WELL it had to happen someday…. yep you’ve guessed it, I dropped my bike 😛 I know I know – I am a twat!! However in my defence it was one of the most ludicrous things that has ever happened to me and was definitely the result of A- not knowing my own strength, B – gravity and balance fighting it out and of course C – total idiot factor lol!
Silvano has been in my possession a mere seven weeks and I am pleased to say that despite much of my time being taken up elsewhere which has significantly reduced our outings, I have notched up another 900 miles in the last four weeks bimbling around. More on those adventures later…
This infamous bike dropping moment occurred after a week of weather that has been getting steadily shittier! It was pouring with rain (yet again) and the bike was parked up beside a kerb rather than facing into the traffic as it’s a narrow road. However the camber was quite low on the left side. This meant I had to give it a real tug to get it off the side stand………and realised too late that the bike was not stopping at the usual midway point in a straight line, but ye gods was continuing to fall ….all the way over to the right eek!
Despite my best efforts I could not hold 207kg dry weight of Sprint ST on my right leg, let alone one with a full petrol tank and down we went with me rolling clear at the last moment. It took me about five seconds to realise that lying on my back staring up at the rainy sky was not a good thing in a main road 😮 . Fortunately for me the citizens of Barton-Le-Clay are a good sort and I was quickly surrounded by lovely people (ok lots of nice guys with big muscles!) who picked Silvano up for me. Several were then in hysterics as I threw my arms around his tank, hugging him and apologising profusely to him for dropping him and revealing his private parts to the world!!
Let me be clear, the bike was not in gear, not moving, and I didn’t crash or skid into anything nor was I hit by or in contact with a third party! It was just a mad mad mad moment that fortunately hasn’t turned out too badly thanks to those fantastic, wonderful, cannot live without and which every bike should automatically come with… yes I am of course referring to R&G Crash Bungs. A round of applause for you methinks particularly as the right side bung did take quite a scuffing.
My word but those crash bungs certainly do what they say on the tin! My fairings escaped any scratches, my mirror and my top box both gained a minor graze and the can has two teenie marks on it. Thankfully I wasn’t using the panniers at the time and aberslootely nothing else seems to have made contact with the ground. And of course I didn’t injure myself in any way since I didn’t actually hit anything – more of a graceful flop :-).
Needless to say this was the last straw and I’ve now had my bike lowered! After all I’ll take all the help I can get and at least I now have more than tip toes down:-)
So now that’s out of the way, I can honestly say that I hope it’s the one and only time I do that…. and I am very thankful that I had my helmet on thus disguising me so that I can walk into my local post office without anyone pointing at me …..”hmm there goes that girl who dropped her bike!!!” – oooooohhh the shame!
Ride safe
A bird's eye view to biking! 