Farewell my beautiful motorcycle
I've been riding bikes 12 months a year since I was 16, including 4 years as a despatch rider ni London, but only ever had one new motorbike - a red 1998 Triumph Thunderbird Sport:

image.motorcyclecruiser.com/f/9160592+w750+st0/xl+1998_triumph_thunderbird_sport+front_side_view.jpg

I rode it every day and it was the best piece of engineering I've ever sat on. Took me 5 years to pay for.

About a year after that I was literally going to see a man about a dog one Sunday in April. I clearly remember backing the bike out of the drive and pulling off up the road. Lovely day.

The next thing I remember is waking up in hospital. My wife and my 16 week old daughter are there. My right arm and left foot are bandaged up. I ask several times what happened.

I'd had a head on collision with a car over by the Devil's Dyke. According to the police, we were both doing 40mph, I was in the middle of my lane but unfortunately so was the car. We'd met on the brow of a humpback bridge, as the car driver was overtaking a cyclist.

To this day I have no memory of any of this. I had a broken wrist and a broken heel bone. I also managed to put a 6-inch split into a £200 crash helmet. I'm told that I got up and started hopping and swearing. Apparently I had to be 'restrained'. And somehow in the middle of all this I managed to leave a message on my wife's voicemail: "I've had a bit of a prang"

5 days in hospital (God bless the NHS),6 months of a crutch on the wrong arm, 4 years of solicitor hell. Came very close to running out of cash a few times. No more riding or driving for me, I get sweaty hands sitting in a taxi.

Lucky escape? It could have been luckier, but I'm still here, still walking, wife's still got a husband, girls got a dad.
(CADmonkey rollllllllled another one, just like the other one, Fri 5 Jul 2013, 15:34, 6 replies)

The Devil's Dyke? I think I used to go out with her

Nurseferatu was my other nickname for her...



Back to the tale: I'm confused - I can't think of a humpback bridge near the Devil's Dyke... Sorry to be pedantic, but I'm trying to picture it.
(moon monkey is busy making memories worth repressing, Fri 5 Jul 2013, 15:44, closed)

It's actually a 'blind summit' but still feels like a humpback.
https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=bn3&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&ie=utf8&hq=&hnear=hove,+the+city+of+brighton+and+hove,+united+kingdom&t=h&vpsrc=0&ll=50.886148,-0.191476&spn=0.000677,0.000889&z=20&layer=c&cbll=50.886148,-0.191476&panoid=rvm1alfqgfhoaon6hmhncq&cbp=12,324.9,,0,-5.97
(CADmonkey rollllllllled another one, just like the other one, Fri 5 Jul 2013, 16:00, closed)

I did 4 years as a despatch rider in London too.
I was rather more fortunate in the head on collision stakes though. I still ride a bike into and out of London each day.

I reckon I've clocked up a good quarter of a million miles on two wheels by now.
(username failed moderation, Fri 5 Jul 2013, 16:53, closed)

At my wife's insistence I stopped riding motorbikes when I became a dad. Whilst I do miss bikes I think it was the right thing to stop.

( Fucking hell Jeff I am not a robot, Fri 5 Jul 2013, 18:06, closed)

Agree with you. The accident stats are
Against biking big time.
( edjogs Collared doves are shit., Fri 5 Jul 2013, 22:24, closed)

More power to you mate.

( edjogs Collared doves are shit., Fri 5 Jul 2013, 22:23, closed)