Beauregards Ultra
Member
The Embarrassment Continues (long)
Some may remember when I posted a while back about laying the Ultra down at zero mph at stoplight in front of about a thousand people. And so it continues…
It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon last weekend, with temperatures in the low 80’s. Forecast for the coming weeks was in the low teens so I knew the Colorado winter was coming. A day like this couldn’t be wasted so my lovely bride of 35 years and I mounted up for what may the last ride for a while.
We headed east on the interstate for around 80 miles, exited at a small town and headed back west on the winding two lane highway that parallels the super slab about two miles to the north. It was perfect riding weather being shared with my best friend in life.
We use the HD intercom / stereo headsets that plug into the bike. About 40 miles from home we took a break and I put a new CD in for the final leg of the trip; The Beatles 1 CD which has all of their #1 hits. It was a perfect choice as I found myself singing along to songs written nearly 50 years ago. We cruised through town and back home. I found myself wishing I lived somewhere where it would be this nice every day.
The reason I told this story is so I could tell this one:
Our house sits at the bottom of a hill. The driveway is a long downhill run with and S curve, right then left. We just got done installing a long retaining wall along the west edge and this construction had left long sandy pockets in the driveway, which is scheduled to be blacktopped next week. When I pulled out of the driveway going up the hill the mighty Ultra bogged in the sand and side slipped a little. I remember telling the wife we had to be real careful going back down….
The driveway is fairly wide at 16’. So wide in fact that my wife thinks it’s OK to park her Toyota along the far side about halfway down. So here we go down the driveway after a wonderful ride jamming to the Beatles. I knew it was rear brakes only as I chugged about 5mph. I was using the throttle against the rear brake to keep the front end up though the deep sandy part. But things just weren’t going to cooperate. The large front tire just started plowing through the sand, plotting its own course, which happened to be right towards her Toyota. At about 2’ before a low speed impact of Harley vs. Prius I jerked the handlebars hard right fighting the front tire in the sand. You can all guess what happened next.
It all happened rather quickly. We did a 5 mph high side that dumped us both off into the sand, intercom headsets still intact! It was a soft landing, but at our ages you never want to kiss the soil at any speed. As I laid there collecting my thoughts I noticed the Beatles CD switched tracks and the first words I heard were “Help! I need somebody’s help, not just anybodies help…. I quickly looked back to see my wife laying on her back on the ground! I reached over to her to see if she was hurt…and she started laughing and singing “Help me get my feet back on the ground”. It is clear to me that my life has a sound track that follows me everywhere.
No major harm done. Heavy boots, gloves and HD leather jackets saved any road rash and the helmets had scuffs where they skidded in the sand. Bike came out fairly unscathed and we were just mildly sore.
Lessons Learned:
1) Dress for the fall, not the ride. There is no doubt that even a low speed spill onto a soft surface can ding you up. You never know when you’ll go over so always gear up.
2) Beware of soft sand on a heavy bike. Even going slow and using only rear brakes the bike will go where it wants to go in soft sand.
My wife is a true biker. She helps lifting an overturned bike (Again!), didn’t freak out at all when tossed off and says she’s ready to ride again next weekend weather permitting. She’s still chuckling about the music playing as we went down.
So how about it? Has anyone else had an incident or experience where the music you were listening to matched the event?
Bo
Some may remember when I posted a while back about laying the Ultra down at zero mph at stoplight in front of about a thousand people. And so it continues…
It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon last weekend, with temperatures in the low 80’s. Forecast for the coming weeks was in the low teens so I knew the Colorado winter was coming. A day like this couldn’t be wasted so my lovely bride of 35 years and I mounted up for what may the last ride for a while.
We headed east on the interstate for around 80 miles, exited at a small town and headed back west on the winding two lane highway that parallels the super slab about two miles to the north. It was perfect riding weather being shared with my best friend in life.
We use the HD intercom / stereo headsets that plug into the bike. About 40 miles from home we took a break and I put a new CD in for the final leg of the trip; The Beatles 1 CD which has all of their #1 hits. It was a perfect choice as I found myself singing along to songs written nearly 50 years ago. We cruised through town and back home. I found myself wishing I lived somewhere where it would be this nice every day.
The reason I told this story is so I could tell this one:
Our house sits at the bottom of a hill. The driveway is a long downhill run with and S curve, right then left. We just got done installing a long retaining wall along the west edge and this construction had left long sandy pockets in the driveway, which is scheduled to be blacktopped next week. When I pulled out of the driveway going up the hill the mighty Ultra bogged in the sand and side slipped a little. I remember telling the wife we had to be real careful going back down….
The driveway is fairly wide at 16’. So wide in fact that my wife thinks it’s OK to park her Toyota along the far side about halfway down. So here we go down the driveway after a wonderful ride jamming to the Beatles. I knew it was rear brakes only as I chugged about 5mph. I was using the throttle against the rear brake to keep the front end up though the deep sandy part. But things just weren’t going to cooperate. The large front tire just started plowing through the sand, plotting its own course, which happened to be right towards her Toyota. At about 2’ before a low speed impact of Harley vs. Prius I jerked the handlebars hard right fighting the front tire in the sand. You can all guess what happened next.
It all happened rather quickly. We did a 5 mph high side that dumped us both off into the sand, intercom headsets still intact! It was a soft landing, but at our ages you never want to kiss the soil at any speed. As I laid there collecting my thoughts I noticed the Beatles CD switched tracks and the first words I heard were “Help! I need somebody’s help, not just anybodies help…. I quickly looked back to see my wife laying on her back on the ground! I reached over to her to see if she was hurt…and she started laughing and singing “Help me get my feet back on the ground”. It is clear to me that my life has a sound track that follows me everywhere.
No major harm done. Heavy boots, gloves and HD leather jackets saved any road rash and the helmets had scuffs where they skidded in the sand. Bike came out fairly unscathed and we were just mildly sore.
Lessons Learned:
1) Dress for the fall, not the ride. There is no doubt that even a low speed spill onto a soft surface can ding you up. You never know when you’ll go over so always gear up.
2) Beware of soft sand on a heavy bike. Even going slow and using only rear brakes the bike will go where it wants to go in soft sand.
My wife is a true biker. She helps lifting an overturned bike (Again!), didn’t freak out at all when tossed off and says she’s ready to ride again next weekend weather permitting. She’s still chuckling about the music playing as we went down.
So how about it? Has anyone else had an incident or experience where the music you were listening to matched the event?
Bo
