My First Time Riding A Motorcycle
I’ve had a lifelong fascination with motorcycles, not quite sure when it began but it must have been very early on. Watching Evel Knievel preform his stunts on TV was a big thrill for me, I always imagined preforming those jumps myself! My friends and I would meet up at the Big Yard, a lot on the block I grew up on that had the ruins of an old burnt down church, and made ramps out of scrap wood so we could jump over stuff with our bicycles. So much fun that was. I still have scars from those days in the Big Yard!
A few years after my parents divorced, my father remarried and his new wife had two children, a boy and a girl, Jimmy and Jeryl, they were a few years older than me, I must have been six or seven at the time. Jimmy was a motocross racer and my dad would take me and my sister Jennifer, who was a year younger than me, to go watch Jimmy race. I was fascinated with the whole thing, I wanted to do that so bad but the closest I ever got was looking at Jimmy’s motorcycles in his garage. I was never invited to try his motorcycles, even though they had a yard big enough to race around in. I believe my father felt it was too dangerous for me to try. My mother would have let me try, however she struggled working two jobs just to make sure we had food on the table and supplies for school. Having a dirt bike of my own was not an option. I did have an Evel Kneivel wind up motorcycle toy, and a green Ross bicycle with banana seat and playing cards attached to the spokes of the wheels for that authentic motorcycle sound! Riding wheelies down the street and jumping over stuff on my bicycle made me happy.
A block away from my house was the Hutchinson River Parkway, and along with that, the Hutchinson River. The river was not that big, more of a stream actually. A short walk around the block led to the river and a small wooden foot bridge that crossed it and then a dirt path that led under a bridge in which the parkway crossed overhead. The bridges around the parkway were old and made of huge stones, I always liked how they looked. Taking the path under the bridge was not an easy task, the pathway was very old and not maintained. The wooden structure that once provided sure footing, though the darkness under the bridge, had long rotted away. What was left were some stone footings and some old wooden remnants of the rotted walkway. As long as it hadn’t rained recently, one could make it through the tunnel with just an occasional slip into the water.
Emerging from the tunnel was a beautiful park with large willow trees and a small lake we all referred to as “The Res”. The park was not very wide, you could probably throw a rock across it to the road on the other side. Past that there were low income projects. I spent a lot of time as a young teen hanging out at The Res, drinking beer, smoking pot, and shooting my pellet gun. It was a safe spot where the authorities never ventured.
One fateful day on my way to The Res, a glimmer of light coming from the bottom of the river caught my eye, as I peered into the depths of the water, I couldn’t quite believe what I was seeing. Resting on the bottom of the river, somewhat buried in dirt, was a motorcycle! What kind of treasure had I just found! I looked around in disbelief, shook my head and knew I had to bring this treasure home!
Over the course of the next few weeks I took the bike apart as best as I could with the tools that I had, cleaned it all up, got all the dirty fluids out, and reassembled it and topped it off with fresh oil and gas. Now sitting before me was an all cleaned up, and ready to be tested Suzuki TS100! I was so excited!
Never actually having ridden a motorcycle before, with just a small idea of how the clutch worked, I was about to have a big surprise. It was a beautiful sunny and warm Saturday morning as I pushed the bike out of the garage and onto the driveway. I unfolded the kick start lever and gave it a kick, it made a little noise. I gave it a few more kicks then bingo! It started up!! I jumped on it, kicked it into 1st gear, twisted the throttle and I was off, and down the road I flew! As I was approaching the end of the block there was a stop sign but for some reason I couldn’t get the bike to slow down! The brakes weren’t working and I couldn’t get it out of second gear. It is possible that I didn’t know how to use the clutch, I don’t remember anymore. Thank goodness there was no traffic at the stop sign as I flew past it and tore down the next block. Up ahead I could see some of my friends sitting on the curb, they tried yelling at me to do something but I just couldn’t hear them. Up ahead at the end of the block I could only turn right or left, or plow into a fence, I chose one of the former options.
I was traveling way too fast to safety make the turn ahead, forget about worrying about any oncoming cars! I moved as for to the right of the road as I could, then just before entering the intersection I leaned to the left so much I thought I would tip over. As I crossed the intersection, my front tire barely came in contact with the curb on the far side, I was still leaning over far to the left and road the curb a bit until I completed the turn then righted the bike and I was clear of the corner! Major sigh of relief! However I was still going fast and in three blocks there would be a major intersection with lots of traffic. Thank goodness the road I was now on was a fairly steep hill, and I was going up it. The bike then stalled, crises averted. I got off the bike and caught my breath. Now I had a long way to push the bike back home. In my infinite wisdom, since I was up on a hill, why not hop on the bike and coast home? Sounded like a good idea. This is when I learned that you can start a manual transmission vehicle by rolling down a hill while in gear. Now I was tearing down the road once again, going back where I came from, only this time much faster.
I was now traveling way to fast to make the turn back down the road I came from, at the next corner I only had two choices, there was only a right turn where I’d have to ride in the far left hand side of the road and possibly hit oncoming traffic around a bend, or fly straight off the road down into a gully below. Flying off the road down into the rocky gully below seemed like certain doom, I decided to try my luck banking the corner into possible oncoming traffic. Thank God there was no oncoming traffic, I made the turn and continued down the road. In just two more blocks I was going to come to another very busy intersection, I only had one choice at this point. Up ahead, just fifty yards from the intersection, I spotted a very well manicured row of hedges lining someone’s yard. I veered off to the right, up someone’s driveway, then straight into the hedges! The grass on the other side of the hedges made for a nice landing cushion. I couldn’t wait to get back on and try it again, after figuring out how to stop it of course. Thus concluded the first of many adventures yet to come.