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After every time I came to a stop on Wednesday during my ride in the rain, a large cloud of steam would rise from the bike. The heat of the engine vaporized the rain water that was falling from the sky (and spraying from the cars in front of me) and it made me feel that it was hotter than it really was.
The rain obscured my vision and my wet visor was difficult to see through. By the last leg of the trip, I was having trouble avoiding the raised manhole covers in the construction zone. Asphalt was placed around the covers to soften the impact, but it was still steep enough to make life uncomfortable when going over these bumps at high speed.
A combination of the rain, wet visor, and steam made avoiding these bumps difficult, if not impossible. Some of the manholes were placed very close together so that if you tried to go between them, you would hit the lip of one bump and then the other one. Unfortunately, I did not really slow down to compensate for my reduced vision and I went between two manholes at a pretty good clip.
I felt my bike wobble as my front tire was being pushed in a different direction than my rear tire. The wet pavement offered no traction so I probably would have been on the ground if I was not holding on for dear life (and maintaining my speed).
Crazy, crazy rider.
When I arrived back at the condo, the bike continued to produce steam long after I parked and turned off the engine. I was a little worried about the amount of steam the bike was giving off, so I bent over to look at the source. I smelt something burning.
Now I am not sure if it was steam or smoke I was seeing, but I got off the bike and the steam (or smoke) eventually did go away. Hopefully that smell was from something that was not important.
Friday, May 18, 2007 at 07:19:36 (UTC)
um, i don't want a paraplegic for a brother, so do you think you could play it safer with the bike please?
girl
Friday, May 25, 2007 at 02:34:44 (UTC)
Either that or not mention any of these crazy exploits?
In any case, it was not as bad as it sounded: I tend to slow down in dangerous conditions.
QYV