Gimme Some Skin
Well, I took Buster out for a ride this afternoon and lost some skin. Actually, I didn't technically lose any skin but I did abrade a small patch on the side of my right elbow. No blood.
I rode down the Blue Ridge Parkway to Laurel Springs, practicing turns. Now that I've learned to look ahead at where I want to go and not where I am, things have gotten much easier and smoother. Coming back on NC-18 is a little more trying because the turns are tighter and the speed limit is higher. I only made a mess of one turn when I forgot to look ahead but recovered without a panic.
From NC-18 I take Pine Swamp Road to Brown Road. Pine Swamp has some nice curves and Brown Road has the shortest amount of unpaved surface on my return home. The top of Brown Road where it dead-ends into Air Bellow Road is very steep and changes back to pavement for the last 25 feet. The view down Air Bellows Road to the right is partial obstructed and I always come to a full stop, look right, look left and look right again before pulling out.
Now coming to the end of Brown Road I'm always in second gear (self-imposed speed limit of 20 mph on unpaved roads) and I don't want to downshift to first gear until I get to the 25 feet of pavement. All this, of course, happens while coming to a full stop and balancing the bike on a steep hill.
It's virtually impossible to start from second gear from this stop and there's not a lot of room to turn. That means you need to lay the bike down sharply and accelerate hard to make the turn.
Today, just before I pulled out, I realized that I could not remember if I had shifted down to first. So, I changed balance from my left foot (used to change the gears) to my right foot (used to operate the back brake). My right hand had already released the front brake in preparation for operating the throttle. It was as I kicked down the gear shift with my left foot to ensure I was in first gear that I realized that I was rolling backwards down the hill because both brakes had been released!
Now the right foot was preoccupied with balancing and could not be used to operate the rear brake. That left only the right hand to operate the front brake. It did but by the time I stopped, my right foot was now somewhere up by the front wheel. In other words, it was no longer available for balancing the bike.
Now things began happening in slow motion. I put all the weight I could on the left side foot pedal and handlebars but the lean to the right continued ever so slowly. At some point I come the realization that there was nothing I could do to stop the fall and, while emoting an expletive deleted or three, my mind went into damage control mode to protect all that chrome and Pacific Blue paint.
I somehow get my right foot back into position to break the fall and ease the bike down until was about 6 inches off the ground. At that point I can no longer handle the weight of the bike (Buster weighs in at 560 pounds) and pulled my left leg over the top of the bike to make my escape... directly into the back of my right leg.
And that, folks, is how I managed to trip over myself, falling onto the pavement on my right elbow!
Bike speed? 0 mph.
Duration? 2 seconds.
Damage to bike? Minimal.
Damage to skin? Superficial.
Damage to ego? Substantial.
(Expletive deleted)!
I rode down the Blue Ridge Parkway to Laurel Springs, practicing turns. Now that I've learned to look ahead at where I want to go and not where I am, things have gotten much easier and smoother. Coming back on NC-18 is a little more trying because the turns are tighter and the speed limit is higher. I only made a mess of one turn when I forgot to look ahead but recovered without a panic.
From NC-18 I take Pine Swamp Road to Brown Road. Pine Swamp has some nice curves and Brown Road has the shortest amount of unpaved surface on my return home. The top of Brown Road where it dead-ends into Air Bellow Road is very steep and changes back to pavement for the last 25 feet. The view down Air Bellows Road to the right is partial obstructed and I always come to a full stop, look right, look left and look right again before pulling out.
Now coming to the end of Brown Road I'm always in second gear (self-imposed speed limit of 20 mph on unpaved roads) and I don't want to downshift to first gear until I get to the 25 feet of pavement. All this, of course, happens while coming to a full stop and balancing the bike on a steep hill.
It's virtually impossible to start from second gear from this stop and there's not a lot of room to turn. That means you need to lay the bike down sharply and accelerate hard to make the turn.
Today, just before I pulled out, I realized that I could not remember if I had shifted down to first. So, I changed balance from my left foot (used to change the gears) to my right foot (used to operate the back brake). My right hand had already released the front brake in preparation for operating the throttle. It was as I kicked down the gear shift with my left foot to ensure I was in first gear that I realized that I was rolling backwards down the hill because both brakes had been released!
Now the right foot was preoccupied with balancing and could not be used to operate the rear brake. That left only the right hand to operate the front brake. It did but by the time I stopped, my right foot was now somewhere up by the front wheel. In other words, it was no longer available for balancing the bike.
Now things began happening in slow motion. I put all the weight I could on the left side foot pedal and handlebars but the lean to the right continued ever so slowly. At some point I come the realization that there was nothing I could do to stop the fall and, while emoting an expletive deleted or three, my mind went into damage control mode to protect all that chrome and Pacific Blue paint.
I somehow get my right foot back into position to break the fall and ease the bike down until was about 6 inches off the ground. At that point I can no longer handle the weight of the bike (Buster weighs in at 560 pounds) and pulled my left leg over the top of the bike to make my escape... directly into the back of my right leg.
And that, folks, is how I managed to trip over myself, falling onto the pavement on my right elbow!
Bike speed? 0 mph.
Duration? 2 seconds.
Damage to bike? Minimal.
Damage to skin? Superficial.
Damage to ego? Substantial.
(Expletive deleted)!
Comments
Post a Comment