I haven’t done a Putty Ride since early March, possibly the longest time in between rides ever, so when the opportunity presented itself to get a long ride in, I took it. But, as the title suggests, I probably should have passed up on the chance.
It is Winter and it gets pretty cold up on the inland sections so Paul and I worked out a clever wheeze that would have prevented us from having to ride too early and too late and hence stay relatively warm. The plan was to leave around lunch time on Wednesday, ride as far as Windsor then stay overnight and have the whole of Thursday to hit the Putty and get home in daylight and avoid the worst of the cold and also the wildlife.
Unfortunately, as things often happen, the lunchtime departure got pushed back quite a bit and, by the time we were up on the tops heading towards Picton it was already getting on. Plus I had also noticed that Paul was seeming to be having a problem with his right knee and was taking his foot off the footpeg and stretching his right leg quite frequently. We were already heading into a lowering sun and I started to percolate that the further we rode the less like a good idea it seemed.
I pulled over for a pit stop in town, less because I needed to but more because I wanted to discuss with Paul about whether pushing on was a good idea. Fortunately, he was in agreement and we turned around to head back home, another day would be better. But, as soon as I turned around and headed back to the main street the bike felt funny. I knew straight away what it was, my back tyre was flat. As I crept along the main street a helpful motorists pulled up beside me and confirmed my worst fears. I turned into the main road heading out of town and pulled over, checked the state of play and started considering my options. Paul was ahead of me and he had disappeared into the distance.
I wasn’t worried, we have a well-oiled system of looking out for each other when we ride so I wasn’t surprised to see him heading back towards me pretty quickly after I’d stopped. The first order of business was to get the bike to safety off the street so I crawled a little further till there was a driveway onto a wide footpath and rode up it. If you HAVE tried to ride a bike with a flat rear tyre you will know that it is a pretty disconcerting experience. Halfway up the driveway the bike stalled and, as I put my foot down to steady it, I found out that I couldn’t touch the footpath. The bike crashed over on the right hand side and dumped me pretty hard onto the road. I DID have the presence of mind to pull my bad leg out of the way so that the bike didn’t fall on it but there wasn’t really anything else I could do.
Paul watched helplessly while I did the beached whale routine and a car full of young kids stopped straight behind me and baled out to give us a hand to get the bike back on its wheels. I’m pretty sure they were motorcyclists too because they knew exactly what to do. We muscled the bike right up onto the concrete and took stock of the situation. Smashed mirror, broken brake lever and that’s it, not a mark on the bodywork or any other protruding pieces.
Dead lucky really, at least it happened in town. A 1 cm split across the crown of the tread was the obvious place from which the air had escaped but no sign of what had actually caused it. Anyway, that wasn’t the real issue, the real dilemma was how to get home. I do have road service with NRMA for both my car and the van but, after negotiating their phone system I was frustrated to find that, in order for them to be able to pick the bike up and take it to a place where it could be repaired (probably IN town somewhere) it would cost me a further $198 for the privilege since it wasn’t registered for roadside assist.
By now the cold was really setting in and, whatever it was that we decided to do, we had to do it quickly otherwise Paul would be riding home in the dark. I’ve always said that nobody looks after their mates like motorcyclists do and we proved it again on Wednesday. A quick call to some friends in Wollongong and about 50 minutes later Margie rolled up with their bike trailer, we loaded Rhonnda on and headed off and STILL got home before dark, whoohoo.
Paul had a spare set of levers so I replaced the brake lever from his stock, my shop replaced the tyre so all I am waiting for is now a mirror which I will have to get off fleabay. (I’ll probably buy a new set because the L/H side one is about 5 years old and starting to look a bit scruffy). So, all up, a case of I should have stayed home. Never mind, the bike is still OK and the road is still there, another day and I’ll get the ride in.
AND, while on the subject of motorcyclists being the best friends, I had a call from my son during the week. He lives in a flat in Sydney’s southern suburbs and he rang me with a very sad story. It seems that Mick, a mate of his who lives upstairs and a keen biker himself, had received some bad news. Mick is one of those people who hates going to the doctor; in this case he should have put his antipathy for the medical profession aside. After finally being persuade by his friends about his rapidly failing health, he consulted a doctor to be told the very worse, he is in the advanced stages of cancer and his prognosis is very bad.
My son is devastated, of course, so he rang me and asked if I could put the word out and see if someone who has a motorcycle and sidecar could volunteer to take Mick on a ride down through the Royal Nation Park since he couldn’t ride himself. I posted up a request on social media and was literally overwhelmed with offers of people who COULD help and were able to do so. I even had guys offering to PAY for the trip if nobody was actually able to do it themselves. It does my heart good to know that I have these sorts of friends.
Sadly the doctor has said that Mick is now in no shape to actually go out anywhere at all, let alone in a bike so Graeme’s idea has come too late to be able to be implemented. Do I feel that the exercise was futile because of this? Far from it, It has done us all good to know that, in the face of all the negativity and ill-will that there is out there, OUR friends are still the BEST people and I love them all.
Catch you soon.
