I'm just getting back from the Chicago International
Motorcycle Show. This year, a big theme amongst many of the manufacturers was
the scramblers. I for one, love them! I know the trendy thing lately is to
call them hipster bikes (read any piece on the Ducati Scrambler and you'll see what I'm talking about), but I say bullshit! These bikes are gorgeous! So, in
honor of these quasi-off road motorcycles, I'll tell a little story about an off road
ride on a bike that shouldn't go off road.
This ride was on my Yamaha TX500 (see here for
another story about this bike). My friends and I were hanging out at my family's
cottage one summer day and decided to go for a ride on the nearby trails. The
only problem was that I didn't have a dirtbike at the time. I could have hopped
on the back of one of my buddy's bikes, but I was way too cool for that. I took
the TX. What could go wrong, right?
Keep in mind that not only did this bike have street
tires, but they were pretty bald. However, everything was good for the first
mile. Then I came up to a decent sized mud puddle. The second the back tire touched
mud it spun out, throwing the bike into a swerve and ultimately on its side. I
was lying with my leg under the bike and started to smell something burning. I
looked down and saw the muffler sitting on my ankle. It was me that was
burning!
I was wearing wind pants that rode right up my leg when I
fell. I yanked my leg from under the bike and assessed the situation. My ankle
was starting to blister pretty badly, but there weren't any third degree burns.
It could have been a lot worse. The lesson here is to never ride a street bike
on a muddy trail and if you do, wear more than wind pants! Actually, never wear
wind pants anyway, unless you’re competing in a track and field event!
“You pray for rain, you gotta deal with the mud too. That's
a part of it.” - Denzel Washington
No comments:
Post a Comment