Giving The Gift Of Motorcycling

Ride what? Lol.

Shortly after these photos were taken.....



......I took this one, after the silly little fecker went off roading. I tried to take a photo of his wheel tracks but they’re not really visible in the pic (right to left).



After we had brekkie (well, he did, I declined to spend any more of my money there after a repeat of Scrambled Egg-gate) he begged me to take a route back home through the twisties, but despite me thinking he’s not quite ready yet as it’s only day two on a geared bike and also a while since he’d ridden regularly as his ‘ped has been off the road for a couple of months, I relented.

However, before hitting the proper roads, I thought I’d let him practice and see how he got on on a road which is the next left out of the Silver Ball car park which is very quiet, fairly flat and open and most importantly has no kerbs, road furniture or trees to hit. Thank god I did, because the first bend he came to he went straight on and into the bloody field

I’m laughing now but I didn’t find it funny at the time. Thankfully both him and the bike are ok, though it needed a few kicks to get the back brake lever straight enough to use and the forks are a little bit twisted in the yokes.

I was angry at myself as much as anything as I’d under estimated how different riding can be when you need to change gear for yourself and I'd basically just gone “Don’t try to keep up with me - see you at the other end” and cleared off. Lesson learned. The rest of the afternoon was spent taking it right back to basics, California Superbike School stylee, and after a few hours he’d cracked it.

That wasn’t the end of the drama though, as one of the carbon fork guards on my special flew off and hit me in the face at **mph when its brittle plastic brackets failed (next item on my to do list is to email the manufacturer). Thankfully I stayed on, there were no cars or other bikes behind me and the boy wasn’t anywhere near me either as we weren’t too far from home so I’d ridden ahead for a play on my own. Thankfully the guard survived as it was custom made and would be a right arse-ache to replace - it wasn’t even too badly scratched



And, finally, I pulled a muscle in my neck when putting my helmet back on after retrieving the guard from the middle of the road and now I have to hold my head at 45 degrees or I’m in bloody agony.

An eventful afternoon all round really

 

Come to think of it, my ex-wife was actually quite handy with her fists.

I’m just kidding. Though..... she did once throw a bag of fish and chips at me during an argument while I was driving. According to Home Office guidance, that makes me a victim of domestic violence and I may need counselling

Exactly. The bike is staying with me until I’m happy he’s safe to ride it unsupervised, not to mention that the bent brake lever, scuffed mirror, bar end and plastics are a dead giveaway

Totally. Most importantly, he was able to analyse what went wrong and how to avoid it happening again - an excess of ambition over talent, riding too fast, got in a tizz while trying to change down, became target fixated and then ended up going green laning.

 

Yep. You know how everyone knows a guy that stuff just happens to all the time? Well, amongst my mates, that guy is me.