Is that CSI show on DirectV? You guys are too funny! Now if Alan would just start selling Husky's again! (Now, that's funny!)
Didn't Alan ghost ride for Hyde for 3 days before they gave up, because it became obvious Hyde could not get back on the bike?
Was drinking a combination of vodka........VP12 fuel......and prune juice......a little drink I like to call "Sh*t or go Blind"! Joe
Alan was actually a 'chase' rider that year. Literally right off the gate on the 1st day, Mark endo's in a ditch and breaks his wrist. Doing what any crazy pair of riders would do, Alan and Mark go behind a giant mound of hay and changed jersey's and helmets! Alan effectively 'became' Mark for the rest of the week. Mark went back to the motel and had to "hyde" out all week, while Alan road as Mark, and when doing maintenance on the bike at the end of the day, kept his helmet on so no one would realize that it wasn't really Mark. Everything was going fine until Alan pitched it away big-time, blowing a turn and going over a steep embankment. He hit so hard, it blew his femur right out of the pelvic socket. Ow! Alan likely would have died down there if it weren't for another rider going over the edge as well, but not with such dire consequences. The other rider managed to get help. Once in the hospital, they had to fess up that he wasn't Mark Hyde. (BTW, they convienently left all of this out of the AMA magazine feature on Mark Hyde last year. I had the pleasure of telling the story to Pres. Rob Dingman at a Indy MotoGP party last September -he had no idea!) The American team doctor took one look at the (communist) Polish hospital and told them to put Alan in a full body cast and don't touch him. They took Al back to the motel. Once it was time to fly back to the States, Al was riding a full-size hospital bed, so the airline had to take out 8 seats from the plane to fit him in. Of course, they charged him for all 8 seats! I visited Alan when he was post-op at the hospital in Lansing, MI where they had him hooked up to one of those machines that move the leg back and forth. He said being in that Polish hospital was like stepping back in time 50 years, like it was out of an old movie. This wreck effectively ended Alan's pro riding career. He spent the next several years wrenching/working with a young upstart named Mike Lafferty. Did he ever amount to anything? That boyz and goilz is your ISDE history lesson for the day. rofessor:
I love stories like this. The real stories behind the glamor or tragedies. Good campfire chatter. I have spoken to Mark several times & believe me he is a great guy. He once gave me a front sprocket & even put it on while he was working for Suzuki. He is a very determined individual.
