Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Senior Discount
BULLDOGGING THE BEAST
hard over could not prevent the wheels from easing over the double
yellow, because every curve reaches a point of no return, especially a curve that runs deep and
laughs at all your miles and seasoning and road wisdom. Don't mean shit, bound for pavement,
crunch time.
A collapsing curve can convict the defendant on a violation of the laws of physics. Enforce-
ment is strict and harsh. The big difference between four wheels and two is between steering
and leaning. Steering is fundamental, leaning intuitive. Another big difference should be obvi-
ous but can require learning: that four wheels can stop from high speed in a straight line. Two
wheels can't, or won't. Ditching speed quickly can save a rider; sudden braking can challenge a
rider's health. Engine braking is vital. Throttling down in anticipation of need will reduce speed
internally rather than at the friction points. But the squirrelly stuff sets in if you go too slow so
far over into a curve. You'll lay it down without the umph to the back wheel, so you goose to
hold the line, but you need to pull things back inside the double yellow. You bear down on the
bars even as you scrape pavement, even as you know that things just don't aim to work out this
time.
With an SUV oncoming and bearing down, life/death decisions transcend logic and ra-
tionale. The passionate moment defers to instinct, striving for minimal loss, deferring to life
and limb, even in the severely depressed, which I wasn't. In defense of rider skill—my skill—I
will say that the error did not occur on my Triumph but on a ride that will remain unnamed, a
heavy cruiser weighing nearly nine hundred pounds with a V-twin engine. It could have been
a Harley clone. All the Japanese manufacturers were building to the V-twin market, and two
guys rode them, one a Yamaha, the other a Kawasaki. So maybe I traded with one of them.
What difference could a tank emblem make?
It's common to trade for a stretch, especially on unique new scooters so different from the
norm.
Jerry from Kelowna rode the extreme opposite of my Triumph, a heavier shade of heavy
with gross power. We'd struck a friendship, talking about livelihood and what a man must do.
Jerry called himself a jackoff all trades, cobbling a few bucks here and there, turning back. His
odometer aptitude had earned good money for years, beginning with his first motorcycle.
After a hundred thousand clicks he buffed that old motorcycle till it shone. But with all
those clicks showing, the trade-in value was still low. Easy enough, he took apart the odo
through the traps and lockouts on mileage wind-down—deconstructing down to the little
