Yes, Val, I did ride your scooter...
OK, I can't be a motorcycle web chik if I never rode a motorcycle, right? Well, I wasn't quite ready to ride an actual motorcycle but thought I'd be OK on a scooter. As you can see in the picture, Slam has a cool orange scooter that I just fell in love with and decided I just had to have for my birthday (sorry, Val...). The problem was, I've never even ridden on a mini-bike. I just started driving the riding lawnmower at my house 2 years ago because my husband, Rick, went to China and I had to mow the grass! I got hooked on that, especially when I discovered that it was really fun...not a lot of work like Rick always told me it was. I always wondered why he'd rather mow the lawn than do the laundry...Lucky for me, Slam agreed to give me a riding lesson. He demonstrated the "peppy" performance of the scooter before I straddled it myself. Now when Slam tells you it's peppy...he means it's peppy! To make a long story short, I found out it's not quite like riding a bike...or a riding lawnmower. Having never even touched a throttle before, I got a rude awakening when I touched it a little too much. I ended up on the parking lot without being on the scooter and Slam looked like Fred Sanford getting ready to "join Elizabeth"...I got off with a bruised and scraped knee and Slam discovered his heart was stronger than he thought. No, Val, I didn't screw up your scooter (well, I put a few scratches on it). Undaunted, I sent Rick a picture of the scooter and told him I wanted it for my birthday. After all, I already wiped out in Slam's parking lot so I got that part behind me, right? His response...
"I'm not spending $800 for you to kill yourself....stick to 4 wheels!"
Well, that was MY first experience with a motorized 2-wheel vehicle. What was yours?
1 Comments:
As a fellow 'four-wheeler', I can certainly relate to your story. I remember back when I was 14 or 15 and had never ridden a motorcycle of any kind.
Some of the neighbor kids came over with their mini-bike and talked me into getting onboard for a lesson. Of course at that age, your confidence level and skill level have nothing in common, so on I got and after a 'short' lesson about throttle, brake and shifting gears I was off down the driveway.
Not even 15 feet down the driveway I kicked it into 2nd year with a little trouble, but fairly smooth and now I was really moving. (somewhere in the 25 mile per hour range)
About two-thirds of the way down the driveway, the ability to turn, or lack of knowledge thereof, sprung to mind.
Scanning my brain for some clue from my recent 'short' lesson accomplished nothing, and with the end of the driveway upon me, I depressed the brake and the mini-bike came to sudden stop.
However, the bike, still in gear wnated to continue on down the driveway, which I realized only after letting go of the brake and being thrown back as the mini-bike spurted out from under me.
I was soon passed by the neighbor kids, who were frantically trying to catch up with their now rider-less bike. As the bike turned to the left and headed down into the ditch, I pulled myself up off the ground and ran after the neighbor kids.
I reached the top of the ditch in time to see the mini-bike on it's side spinning in circles still in gear, until one of the kids managed to get a hold of it and get it out of gear and/or shut it off. (I can't really remember which)
Needless to say I was never allowed to 'ride' their mini-bike again and while I have entertained thoughts of it from time to time, my memory of that day has quickly brought me back to reality and made me a firm 'four-wheeler' to this day.
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