I play softball in a Jack Benny league, yeah we're all old...
a guy on my team who I've known for 20 years says he has a bike, let's go for a ride after work someday.
Few days later, I have him meet me at my work and we hash out a route down into CT. I tell him ride staggered, stay together, blah,blah...We're on the same page but I know ya have to feel out someone ya never rode with before.
We head out, did maybe 20 miles, main roads, back roads, even thru an active accident scene. No problems. At a red light we talked, all's good. Next road has a nice S turn, uphill. I get thru it and hear all kinds of scraping behind me...look in my mirror and he is low-siding into the sand on the side of the road. CRAP gonna be bad...the sand slows him up and shoots him across the yellow line. There was a car coming down the hill but I didn't hear a crash. He recovers just enough to get back on his side of the road then hits the banking hard, sand and dust flying everywhere. I had to go to the top of the hill to turn around.
When I got back to him, he was standing next to his bike (a Boulevard) that was a good sign...I spun around and parked my bike behind his and we pushed it into a driveway. Got mine off the road too and made sure he was ok. Not a scratch on him. The bike had sand, loam, and grass packed into the motor, crash bar and brake/floorboard area, and the batwing fairing had shot off into the bushes.
We got the landscaping off the bike and made sure the brakes worked ok. Got my tools out and we fixed the fairing brackets and re-installed that. The crash bar is bent back maybe 1/2 inch and the fairing had some scratches. Mr. Lucky for sure.
Turns out, the car coming down the hill went over the yellow, forcing my buddy to move right to avoid the hit. This took him too far right toward the sand so after the car was by him he pulled hard left. Took the weight off the tires and slid out.
I told him I wouldn't think any less of him if we headed home, that was way to close. Nope he said, we wanted to ride so let's ride. We did, stopped for an ice cream and got back to town just after dark. 158 miles and the rest of the ride was fine.
And we made a deal that no softball people had to know
Ride Safe
Craig
