Scab
I got nothin' here...
The weather was good yesterday and the wife wanted to ride. So, off we go. Me on my FZ-6, she on her Vulcan 500. All was right with the world.
On the return trip, I thought we'd stop by a friends house and let them witness her motorcycling skills. (She is still learning to ride and has only accumulated a few hundred miles in the saddle.)
My friend lives at the end of a culdesac. I pulled in slowly, made the circle, and stopped. I leaned to the right so my left foot could find neutral.
BAM!!!!
I am on the ground on the left side with my foot stuck under the bike. WTF? I pry myself from beneath my ride and jump up to see her and the Vulcan sprayed out on its right side, beside my bike but slightly ahead, and wedged up against my friends Toyota Camry with its alarm screaming. Vulcan shrapnel was strewn about the scene.
Of course, the alarm brought out my friend and his entire family, plus their other visiting guests, plus the neighbors.
I should have sold tickets.
We do a quick health-check of each other and then proceed to pick up the motorcycle remains.
Mine fared better than hers. The FZ took some broken plastic bits on the rear around the tag/ right rear turn signal area, and some small scratches. It also took some skider-puck scratches on the left skider and some scratches to the left mirror housing.
The Vulcan did not fare so well. There is a huge black skid-mark on the left fork tube, the headlight housing is broken, the wind screen is in a gazillion pieces, both rear-view mirrors snapped off, scratches on the right exhaust, and a pretty huge dent in the left side of the fuel tank. (That dent, by the way, is curiously shaped like the under-tail exhaust of an FZ-6.)
Oh, well. What's a guy to do? I borrowed my friends tools and started stripping off the broke left-overs and anything that could impale a body should she decide to get off this thing again before I can get her home.
So, I am sure you are wondering what happened. I know I was. Turns out, while making the left handed radius through the culdesac, her hand slipped from the clutch. The small Vulcan comes with just enough torque to eliminate any chance of stalling the engine and insuring forward progress. Just my luck.
The health report is actually good. She made it through without a single scratch. As for me, my foot hurts, as do my recently-broke ribs. We were both wearing all the gear. Everything from head to toe. Helmets, jackets, pants, gloves, and even riding boots. My foot pain is just a fluke. The one little un-armored part of the boot (where it bends) is where the mash occured. Half of it is showing pretty nasty bruising. Whatever. My other foot was my favorite anyway. Of course, as I always have the luck of the Irish, the side I landed on was the exact same side that I broke all to hell back in June's crash. Which is okay, since I couldn't lie on that side anyway.
Oh, well. It's just another chapter in the novel: "You can't have nothin'."
And, no, I didn't get mad. I didn't scream, yell, or even curse. And yes, I still love her and am keeping her.
However... I am doing a little checking around. Just wondering if there are any new insurance policies on my life...
...I'm just sayin'...
On the return trip, I thought we'd stop by a friends house and let them witness her motorcycling skills. (She is still learning to ride and has only accumulated a few hundred miles in the saddle.)
My friend lives at the end of a culdesac. I pulled in slowly, made the circle, and stopped. I leaned to the right so my left foot could find neutral.
BAM!!!!
I am on the ground on the left side with my foot stuck under the bike. WTF? I pry myself from beneath my ride and jump up to see her and the Vulcan sprayed out on its right side, beside my bike but slightly ahead, and wedged up against my friends Toyota Camry with its alarm screaming. Vulcan shrapnel was strewn about the scene.
Of course, the alarm brought out my friend and his entire family, plus their other visiting guests, plus the neighbors.
I should have sold tickets.
We do a quick health-check of each other and then proceed to pick up the motorcycle remains.
Mine fared better than hers. The FZ took some broken plastic bits on the rear around the tag/ right rear turn signal area, and some small scratches. It also took some skider-puck scratches on the left skider and some scratches to the left mirror housing.
The Vulcan did not fare so well. There is a huge black skid-mark on the left fork tube, the headlight housing is broken, the wind screen is in a gazillion pieces, both rear-view mirrors snapped off, scratches on the right exhaust, and a pretty huge dent in the left side of the fuel tank. (That dent, by the way, is curiously shaped like the under-tail exhaust of an FZ-6.)
Oh, well. What's a guy to do? I borrowed my friends tools and started stripping off the broke left-overs and anything that could impale a body should she decide to get off this thing again before I can get her home.
So, I am sure you are wondering what happened. I know I was. Turns out, while making the left handed radius through the culdesac, her hand slipped from the clutch. The small Vulcan comes with just enough torque to eliminate any chance of stalling the engine and insuring forward progress. Just my luck.
The health report is actually good. She made it through without a single scratch. As for me, my foot hurts, as do my recently-broke ribs. We were both wearing all the gear. Everything from head to toe. Helmets, jackets, pants, gloves, and even riding boots. My foot pain is just a fluke. The one little un-armored part of the boot (where it bends) is where the mash occured. Half of it is showing pretty nasty bruising. Whatever. My other foot was my favorite anyway. Of course, as I always have the luck of the Irish, the side I landed on was the exact same side that I broke all to hell back in June's crash. Which is okay, since I couldn't lie on that side anyway.
Oh, well. It's just another chapter in the novel: "You can't have nothin'."
And, no, I didn't get mad. I didn't scream, yell, or even curse. And yes, I still love her and am keeping her.
However... I am doing a little checking around. Just wondering if there are any new insurance policies on my life...
...I'm just sayin'...
