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Too Polite


peterg

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A few years ago, riding our 83 Aspencade in Waterton National Park. My wife was on the back, our little dog on her (removable) dog seat ahead of me. We were only moving about 10 miles per hour past ice-cream eaters on the sidewalk. A beautiful summer day and my brother and his wife were on their bike (almost identical to ours) behind us. A lady decided to cross (jaywalk, but that doesn't matter) ahead of us to reach the ice-cream eaters. I could have just rolled on and made her wait, but just to show how polite motorcyclists really are, I chose to stop. And I wanted to stop really smoothly (for those ice-cream eaters) too, so I slowed and put my left foot down. Unfortunately as I (smoothly) put my left foot down and planted it, the bike was still (smoothly) rolling forward for about 18" after I had (smoothly) planted my foot.

(An "Oh Crap!" moment)

Down we went. Judy and I just stepped off the bike, and Chica the dog jumped off and began immediately trying to get back on. My brother and wife came running, but Judy, (who I think was as embarrassed as I was) and I picked the bike back up onto its wheels. After spending a minute or two cranking the engine getting the flooded carbs to dry out, we rode (smoothly and avoiding eye contact with the ice-cream eaters) out of there. (Never let 'em see you sweat.) I think my face was the same colour (burgundy) as my bike. We got our ice-cream somewhere else.

 

I've done the side stand down trick too. Our Goldwing doesn't have a side-stand kill switch, and I seem to forget when I stop to use my cell phone or some such thing, and I don't actually get off or stop the engine. Left a Pincher Creek gas station a while ago, stopped to call home, then turned right onto the road, right to go around a traffic circle, and as I began to turn left around the circle, felt/heard it touch. It was too late to turn right out of the circle, so I stopped just before hitting the concrete triangle. There I was in a bunch of loose gravel, waiting for traffic to ease so I could back up and leave.

 

How do I donate?

 

Peter

83 Goldwing

06 RSTD

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