This was the 2nd time I’ve ever rode an ATV. Before they started the ATV tour, our group of 4 was asked “Have any of you ever ridden an ATV before?” Naturally, I said “I ride ATV’s all the time.” This may have played a role in how I got injured during the tour.
The first time I rode an ATV was in February 2015 in Cambodia. When I was asked “Have you ever ridden an ATV before?” Naturally, I said “I ride ATV’s all the time.” I happened to be the only one on the tour so I was able to set my own pace and the ride went really well.
Back to my current journey. An hour into the ride I was getting over confident as I was maneuvering through the jungle really well. For some reason, I believed I could do a wheelie. The short answer is, no.
I went for it though, but quickly realized that I forgot to compensate for the wheelie by shifting my weight. As I the ATV began to lose balance I could tell this situation was going to be bad if the ATV fell on me so I jumped off and rolled onto the ground (which happened to be sharp rocks). I survived but had a pretty bad cut on my hand.
The cut healed up after two weeks but I limited using my left hand and cleaned the wound daily. The bummer about getting injured one hour into your three hour ATV tour is that you still have to ride for two more hours! I made it through the remaining two hours but had a tingling in my right arm that I fell on. I was very worried that I broke my arm but I guess it was just a nerve.
All in all, I don’t recommend wheelies for new riders.
BUT, if you try it and get injured, you’ll have an interesting story to tell people.