A friend who Land Speed races bikes in Findland/England just sent me the story below.
MS is a serious, careful, experienced, very successful asphalt LSR competitor.
His accident rang my bell...
karl
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"I had an accident at home and got burnt pretty bad, 19 days in icu. It`s been 4 months now on medical leave which of half went in hospital.
At first i have to tell you about the place i live, this is Finnish countryside and nearest neighbour is 400-500m away and we can`t see there because the forest, although partly cut, is blocking the view. This is my parents old place and since my dad was a hunter and fisherman, i got used to do it yourself stuff.
i had some trash from the bike garage and was supposed to burn them in a barrel, but being wet it didn`t catch fire. I had some old ethanol in a can that i`m using in both bikes and poured some into other side of barrel, where it didn`t yet burn, as i have done it with gasoline many times. Lesson here is, ethanol evaporates much easier than gas and the fumes got to fire and "blammo", neighbour heard the sound mile away, some liquid was thrown on me and clothes started to burn. We had a big water reservoir for watering the garden, i ran there and took a shower, too many seconds went and 32% of skin burnt. My mom was inside and i went to tell her to call ambulance, which was nearby, for some reason. Next memory is 2 weeks later in hospital.
At first the ambulance crew estimated 49% of burnt areas, but my face was ok, although it was black and eye brows burnt off. Now i have one spot which may, or may not bleed anymore. I can`t lean on legs or hands too hard to keep the skin intact, nerves are damaged in hands, four fingers not feeling like normally. But everything is changing for better every week.
I think that methanol is acting bit different than ethanol, not sure, it should burn more calmly.
But sure, you can tell my story to anybody who seems to be too careless with fuels.
I should have known better when we saw the effect running the bike in dyno. One time the tuner said, after couple hours running to have a break and fill up the tank. I was pouring and suddenly it was full, ethanol was flowing on the side of tank and frame. I ran to get some rag to clean it up, but when i came back it was already evaporated from hot frame and tank surface
So, if you see guys at the pits playing with ethanol based fuels, give them some strong advice."
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