That title stems from an “incident” (accident) that happened to me a couple of weeks ago. Although I’ve been motorcycle riding for the better part of 30 years, I’m not immune to doing something stupid when riding. And riding in the rain without at least one of those cheap motorcycle helmets, you know… the half helmets with all those cool stickers that you wouldn’t want your mom to read, might be your last ride.
I usually ride my bike to work. No problem there but, this is Florida, the land of drought and flood. So, we’d been experiencing the drought part of the weather for about four weeks. I was about 30 minutes away from from leaving work for the ride home. You guys can guess what happened next. Thunder, lightning, monsoon. Know what happens to a very dry asphalt highway that receives a sudden bath? All of that oil which has been lying dormant is propelled to the road surface by the sudden onslaught of water. Now, my dry and safe way home is slicker’n snot on a doorknob. It’s like riding on sand…or ice. And the riding is not even the difficult part. Stopping is now the real challenge.
So, here I am, leaving work on my 91 Softail Custom. In the rain. No motorcyle helmet. No problem. I’ve done this hundreds of times. It’s about an 8 mile ride home. The first 4 miles were a little slick but, no big deal. It’s a four lane highway, plenty of room and I’m in the left lane because of the direction I have to take at the intersection. Some lady in a compact car passes me on the right and moves in front of me in the left lane. This is not a problem since we’re only traveling at about 35 mph. I eased back the throttle to give the car some distance. About 3 seconds later I experienced what we in the “motorcycle riding without a helmet” fraternity like to call, an “Oh sh!t” moment. The lady in the car hit the brakes to make a left hand turn on to some side street. No signal, no indication of turning at all. I knew I was in deep sh!t even as I was applying the brakes. Trying to keep my motorcycle in a straight line I used the front and rear brakes but, the damn road was just to slippery. The rear of the bike kicked out to the right on the slick surface. This put me into the oncoming line of traffic. Nothing was coming. The one bright spot. Still applying the brakes front and rear, because of that oh sh!t thing, I had the handlebars cranked to the right. Instinct I guess. A self preservation thing. When you apply the front brake on a motorcycle you better have the front wheel pointed straight ahead. Stopping with the front brake and the wheel turned will just about always put your ass on the ground. I had the wheel turned to the right. Had the front brake lever pulled. Went down hard. On the right. Without a helmet. Landed on my right elbow and my head. Hurt. Got up. Fell back down. Good samaritan helped me back up. Stayed up.
I walked away from that one. My bike got a little messed up. Broke the front brake master cylinder which also took out the mirror and the turn signal but, I got lucky.
Out of all of the motorcycle accessories I have bought over the years a DOT motorcycle helmet is not one of them. I like custom motorcycle helmets but, this is Florida. No helmet law. And I enjoy motorcycle riding without a helmet. But, when it comes to riding in the rain…I’m gonna cover my head up with something that will hit the pavement first instead of my bare head.