Sunday, May 28, 2006

Bikes: Role reversal.

Waking up late this morning, I had to kinda scotch my initial plan to ride to work. Even when commuting on a bike, a little extra time must be given to gearing up, performing a quick walk-around of the machine, letting the engine warm a bit before setting off, et cetera. Having done it for many years, I'd forgotten the easy "jump in and drive" allure of the cage.

Still, though, it was a beautiful day for a lively drive home with the top down on the Beemer, following the twisty backroads I usually take on the bike. I was preparing to make my right turn onto Mourfield, a beautiful little road that twists sinuously through a leafy green tunnel of creek valley before cresting a hill in a heart-in-mouth off-camber ninety-degree right-hander whose apex is right at the crest, overlooking farmland with the Smokies visible on the horizon, when a Harley made the turn ahead of me. I didn't think much of it, because from the sound of things he was really working the throttle, and I was, after all, in a cage.

It's a weird feeling to be stuck in twisties behind a slow bike, driving a car. I felt like I was in bizzarro world, and half expected the trees to turn a lovely magenta to complement a yellow sky...

I made the best of things by filling the Zed Three's miniscule trunk with provisions at Kroger, and I've already set my alarm clock. I will be on the bike tomorrow, dammit.


(PS: Mourfield is cool, but at the end I make a right turn onto Bluegrass. Bluegrass is notable for being the road on which three different friends have said, from the Z3's navigator's chair, "Um, I think I'm going to throw up." :D )

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

You shouldn't have written that out loud. Now it's gonna rain.

Tam said...

Ha! I laugh at the weather demons.

I say again, Ha!


(Watch it rain buckets now... ;) )

Dr. StrangeGun said...

Heee... that's part of the fun, testing your passenger's limits. I used to get "slow down please" all the time ferrying people over the dragon. There was one time I had a bunch of friends in the 'Woo coming back from asheville on 40 and one developed... let's say he needed facilities. I ran down that highway at a good 95, 100mph clip.

The Tbird did that too but that was mostly because it was a wallowing pig of a car, no matter how good it stuck. Roll was severe enough that one morning my brother (I was taking him to school) nodded off, and I edged left, then right, left some more, right some more, hard left *WHOP* goes his head into he window :)

(bmarchkv) hey look, an actual word in there...

T.Stahl said...

Well, it's a dry morning over here. I'll use the opportunity and take the bus to get to work, so I can jog home in the evening.

I hope it'll be sunny in Knoxville, too. :-)

T.Stahl said...

Left the house, headed for the bus. Realized I had forgotten my wallet, walked back and took the car. Noticed the light drizzle when I arrived at work and thought, 'Good idea to take the car after all!'

It rained all day long, except for the drive home. :-(

phlegmfatale said...

That's sort of a compliment, isn't it - that throw up reference? It's nice to be taken seriously as capable of real damage.

Anonymous said...

As someone who actually lives on Mourfield and has had to deal with the accidents, bad driving and just plain scary people, please realize that this area does have people with children living, it is not the dragon.