Story of the Day

I am a motorcycle rider. It's not like I am admitting to being a drunk or anything. I am not ashamed of it, I rather enjoy being out in the open on a vehicle traveling at speed. I am not a sport bike enthusiast. I don't care to be the fastest on the road with the highest cornering speeds. I don't plan to ever approach the performance limits of any motorcycle I might own. I think that is just too dangerous.

One doesn't ride a 'cycle in a vacuum. There are car and truck drivers out there who will never see you. Even with your headlight shining in their eyes. They are blind to anything smaller than another car and sometimes they even have problems seeing those. There are animals out there which have little sense of personal risk when they venture onto pavement.

Even without other vehicles and animals a rider runs a much greater risk than a driver when confronted with the unexpected. With only two wheels in-line it is all too easy for a bike to fall over. A motorcycle only stays up without help if it is moving fast enough. Probably my most embarrassing moment on a bike was in New Haven, CT. I was at an intersection wanting to turn right. I was in the right lane, traffic from across the intersection was also turning in the direction I wanted. There were lots of vehicles, a bus, and a whole bunch of potholes. Not an ideal situation for a bike. I attempted to turn slowly enough to avoid the potholes and the oncoming traffic and just did not have enough speed for the sharpness of the turn. The bike just plopped right over onto its side. It went over so gently the windshield was barely scratched. So here I was standing in the intersection next to a motorcycle on its side. With the engine running and the back wheel spinning away at idle. A bus was trying to turn right through my position but it could not continue with my bike and me in its way. The bus was not unoccupied so I had quite an audience as I shut off the motor and lifted the 500 pound bike back onto its two wheels. It was easy to do and I was soon on my way.

Wednesday evening,
March 6, 1996