balance

[Tinkicker]

Many times on my trials and motoX bikes in the past.  

 

The more serious possibilities were high, low, fast and slow.

 

High.  Shaw cross pitstack ( my second home just about) on my DT 175 circa 1980.  Coming around towards a hill with a double jump.  First jump was a 3 or four foot steep rise and a levelling out for maybe 30 feet, then hitting another steep rise about 15 feet high and the ground levelling off at the top.  You would take it at medium rpm in third, take off on the first rise, land just before the second, shoot up the second and again take off at the top and jump maybe 5 or six feet high.

 

This particular time, as I rounded the corner before the runup to the hill, I saw two girls on horses that I knew slighty and wanted to know them more.  The testosterone flowed...

 

Throttled opened wide.  1st gear, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, throttle pinned.  Hit the first rise and took off, flew the entire length of the first level, hit the second hill about half way up.  I got an inkling that this did not bode well.  Shot up the second hill and hit the top just as the bottomed suspension was rebounding.  I took off...

 

I can remember two horses and two riders looking up with raised heads as I flew a few feet in front of them and well above them.  Then in slow motion the front wheel kept rising and the rear kept dipping.  As I went past the vertical, I decided it was time to bail out and pushed the bike away.

Bike hit upside down, bending the bars and I landed on my back.. Hard.

 

As I lay there trying to breathe and got in my first shuddering breath, a horses head appeared in my vision, looking down at me.  It was pulled up and to one side and the sound of clopping hooves grew fainter.  Not a word was spoken.

I lay there getting my breath and trying various limbs to make sure they still functioned and all my mates could do was lay on the floor laughing.  They said I should be a hollywood stuntman.  They reckoned I was 30ft in the air when I bailed off.

 

 

 

[Dombo]

Several times as a cyclist and riding motorbikes (I have a month-old licence so am no way a “biker”).

Finished a road race, came to a halt, forgot I was clipped in and toppled off.

Mountain biking down some steep rocky and rooty trail I braked, looked at some roots and fell off - my mates of course looked beyond the roots, took the trail at speed and sailed past unscathed.

Pedal bike again, hit black ice on a bend, bike went down instantly. That one was the most painful. All the others just embarrassing.

Practising U-turns on a rented YSR 125, looked down, touched the brake as the bike felt it was going to fall, stalled and fell. Top tip, give it more gas and the bike will right itself.

Rental bike in Vietnam, trying to keep the bike moving in mud, eyes fixed on the front wheel as it ploughed its own furrow, crossed the trail buried itself and I fell off.

Same thing on DAS, stalled the MT07  while making a Horlicks of figure 8s. Then dropped it while doing the wheel the bike from one space to another practice.

[Tinkicker]

Low.  Honda CX500.  Probably around 1982. There was a narrow back road windng through farmers fields I used to use on my way to the bike club.  I knew it like the back of my hand and tbh my speed was somewhat reckless in those days.  I never expected to see 30 years old.  Every road was a racetrack.

 

The plastic maggot was a very overlooked and underated bike.  It was comfy and able to much the miles, the shaft drive needed little maintenance and it was essentially a two wheeled car.  The perfect bike rally weapon, it carried me to rallies all over the country.

 

Anyway, this particular thursday evening, I attended the bike club, but because of the patchy weather, it was unusually quiet and I left early, just waiting for a large cloudburst to clear and the roads to dry a little.

Braaarp, off I went thinking I was at Mallory Park during a transatlantic race...

 

Reached the turnoff for the road through the fields and down I went.

 

The first part was all slightly downhill for about half a mile, gently twisting and turning, before a sharper RH bend where it began climbing slightly again and headed back towards a A road.

 

On the outside of the bend was a wide culvert with earth over the top that formed an entryway for some Rhubarb growing sheds over the fields boundary drainage ditch.

 

So there I was, barrelling down this narrow road at around 75mph.  As I started to slow, ready to lean it into the RH bend, I spied wet gravel across the road that had been washed down by the recent cloudburst.  I had not a chance in hell of stopping and not a chance of missing it.  If I was leaned over, I was off and likely killed.

 

So I tried for the entryway to the rhubarb sheds, If I could cross that, I would have a bit of room to slow down enough to be able to steer myself out of trouble.  I would be rattling across a ploughed field at likely 40 mph, but since I practically lived on off roaders in those days, I was not concerned.

 

Unfortunately it became obvious that the angles were not adding up, I did get onto the culvert, but not at an angle that could take me all the way across it.

I was drinking at the last chance saloon.  As the front wheel approached the edge of the culvert, I got my weight fearwards and heaved up mightily on the bars and jumped the 3ft or so straight into the ditch, which I was perfectly aligned with.  It was a perfectly natural thing for me in those days, living on trials and motoX bikes.  So into the muddy water at the bottom with a fair old splash and the bike scrubbed off its 60 mph or so speed very quickly, I was close to going over the bars, but managed to stay on.  I had survived.

I managed to push the bike with engine running about 20 yards to another entryway which did not have a culvert, the ditch just sloped up.  However the CX is a heavy bike and road tyres do not grip wet grass very well.  I was struggling to get up the bank.  

A car approached.  I thought just my luck, it was likely Plod and I was nicked.  However, it was a 13 amp plug filled with lads from the bike club, who had also called in, saw it was dead and were making their way back to town.

 

Out they jumped and bike was out of the ditch in a minute or two.  I rode it home.

 

Total damage, a bent rear brake pedal, a completely torn off footrest hanger and some scratches to the frame paint. I recall the footrest and hanger bought from a breakers cost £4, scratches touched up with my supply of paint, and pedal straightened out at work.

 

 

Could have been worse.  I doubt that someone who was not perectly at home off roading every saturday and sunday, would have enjoyed the same outcome.

 

All that was left of the footpeg was the part of the bracket with the bolthole in. Still bolted to the frame. The rest had been torn off at the welds.  Wonder if it is still in the ditch after all these years?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 13, 2024 by Tinkicker

[Tinkicker]

Fast...

Circa 1980.  1979 Honda CB250N Superdream in silver.

 

Not far from the CX500 crash area.  I was on the A road leading to it.  It was a quiet A road leading across the countryside between Woodkirk and Wakefield.

At one point it dropped downhill between a lot of trees, had a slight bend RH bend at the bottom, then went uphill.  Calling it a bend is pushing it.  It was more of a slight deviation in course.

 

So, I am dropping down the hill, trees on both sides, crouched down behind the clocks and throttle held wide open as usual.  For me, in those days, road bike throttles were two position affairs.  Closed and wide open.

 

The speedo needle crept up.  78..79...80..81...82.  I approached the slight bend flat out as I had dozens of times before.  I found myself skating on my back, through an open gate into a field, following the bike.  There was no transition.  One second I was upright, crouched behind the clocks, the next I was in a field.

 

Absolutely no idea what happened or why.  I had done the same bend flat out dozens of times without incident.

 

The bike had the usual scuffed clutch cover, missing footpeg rubber, bent brake pedal, bent front brake lever type stuff and was in a rideable condition.

Edited July 14, 2024 by Tinkicker

[S-Westerly]

12 hours ago, Tinkicker said:

Fast...

Circa 1980.  1979 Honda CB250N Superdream in silver.

 

Not far from the CX500 crash area.  I was on the A road leading to it.  It was a quiet A road leading across the countryside between Woodkirk and Wakefield.

At one point it dropped downhill between a lot of trees, had a slight bend RH bend at the bottom, then went uphill.  Calling it a bend is pushing it.  It was more of a slight deviation in course.

 

So, I am dropping down the hill, trees on both sides, crouched down behind the clocks and throttle held wide open as usual.  For me, in those days, road bike throttles were two position affairs.  Closed and wide open.

 

The speedo needle crept up.  78..79...80..81...82.  I approached the slight bend flat out as I had dozens of times before.  I found myself skating on my back, through an open gate into a field, following the bike.  There was no transition.  One second I was upright, crouched behind the clocks, the next I was in a field.

 

Absolutely no idea what happened or why.  I had done the same bend flat out dozens of times without incident.

 

The bike had the usual scuffed clutch cover, missing footpeg rubber, bent brake pedal, bent front brake lever type stuff and was in a rideable condition.

I had a Superdream but it was a year older. It was my only high speed (about 60 mph) in wet weather on the A5 near Corwen. My ambition exceeded my competency and I slid into a rock face sideways. Bike was more broken than me but was repairable.