Bassil Duwaik
Tue Oct 10th, 2006, 01:57 PM
This is for those of you out there who think I’m articulating my posts as though I’m a “perfect” rider. I’m far from perfect and have had my share of accidents.
My first accident was a few years ago. I had just turned 18 I think and was out ridinging around with some friends having the time o my life. Little did I know that that wasn’t all what was in store for me!
So it’s about 3am, a warm late summer night with the crickets buzzing and fate about to show me how in a matter of fractions of a second you could be kissing the asphalt. There I was lost in some mammoth pitch black parking lot circling around when off to my left in the distance I could make out what appeared to be an exit.
“Finally” I said to myself. As I proceeded to turn the bike towards the exit something roughly less then 6 feet in front of me in the road had caught my eye. It didn’t look menacing but because of the way the headlights are on a bike when turning you can’t really see anything in front of you till it’s directly in front of you, which more often than not is too little too late.
Next thing I knew my front tire had wedged it’s in a pothole…more like a damn trench that caught my front tire and flipped the bike over faster then I could blink. I ended up sliding some twenty feet and the bike went about twenty-five feet. My hands were numb from grinding on the asphalt and my cloths looked like rags.
After turning off the bike, shaking my head a few times and walking in paces around the lot cursing at all there was to curse I flickered my lighter at the “trench.” I couldn’t help but wonder if someone had carved that “trench” out just for me to come along and have my world turned upside down. It was a perfect six inch deep, four inches wide, and nine inches long trench that seemed to look like a lock and my front tire was the key.
My second wreck was due to stupidly and nothing less. I decided to show off in front of a group of friends doing wheelies. One min. I'm on top of the world and the next the world is trying to grind me to a pulp. As I was coming down from what I had thought was a flawless wheelie my front tire wasn’t straight. The bike started to wobble; it went from left to right and next thing I knew I was in the air. Bike slide under a pickup truck and I slid out into the intersection.
I ran my ass back across the street without a scratch thanks to the gear we ALL should be wearing, but a little sore from the fall. The lady driving the truck was really cool. She offered to give me a ride where I wanted to go, and with the help of some friends we got my bike loaded and off I was as though nothing had happened. My pride and my pocket hurt more then my body did. yes, I know it was very very very very dumb of me, but that's life.
Accident #3, pray there will never be a number three but I’m sure there will be…it is inherit to the sport. Weather your driving a car or riding we are all only human, and eventually even if you’re the safest freaking driver/rider out there statistics don’t lie and you will either by your own hands or someone else’s find yourself in the same boat.
Yup the story of my life…so I’m far from perfect but I try to learn…
My first accident was a few years ago. I had just turned 18 I think and was out ridinging around with some friends having the time o my life. Little did I know that that wasn’t all what was in store for me!
So it’s about 3am, a warm late summer night with the crickets buzzing and fate about to show me how in a matter of fractions of a second you could be kissing the asphalt. There I was lost in some mammoth pitch black parking lot circling around when off to my left in the distance I could make out what appeared to be an exit.
“Finally” I said to myself. As I proceeded to turn the bike towards the exit something roughly less then 6 feet in front of me in the road had caught my eye. It didn’t look menacing but because of the way the headlights are on a bike when turning you can’t really see anything in front of you till it’s directly in front of you, which more often than not is too little too late.
Next thing I knew my front tire had wedged it’s in a pothole…more like a damn trench that caught my front tire and flipped the bike over faster then I could blink. I ended up sliding some twenty feet and the bike went about twenty-five feet. My hands were numb from grinding on the asphalt and my cloths looked like rags.
After turning off the bike, shaking my head a few times and walking in paces around the lot cursing at all there was to curse I flickered my lighter at the “trench.” I couldn’t help but wonder if someone had carved that “trench” out just for me to come along and have my world turned upside down. It was a perfect six inch deep, four inches wide, and nine inches long trench that seemed to look like a lock and my front tire was the key.
My second wreck was due to stupidly and nothing less. I decided to show off in front of a group of friends doing wheelies. One min. I'm on top of the world and the next the world is trying to grind me to a pulp. As I was coming down from what I had thought was a flawless wheelie my front tire wasn’t straight. The bike started to wobble; it went from left to right and next thing I knew I was in the air. Bike slide under a pickup truck and I slid out into the intersection.
I ran my ass back across the street without a scratch thanks to the gear we ALL should be wearing, but a little sore from the fall. The lady driving the truck was really cool. She offered to give me a ride where I wanted to go, and with the help of some friends we got my bike loaded and off I was as though nothing had happened. My pride and my pocket hurt more then my body did. yes, I know it was very very very very dumb of me, but that's life.
Accident #3, pray there will never be a number three but I’m sure there will be…it is inherit to the sport. Weather your driving a car or riding we are all only human, and eventually even if you’re the safest freaking driver/rider out there statistics don’t lie and you will either by your own hands or someone else’s find yourself in the same boat.
Yup the story of my life…so I’m far from perfect but I try to learn…