I went to the 5th annual Born Free motorcycle event Saturday, my 4th time attending. The ride there was nice, cool, and uneventful....until we pulled off into a damp grassy field to park. While following Steffan (Zombie Performance) in at about 5mph, I was navigating a left turn to park at the end of an isle of bikes, and the next thing I know I'm looking up at a beautiful Irvine morning blue sky. My Speedmaster tire is no match for wet grass, compounded but the fact that I think I must have tapped my front brake as well? Yeah I know better, but riding 99% of the time on the street old habits die hard.
Unfortunately, with my buddys, Steffan, and a few on-lookers (none of which were filming) no one captured from what I'm told was an epic perfect 10 get-off, complete with a half twist front flip over the bars dismount, during witch my Converse shot straight up into the air, and landed right next to me.
The bike is okay. It suffered a broke clutch lever, bent shifter, a bent side mount license plate bracket, and a bent peg clevis/mount. I kicked the plate bracket back into place, and it immediately shed it's chrome skin like a rattle snake. Lucky for me the peg mount clevis just kissed the stupid expensive cast Mooneyes derby cover. After I got home I bent back the cast aluminum peg mount with a dead-blow, but feel that it should be replaced as its been compromised now, and I frequently stand on the pegs over bumps, off curbs, and RR X-ings. I won't attempt bending the shifter lever back as I know from experience it will snap like a dry chicken neck.
All in all not bad, could have been worse. More importantly I walked away with only my pride fuckered-up, but it was a good laugh the rest of the day as I watched my buddys kicking off there shoes at different times throughout the afternoon.
3 comments:
Classic tale there, I've never got the 'Deathmaster' thing ever since running one on a Bonnie back in the 90's, I can only go form over function to a certain point, mind you though, as you alluded to, dab that front anchor on wet grass and not even a knobby is gonna save your dignity. Hope you enjoyed what looked to be another killer gig.
It's an awesome event, but as I said last year, I feel that the event has outgrown the location...and there were at least a third more people this year. The other issue is they need to move it a month earlier as its always HOT! I can deal with the people, but the heat at that place is really getting to be a drag.
great grass crash story.
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