"You got lucky"

You know how you get a new toy, and you have all the best intentions in the world, and enough of the basic training that you really shouldn't screw things up, and you're deathly afraid of screwing something up, and well, experience has shown you that it's only a matter of time... Well, I did get lucky this morning. An I wasn't even on the bike.

I went in to the dealership this morning to get the Texas state motor vehicles inspection for the bike. The dealership has a new special parking area dedicated to motorcycles. I'm sure this isn't novel, but this is the first I've seen anywhere. Fresh paint; we'll get back to that in a minute. So I navigate my beast (beauty, too) of a bike between the concrete parking bumpers in to the bike zone, and pull in to one of the spaces. The space was on a _slight_ downhill.

Engine switch off, key off, stand down, wheel cranked to the left. Walking in to the dealership. All good, right? So walk in, taking gear off, set backpack down, girl comes out of back office, "Oh great, you're back! Here for the inspection? (* looks out window, puts hand over mouth. *) That bike just fell over!" "Surely not mine," I thought, but there was the sick sinking feeling of, "just might be your bike, Mike."

Sure enough, there she was, lying on her left side. The salesman and inventory manager were out front and were already together lifting her up.

Now when nearly 1,000 lbs of bicycle falls on itself, _somethings_ gotta give, right? I got lucky. No tank damage, just some grind on the clutch handle and the left foot peg. I noticed later that the handlebars were a bit askew, but fortunately, the risers are on rubber gaskets and they just needed a firm twist in the other direction.

Some lessons you just have to learn first-hand. Always leave her parked in gear, and be aware of the grade. Believe me, everywhere I parked the rest of the day (and hopefully the rest of my life), I'll remember this morning.

And it was a grand ride in to work. Thrilling. Looked down and oops, I was doing 70. Well so was everyone else, too. Duh, that's Hwy 183 at 9:00am (not at 8am, but that's another story).

It was a great day on the roads. And I think I have most of the fresh yellow parking lot paint picked out of the scuffs on the pegs.

Have a great one. :)