Re: [Staffslug] Directions for our meeting?

On 23/01/06, Andrew Edwards <edwards.andrew(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote: > > ..and following lorries....I've come a cropper from diesel more than > > once. Mind you, that was a good few years ago. I'd love another bike > > but I don't think my body would forgive me :-) though if I were > > offered a decent Sunbeam or Brough Superior I might have to think hard > > about it ;-) > > yeah, i'm only 16 (so i can only have a 50..) but i love the thing, > great when it's not so damn icy! ice, oil spills, rain.. it's hell > travelling 10 miles to school as it is. i do plan on getting something > bigger when i can, my dream bike is a zx6r ninja or a cbr 600, wee way > to go yet mind! > > -- I was a year older than you then, Andrew, when I had my life changing crash. At 17 - 26 long years ago - I was on my way to work on an old Suzuki GT 250. If anybody else can remember those things then they'll know that they were deathtraps. Rubbish suspension - unless you put after market shocks on and heavier grade fork oil, weight distribution was weird and it didn't matter what tyres you shod them with they were still very poor at road holding. Oh, the brakes were cack too and the lights on mine didn't work properly either. So, there I am, 17 yrs of age, full of myself because I'm shooting down the A5 at 90mph - hey, that was good for a 250 in those days :-) Suddenly a guy decideds to pull out on my right to join the A5. Ok, so I go round him because he's stopped in the (my) right hand lane. But...disaster...a brewery wagon (it would have to be wouldn't it?) pulls out on my left. Me being the big hero thinks I can manouvre around both of these vehicles. Now just re-read the wonderful handling characteristics of this speed machine I am sat astride :-( I didn't make it of course. 90mph slam bang into the rear wheels of the brewery wagon. I then find myself sliding up the right hand lane of the A5 into the oncoming traffic. Now this is where it gets spooky. At about 7:45am you would expect the A5 to be heavng with traffic, and it was. Except I was so damn lucky that I got a window with nothing coming at me!!!!! I ended up with the bike on top of me, lying in the gutter on the right hand side of the road in a layby totally out of the main traffic stream. I couldn't move anything apart from my eyelids and my mouth. To cut it short I was scooped up and whisked off to hospital. My clothes were snipped away and I was X-rayed and jabbed with anti tetanus needles. The absolutely miraculous aprt of it all is that I had lost all the hair down one side of my leg - it never did grow back - but no cuts, no bruises and nothing whatsoever broken, not even a fingernail. Well, my pride of course. I was on crutches for f ew days simply because of shock. The bike, on the other hand was a write off. The forks ended up back in with the engine. The front wheel was just unrecognisable and the frame was twisted to spaghetti. Do I believe in guardian angels? You bet I do because somebody was watching over me that day. By rights I should have been at worst dead and at best severely banged up with multiple broken limbs. I've had other crashes over the years and I may just relay them at our meeting :-) -- ============================================== I am only human, please forgive me if I make a mistake it is not deliberate. ============================================== Xmas may be over but, PLEASE DON'T drink and drive you'll make it to the next one that way. Kevan Farmer Linux user #373362 Cheslyn Hay Staffordshire WS6 7HR _______________________________________________ Staffslug mailing list Staffslug(a)staffslug.org.uk http://www.staffslug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/staffslug