Occasionally, I will write about my mishaps. You will sometimes see posts only about the mistakes. I hope these are few and far between and I hope every time I get back on the bike. The truth is, every time I ride, I think at least to myself about how I could have handled that circumstance better, what I could have done differently, and what skills I can practice to get better.
For the most part, these moments of clarity come after I have successfully recovered from something or at least nothing “bad” has happened and I think to myself “that could have been better”. In some cases, I think to myself “that could have been worse”.
This is about one of those times it could have been worse.
One Friday evening in September, Jason and I thought we would ride out to a local farm that was hosting a live band and food trucks. It is one of our favorite family spots for pumpkins, corn mazes, local produce, winter lights trails, and more.
I went through the route to take a longer, back road way along some curving fields and some up and down hills. He followed me out, I followed him back.
On the way out, the start of the backroad was a steep decline. This meant the way back had a stop sign at the top of a steep hill. And I was going to need to turn right. And since I was following, I instinctively pulled up at the stop on the right side of the lane while Jason was on the left. I was going to let him wide turn around me.
So, let me just say that I get nervous starting on a hill. Because I have a tendency to stall the engine being too afraid to load the throttle and I don’t want to pop the clutch and have the bike jump. I don’t really have a problem on my driveway as much, but on an actual road? I can start to overthink it.
What I should have done was followed Jason up on the left side of the lane where it was a little flatter. Where I pulled up and stopped on the right there was a much tighter turn and a lip on the road.
And then there was a truck behind me and my overthinking started overthinking. Was this person behind me a patient person? Was this person going to ride up on me while I tried to get going? Did this person hate motorcyclists?
What I should have done was give up after the second stall out and turned left where I could straighten out the front tire as it would have been an easier turn. What I did was try to start the bike while the wheel was turned to the right while on the hill and hit the lip.
The next thing I knew…
…I was slowly falling to the right and using my legs to support the bike as I laid it down on her right side and “gracefully” got out of the way.
And there it was… two months new, and the Triumph was on the ground! I was mortified. But I was also blocking traffic.
When the bike is on its side, what do I do?
My first thought was “glad I didn’t skip leg day”. I also remembered that in my class, I saw the instructor pick up several bikes (not just mine) and he did it using his back. I did later find out that this is the “proper” way to lift your bike and I wish they had taught us this in class.
But I mimicked it from what I remember seeing. I stood with my back to the motorcycle, squatted down and put my left hand on the handlebar and my right hand under the seat and stood walking the bike up with me backwards.
At this point, the woman from the truck* had gotten out to help me (I love it when women help other women-don’t you?). She held my bike in place while I walked around to put the kickstand down.
In hindsight, I should have put the kickstand down first so the bike had a way to rest without falling over to the other side. And if you are ever in this position without a second person, you should too!
I looked the Triumph over a few times. The Green Goddess had a few scratches but nothing more than cosmetic damage. No leaking fluids. The tip of the brake lever, however, had broken at the “sacrificial notch”. The brakes worked without it just fine. I will post a later blog about how I fixed it.
At this point I had a choice to make…
Once the Triumph was up, and Jason had found a place down the road to turn around to come back to check on me, I had a choice to make. Am I going to get back on the bike, am I going to make my husband go home, come back with the car and ride it back to the house for me, or am I going to get a tow?
I could find nothing visibly wrong with it so a tow didn’t make sense financially. I guess I could have asked my husband to take care of it, but I will tell you that I didn’t even realize that was an option until I was writing this blog. I wasn’t physically hurt so I got back on the bike. Without another thought, I shook it off and led the way to our next destination.
I hope, if you are ever in this situation, you too will get back on the bike and ride on!
*To the woman in the truck: I don’t know who you are but I am grateful for you. You helped me keep my calm by being gracious to me while I was blocking traffic. Thank you for your patience and your support. I truly appreciate you!
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