Days Like This—NO Riding Should Be Allowed—errr maybe….

This past Saturday I was tapped to run the Mountain Shadow Riders meeting. Our esteemed Chapter Director is doing The Run For The Wall and left early in the morning. No worries, I was ready and hopped on the bike to ride down.

Just the start of a typical 2nd Saturday of the month.

Riding down was nice—and I was early for a change. I wanted to get the meeting over and done since it’s getting to be riding time and there was a great deal of riding activities on deck—so no one wants to sit and talk about riding—we all want to be out riding!

My choice for riding was out west: through Deckers and Pine and a stop at the famous (or infamous) Bucksnort Saloon. I was there last year and it’s a neat place with lots of history. And terrific burgers too!

I meet my friends and we head out. About two or three miles on the road, my front end starts having a terrible rattle. Stopping at a traffic signal, I am looking at my forks—and there is fluid everywhere. On the forks, the frame, motor and rider. I look at my friends and tell them I’ll have to pull out.

One of the great things about riding with this group of folks is that they take such good care of me. They pulled over and got off their bikes to inspect mine. Debating what the issue could be—yes, it was my forks and yes, it was ride able to the dealership—they all rode down with me to make sure I got to the dealership in once piece.

I was not happy, of course. I just had 20k service and one of the things included was the change of the fork oil. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm…..

I pointed that out to them too.

Leaving my precious Harley down at the shop, my friends offered for me to continue to ride—either on the back or I could borrow. Going to get the extra bike would delay us longer—so I opted to ride on the back.

I don’t normally ride on the back and the last time I did any amount of distance was during bike week at Myrtle Beach and Rolling Thunder in DC. Funny, about this time last year! Although I protest in mock annoyance, I do enjoy the occasional ride on the back. It’s a time that I can really look around and watch the scenery, wave at the kids, and just have a general good time being a passenger. Saturday was no exception.

While I would have preferred to be on the back of my own bike, this was the second best choice. After all, had I not taken door number 2, I’d be not riding at all!

The ride turned out to be quite interesting—another rider had engine problems and pulled out. We had another delay when the traffic on the highway was halted—to allow for flight for life to land. Apparently there was a rider crash—a female fixated on an automobile in the oncoming lane and hit the car. She suffered a broken leg. I didn’t get any of the other details, but when the authorities let the traffic resume, we did ride by the accident sight. The bike was still on the road and it was mangled up pretty badly. If the rider got out with only a broken leg, I think she was lucky.

The remainder of the trip was pretty quiet after that. The threat of sprinkles rolled in but that’s typical of Colorado weather this time of year.

Late after noon we pulled in—another road adventure put to bed.

I picked up the bike on Tuesday—all fixed and ready to roll. I hope so!! I won’t get to Rolling Thunder this year, but I will do a segment of Run For the Wall this weekend. I’m looking forward to it!!

Until then,

Keep the shiny side up!

~The Rainbow Wahine