Most of us like to keep stupid things we do to ourselves, but a this site provides insight and helps everyone learn from one another’s mistakes I will go ahead and take the sling and arrows for the team.
Last Sunday Mark (b717doc) and I hooked up and rode out to Leeds, AL. to the Skip Barber Race Park for the vintage motorcycle races and swap meet.
First of all 47 degrees is 47 degrees no matters where you are and we froze our you know what off at 7:30 moving at 75 mph on RT. 20. All I can ay is thank god for the AL welcoming rest stop over the GA BAMA border.
Well we warm up and set off the sun is up and the temp is rising quickly and after a few more miles the smile came back to my partial frozen face. As we tooled on we picked a rider on a Harley that followed us for about 40 miles.
Mark was leading and I saw him stick his hand out to a road hazard in our lane. Being a good Joe I stuck my foot out to signal the rider behind me. Lo and Behold the ****** thing jumped up and bit me with the impact of a 5lbs. mash hammer with no shoes on. Now remember I ride with hard toe boots if I had not the outcome would have been far worse then what actual happened. You should see the front of my boot where the impact took place.
My foot immediately went numb and all I could do was scream son of a @@@@@ through clinched teeth for the next hundred miles. Remembering Rob from the NE Rally I was not going to take off my boot for the fear of not getting it back on. I toughed it through the day but felt bad for Steve because it was a beautiful day with a ton of stuff to do and to look at and I turned out to be not so good company.
Without dragging this out any further I went to the hospital and had to have the nail on my big toe removed to relieve the pressure my toe was about four times the size of normal when I did take my boot off when I got home and I split the bone right through the middle from the tip to the first joint. So I’m sitting here writing this with a walk cast on my foot and at least three weeks before the Doctor said I could ride again.
Moral of the story point with your hand NOT YOU’RE FOOT I know this and broke that cardinal rule and now I’m paying the price for my stupidity. So all you new riders out there learn from my mistake POINT with your hand and not with your foot.
John
