The Age and the Motorcycle

This entry isn't what you thought. It's a personal comparitive study of age done through the motorcycle. I won't be doing a thesis on this one. When I was young, about 20, I had a wreck on my bike. Headed to a split in the road I had already committed to the left when a white van came up the lane towards me with another white van parked in my lane. In a split second I had to decide whether to hit an oncoming van headon, a parked van, or try to jump the curb. I found there was no good choice as I selected the curb. My riding buddies said it was cool. The bike and I flew about 50 feet as we made it about 20 feet in the air, landing about 10 feet apart. Somehow, I had the wind knocked out of me, broke my helmet (required in PA then), and had some minor abrasions. I got up and walked away from all that only to dismiss all the others so I could catch up later. I found then that my bike had a critical injury (broken rear axel) and couldn't make the trip. Now, the comparison here isn't about the bike. It's the age. Yesterday (about 32 years later) I finished mowing the lawn and put the yard equipment away. I usually ride the bike in behind it, but decided I would just push it into its little garage. In the process, I bumped the kickstand up without knowing it. So, standing on the left in the cramped space I started to rest the bike on the kickstand that wasn't there. It was past 45-degrees before I knew what happened and caught the weight with my left hand still on the grip. I got the bike up fine, but not without severely spraining my left wrist and suffering pain that just doesn't fit the description. The difference is the years. It sucks getting old. A simple thing that would have been a laugh at stupidity 30 years ago now took away a long weekend of riding. It really sucks! My point? Ride every minute you can. If you're not old now, you will be. Enjoy riding like I did when I was young... almost every day. When you've earned your years, be careful. It doesn't take much and all those "walk-away" injuries of our youth remind us daily with delayed pain. I hope everyone has a safe, long weekend of riding.