The Smallest Thing Can Ruin Your Day
Being retired, I enjoy an early morning ride to the local McDonalds to have coffee with the other old coots.
When I arrived, I noticed my usual parking area was full so I went around the building looking for additional parking. There was the usual long line in the drive through, which I was next to and on the right of. As I rounded a turn at maybe 3-5 mph, I noticed a garden hose stretched across and mainly parallel to my path.
When my front tire hit the hose, I and my 97 Valk were down before I had a chance to react. I guess the combination of a wet surface and the rolling hose pitching the front tire sharply to the right caused my mishap.
I have over 100,000 miles experience of riding, with a few non-injurious incidents, but never have I been more surprised to find my self and my bike down on our left sides and surrounded by parking lot traffic.
To make the event more embarrassing, and memorable, while down my left muffler cut or burned the hose which then doused me and the bike. I thought the cooling system had been damaged until I realized that the liquid bath was cold.
Damage to the bike was a few scratches on the left engine guard and many more to my ego. I pass this story along to warn others to always keep your eyes open and to stress that even the smallest obstacles can ruin your day on a bike if your are not paying attention.
Ride safe and keep the rubber side down.
Chuck Richeson
(#21571)