Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

'IheEdgeSports.com Kawasaki 'Ieam Owner JeH Emig The Cul prit "No, it's interesting that you should ask that question because Phil Lawrence , my other teammate, got hurt at the thi rd round of the Supercross Championship and was off for a whil e. Midway th rough the summer, he got back on the bike again to race the last part of the Chevy Trucks Nationals , and he went out one day , and he had his th rottle stick - to tall y different bik e. So, it was like, 'Wow, what's going on ther e? Tha t's really strange.' "When I got hurt, it felt like my throttle stuck. I hear people tell me about co nversa tion s that th ey've been involved in where som ebody is challenging my thoughts on that, s ~ y i ng, 'He had just got off a broken wri st; evident ly his wrist locked.' Well, m y wri sts are 100 percent now , and th ey were when I started riding again. Of course if I'd felt that th ere was anything like that wr ong , I wouldn 't have been on the bike. So wh en Phil Lawrence's throttle stuck on hi s bik e, it back ed it up. We are th e onl y cases th at we'v e heard of the throttle sticking . so of c our se we dug into it , fixed th e prob lem , and then just before th e U.S. Op en ag ain , Phil started having probl ems. We changed th e throttl e hou sing , handl ebars, whole new throttl e assembly. He had his thr ottle stic k abo ut five tim es in t he month of Sep tem ber. We'd fix it or change the cable or someth ing, tak e th e slack out , take all the free-play out. Finally, we put a who le brand -new ca rbureto r, off of a br and -new bike tha t had nev er even been rode , onto his pr act ic e bike - this was on his practice bike - and it still happened. "So at that po int we had c hanged ev eryt h i n g - new cab le s, w e had stock ca b le s, we used Mo ti o n Pro cables , whic h was our cable sponsor. We fo und a differe nce in t he c ab le length on one cable t hat was on it , and we tho ught that m ight be it. 'I m ean, every thing that yo u can th ink of. On m y bik es we had a com pietely different carburet or brand - everything . We went thro ugh throttle springs, the slide sp r i ng . W e pu t a rea l sti ff o ne in , whate ver. A nd the n event ually , it just sto p pe d, so we don ' t kno w. Wh y it happ ened, I don't kn ow , and we don' t know what solved it , either. " I think t he o n l y thin g t hat w e co uid accredit m ine stick ing - or theoretically stic kin g - to is that at th e time, I had a iot of play in my thr ottle. Which I like on all of my brak es, clutch, thr ottle, every thing, reall y loose, to have a lot of pla y in it. But mayb e we ju st had a little bit too mu ch , and t he cable jumped ove r th e wheel on the th rottle housing . That's really all th at we can say . Hasn't stuck since on me . [pause] But I hav en 't ridd en, either, so... [laughs]." have planned a four-da y , pre-Christmas Ba ja C ali forn ia, Mexico, tra il rid e M ichae l Byrne, resp ectiv el y , and h is fac e reg ister s g enuine concern w h en that w ill se r v e as h is post- injury h e speaks of the th e r ap y -fun di n g motorcycling debut, an d about which Em ig pragmatically sa ys , " It definite- shortfa lls of pal Jimmy Button. (T he two rec ently starred in a poi gnant D C ly [won't] h ave the punch o f coming ad that was in large part writte n b y out of the tunnel of the U.S. Open at Emig .) the MGM Grand Garden in third gear And , despite the trial s a nd tribula - into a big , o ld, deep wh oop section but then aga in , there 's not as much risk involved ." ti ons that h e has exp e r ien c ed over S im i la r ly , Em ig remains loya l t o his many friends , most of whom orbit the fas t-approaching s ea son , Emi g the pa st year, and the pres sure th at he faces in prepa ring a race team for re tains the sense of humor that ha s helped carry him throu g h h is m an y about h im like planets w ill ingly capti vated by the magnetism of a g lowing tra n si t io n s since he w a s a sk inn y , sun . He is currently housing forme r nerdy amateur racer from the M id - a nd current TheEdgeSports .com team m emb ers Phil Lawr enc e and west. 48 J AN UARY 3 ,200 1 • C U C I When sp eak ing of a not h e r B aj a e n e vv s The Deetstnn "Bas ically , I j ust landed on my feet , lik e yo u went and ran off a secon d-story buil ding or some thing. I had the momentum go ing forward, and gravity, of co urse - wh ich is every rac er's enemy - too k ov er to jus t crus h me to the ground . I don 't want to drama ti ze it too mu ch bec ause peo ple read it and th en don 't rid e o r wh atnot, but we all kn ow the risk involv ed. You just don ' t want to think abo ut it. So don 't [laughs]. I' ve th ou ght about it enou gh for th e rest of us. "I had a compound fracture of th e right tibi a and fibula, abo ut four inches above the ankl e. It would be co m parable to when Joe Theism an had his br ok e on Monda y Night Foot ball - basicall y ju st "L" ed it out. And from the co m pression and th e extre me flexion that I put on my lower back when I hit th e ground, it co m pletely crushed the seco nd lumbar vertebr ae. So to fix my leg , they put a ro d in fro m m y kn ee to my ank le - four screws holding it in. An d then in my back , they did what is calle d a cage, where th ey reconstru ct vertebrae out of a titanium m esh cage. A nd th ey get tw o rod s, and th ey screw th em into th e vertebrae above the br eak and below the break . Th en they put bon e graph on th e side of th e spine, so where you had two j oints betw een three verte brae, it 's j ust one solid ma ss. It's the same pr ocedu re Doug Henry had done on his back, except Doug actuall y broke two ... " Whe n I broke my wrists [four months before]. I had th is stra ng e Incl ination . I had alr eady called up Shift and told th em to get my offi ce ready. I told them , 'I' m co m ing up, and I'm don e racin g.' I was really di spleased with th e thought of it, but when I hit the ground this tim e, during that hour that I was lay ing on th e ground with my bac k broke and my leg brok e, waiting for th e ambulan ce, I kn ew right th en'{thet I wou ld reti re], I mean, it still hasn't exac tly sunk in. I'll always want to race, but I just k new that I didn't want to take the risk invo lved in being a professi onal m oto cross racer. Riding? Of course, I'll always ride . It co m pletes me . It makes m e Jeff Em ig - makes me the ' Fro, But go ing out and pushing it every time yo u get on the bik e, riding on the edge , I do n't want to have to do it. "I still haven 't co me to terms with it. [Sighs] Michael Byrne and my self went to the race in Bercy , in Pari s, and the track looked like so rnu ch fun , and I'm wat ching, and the crowd, and all the exc item ent. I was walking the tra ck with him and helping him deci pher some line s and whatnot, and you really miss it then. But then yo u go out to the Kaw asak i test track, and it's a co ld Califomia winter day , the lighting 's weird, the track's dry and rocky and dusty, and the whoops are just a m ess because th ere's been 5000 times that a bike' s gon e through th em , and you 're out th ere busting your ass, and you 're not m aking any progress th at day or something - then I don't mi ss it at all. I can get in my car and go hom e, and say, 'Okay, good luck you guys, I'll be back at the hous e.' It's got it's tra deoffs."

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