By Ray Gibbs
It is a proven fact! If someone has a camera pointed in your general direction, you are more than likely (86 percent?) going to do something stupid. It matters not what the activity might happen to be—a certain Mr. Murphy is always watching. He is an equal-opportunity connoisseur of chaos and does not play favorites—all are fair game in his book! A guaranteed way to get his immediate attention is to proclaim, “Hey, y’all, watch this!”
Mr. Murphy is also a major fan of all things motorized. Got a fast boat? He’s grinning ear to ear. Out riding dirt bikes with friends? He can’t wait! But recently, I have determined that he is a huge UTV fan!
In my spare time I enjoy watching YouTube, and there is no end to the amount of mayhem that is available to watch 24/7 on there—boats, bikes, planes, cars, trucks, animals and, now especially, UTVs! Every time I do a little ’Tube surfin’, there is always some UTV pilot doing some huge sky-shot that ends up lawn-darting his $40K rig, resulting in a sand-dune yard sale. There is no doubt that the introduction of high-powered UTVs has kept Mr. Murphy very busy! Or, maybe it seems that he is just busier than usual these days. He has always been there; remember the 3-wheelers?
As a lad, I remember my father telling me that if I was showing off (on my Yamaha JT1 60 mini enduro), I was more likely to crash, especially if I was trying to impress young Terri down the street! He was right. I tried, I crashed, I bled. From that point on, I was all too aware of the potential consequences when “going big,” long before I ever heard of Murphy!
Fast-forward to the present. I like to think that I am somewhat proficient at driving a UTV at more than a casual pace. In fact, if you ask my wife, she will tell you, with a few choice words, how she wishes that I would slow down and act my age. Nope.
I’m lucky because I help the Dirt Wheels staff operate new UTVs. The latest model is a new high-performance UTV, and it is equipped with all the stuff that has Murphy foaming at the mouth. Big four-cylinder motor, big suspension travel, great handling, etc.—it’s got it all! So, when we go out on a group ride, I naturally get asked to give almost everyone a ride. I am usually somewhat reserved (level of stupidity) when driving other people and don’t give them the full e-ticket experience—unless they ask for it!
Back a few years ago, my thrill machine was a Polaris RZR Pro XP and it hauled the mail! I could push it pretty hard ,and still have reasonable control over the situation! With this new machine though, it doesn’t take much to get into Murphy’s crosshairs!
Stuff happens considerably quicker with this new rig—or any 200-plus-horsepower machine for that matter—and most of us mere mortals must show new levels of constraint or suffer a visit from our friend. I, for one, hope to never meet him in person!
