All weekend - over cast skies, air so thick you can slice it with a knife and the desire to go carve some roads... it's not a good combo.
Today was yet another (unneeded) reminder to take it easy, to not ride beyond your skill level and to truly enjoy life because you just don't know if the breath you just took will be your last.
I had a ride scheduled today - nearly everyone bailed due to t
he
predicted thunderstorms... but a few diehards showed up. Cindy,
of course, was game - always up for some good roads and she
brought along some
of her friends, Roz on a Gixxer, Will
on a Gixxer and Len on a .. uhhh.. Gixxer.
Do you see a trend here? Tammy met
up with
us along the highway.. and off we embarked on our little tour o
f the twisties in
upstate New York.
So four GSXRs, one ZX6 and a pretty red 748 went off to play
on
the high speed sweepers in search of some tight corners to test our skills
on...
It was going quite well until I encountered a state trooper
standing smack dab
in the middle of the road as I came out of a turn and was setting up for another
one. Well, if there's one thing I know - it's never to go so
fast that you can't stop
for the unexpected. I don't go all-out on the
street anyway - especially on blind corners - especially on a road like
that... so I was able to stop in plenty of time but the (formerly) pretty
yellow GSXR-750 was not.
So, Roz was behind me ... and.... new rider, new experience, riding too fast, damp road, panic
reaction -- you get the
idea... to avoid hitting me, she hit her brake (singular not plural) too
fast
and did a great endo... except I guess she didn't realize that the object of a
stoppie is to land right side up instead of upside down.
:-( So the pretty little Gixxer was no longer unscathed
and our rider of three months now has some battle scars. Nice flip though
-- from what I saw in my mirror.
As
I watched all this in my mirror... while also watching the reaction of the cop
standing in the middle of the road. The look on his face was a mixture of
"I need this?", "I can't believe another one is crashing"
and "those crazy motorcyclists"...
because I saw
what was just beyond the cop and it was not a pretty sight.
He was flagging us down to stop to avoid the crash in front of us.... Roz was fine -- I mean, road rash and probably some bruised ribs but I figure
if you don't have any bones protruding, you're not coughing up blood and you
know your name -- you're good to go. 
As far as the other crash goes.. my educated guess, knowing the road and hearing the event
relayed,
is that a pack of bikes just ahead of us were going in hot and heavy into the
turn and one of the riders target fixated on the rock instead of looking thru
the turn... and, fatally crashed into the rocks.
It was quite gruesome and as more rescue vehicles and fire trucks and ambulances and police and state troopers and the sheriff and park rangers arrived... we picked up the pieces of our crash, thanked our guardian angles and turned around to go home.
It was bad -- it could have been worse ... take what lessons you can from the events you encounter so as to not have to make the mistakes others before you have already done...
Ride hard!
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