giving it up

[mack]

Still sick to my stomach over this.
Think I’m done riding. Some religious converts showed up. I don’t mind them and have had a nice relationship with them as they will help stack wood etc. while converting you. Anyway this little guy about nine I think likes the bikes. So I’d told him I would take him for a ride. Today I’m pulling the SF out and they show up and I agree to take him for the ride. He is looking over my left shoulder and I’m following a slow moving car hauling a trailer. His hands are cold so I drop the speed and wrap my left arm in front of his hands to stay warm. The guy hauling the trailer pulls off to the right no signal and I’m closing on him. I’m watching his left front hub cap for rotation and nothing. I get up to the point no return and he guns it and tries a u-turn right in front of me. In that nano second |I knew that if I hit the brakes I would loose my agility, In the same time I had already jumped the bike ten feet to the left and was hard into the shoulder. Luckily we have had some rain and frost over night and the shoulder held. This gave me the response time to shift my ass left and right in a second to recover the bike. I don’t remember any of these as conscious actions, but reflex. The thing I remember thinking was , I’ve killed this child. I am normally very defensive on the bike but this time I failed and it almost cost me. I don’t have the reflexes, or the mental acuity that I used to. Think I’m going to hang up the spurs.

[motoman]

Still sick to my stomach over this.
Think I’m done riding. Some religious converts showed up. I don’t mind them and have had a nice relationship with them as they will help stack wood etc. while converting you. Anyway this little guy about nine I think likes the bikes. So I’d told him I would take him for a ride. Today I’m pulling the SF out and they show up and I agree to take him for the ride. He is looking over my left shoulder and I’m following a slow moving car hauling a trailer. His hands are cold so I drop the speed and wrap my left arm in front of his hands to stay warm. The guy hauling the trailer pulls off to the right no signal and I’m closing on him. I’m watching his left front hub cap for rotation and nothing. I get up to the point no return and he guns it and tries a u-turn right in front of me. In that nano second |I knew that if I hit the brakes I would loose my agility, In the same time I had already jumped the bike ten feet to the left and was hard into the shoulder. Luckily we have had some rain and frost over night and the shoulder held. This gave me the response time to shift my ass left and right in a second to recover the bike. I don’t remember any of these as conscious actions, but reflex. The thing I remember thinking was , I’ve killed this child. I am normally very defensive on the bike but this time I failed and it almost cost me. I don’t have the reflexes, or the mental acuity that I used to. Think I’m going to hang up the spurs.

Glad to hear that incident was just a good wake-up call Mack!! I'd give it a bit of time before your final decision. The coming weather up north should help with the time off the bike.

[BA80]

Sounds like your reflexes were working just fine mack. I wouldn't be hasty in deciding to quit.

When you stop doing the things you enjoy that's when you start dying.

[ViperRon]

Mack
I do not think its time to hang it up. What maybe is the issue is you have gotten to the point where you could not forgive yourself if someone on the bike with you got hurt. Seems to me many would have not avoided the accident and a few not survive. You did not make a mistake he did. Me I give kids rides but only off road or on a safe drive way and have been that way for a while. Maybe that is the alternative.
When you are making mistakes without thinking that is decision time in my opinion.
Wait a while and think about it first.

[IanDMacDonald]

A lesser rider would have plowed right into that trailer. The fact that u had the ability to maneuver the way u did is proof in the pudding that you are the kind of riders needed on the roads.

Come Spring, the itch will come to ride. Brush it off as a freak accident, and get back on the horse.

[mack]

I don't

know, it all happened so fast. I vaguely remember hammering the rear brake to set the front wheel into the shoulder as I was leaving the pavement. Must have slipped the rear to left allowing us to miss the front of the car. It was very close, my whole right side tonight is stiff and sore and I hit nothing!

[IanDMacDonald]

From one Mac to another, that's called instincts my friend. Get some time & space away from the bike, and the urge to ride will certainly come!

[3Phase]

I know exactly what you mean, I quit riding for a while after the last California Rally and you need to see a doctor.

I rode up to Santa Margarita Lake with John Hughes and his two sons and I totally lost my situational awareness -- I spaced out. For the first time in my life I was not 100% aware of every rider's position at all times and at two separate, critical, times I handled my bike with no problem but I almost hurt or allowed John's son to get hurt. I didn't know what was wrong but it scared me and literally made me physically ill (yeah, I was having a series of heart attacks) so I left the rally early, barely making it home.

I darn near killed myself later when I tried to gut it out and rode with Mike and Roo to the Colorado Rally and my bike 'sploded.

I really felt good this year. I had a blast when I was staying with Joe/rdmcguy in Denver and had no problems riding during the Colorado Rally but that was only because of my cardiologist, not me. Please, see a doctor. If you're just old then it's no big deal but let a professional tell you, then you can get back to beating yourself up on the way home.

[mack]

well I do have a lot going on right now.

Waiting to hear back about colon cancer, "im scheduled for shoulder surgery in a couple weeks and you know about my marriage. I've run the sit many times in my head and I just don't see what I did wrong. After 38 years of riding, I've had three of these that were certain death through no fault of my own but could have killed me but for some reason, didn't. I'm used to being in control always, so these things freak me out more than most. ****, if it hadn't been for the kid on my six, I may have just let it happen, I'm tired!

[jetmechmarty]

Waiting to hear back about colon cancer, "im scheduled for shoulder surgery in a couple weeks and you know about my marriage.

That says an awful lot, right there. Several months ago, I got on my bike and went to a local event when my head wasn't in the game. I knew better, and did it anyway. I had a lot going on in my head and couldn't concentrate on anything. I drove my bike into a parked trailer in a parking lot.

Getting off the bike while you put the other stuff behind you is probably a good idea. Things may look different in the spring.

[3Phase]

Yep, I do know. If you can talk your doctor into it some antidepressants might be useful, just don't get carried away and give all of your stuff to the religious folks the next time you see them and try to follow them around the country selling incense at airports.

[mack]

Lol

ya I'll remember that Scott. I'll remember my ABC's (Always Be Cool)

[Blank Slate]

So I'm browsing the thread titles in the Lounge to see if there's a US presidential elections thread and I find this!

Glad you're alive man! I agree with most on here, take a break and ride when you get the urge back. See you on the road in the spring