Another crash
by
, 1st March 2009 at 21:48 (1122 Views)
Back in 78 I traded in my Honda CB175 on a Suzuki GT380M, two stoke triple. A bike with a lot of chrome, four exhausts, and digital dash it was a reasonably advanced bike and I thought it pretty quick. I'd already come off the Honda a couple of times but thought I was invincible.
I was visiting a friend who lived at the top of the big hill just out of Cheltenham and we headed of down to the Cheltenham dairy. He was on a GT250 2 up so I just blatted past him down the hill. I didn't expect the strong side wind at the bottom of the cutting and didn't know how to recat, slamming on the front brake at speed down hill.
It's amazing how crashes always happen in slow motion. Loading the extra weight from braking onto the front forks magnified the effect of the speed wobbles which was an unreal experience.
As I flew over the handle bars in my helmet, long leather gloves, woolen jersey and jeans all I could think about was how I was going to land, sliding on my wrists and forearms.
I was lucky, a lot of blood but no breaks. The helmet was stuffed and I had slight concussion. I slid on the leather riding gloves when I first hit the road which saved the rest of me from being too badly hurt.
A lovely lady in a new Falcon stopped and took me, bleeding over her seats, to hospital.
My old man only asked about the bike,which pissed me off, but now I know he didn't know what to say.
I came out with a quite few scars, a false appendix scar from my belt buckle, and the bike .... They fixed that, bent frame and all.