Would you look?
As some of you may know I ride a motorcycle. I’ve raced motorcycles taking them apart put them back together. Even towed a friend’s dirt bike out of the woods using my bike and a small piece of rope.
If you saw the tweet this morning I think you can epect what the rest of this is going to be like
This morning I woke up late to go to work so I’m rushing to get ready. I quickly throw a pop tart in my mouth get a shower and put on my work uniform and get on my motorcycle to head out to work. As usual I have the choke very high this causes the engine to run high and LOUD (this is to get the bike warming up so I can get going) and while I’m turning around in the grass to get on the street I see a car coming down the road. I’m figureing that they see me and it’s a street in a nebhoirhood its early they’ll slow down and let me by.
I get down to street level and as Im looking at the car threw the windows in my dad’s van I realise just before I go out into the road that they are not slowing down. they are spending up. So I quickly push on the breaks but I realize that thats not going to stop me.
Something that my dad taught me with my dirt bike along time ago after I went off my first cliff when I got out of control. What he taught me was that you can always put the bike down. It’s quite simple all your do is pull your leg off the peg and as far away from the bike as you can and just push it down in the same direction Your bike will fall to the ground and stop but in a situation where you need to put down your motorcycle it’s a far better option then keep going
So thats what I have to do. I drop my bike fall down off it. I get up and I see the car has since slowed down. They keep going making a right turn so I KNOW they see me keep going. That’s right just keep right on going. Don’t even yell out to see if I’m okay.
Now I don’t expect you guys to know how much a road bike weighs. Its not something that is common knowadgle but you would guess that a bike is fairly heavy. My bike what would you guess? 200? 275?. Try over 500lbs and as far as road motorcycles go mine is a light one. For example a gold wing one of the largest kinds of bikes out there next to some harleys weight close to 1000 lbs. Now moving something that heavy is a feat within it’s self. But add wheels and the fact that its now stable where as the postion you want to get it to by its very nature (being on two wheels) Unstable.
IT FUCKING PISSES ME OFF TO NO ENED. Even if I keep the best eye out for everything on the road never go over the speed limit always obey traffic signs. Allways slow down when I see a yellow light. More likely then not I will get killed by some dumb idiot that didn’t bother to see me or what’s even WORSE is the people that will see you but not even notice you. Please if you drive a car keep out for motorcycles. We have just as much right to be on the road as you. and if you think were bad people. Watch this.
There are times when I wish I carried a nail gun or a spear just something sharp. For all the people that fuck with me on purpose on the road when I’m on the motorcycle. Fucking narrow-minded. I’ve talked about it before how many stares I get because of the long hair, how I dress, the fact I ride a motorcycle. Sometimes I feel like it’s jealously. That I am living the life I want to live. Not that these people want my life but that they know they aren’t living the life they want.
I feel bad for these people
Tags: , angry, Blog, death, image, life, motorcycles, pay attention, rant, self
July 17th, 2008 at 12:37 am
[…] take the time to head on over to theunderdevelopedpodcast.com to read about an experience a friend had that, for him, put exactly this thing into perspective. […]
July 17th, 2008 at 12:45 am
I thought I’d leave a more personal trackback: http://rattusphere.com/2008/07/17/what-should-you-do/
It’s hard to know how to feel outside of angry in a situation like this. It’s justified on one level. You could say you didn’t know they were going to stop and that caused you to stop and fall, or you could say based on your observations, it might have been a possibility that they might not stop, which means really you had to have made the choice of either stopping or not. (it’s a run around) Knowing they didn’t stop after the fact speaks so loudly of how I feel this society, our society has come as a moral mass. If they don’t benefit by helping you, they won’t stop, even though helping you would have been the right thing to do , not because they might have caused the accident/fall, but simply because -it’s what they should do as rational human beings-.
I’m glad you’re alright, sorry this is lofty and wordy, I had a lot to say, it’s a little personal for me as well. Keep those ideas coming!