I wasn't taking the bike out because I don't have my license, registration, and insurance taken care of yet - okay, I lied. I was totally going to putter the bike over to an empty church parking lot about a hundred feet from my parents' house (where I am temporarily storing the bike) and practice deliberate countersteering. I didn't even make it out of the driveway.
Since I'm having battery issues with the bike (I think it's just flat from lack of use) my first order of business upon rolling it out of the garage was to try and give it a bump-start. I have only seen my dad do this once before when I discovered the battery problem, and my efforts to reproduce the appropriate effect were less than stellar. Mostly I just rolled back and forth in the driveway, trying to get the engine going every time I jammed forward. Every time it would buck and stall like an ornery colt, and I would get a little hotter. I was sitting in the baking sun in almost full gear (skipped the gloves) and getting more and more frustrated all the time.
So about the tenth time I back the bike up to make a running start at it, I feel my balance slipping. And then the bike is listing insistently to the right, and I am falling with it.
CRUNCH.
Suddenly I am lying in my driveway with a 330 pound motorcycle lying on top of me, in full riding gear. My first thought was a hope that none of my neighbors were tooling around outside to see me. A quick glance around told me so far, so good.
I squirmed out from under the bike and set it back up as instructed in Hough's Proficient Motorcycling, which I read cover to cover this weekend. Using his method, Wing came up quick - no muss, no fuss. It made me happy to realize that I picked a bike small enough for me to handle on my own, without anyone's help. I checked her over for damage and panicked a little when I saw a small puddle of gasoline at the base of the bike, but a short Net search calmed me on that front. A small gas leak is apparently par for the course when you lay a bike over (overflow vent). The leak stopped quickly and it seemed that my leg and palm took the brunt of the punishment. Nothing else that I could detect other than a scuffed handbrake, which seemed to operate just fine. Won't really know until I try to get her running again though, I guess.
You see, the only gear I have so far is jacket, helmet, gloves, and boots. I fell in jean capris and with no gloves on - they were lying uselessly on a shelf in the garage ten feet behind me. As a result, I have a lovely scrape on my palm and a pair to match on my knee and elbow. This is why AGATT is so important. If I had been wearing my gloves and a pair of real jeans, I probably wouldn't have gotten banged up at all. Oh well. Live and learn.
Anyway, that was the end of my riding adventures for the day. I can only stand so much excitement and entrapment. I rolled her back into the garage before I could do any more damage and headed back to work. The next time I do anything moto-related, it will be when my father, the all-knowing Sage Biker, is around to make sure I don't bust myself up (or worse yet, my bike).
And the moral of the story is:
*drumroll*
No comments:
Post a Comment