Another Motorbike story - this one possibly interesting...
I have previously described an incident I had involving sand while on my bike (it's here on the chance that you're interested), and concluded with the thought that it might be
wise for me to display more caution when riding on the road. This caution I upheld for about two weeks. Allow me to describe my weekend cruise...
Saturday afternoons are the perfect time to ride. I find an empty road out of town and hammer the poor bike for all it's worth. Pretty soon I get into a rhythm and everything
just begins to flow through the corners. No longer do I perform the actions of downshifting, turning and twisting, but merely glide through the long
sweeping bends and tight corners around my home town. Its awesome.
This particular Saturday I was on my way back into town, blasting along a near empty road composed of fast bends, dips and crests and long straights. Zoom in to a
particular right hand bend where there was a patch of gravel and you'll see me leaned over, running wide and quite obviously out of control. I was moving along at about
70kph half way through the bend when I hit the patch and ran off onto the shoulder (which of course is just more gravel). At this point the bike began to slide and I
lost all control...half a second later the bike and I parted ways - it into a tree and me onto the grass (and thankful it wasn't the other way around). I skidded to a halt
somewhat dased and not quite knowing what just happened. As I tore off my helmet and tried to stand up (I kid you not) some dickhead drove past in a ute, giving me a
wave before dissapearing around the bend. How thoughtful.
After a quick inspection I was able to determine that nothing was broken (on me). Somehow I escaped the ordeal with only minor bruising and a gash down one arm
(leather jackets are too expensive you know...). Thinking surprisingly quickly I turned off the fuel pump and hit the kill switch on the bike. It had stalled anyway but you can
never be to sure. As I always carry a mobile phone I was able to call home to get a lift for myself and my wreck. The bike is now sitting
out the back in pieces and obviously suffering from my complete ignorance when it comes to bike repairs.
I learned a valuable lesson from this and that lesson was if you place yourself in mortal danger and survive, people will inevitably buy you drinks all night. Whether a hazy
night and seedy morning on the house was worth totaling my bike and suffering the impending repair bill I'm not sure, but at least I have an excuse to repaint it
now.
To aid other motorcylclists who may be tempted to push the envelope on public roads, I have compiled a list of Pros and Cons - know them well.
Pro
- Free alcohol (assumes you have friends)
- Good story to tell when drunk (assumes first point)
- If you needed an excuse to tinker with the bike - this is it
Con
- Repair bill
- The bike will be off the road for a while - alternative transport needed
- Possible serious injury/death
Notice that the Cons include the only permanent result in the list -
death. This seems like a pretty good argument to me.
And finally: "Learn from other's mistakes, you can't live long enough to make them all yourself..." This seems quite fitting, don't you think?