It’s Only A Matter Of Time
We ride a lot of miles, get in the wind and sun. Commuting with the bike each day, and on the weekend run. Then comes that intersection. Busy with rush-hour traffic, a bad move by a four-wheeler, morning dew laying on old oil. Hit the brakes, the back wheel is out, and the bike is down! A short but terrifying slide. Wow!
So long as we choose to ride on a machine that has only two wheels, there is a chance that at some point, we will go down. We try not to, but the chance is always there.
Sometimes we get lucky and don’t get too badly hurt. My recent tumble left me with only bumps and bruises and aches and pains and a bunch of road rash (remember when we healed quicker?) and more than $3000. damage to my ride.
So the insurance company and my mechanic had my bike back in shape pretty quick, my physical damages are coming along and healing fairly well (as.long.as you don’t mind my arm being the same color purple as my bike) but the mental repairs are taking the longest to complete.
The natural thought process is at work: did I do the right thing? Did I do it in time? Was my attention where it should have been? Will I do any better at the next busy intersection? My confidence is not what it was!
On a hundred-mile ride though the twisties this past weekend, I questioned myself before entering each curve, talked out loud to myself in the curve ( relax! Gas it! ) And critiqued my performance after I finished each curve. I plan on doing some repairs to my mental state by reading “Back in the Saddle” by Brenda Bates, and will do some fine-tuning to my technical riding knowledge by reading “Twist of the Wrist” again. I’m going down to the big parking lot and work on some curves and, especially, to do some good hard panic stops. That‘s how I dumped it before.
Life is a challenge. I have friends who were hurt a thousand times worse and made it through. So it is a question of what did I do? What did I learn? What do I do now? And, how long will it take to get my confidence and skills back to where they were before? I ride more than fifteen thousand miles each year, so I’ll have plenty of time to work on it. Knowledge is power!
Fran Del Santo
