Saturday, April 24, 2010

A Different Kind Of Ride

(Nathan's new KTM.  Very nice.)

It was a different kind of ride than I expected today.   The kind where I got home with a full tank of gas still in the tank.  The kind where I covered about 10 or 15 miles in four hours.  The kind where Nathan sat in the back of an SUV and Don and I rode around on the street in front of his house like kids playing bicycles.  Yep, it was a good, though unexpected, day's ride.  Well, good except for Nathan's ankle.  It was twisted in the parking lot of the coffee shop we were all meeting at before the ride really got started.  He made it back home before he realized he couldn't put weight on it anymore.

(Nathan on the "Ride" from the shade of an SUV on his driveway.)

I have no way of knowing now for sure that the mountain roads weren't straightened in the night.  I'm okay either way so long as Tuesday's forecasted rain frizzes them up again. Luckily, when a motorcycle goes down, even very slowly over something slick in a coffee shop parking lot before a ride starts, there are things that need to be adjusted.  And that means that Don and I had an excellent reason to ride ALL THE WAY to Laurie and Nathan's house to play with tools on Nathan's new KTM with him while he hopped around on one leg.  A little bit later, the three of us had the turn signal fixed up, the forks had been loosened out of the triple clamp, wriggled around, re-set and re tightened down.  Sometimes when a bike lays down, one of the forks will bind up a little in the triple clamps making the steering a little off.  Anyway, easy fixes all but it was a good excuse to play with tools with friends.  Nathan's new KTM looks as good as it did when he started out that morning.

(Don on the new KTM.)

(Randy on the new KTM.)

(Nathan relatively near his new KTM.)

Do you remember riding your bike back and forth in front of your house as a kid?  Maybe riding around a block or two and then just playing with u-turns and quick stops and riding in loops in front of the house?  Did you ever pretend your bike was a motorcycle?  Yeah, me too.  It turned out to be every bit as fun as I thought it would be.