Dropped my bike today

[BigRed]

Ever have one of those days where you think that perhaps riding your bike might not be the best idea? Well, today I had one of those days and ended up dropping my bike…not once…not twice…but three times. Yes, I dropped my bike three times in a span of 20 minutes.

Here is the rest of the story…

I was on the fence whether I should go riding today but since the weather was nice and wife wanted to go to a local shrine to pray for her recently deceased dad, I figured why the heck not. I rode my bike and she drove the car. She had to stop by the bank so I went ahead of her.

I've only been to this place once before and drove a car. I forgot that the shrine was located on a very steep hill and to get to the parking lot one has to go up a steep narrow driveway, which curves to the left. What I had also forgotten is that the main parking lot is also on a steep incline and there is a rather deep dip that runs the length of the lot from bottom to top. In order to get into the lot I had to cut through the dip diagonally but first I had to go over a big hump. I made up the curved driveway fine but must have been going too slowly because when I got over the hump and down into the dip the bike stopped suddenly. When it stopped it immediately started leaning to the left, downhill. There was nothing I could have done to stop it from going down. I am so happy this bike has crash bars in front and back. That saved it from any damage. I tried to pick the bike up myself but trying to lift an 800lb bike up hill is almost impossible, at least for me after 2 back surgeries. I tried every technique I could think of but the bike wouldn't' budge. Lucky, there were a couple of guys doing some maintenance in the area and they helped me lift it. So that was #1.

Once I got myself all squared away I decided to ride the bike straight up the hill, gently turn around and come down to an area that wasn't as steep as the original spot and park there. I pulled into a parking spot and...dropped the bike again but this time on its right side, again facing downhill and barely missing a parked car. At that point my wife had shown up and with her help I was able to pick up the bike by placing my butt on the seat and walking into it backwards. That was #2. At that point I had decided that I needed to park the bike down in a different lot, farther away.

Wife did her thing at the shrine and it was time for us to go home. At that point I was in a lot that was completely flat. I got on my bike and noticed that it didn't want to start right away. This was probably related to it being on its side twice already. The bike eventually fired up and I started to move out. I was going slowly and making a left turn when the bike stalled out. I had my wheel turned to the left so when the bike stopped, it immediately leaned to the left. I was not prepared for it so it went down again on its side. Again, I was able to pick it up by slowly walking into it backwards. This was #3.

The ride back home after that was uneventful. Things tend to happen in 3’s so hopefully I am done for a while.

This wasn't fun but at least now I know that I can pick up my bike, providing that it is not laying down on the side of a hill.

I don't know what the heck today was all about.