Tweet
Somehow I feel like I've gone through some perverse rite-of-passage. After work today I rode out to the bike shop to give my Kat the "once over". Since I just bought it used I wanted to do what my riding instructor said and be responsible.
So I paid the 40-bucks to have my chain serviced, the bike inspected and the Kat washed (she was dirty girl
). Then it started to effin' rain. So I ran into the apparel shop and bought a pair of clear lense shades (yes, I am honestly that safe - I even wear frikken ear plugs when I ride). After waiting a few minutes for the rain to ease up, I slip a garbage bag over my seat and head off home.
Now, my God damn town is rife with street car tracks. And these metal rails, inside little groves in the road were the bane of my existance for the precarious ride home in city traffic. But I made it 50% of the way with no problems. I even had to cross the tracks (almost parallel to my wheels) a few times and managed to muscle the handle bars across the tracks with not too much drama.
Then I was an ass and got cocky...
At this one intersection, grandma had decided to put the car in park while waiting to make a left hand turn... and this particular intersection was just a disaster of street car tracks. So like a hero I decide I'm going to cut into the right hand lane instead of being smart and just waiting for her to get her act together. So I was feathering the clutch in second gear at about 25-30mph (+40km/h).
And f***-all my front wheel locked in the street car grove and I couldn't muscle it out. The bike bucked and tossed me off to the right. I skidded on my right side (hand out, saved my blessed helmet from hitting) and watched in dismay as the bike glided across the wet asphalt for about 10 metres (25 feet) on it's right side. Two locals came charging out. I suppose the mishap looked more spectacular than it was because they were looking at me like I should be dead.
So anyway I go over to the bike and hit the kill-switch (I just filled her up yesterday and didn't need any fireworks in case fuel had spilled). And then proceeded to do the walk-backwards method to bring the bike back up right; with some help from the two guys who came running out. Somehow my nerves held together. I said thank you to the gentlemen and drove away as if nothing had happend. And I made it home without further incident.
Anyway I have pics below which pretty much tell the story. And the moral of the story is HAVE GOOD GEAR. My boots, jacket, thick denim jeans and GLOVES saved my ass (literally). All I have is some faint stinging on my right thigh, but no road rash.
The Danier biker-jacket I was wearing (had on GAP jeans kind of like these-GAP use a lot of denim FYI):
My Levin boots (Chinese knock offs of more popular stuff, but they do a wicked job for $99):
My Shoei helmet; thank God it didn't touch the pavement:
A similar version of the Teknic gloves that I was wearing (mine have the silver-metalic knucle and joint guards, but their also yellow):
A @#$@-ing steet car!
:
Damage assessment; to be honest the damage could have been WAY worse. I was just lucky the Kat didn't collide with anything or skid across the rails:
And finally, how the Kat looked to my teary eyes - oh my aching heart
:
So I paid the 40-bucks to have my chain serviced, the bike inspected and the Kat washed (she was dirty girl
). Then it started to effin' rain. So I ran into the apparel shop and bought a pair of clear lense shades (yes, I am honestly that safe - I even wear frikken ear plugs when I ride). After waiting a few minutes for the rain to ease up, I slip a garbage bag over my seat and head off home.Now, my God damn town is rife with street car tracks. And these metal rails, inside little groves in the road were the bane of my existance for the precarious ride home in city traffic. But I made it 50% of the way with no problems. I even had to cross the tracks (almost parallel to my wheels) a few times and managed to muscle the handle bars across the tracks with not too much drama.
Then I was an ass and got cocky...
At this one intersection, grandma had decided to put the car in park while waiting to make a left hand turn... and this particular intersection was just a disaster of street car tracks. So like a hero I decide I'm going to cut into the right hand lane instead of being smart and just waiting for her to get her act together. So I was feathering the clutch in second gear at about 25-30mph (+40km/h).
And f***-all my front wheel locked in the street car grove and I couldn't muscle it out. The bike bucked and tossed me off to the right. I skidded on my right side (hand out, saved my blessed helmet from hitting) and watched in dismay as the bike glided across the wet asphalt for about 10 metres (25 feet) on it's right side. Two locals came charging out. I suppose the mishap looked more spectacular than it was because they were looking at me like I should be dead.
So anyway I go over to the bike and hit the kill-switch (I just filled her up yesterday and didn't need any fireworks in case fuel had spilled). And then proceeded to do the walk-backwards method to bring the bike back up right; with some help from the two guys who came running out. Somehow my nerves held together. I said thank you to the gentlemen and drove away as if nothing had happend. And I made it home without further incident.
Anyway I have pics below which pretty much tell the story. And the moral of the story is HAVE GOOD GEAR. My boots, jacket, thick denim jeans and GLOVES saved my ass (literally). All I have is some faint stinging on my right thigh, but no road rash.
The Danier biker-jacket I was wearing (had on GAP jeans kind of like these-GAP use a lot of denim FYI):
My Levin boots (Chinese knock offs of more popular stuff, but they do a wicked job for $99):
My Shoei helmet; thank God it didn't touch the pavement:
A similar version of the Teknic gloves that I was wearing (mine have the silver-metalic knucle and joint guards, but their also yellow):
A @#$@-ing steet car!
:Damage assessment; to be honest the damage could have been WAY worse. I was just lucky the Kat didn't collide with anything or skid across the rails:
And finally, how the Kat looked to my teary eyes - oh my aching heart
:
Good judgement comes from experience, and often experience comes from Bad Judgement :smt084
Comment