Bryan MacKenzie
April 19, 2007
Bryan MacKenzie is a mess, just look at his hair. At only twenty-one years old the Twisted 7
Kawasaki rider has battered himself in the pursuit of becoming a pro motocross rider. Bry got
through his schoolboy career with only a reasonable amount of pain (well kind of) but since
he’s been in the pro adult ranks it’s been a different story. Never question his commitment
to the sport, he taken more hard knocks than Rocky Balboa. Here’s ‘Calcium Kid’s’ roll of
physical abuse.
TOP
Knocked myself out twice. Both times I was in the schoolers though and they were crashes on jumps. Broke my nose once too when a rock hit me in the face from someone’s back wheel.
MIDDLE
Dislocated my shoulder at the first round of the British Masters in 06. It was pretty bad and
has resulted in a complete loss of feeling in my upper right shoulder. I have no sensation in my
deltoid anymore so the muscle has slowly faded away and almost gone completely.
I’ve fractured my right collarbone twice.
I’ve broken my wrists 11 times. 5 times on my right and 6 times on my left, and I’ve even
broken them both at the same time, twice! Firstly at Desert Martin in 1997. I was right behind
Stevie Mac and he never jumped this step up, so I never jumped it either but matey behind me
went for it and landed square on my back. Then at the I.O.W GP in 2004 (my first gp). It was
the second free practice and I’d seen Pichon and Swordy doubling these two ski jumps. So I
thought bollocks, she’s mine! I done it about 4 times then Jonesy, like he said in the last issue
of MOTO went down hard doing it. I had to miss doing it for a few laps while he was getting
scraped up off the track then as soon as he was moved I went for it again thinking nothing of it
because I had done it already and got over the fear factor. But I came up a foot short on the front
wheel and it all went Pete Tong! I never crashed or anything but when I went to twist the throttle
to keep going I couldn’t grip the bars. I looked down and I could see my shirt was all shapes
and I knew straight away I had broken it. So I rolled to a stop and dropped the bike and went
to take my goggles off but then I couldn’t grip my goggle strap with my left hand either! It
was a bloody nightmare.
I prolapsed a disc in my back when I was 18 just through the wear and tear of riding. I
rode with it for about 6 months. It was a weird thing that, the pain was in my leg because of
a protruding part of the disc jamming a nerve between that and a vertebrae so everytime I
moved my leg it would jam up and hurt. I couldn’t train properly, or even walk properly. The
only time it didn’t hurt was when I was riding. I spent thousands on physio and they kept
saying I had pulled a muscle and it got to the point where in between races I couldn’t walk, I
had to just lie down. So I called it a day there and went straight to a top physio who suggested
a prolapsed disc. He initially tried an epidural steroid injection into my spine to see if numbing
it would work and that was the sorest thing I have ever done in my life! Not the injection but
everything was so raw from rubbing for months that it was really tender and I had to get
given gas for the pain! Not cool. That didn’t work so I paid for my own MRI scan and within
2 weeks was in hospital getting cut open. I also
broke my coccyx bone when I got took down in
the first corner and someone parked their bike in
my back! I went out in the next race and drove
seven hours home before I decided it really hurt
and went to hospital!
BOTTOM
I’ve broke my right ankle twice, they were just from crashes. Getting taken down in the first corner and once from landing on my buddy when we were out practicing. He had already crashed and I couldn’t see him and landed straight on his bike. I broke a bone in my left foot once too when I was out practicing again. This dude (in a politically correct way...not of a high riding standard) was stopped after a big table-top talking to his mate. I jumped the table top and because it was just practice there were no marshalls, I saw him in mid air. I tried to avoid him lastminute.com but I couldn’t and clipped the back of him crushing my foot between my footpeg and the end of his swinginarm! If I could’ve got up I would’ve rammed my good foot in his arse I was so mad at his stupidity!
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