My older son was playing in a water polo tournament today. I rode the bike down to see him play. Parking was up a slight incline that leveled off into a paved lot. No problems parking. When I went to leave I rode off the level ground onto the incline. As I did I leaned the bike over to the left to make a nice sharp turn. As I did I heard a loud CRUNCH followed by a series of scrapes. Once again I forgot the bike had been lowered. I knew exactly what happened. I sheared off the kickstand spring and now the kick stand was dragging.
I pulled over and parked. What to do? I had to ride it to the dealer to get a spring. But how to keep the kick stand up? I opened my saddlebag and found a roll of duct tape. How do I tape the stand up without the bike falling over on me? So I taped up the right side crash bars, folded up the highway peg and floorboard and gently laid the bike down on the right side. So far so good. I walked over to the left side and taped the kick stand to the frame. I came back around to the downed side and picked the bike up. Once upright it occurred to me that I don’t have a kick stand to set the bike onto. To make matters worse, I left the rider backrest on the seat. Now I can’t just swing my leg over, I must step through the saddle.
Keeping my head and eyes up (always head and eyes up in motorcycling) I said a prayer and in one non stop motion stepped back, and then over and through. The bike started to tip the other way. I let it lay down gently on the other side. Undaunted I picked it up again and mounted with ease. I started it and rode off.
On the way to the dealer it occurred to me that I was committed. In other words there was no stopping at all along the way. Now the reality is that even with the kick stand taped up nothing had changed. It rode the same, stopped the same, cornered the same, I just could not park it. But the human mind, being the thing that it is, played on that the whole way. So I turned up the stereo to help me forget about it.
When I got the dealer I pulled right into the service area. The owners son Ron was walking out. I told him I could not park it and asked for his help in removing the tape which he did. I parked the bike, went over to the parts counter and bought the spring for $9.00. I straddled the bike holding it up and the service guy swapped it out. Less than 10 mins and no charge.
Now I think I should have bought two springs to keep an extra on the bike. It’s not quite a self inflicted wound, just one of those why me things.
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Topic: Things that seem to only happen to me. (Read 1972 times)