that are always done before any mission, training or combat is conducted, pre-combat checks (PCCs) and pre-combat inspections (PCIs). PCCs are done at the individual level; the correct uniform, correct gear, weapons, ammo, commo, fuel, vehicle readiness, food & H2O, etc, etc. PCI are the actual inspections done by a higher level to ensure everything is good to go. There are also rehearsals to ensure everyone, to the lowest level, knows what is going on and what is expected of them, There are also one or two contingency plans that are discussed in case something hits the fan. What you are doing is dangerous enough so eliminate as many dangers as possible. This must be done one the track too for the riders safety and others around them.

Remember gear is a contingency plan in case you fall, but preventing a crash or fall is on the team. If a military vehicle failure caused an injury like what Peter sustained an formal investigation would have been conducted to fix the problem (vehicle defect, training addition or adjustment, or leadership failure).

I am saddened and appalled by what happened. No one is perfect but adults need to double their efforts to keep kids safe as children don't have the mental skills developed yet to do so.