This lady did not straddle a motorcycle for over 25 years due to a few spills and some rather nasty road burn.  The scars have healed well and recently I began to enjoy the thrill of motorcycling as a ‘backseat’ rider. 

When you become a rider of any seriousness you become a member of a club.  No colors, no special badges, your ride is your entrance and suddenly you are in a brotherhood of friends.  As you ride other riders nod or grace you with a hand sign in greeting?  acknowledgement?  the secret handshake of riders?  No matter, you know they mean you well on this Hot/Cold/Wet/Humid riding day you are sharing.  It is a wonderful feeling along with the assortment of wonderful feelings mentioned in previous posts.

I was lucky to meet a very good friend, Dl, of MH2 from High School days.  A month after his wife died in January 2009 we traveled there on bike to have lunch at his 10 acre country land.  We discussed gardening, husbandry, his fruit trees, met the neighbors, and of course, talked motorcycles.  He and his brother had been riding since High School and he was talking about riding again.  He was a gracious host, jack of all trades and made this person feel like a long lost friend the first time we met.  Can a woman and a man just be friends?  Dl was one of those rare guys that it was possible.

Subsequent visits had he and MH2 speaking the merits of several types he was looking into so for $100 MH2 sold him a 198? Yamaha that had stayed mostly idle the last few years. The transaction happened this last Sunday, he cooked us steaks on the grill, we picked cucumbers, tomatoes and habeneros out of his garden.  The guys went over the bike and discussed him taking a safety course and Dl inquired about what type of helmets were on the market these days. We had a fabulous time.

This morning, two days later, the call came from Dl’s neighbor whom we had met on our Sunday visits.  Just after 6 PM last night Dl went to pass a vehicle and hit straight on into a minivan.  The lady he hit is in the hospital.  Dl did not survive the encounter. 

Having gone on at length about safety equipment for this type of transport and in Backseat Rider #5 post even spoke about the difference between Trust, Experience and using your Brain.   The only type of safety stuff that would have helped Dl is the basic rules.  In the rush of exhilaration it is easy to forget the smarts your brain has and fill with overwhelming emotion of a moment. This is okay for roller coasters, but on a motorcycle?

Goodbye Dl.   For the rest of you, be safe!