| Author | Message | ||
     Crusty |
Did you ever have a ride that was distinctive for a weird reason? A couple of years ago, I took a ride up to Bennington, Vermont to have lunch at the Blue Benn Diner. I decided to take all back roads, since I was in no hurry and I wanted to enjoy a leisurely day trip. As I was leaving Leominster, I saw a dead porcupine on the road. However, as the ride progressed, I kept seeing dead porcupines. By the time I got back home, I must have seen almost a dozen of them. That’s a lot for a 300 mile ride. It had me wondering if there had been a population explosion of Porcupines, or if it was just a coincidence. I guess it was the latter, ‘cause I seldom see a lot of dead porcupines since that ride. Back in 1981, I took an 11,000 mile trip around the country with my best friends. We took a couple of months, and had a really good time. One thing I can’t forget though is the number of times I got stung by bees on that trip. First, a bee got into the back of my leather jacket as we were riding through Kentucky. It stung me twice on the back before I could get stopped and get the jacket off. Then, another bee got me on the arm as it went up my sleeve in Texas. The worst bee sting I’ve ever gotten was in Utah. As we were heading north on I-15, I caught a bee at 70 MPH. It hit me in the face right beside my nose. The venom (Toxin?) went into my sinuses, and burned like I couldn’t believe. Did you ever get soda up your nose? It felt like that, only amplified about a brazillion times. We pulled into the first rest area that came up, and I laid on the grass in pain for over an hour. To add insult to injury, the next day, as we were riding through Idaho, I felt a bug hit my sunglasses and it went into my helmet up by my temple. When I reached in to dig out the remains, I discovered that the bug was a bee, and the impact with my glasses didn’t kill it. It stung me on the finger. I didn’t know I could remove a helmet while riding at 70 MPH so fast. Five times I got stung in one trip. That’s a record that I hope stands forever. Another odd thing about that trip was the times that the bikes developed problems. The three bikes were very dissimilar. I was riding a ’78 FXE (H-D Superglide), Ron was on a ’76 Guzzi 850 and Melia was riding a Honda CB 500/4. All three bikes had something go wrong with the ignition switch at the same time. My bike wouldn’t shut off; I could switch the lights on and off, but the switch would not turn to the off position. Melia’s Honda spit out its key while going down the road, and something happened to Ron’s bike, but now I can’t remember what. Fortunately, Melia had a spare key, and I bought a new key switch for my bike when we got to Colorado Springs. Later on, though while traveling through the Rocky Mountains, Ron’s bike lost an exhaust mounting bolt, Melia’s entire exhaust loosened up, and the bracket that tied the exhaust to the frame on my bike broke. We tightened Melia’s exhaust pipes, found a bolt for Ron’s bike and when we got to Darby, Montana, I welded up my broken bracket. It’s interesting when strange things make a trip memorable, but I like it. How many trips go so smoothly that after a short while we barely remember them? When there is a little adversity to be overcome or something really unusual, we remember that ride for a lot longer. | ||
| Strokizator |
I took a drive around the Michigan UP last fall and saw so many dead porcupines and raccoons along the side of the road that I began to think they use them as mile markers up there. I usually get stung at least once a year and wasps really put the hurt to you. Got a bee sting once on my lower lip and it swelled up to about 5 times its normal size (like Bubba in Forest Gump, only worse). Now I'll never make the cover of People magazine, even on a good day, and I got some real strange looks (more like pity) for the next 12 hours. I had my wife with me and people had this puzzled look on their faces trying to figure out what this cute girl was doing with such an ugly guy. Earlier this month I finished an 8900 mile ride where nothing went wrong. OK, one day I had to add 4 psi to my rear tire but that's about it. I think all the newer bikes are so well built that the days of having to bring a mechanic and a handful of spare parts along are largely over. | ||
| Phelan |
That's why you gotta ride the 18-20 y/o bikes, so you can enjoy the anxious exhilaration of not knowing if you'll make it! lol | ||
| Bienhoabob |
My buddy and I took a backroad tour of Wisconsin. He thought he was super cool and took off his windshield before the trip. And of course, riding without a helmet. Well we came across an area famous for its cranberry bogs. Dragonflies must had been having a festival or something. They were big and out by the hundreds, if not thousand. My Road Glide was taking on machine gun fire. I looked back at my buddy, He was driving one handed. The other hand was swinging wildly around his face, trying to protect himself from the onslaught. Funniest thing I ever saw. But he was cool! |
