Putting the crash bars to the test
Okay, it was inevitable. Sooner or later, someone was going to drop a bike.
If you haven’t ridden a motorcycle, it may be difficult to appreciate how physically demanding it can be. At the end of each day, we are both exhausted, having ridden up and down hills, around countless gravelled hairpin turns, dodging potholes, sheep and oncoming traffic, all through temperature swings of 20°C and a thousand plus meters of elevation change. This is less a vacation and more an experience.
And so, this morning, after we had breakfast, packed up and said our goodbyes, we left. Well, we started maneuvering the bikes. On a narrow, steep gravel hillside. Angela wasn’t confident handling her 500+ lb steed, so I took over getting it from the parking space down the hill. And dumped it.
Fortunately, I was stopped; I lost my balance and couldn’t hold the bike up. Over it went, landing on the pannier. Sigh. We (Angela, Mohammed and I) picked up the bike, I dusted off, rolled it forward about 10 ft to line it up with the slope, and drove it down to the bottom without further incident.
Learning from the first experience, I took a different line with my bike and rode safely to the bottom of the hill, where we assessed the damage to Angela’s bike.
There were some cosmetic scratches to the crashbars and hand guards, but the worst of it was the pannier. The corner of the pannier was cracked, and there was now a 3″ hole in the corner. A few feet of duct tape later and the hole was covered, though I doubt it will be waterproof.
The standard wisdom is, after you buy an adventure bike the first thing to do is kick it and knock it over. Once it’s had a little damage you won’t be so worried about it. I’m not sure I agree with that advice, and I’m sure the rental company wouldn’t agree either! Then again, they probably don’t care, as they have our damage deposit!
In the end, I was unharmed, the bike suffered minimal damage, and we’re the wiser for it, so it’s all good. Or at least, it’s all part of the experience!
