A few years back I was running on my ATV and did a bit too much exploration to the point that I realized that I may run out of gas. It was in the fall time and I was about 10 miles away from the village (and no cell signal) and it was approaching dusk. I went straight for the closest public road at the risk of getting a ticket and made it to the service station while my gauges were warning me big time (the whole console flashed when it is about to run out of gas). I was running on the reserve and I was happy that the reserve was actually pretty good. I think 20% is the reserve. I had a good scare there.
On extreme rides and/or in extreme weather, we cannot ride in solo. Too dangerous. Another story: last year, we were six ATVs and we were more than 50 miles away from any civilization up North (like 200 miles north of Montreal and probably 100 miles from the nearest hospital) and one of the guys flipped his ATV real bad and he was ejected from it. He passed out for 2-3 minutes out and his body nearly hit a huge rock. When he came back to himself he was in pain but nothing broken (his helmet was destroyed). There was a moment of real panic there and actually, that was my last long ride as I came to realize that what we were doing was a bit careless at our ages. I still have my ATV but I stick around the cottage and a friend of mine who was with me that day sold his ATV and bought himself a BRP Spyder. He loves it. I rode with him and it is cool.
Nope, if I had to buy a Ski-Doo, it would have to be almost new. I do not have this sense of danger when I ride my Sea-Doo because unless you become unconscious in the water and go to hypothermia, the risk of dying/freezing/hurting yourself is way less possible unless you are riding in remote locations in bad/cold weather which is usually not the case because a Sea-Doo doesn't have enough autonomy to go very far. On an ATV or Ski-Doo, it is easy to ride 100 miles on a single tank.
Enough of my scary stories...
[MENTION=48897]96spxpos[/MENTION] When my engine blew back in July, I was right in the middle of the lake on a Monday night and the sun was going down. Luckily my cell phone was working and my uncle came to tow me and some people on the shore also came to my rescue. I was about five miles from my home. But at least, it was warm out there, nothing like winter. Unless you break down in the ocean, which then could be dangerous.
Benji.