Skip to main content

Zen and the art of motorcycle …oops

I juiced up the battery on my bike. Filled the tank with some fresh gas. Scrounged my old helmet back from a mate I'd given it to when he bought a trail bike (which he's never ridden).

So I'm riding down the motorway. A light spray of rain is reminding me of the joys of motorcycling. I noticed it was losing power. The more I twist the throttle the more strangled it feels. I wonder if the back brake is dragging, maybe needs adjustment.

I turn off onto Esmonde Rd, that was my plan anyway - I was heading over to see a friend and show off the bike. The problem felt worse. Then suddenly I am flying over the handlebars, my head bounces off the the tarmac, my shoulder crunches onto the ground as well. It's corny but it all happened as if in slow motion.

I got up to my feet and had the presence of mind to get out of the way of traffic which keeps travelling at motorway speeds on the off ramp. I was quite shaken. The bike is prone but I manage to get it upright. It weights a ton. I can't get it to roll. My suspicion that the back wheel has seized seems confirmed.

I'm standing looking at the machine. A lady in an SUV who watched the whole performance from behind stops to see that I'm OK. A motorcyclist stops and helps me get the bike up onto the curb. Then he gives me a ride up to a bike shop a kilometer away. His diagnosis is that the front brake is locked on.

The mechanic from the bike shop ferries me back to the machine. I'm able to start it and gingerly to the workshop. Because the bike is so old - an '81 BMW the mechanic isn't sure he can fix it. They'll take a look...get back to me.

Quite a day.

My shoulder is very sore. Might have to get it checked out tomorrow.

Having a bad run of luck at the moment.

Still, I'm looking forward to getting the bike sorted for summer. I'm hooked again.

Comments

  1. Anonymous7:32 am

    Yup - sounds like front brake. Rear brake locking doesn't send you over the bars (because of the weight pushing down in front of the point of locking. Front wheel lockups however have the mass of the bike behind them and a circular moment is created which (given enough weight and enough speed) sends you over the bars.

    Hope the shoulder sorts itself out

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Johnny Bunko competiton

The Great Johnny Bunko Challenge from DHP on Vimeo . There's a young chap in Indiana, one Alec Quig , who has written to me about creating a career based on a polymathic degree, from which he has recently graduated. He's an interesting young man and his concerns about going forward in life are the anxieties we all face at crossroads in our lives when we are forced to make choices. Dan Pink's latest book The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You'll Ever Need might help: "From a New York Times, BusinessWeek, and Washington Post bestselling author comes a first-of-its- kind career guide for a new generation of job seekers.There's never been a career guide like it.the fully illustrated story (ingeniously told in Manga form) of a young Everyman just out of college who lands his first job. Johnny Bunko is new to parachute company Boggs Corp., and he stumbles through his early days as a working stiff until a crisis prompts him to find a new job. St
Post a Comment
Read more and leave a comment

Ze Frank thinks so you don't have to

Ze Frank appeared on my radar when I saw his presentation among the excellent TED Talks videos . This morning I was reading Russell Davies planning blog in which he referred to a clip by Ze Frank - Where do ideas come from. Here's the transcript: "...Hungry Hippo licks Aunt JEmima [sic] writes, "Are you ever gonna break into song again? Are you running out of ideas?" Hungry Hippo licks Aunt JEmima, that's a good question. I run out of ideas every day! Each day I live in mortal fear that I've used up the last idea that'll ever come to me. If you don't wanna run out of ideas the best thing to do is not to execute them. You can tell yourself that you don't have the time or resources to do 'em right. Then they stay around in your head like brain crack. No matter how bad things get, at least you have those good ideas that you'll get to later. Some people get addicted to that brain crack. And the longer they wait, the more they convince themse
1 comment
Read more and leave a comment

Sexist Advertising and stereotypes

Advertising lives in the short-form world. Because mass media is so expensive the 30 second commercial is conventional and because there is so much clutter simplified signals are essential to 'cut through'. One form of communication short-hand used as a default is the stereotype - "A stereotype can be a conventional and oversimplified conception, opinion, or image, based on the assumption that there are attributes that members of the "other group" have in common. Stereotypes are sometimes formed by a previous illusory correlation, a false association between two variables that are loosely correlated if correlated at all. Though generally viewed as negative perceptions, stereotypes may be either positive or negative in tone." In the 1950's and 60's when men dominated advertising stereotypical impressions of women as inferior or subservient were not only commonplace but usual. It was normal to show women as housekeepers, largely because most wer
9 comments
Read more and leave a comment