Graeme had his "my shifter gave me the shaft" moment in commuter traffic this morning. As Graeme's on Mountain Time and I'm doing time in Central, I had likely completed my same day pucker moment on the road.
I won't preach hot days to you Arizona guys but we've also been having a few 100 degree days lately. The sun had just popped the horizon when I launched on a ride up through a couple North Texas counties. Temps were already warming but I had on the gear, as usual.
Was on a northbound Interstate service road heading for a loop around a norhtern lake. About 50-55 mph when the dark tar section in the road became a huge curb-to-curb chuck hole... ditch actually, with the far edge looking like a single run of brickwork.
Did not want to compress the forks by braking heavily, so grabbed a handful of throttle to lighten the front end and stood up on the pegs. WHAM! The seat came up and smacked me smartly but the sweet R65 stayed straight. Except the engine immediately died.
Fortunately, no traffic so I coasted to the side and then noticed my headlight and rim were dangling by their wiring and happily banging on the front fender. I thought to myself, "Self, the problems likely up front." It was.
The shortest wire was the one that came free. A spade connector to my ignition switch mounted in the headlight shell parted and shut off the engine. Plugged it back in, double tightened that silly headlamp ring screw and spent the next couple hours cruising happily. No tire or rim damage and my pulse rate never did go up. Deja vu motocross days all over again.
Monte
