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This is a long one, but an adventure nonetheless.
My friend called me up tonight asking if I wanted to go for a ride. About an hour's ride away (via backroads instead of the 30 min freeway ride) is his fiancee, waiting for something he had to go drop off. He was going to ride there, so I said I'd come along.
We hit the road on our bikes, him on his 92 Katana 600, me on my GS. It was fun times; we rolled up and down through the gears, got some good curves and such, but then things went wrong.
I was riding down the frontage road next to the freeway next to the airport. I saw something black on the road ahead, then figured out it was a gouge in the road.
It wasn't a gouge; it was a pothole, a big one. I hit it pretty hard, and heard an unwelcome smacking sound behind me. I looked back, and sure enough my entire tail section was sitting in the road.
After doing my bike's first appearance mod - removing the rear fender and custom mounting the license plate - I had ziptied the tail section to the steel of the bike.
Well the pothole managed to rip out all the zipties, and the tail went flying.
Seconds after beginning my run back to the tail, a mustang ran it over. That kinda sucked. The guy was really apologetic, but what the hell was either of us to do about the situation. I used what remained of the zip ties to shoddily strap down what remained of the no longer pristine tail cowl and tail light. It did not look pretty. The lense was 80% gone, but somehow the light bulb had survived, so it was functional.
We rode on, the light falling off a few more times on the way, but we made it to meet his fiancee only 45 minutes late. While he was talking to her I went to the nearest grocery store (luckily still open at 10pm) and got to McGuyvering.
I bought a maroon colored (closest I could find) clear document folder, clear box tape, and zip ties. I went to town with the zipties, then sliced up the folder to use as a light lense. It looks pink now, but it works well enough that I think it could pass the Johnny Law test.
So the ride went ok beyond that. We decided to hit the freeway for the ride back (my first freeway ride with this bike) and cruise home. Note to self and others: A Kerker 4-1 is defening on the freeway. The 6,000rpm resonance at 75mph or so is horrible.
I blasted up and down on the freeway a few times and had fun with it. The tail stuck around just fine after all my rigging.
So we get off the freeway, hit a few surface roads and part ways as my friend headed to his apartment.
This all takes place in the span of less than 5 seconds, but bear with me on the seemingly protracted time scale: Seconds later on a 6 lane road I see this truck to my right about to pull out and make a left in front of me. I could swear he saw me because he seemed to hesitate, then he just starts creeping. He doesn't hit the gas to pull out like he meant it, and didn't stop for me either, he just went 5mph or so across the 3 lanes as I gradually moved left hammering the brakes down from 60mph to avoid this guy as he kept moving in front of my lane every time. By the time I was 20 feet away from him, still going 20mph or so on full braking, he finally stopped. By then I was in the center turn lane and he was 3 lanes across in the middle of the eastbound side of the road. I barely missed his nose.
I was cussing my brains out as I passed him by. Talk about a heart stopper.
Thank God I saw this guy in time, because he couldn't see sh!t until it was waaaay too close to too late. That was my 2nd cager turning left experience.
I went to the grocery store near my house and picked up some microwave dinners and put them in my backpack, and headed home. It's always an adventure when he's with me, my friend said.
My friend called me up tonight asking if I wanted to go for a ride. About an hour's ride away (via backroads instead of the 30 min freeway ride) is his fiancee, waiting for something he had to go drop off. He was going to ride there, so I said I'd come along.
We hit the road on our bikes, him on his 92 Katana 600, me on my GS. It was fun times; we rolled up and down through the gears, got some good curves and such, but then things went wrong.
I was riding down the frontage road next to the freeway next to the airport. I saw something black on the road ahead, then figured out it was a gouge in the road.
It wasn't a gouge; it was a pothole, a big one. I hit it pretty hard, and heard an unwelcome smacking sound behind me. I looked back, and sure enough my entire tail section was sitting in the road.
After doing my bike's first appearance mod - removing the rear fender and custom mounting the license plate - I had ziptied the tail section to the steel of the bike.
Well the pothole managed to rip out all the zipties, and the tail went flying.
Seconds after beginning my run back to the tail, a mustang ran it over. That kinda sucked. The guy was really apologetic, but what the hell was either of us to do about the situation. I used what remained of the zip ties to shoddily strap down what remained of the no longer pristine tail cowl and tail light. It did not look pretty. The lense was 80% gone, but somehow the light bulb had survived, so it was functional.
We rode on, the light falling off a few more times on the way, but we made it to meet his fiancee only 45 minutes late. While he was talking to her I went to the nearest grocery store (luckily still open at 10pm) and got to McGuyvering.
I bought a maroon colored (closest I could find) clear document folder, clear box tape, and zip ties. I went to town with the zipties, then sliced up the folder to use as a light lense. It looks pink now, but it works well enough that I think it could pass the Johnny Law test.
So the ride went ok beyond that. We decided to hit the freeway for the ride back (my first freeway ride with this bike) and cruise home. Note to self and others: A Kerker 4-1 is defening on the freeway. The 6,000rpm resonance at 75mph or so is horrible.
I blasted up and down on the freeway a few times and had fun with it. The tail stuck around just fine after all my rigging.
So we get off the freeway, hit a few surface roads and part ways as my friend headed to his apartment.
This all takes place in the span of less than 5 seconds, but bear with me on the seemingly protracted time scale: Seconds later on a 6 lane road I see this truck to my right about to pull out and make a left in front of me. I could swear he saw me because he seemed to hesitate, then he just starts creeping. He doesn't hit the gas to pull out like he meant it, and didn't stop for me either, he just went 5mph or so across the 3 lanes as I gradually moved left hammering the brakes down from 60mph to avoid this guy as he kept moving in front of my lane every time. By the time I was 20 feet away from him, still going 20mph or so on full braking, he finally stopped. By then I was in the center turn lane and he was 3 lanes across in the middle of the eastbound side of the road. I barely missed his nose.
I was cussing my brains out as I passed him by. Talk about a heart stopper.
Thank God I saw this guy in time, because he couldn't see sh!t until it was waaaay too close to too late. That was my 2nd cager turning left experience.
I went to the grocery store near my house and picked up some microwave dinners and put them in my backpack, and headed home. It's always an adventure when he's with me, my friend said.
Thanks for the reminder about the stupid things others do. It can save someone's life or limb. 
8) 
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