Well no more than 10 days after Ryan dropped his bike, I too was humbled.  I actually thought it would happen, after I gave Ryan so much crap for dropping his.  I am completely OK, not even a scratch on me, but I attribute that to the fact that I was wearing full gear.  ATGAT (All The Gear, All The Time) should be every rider’s slogan, I know it saved me today.

Here is what happened.  I was at Mid-Cities Honda looking to see if anyone made a rear crash bar for my bike.  I know pretty ironic right?  I even told the guy working there, after I couldn’t find anything that maybe I should just never drop the bike, then I wouldn’t have to worry about a crash bar.  I did not realize how far off I was.  I got on my bike and headed south on Lakewood, I was headed toward the freeway onramp to the 91 east.  I was just going to go to Bellflower Blvd, and stop by the church.  As i went through the first turn on to the ramp, I was going 20+ mph, I know because I did not have to downshift into 1st gear to make the turn.  Then coming out of the turn, I realized that I was going to fast for the second part of the turn, which was a sharp right u-turn on to the freeway.  I immediately straightened the bike out, and grabbed the brakes.  Instantly the back tire slid to the left, which makes me think I hit an oil spot or some kind of a slick spot, because that is not a normal reaction for a back tire to make.  I tried to straighten out the bike, but it didn’t work.  The whole bike flipped from leaning right to falling on the left side, and it kind of catapulted me off the bike.  I landed just a couple feet away on my left side.  My bike was still on, and for some reason the throttle was still engaged.  This caused the Bike to spin around and hit me in the leg, not hard, but enough to get my attention.  I jumped up, and turned my bike off.  It was then that I noticed the three cars behind me just staring.  Here is the odd thing, they did not look concerned, they looked annoyed.  I can imagine the thoughts going through their heads, “Stupid biker, serves you right for riding one of those things.”  None of them even asked if I was OK.  I picked up my bike, which wasn’t easy, pushed it over to the side, and eventually walked it back down to the sidewalk.

I examined my bike for damage, and all I could find was two things.  My left saddlebag was scratched along the bottom, which isn’t even noticeable from the side, and my left highway bar was bent back a little bit.  I got it started again and road it back to the dealership to have them take a look at it.  I get it back tomorrow, and hopefully that is all the damage done.

I know a lot of people are going to want me to quit riding, but I just can’t.  If anything this makes me feel more confident.  I know it doesn’t make sense, but to actually have an accident and walk away from it fine, scares me just enough to stay humble, but not enough to want to quit.  It does make me realize that full gear is essential, and that I need to be more aware of what is a safe speed at all times.  So far I honestly feel thankful.  Thankful that I had all my gear on, thankful that it was only around a 15 to 20 mph incident, thankful that God was looking out for me, and thankful that I have this experience now.  I actually have prayed several times, first that I would never crash, but secondly that when I did (Cause it happens to everyone) it would be a humbling experience, something that I can learn a lot from, and something that I could walk away from.  Today was both, so thank you for answering my prayers God.

Now, go ahead and leave your smart mouth comments.  I deserve them.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 20th, 2008 at 11:34 pm and is filed under Pre Trip. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.