When things go wrong

Went out for a ride this morning with Paul our friend Horace. It was threatening rain, but we figured no big deal. Went our usual route through Fort Langley…we were going to head into Mission, but I warned Paul that I wasn’t feeling up the the twisting road that gives me problems in good weather, so we decided to go a more “linear” way.

We made some turns and I realized that we were heading for a  steep hill with some sharp twists, and I knew I just didn’t have the confidence today to do it. Paul disappeared around the first corner and I decided to pull over. I signaled, went over thinking there was some shoulder but instead hit grass and mud. I applied some brake and thought “oh shit, braking is bad!”. I felt the bike start to go…I fought it for a bit and realized we were past the point of no return (which was when I hit the grass and mud). I went down.

Horace pulled over and I struggled to my feet. He helped me pick up my bike (full of gas of course, so as heavy as it could be). I don’t know why I thought that I would be able to pick my own bike up, but until today I had the vague idea that I could. Nope. It may be light for a bike, but I still can’t move 375 lbs by myself. I know there’s a technique to it, but I didn’t know until know how to do it.

I was pissed. At myself, mostly. I did some minor damage to my fairing, but I was (and still am) furious with myself for doing something that damaged my bike. I’m okay; I think I may have bruised my shoulder from my landing on a rock, and my neck is a bit sore (it’s always sore, so there’s no surprise).

I guess I can’t say it’s never been dropped. The pictures are here.

We did make it to the Honda demo event, but I wasn’t feeling like trying anything out (I did consider it briefly but I wasn’t really in the right frame of mind and the only bikes they were taking new sign ups for was the DN-01 and the Silver Wing).

I need to figure out a way to get over the anxiety-causing mental block I have.