0
Ok so here is a story ive been wanting to tell. Last august i was riding out to the adirondack mtns. from vermont.
Well, im having a good ride, just taking it easy thinking about the nice pavement I was headed to and at a stoplight i catch up to another SV. It's a naked 1st gen. in blue. Before I had a chance to get next to it, the light changes and it takes off through traffic ahead of me. I tail behind it and im thinking geez that guy is riding pretty casually there, just with one hand the whole time.
So he gets me doing it for alittle bit too haha. But then we hit another light and still he's one handing it. Now im closer and pulling up next to him and i realize holy ****! this guy has one arm! His handlebar is totally bare to the metal on the right side, with no grip or levers of anykind. He looks over at me and i give him an a thumbs up and an enthusiastic head nod almost out of respect.. i mean c'mon this is awesome!
When the light changes again he's off like a bat out of hell while im still trying to figure out how he's running that thing. At the next intersection i catch the light while he goes through the yellow in time.
Ten minutes later I see what I think is a mountain biker on the shoulder going my direction, but as I get closer the bike looks too big to be a mountain bike.. hey its him!! He's on the bike kicking like hell with his legs, gas tank dry as a bone.
I pull over just ahead and jog back to meet him half way. Without saying anything I get behind and start pushing. We roll it up to a driveway and make our introductions. I really wanted to know how he operated that thing.. so here is how it was setup. First he linked the front brakes to the rear brake pedal with a bias towards the front, and moved the master cylinder there with his own bracket and lines. He switched the throttle tube to the left grip, and the clutch was left alone. Pretty cool! Plus we sat and talked about SVs for a bit before getting back to the situation.
After figuring out that the nearest gas station was over two miles away and up a hill, he asked if i could give him a ride to the station to fill up a bottle with gas to bring back. At first I was trying to think of some excuse, not only was I about to commit to my first two up ride, but I was doing it with someone that was bigger and heavier than I am! (almost everyone is)
But how can I tell a guy thats riding with one arm that I CANT do something.. no way.. "Yeah man lets do this!".. logistics aside .. he hopped up and I clicked down into first. Whoa!! the bike is top heavy now.. but hey, this isnt so bad.. and we can even talk while we ride how cool is this!
Slowing down in the gas station the bike was fighting me the whole way, after an abrupt stop (literally), we were on our way back. The rest of the day was awesome. I had a great ride with new confidence having overcome my fear of two up riding, and helped a fellow rider out as well.
__________________
Reply With Quote
for helping!
Originally Posted by DuncanMoto
on helping him out.
