Part one:
http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/sh...ad.php?t=39808
Part 2:
http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/sh...ad.php?t=39809
Part 3:
http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/sh...ad.php?t=40711
After writing off my T250 Suzuki for the second time, I decided
to stay of bikes for a couple of years. That was my intention,
honestly.
My parents and my girlfriend breathed a sigh of relief and I
went out and purchased a Mark IV Zephyr which could do the ton
flat to the floorboards. My girlfriend lent me some money to
help pay for it as for some reason funds seemed to be a little
tight.
That's a whole new saga again, so I'll drop that one right there
seeing it has nothing to do with motorbikes. Suffice to say
that the V6 ended up with a V front and was written off after I
attempted to take the corner, at my girlfriends farm driveway, at
a higher pace than the gravel road was designed for. It didn't
help that her mother was parked just inside the gate behind the hedge
and was picking peaches. I loved drifting around that corner and
what a dum place to stop! Guess what sort of car she had?
Remember those nasty Morris Marina's that took me out in Part one?
I also found out that large Kauri posts, that are buried deep in the
ground for gate strainers, don't actually give a lot when you try
and shrink wrap them with a couple of tons of Aussie steel. The
headlining in the roof gives off an awful amount of dust when you
stop suddenly too.
Anyway, it pays to stay on the good side of your future Mother in Law
so there wasn't much of a decision was there? The car was forfeited
to pave the way for future harmony, one month after I got it.
However, I don't think she was too impressed for some reason?
So, here we were, two weeks off christmas with no transport and minimal
capital, uninsured and not exactly the bank managers best friend.
I was offered a little Honda SL125 at a fairly reasonable price with
the option to pay it off. That became our sole means of transport
for about eight months. Imagine, two up on a little trail bike.
Well, you know me. I love bikes, I love riding and my girlfriend just
happened to live on a farm with about 50 acres of different terrain.
Life was looking good once more.
Now, this part of my story goes off road, but believe me, there is
much that one can learn off road that is directly applicable to on
road riding and being still in my teens, you can do some pretty
dum things on trail bikes too. You know that when you go riding, you
cover the same roads often and assume that they will be the same
next day, next week or sometime later. I don't anymore, but I did
back then.
Tip: Assumption is the prelude to disaster. Remember that.
I spotted some guys on Motocrossers when Porchester road was just
one big piece of countryside. The graders had dug up one of those
big dirt mounds and these guys had made a track over the top, through
a ditch,a large pond with heaps of mud and a wide grassy area.
Man it looked cool. I raced home (if you can call it that, on a 125)
got my large gumboots on and waterproof trousers and rode back all excited
to join in. I'd been practicing on the farm you see.
Man, those guys were fast, in the mud, in the dirt, in the grass.
I had to stay with them of course. The gumboot was down and out,
the throttle was pinned, the poor little engine was valve bouncing at
15,000rpm and it was a ball. What an awesome feeling racing through all
the crap the countryside can throw at you, going all out on a
trail bike. After half an hour of that, I was covered in mud and grass
and my bike looked like it had been dumped in a swamp. I had
an epiphany and fancied myself as a motocross rider.
The other guys took off and I thought, there's a nice big open grassy
area over there where I can speed up and shake off some mud.
I pin the Honda and head across the grass sitting in the saddle
at about 70kmh. Thats fast in high grass. Felt good too, real good.
I'm riding along, feeling like easy rider, enjoying myself immensely.
That is until I saw the deep, two foot wide drain directly in front of me.
I try and get off the seat and yank the front up hard. The front wheel
clears the other side but the rear drops down and whacks the other bank.
I'm only off the seat a couple of inches so imagine a B & D session
where someone takes to your arse with a bit of six by two. I get
a good whalloping from the seat, which has me upside down with my feet
pointing at the sky, but I've still got the bars in my hands.
Well, for a few seconds at least.
The rear wheel hit the other bank so hard, it rips the rear chain
adjusters clean off the swingarm, decides the chain isn't strong
enough for the bike either and then proceeds to try and carry on
without a rear wheel when I'm upside down at this point in time.
I've never been into gymnastics and didn't really want to start
now, so it was about this time that enertia took over. The bike
slowed rather quickly as the swingarm dug into the dirt so my
point of balance was upset somewhat. Besides, I was sick of being
upside down anyway. The bars were ripped from my grasp, I flop
over onto my legs, me going left the bike going right.
Sadly, the human body hasn't quite got the ability to go from
a high speed off to a matched pace run in a split second.
Rolling is quite a good technique when faced with such a predicament
as this. You tuck your head in, hit the ground, roll, bounce,
roll, bounce... I think you get the picture.
After a while you stop. Breathing is kinda hard and a large
percentage of your protoplasmic mass hurts a lot more than it should.
The sky looks real cool. I'm pleased that I'm actually looking at.
After a while I get up. I hurt all over, there is no one in sight.
My ankle is sprained, my wrist appears to be sprained as well and the
grass looks like a large portion of the Space Shuttle came in for
an emergency landing.
It took me an hour to get the back wheel on, using sixteen guage wire
and the pliers from under my seat. I don't know how long it took
me to push the bike home, but I made it. I was sore for weeks.
After I got the parts to fix the bike and it was all up and running,
I decided I hadn't been on the farm in a while. I ask my sisters young
brother (13 at the time) if he would like to come for a blast on the
long hill paddock.
You don't have to ask these young ones twice do you. He was on the
back, quick as a flash. This is the countryside, so you don't wear
helmets and gloves.
I get up the end of the paddock, turn around and gun the SL125.
We head back towards the barbed wire fence and barberry hedge.
It's slightly downhill so you can hit close to 80kmh before you need
to start braking. Your eyes are watering from the speed and man
it feels so fast. Awesome.
You approach the slight rise where you can go airborne and yep, sure
enough, we go airborne, even two up. While in the air, it's always
a good habit to check out your runway, something you need to do
yourself as there is no control tower. But, obviously, this is
best attended to before one decides to go for flying lessons with
a pillion. The local rabbit population has been real busy over the
last couple of months doing what rabbits do best. There's
no grass; in fact the runway has gone. Instead, it looks like an
American warthog has been through on a bombing run.
My pillion freezes behind me at the sight of such devastation, or
perhaps he's thinking of the consequences of what certainly looks
like a rough landing. There's no backups at this point, too low
for parachutes and it's all happening too quick anyway.
I've already had a taste of what's in store and quite frankly, I'm
not looking forward to it.
This time the whole bike goes into the rabbits warren and ploughs
out the other side. It's a messy landing alright; we're airborne
again but with a good kick up the backside again. My pillion is
busy rearranging my hairdo, or should I say, trying to pull handfuls
of hair out of my head. His ankles are either side of my head about
eye height. So he's considerably higher than I am and then there's
the fence and hedge to worry about.
This seems pretty drawn out but it's all taking place in a matter
of seconds. I wrestle the bars, shift my weight to keep her straight
and we come in for a hard landing, the bike wobbles violently and
thankfully I manage to keep her straight until the pillion comes in
for their landing. They whack into my back and hit the seat hard
and the speed wobbles are on again. The bike is all over the place
but amazingly becomes a little more composed. Enough for me to hit
the brakes real hard. The hedge is approaching a bit quicker than
I would like but we can't turn at this speed. It's close. My front
tyre ends up spreading the wires a little.
My girlfriends brother, decides it's safer to walk back to the farm
house. Now I'm not going to argue with that, am I?
Anyone keen for a pillion ride perchance?
Part one final:
http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/sh...ad.php?t=40947
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Originally Posted by iwilde
On the way home to his place after a night on the plonk we would escort him and pick him up at every stop sign/traffic light, because he never put his feet down.
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