Got the Suzy VS800 Cruiser that's been taking up space in my garage for four years running last weekend, thanks to my ether and my fresh gas, and rang the owner and told her to get it this weekend or it's going on the inorganic. Then decided she wasn't getting any of my gas, so I've used it to commute this week (WAY not my flavour of bike, but hey, my gas). Yesterday, from turning out onto Massey Road in Mangere to my front gate in 'Rewa Hard I passed about 6 Mr Plods, and I had to put the fuel cock on reserve as I left the motorway at Hill Road. I decided I'd used all my gas, and all my luck, so the unlicensed, unwarranted, uninsured Suzuki stayed in the garage today, and I got back on the treadle machine.Several days on the Intruder I've gotten used to having to really haul on the single pot on the single fixed front rotor to retard the thing at all. This morning I was on the treadlie on dry tarmac for a change, doing a bit over thirty kph going for a green light at the end of Browns Road when one of our local 'special boy' drivers hurtles through a red light (his lane also red arrow) turning right to coincide with my trajectory and smack me down. This despite all the 'glow in the dark' on my vest and helmet, my strobing LEDs and the two mondo big reflectors on my front wheel spokes. I can't blame him really, it's after payday but before the weekend, and the local dealers are having to discount to make sales in a depressed economy, so he was probably extremely stoned. Hey, it's South Auckland, right?Anyhoo, I grabbed two big Suzuki cruiser sized handful of brake levers, and heard the rear tyre skid for a nano-second before I found myself sitting five feet in the air, looking straight down over the handlebars at the pavement. I can proudly say that despite his speed, I still managed to tell boyo his mother, grandmother and great grandmother had all been unmarried before he was out of effective earshot of the Army drill-pig parade ground voice. I normally aim to get back seven generations of the whakapapa, but my fight with gravity impeded me a bit. And I got back horizontal, shiny side up, still with forward speed, so I kept travelling. Much more comfortable than going right over the bars, you just can't land lightly from that when your shoes are locked into the pedals....... And youse petrolhead fellas wonder why us cyclists don't like motorists.Now, who's first? :-*
