Thud scrape the real story

While Sue calls it a splat, but it was more of a thud scrape. Damage to me was just a bruised shin where I hit the right cylinder and/or exhaust pipe. My riding pants were a little melted on the right shin. And a bit of a sore shoulder. The bike got a little more damage: left turn signal lens only, not even the bulb. I was surprised that the stalk wasn't broken but I think the windshield saved it. It was pressed back on the mounts and scratched. The mirror stalk and mount were broken. Some scrapes on the clutch lever and bar end and the hard case was scraped pretty deep. I took it to the Guzzi dealer Friday, got nearly everything fixed and the front end checked, no damage there. The scrapes on the clutch lever, bar end and windshield are still there but everything else is nearly as good as new. They had gotten a good deal on the hard case cover from a distributer that was clearing out stock and they even had a pair of gray ones that matched. It's a simple replacement. I haven't gotten to that yet, probably latter today or Monday. All in all it cost less than $90 to repair the damage. It could have been worse. I wasn't hit after I went down.

What happened was I was slowing down getting ready to make a left turn. I was probably going about 5mph when a car came real quickly in front of me. I guess he thought I wasn't going fast enough. I grabbed the brakes and of course when your front tire skids you go down. Dumb Driver left as soon as he saw me get up. He didn't actually hit me so I guess it wasn't his fault.

It wasn't the first time I've dumped a bike, I hope it's the last one though.

Oops! Ray Goes Splat!

Poor Ray was on his way home yesterday and had an unplanned dismount.

He's ok, although when he arrived home he had a sore shoulder and a huge lump on a leg and he was pretty mad. His bike is some banged up. Right now he's on his way to the Two-Hundred Dollar Store so they can look at what all they have to fix and order and to have it checked out, to make sure nothing mechanical got twisted up.

He went to the doctor this am and got the lump on his leg looked at. The opinion is that he broke a blood vessel deep down and it will probably bruise up one day soon.

His armored pants got a little scorched in the same area he got the lump, so he thinks he hit the block when he went down.

But I Thank God that he had on a full set of gear, or it might have been alot worse.

I'll let him tell you about the accident and the cost of repairs.

Hey, Lady, Wanna Ride?

Last evening Geneva hopped into my sidecar and we went to supper at Taco Bell. Then, we decided to get in some ride time by visiting some of the ladies we know.

It was great fun seeing their faces when they saw us sitting in their driveways in our helmets and gear. Suprisingly, everyone declined the generous offer of a ride in the sidecar. Some of them declined rather vehemently. Huh.

We think we might do it again next Monday!

As you know, last week we spent in a cabin in the woods along Puget Sound. Yes, there are still a very few wooded areas along the Sound, and they are beautiful.

Here's the living room of our cabin. Ignore the large rump in the bedroom, ok?



And here's the teensy little kitchen



So far, pretty spartan, right? But, this was the view a few feet from the cabin and the views made up for alot of spartan.



There is a tidal "island" there. Here's Normie enjoying some leash-free time on the island!



Several times we saw the resident bald eagle pair. The male is sitting on the top of this tree.



We went to Anacortes one day and there was a fog bank out in the Sound, into which several boats and a tug disappeared. Washington's version of the Bermuda Triangle, I guess.



Betty and Ron came to visit and we took a walk in Washington Park in Anacortes.



The fog was trying to get up the headland.



Then we went to visit Deception Pass and walked out on the bridge. Still the fog is trying to get inland.



But it didn't get far. See?



We took time to capture a view of the bridge that most tourists don't get.



We watched a heron fishing one afternoon. He is a very patient fisherman.



Here's the view straight off the back deck of the cabin.



The view to the east:



The view to the west was not bad either:



Blue skies all day but one.



Phones mostly didn't work, internet a goodly hike away, a tv sized to match the cabin and no street lights. We could not get much further from the hustle and bustle and noise of our everyday lives. We read books, napped and took alot of walks. Norman's paws were dragging by the time we left. He didn't even want to go for one last walk. He wanted to get in that car and ride for a change. I'd go back tomorrow, if I could.

I'm chicken sitting the next two weeks. I can already tell you chickens don't herd well. And they eat ALOT. And they don't listen when you tell them it's bed time and they better get tucked up in the coop. Chickens are not very well organized (not like sheep) and don't take to direction (like cats) or suggestion (like teenagers) or even threats of being turned into drumsticks. (I've never threatened to turn someone else into drumsticks, so I have no comparison to offer you) I'm still waiting for one of the 20 hens to lay an egg.

Justin's Home!

Our wandering son has come home. He arrived yesterday afternoon and suprised us. Ray had talked to him on the phone the day before, and Justin didn't tell him where he was, at least not truthfully. So we were thinking he was in Utah and he was 700 miles east of there. He got to spend part of 4th of July with his brother at Big Lake. And then he came home. He's staying here for the time being.

We all rode out to supper tonight. We had a mini-pack of bikes and it was fun. For all you who think I've gone over to the Harley side, I wore my armored jacket and helmet and thus refute the assertion that I'm riding sans gear.

Justin refuses to ride in my sidecar. Wimp!!!

We had rain here on Dayton Ave today, lovely rain. Nicely, it quit and the sun came out for our ride to supper. Good well-behaved weather for that short time. More rain to come. We need it, the grass and trees and shrubs are so dry. The rhododendrons wilted and I had to water them. You know it's dry when you have to water the rhodies.

Parking Lot Practice

Sounds dull, doesn't it? When you are riding a sidecar rig, PLP is anything but dull.

Our first exercise was to lay out a 50 foot circle (we used tennis balls sawed in half--works good! They pop up when you run over them and land on their backs, rocking like stranded turtles) and then drive clockwise around the circle carrying various weights until the sidecar wheel comes up off the ground.

With 100 pounds ballast, the sidecar will fly at about 15 mph when turning in a 50 foot circle. All it takes is a little bump, and that car flies. Fortunately, I can't do a 50 foot circle at a sustained 15 mph. I can hold it up to about 10 mph. Past that, the opposing force is too strong for me. So I never did make the car fly, although Ray did several times. That circle was hard for him too. It takes alot of upper body strength. It's ok by me. I didn't like watching him fly it, don't think I'd like doing it myself. Ewww shudder shudder!



Then we did some weave practice...laid out half tennis balls 30 feet apart and tried to see how fast we could weave in and out. Fun! And we did quick stop and quick start practice. And just plain turn practice.

When you have a sidecar attached, it changes the physics. The car has less momentum when you start, so it pulls the whole rig to the right. Right turns after a stop are a breeze! But stopping, it still has momentum and so it pushes the rig to the left. If you do quick starts or stops, it can really pull the rig around and it takes shoulder and arm muscles to keep it going straight.

I want you all to know that while Ray can fly the car, I can make it stay in a straight line when stopping and starting waaay better than he can!

We decided after practice to go up to Red Line Burgers for lunch. The owner there is a motorcyclist and so we had to show off my new ride plus eat really good burgers and the best homemade onion rings in the city. Ray rode in the sidecar to the PLP and to Red Line, and I rode in the sidecar home. That's how I know he wanders all over on stops and starts. I got a road's eye view. Holy cow, that sidecar seat is LOW! It feels like your butt is going to scrape on the pavement any minute. And there's no side mirror for the sidecar passenger either. But it was fun anyhow. Ray has a tendency to hug the right side of the lane, but he was not interested in my constructive comments regarding this placement. Can you imagine?

When we got home, we decided to go grocery shopping, so Ray got Silver and his jacket out of the garage and we went to Albertson's. We had plenty of room for groceries in the sidecar. But we parked in the corner of the lot in the shade and the dratted shopping cart had one of those auto-lock systems and the system decided the groceries were too far away when it was still 15 feet from the motorcycles. So we had to ferry the groceries those last 15 feet. In the blistering heat.

It is hot here today, hotter even than yesterday. I have to admit to all the people at whom I have preached ATTGATT that I rode without a jacket today. My new mesh jacket isn't here yet and my old mesh jacket has a new owner and now lives in Olympia. I could not bear the thought of wearing my cool weather jacket in close to 90 degrees, so I wore a long sleeved shirt instead. Ahhhhh! Bearable, except for this oven clamped on my head.

He's Home! He's Home!

Mr. Burgman, proudly wearing his sidecar, is resting contentedly in our garage tonight. (and hogging quite a bit of the garage too) The installer and the factory owner talked to us a bit about the sidecar and riding a sidecar rig and we both rode it around the parking lot a few times and then we took off.

I rode Mr. Burgman and Ray drove the airconditioned van. I think he had the advantage as it was about 86 degrees when we left Enumclaw.

We stopped first at Kain's Corner Restaurant for supper. It was a nice first practice ride over to the restaurant on country roads without alot of traffic, except for bikes. We saw alot of bikes tonight! We sat around Kain's, ate a delicious dinner and took off from there about 5:30.

After talking with people at the factory, since I had never ridden Mr. Burgman before and not a sidecar before, they recommended we take highway 99 north instead of the jammed up bumper to bumper freeway. I was glad we did. But I did get some bits of freeway riding in, as we went on highway 18 and parts of 99 are freeway. So I got a bit of everything from town traffic to no traffic and speeds from 30-60.

I've already got the hang of braking, which is different with a sidecar. It wants to pull at startup and stopping. You can finesse the brakes to make a smooth straight line stop, but there's nothing but muscle for taking off and quick stops. Between my shoulders it kind of aches. I expect that will be gone by morning.

Tomorrow, some parking lot practice with different ballast weights in the car, to see if I can find the point at which the car will raise with the different weights. And practice turns and stops and take-offs. Although, the installer said he tried to get the car to lift while he was out on his test ride, and he couldn't do it even with no ballast. I think that's a good sign. He also said it was so much fun, he thinks the owner should buy all the staff a Bergman and sidecar.

So far, I ADORE Mr. Burgman and his sidecar. It's not so different from my trike, except my trike always wanted to go straight and Mr. Burgman wants to turn at times. Once we're at a steady speed, he maneuvers just fine.

Mr. Burgman is a fine, muscular scooter. The factory owner said to me, "THIS is a motorcycle in scooter clothes." And that's just about it. He wants to go fast, fast, fast!




See! I DID let Ray ride it!