We ride knowing we are taking a risk. Every time I get onto my bike I am all too aware that it could be the last time I do so. It’s just a very real part of the motorcycling paradigm. Close calls, accidents, injury, damage to your bike and other property, etc. are all part of the assumed risk we take whenever we straddle our machines. I don’t care how experienced you are, or how careful you are, or how well you ride… if it hasn’t yet, it will happen to you too. As riders we hope we will maintain the presence of mind to at very least, mitigate the damage when something happens.

Yesterday it was my turn. Note that the best part of what I’m about to describe resulted in zero injury and only minimal damage. It could very well have been devastating.

We were on Angels Crest highway and into the twisties. Nickie, a tremendousely knowledgeable pillion rider, was on the back. The road banked to the right, slight incline, and an opposing camber (the lateral angle of the road). I knew I was entering the turn too damn fast. Nickie did too. Here’s where the presence of mind comes in. In a fraction of a second I thought, “Too fast! Passenger on the back… Can’t risk a slide-out by hitting the breaks… Dig-in to the turn. Hold on tight…”

I leaned hard and the floorboard hit the ground on the right side. Dug in even deeper, and hit the rigid part where the floorboard is attached to the bike. When that happened, it did a couple things. First it caused the bike to bounce out of the lean and stood us straight up, almost causing a high-side-launch into oblivion. Secondly, since it didn’t launch us off the bike, it sent us careening across the road and into the gravel shoulder where… those darned steel reflector poles stood right in our path. Another litany of thought went through my mind in half a second, “Oh sh…t, we’re gonna go down… this is gong to hurt…Nickie… no! Hold on… don’t fight it too hard… stay focused…”

I saw one of those poles in front of me, hit it with the left side of the bike, up-rooted that thing completely out of its concrete footing, got through the gravel, back onto the road, and right back into my original position in our formation.

I debated pulling over at that point but felt if I did, I would more than likely NOT get back on the bike. So I stayed on and after getting a thumbs-up signal from Nickie we continued on for about fifteen minutes to our destination. That turned out to have been the wisest things I could have done else both Nickie and I would have lost our nerve.

Damage assessment (all of it cosmetic):

• Left side of the radiator shroud is cracked
• Radiator tweaked out of alignment
• Shifter bent
• Left rail to which the floorboard attaches bent, causing the floorboard to be out by perhaps 15 degrees.

Interestingly, and most notable during the after-math-conversation, was that path of damage suggests my left leg should have been thrashed. Thankfully neither Nickie nor I suffered any injury whatsoever. Whew!

Nickie congratulated me on my handling of the beast, as did those who saw it happen. I congratulated Nickie telling her that as a passenger, she did everything right and in so doing, shows that she trusts me. Something I take very seriously.

My riding experience in this case has tremendous value. But in truth, that has nothing to do with how I handled the bike or managed to get us out of that situation. Rather it has everything to do with the fact that what happened didn’t embarrass me, or cause me to question my abilities, or anything like that. It reinforced my understanding that no matter how experienced you are, or how careful you are, or how well you ride… if it hasn’t yet, it will happen…

More later…

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