In 1973, I was sitting on my Sporty in the left turn lane of a giant intersection. There were four cages in front of me, no one behind me and the light was red. I had a habit at that time of slipping the bike into neutral so I didn’t have to sit with the clutch pulled in. I found out, that is not such a good idea.
It just so happened that I was unable to find neutral as I coasted to a stop, so I sat there with the clutch pulled in. I had a small tear-drop mirror mounted on the left and it was almost useless because of the wild gyrations that the thumping of the motor caused. That lil’ sucker saved my life that day! I heard a loud engine and glanced into the vortex that existed in that mirror. I saw a fast moving, BIG pickup pull into my lane. I glanced again just a second later and all I saw was a headlight and part of a grill, closing fast!
I had just enough time to say “Oh sh*t” and dump the clutch. I squirted forward to the right of the car in front of me just as the truck hit that car so hard that there was a chain reaction that caused the line of cars to ALL hit each other and the car in the lead position shot out into the intersection. She barely missed being hit by a large box truck.
The driver of the pickup that caused this mayhem had re-started his truck and was backing up. He was trying to LEAVE! I kicked the bike onto it’s side stand, grabbed the keys and leaped off the bike. I ran around to the driver’s side door, yanked it open and grabbed the dude. He was so drunk that he literally fell out of his rig! You know the old expression “There’s never a cop around when you need one”? Well, that day there was one sitting in an unmarked car five or six spaces back. He saw the whole thing, including when I grabbed the dude and dragged him out of his crunched rig. I was so pumped on adrenaline that I was about to pop that drunk right in his kisser.
A loud voice behind me yelled “DON’T DO THAT!” Something told me that this was a cop and I jumped up and away from the idiot on the ground. I threw both hands in the air, spun around and yelled “Thank GOD you’re here! Did you see what happened?” He had his gun out, pointing it at ME but the slight grin on his face told me that would soon change. He lowered his pistol and pointed it at the drunk dude and told him to lay still and not move. In the next few minutes the drunk was handcuffed and placed into the cop cage. Then the cop came back, clapped me on the shoulder and told me “I’m glad you didn’t hit him, I would have had to arrest you, too! I saw you jump off your bike and head around to his door. I knew I had better get there pretty fast because I saw your face and it wasn’t pretty! Good job, now go move your bike and come give me a statement.”
Everything got sorted out, cars were towed and the intersection started moving again. Two folks in the cage that was hit first were taken away in a meat wagon, I filed my report along with everyone else and got back on my Sporty and left the scene. All the cages were towed away on the end of the ‘hook’ because they were not ‘serviceable’.
To this day, I still think what I would have looked like if idiot-boy had hit me from behind and shoved me into the cage’s trunk. Can you say “Grease stain?” I think they would have been picking me up with a stick and a spoon, if you know what I mean. Lessons learned that day? Always leave your bike in gear at the intersection. Always keep a sharp eye behind you, use those mirrors! Always leave enough space between your bike and the vehicle in front of you to swerve out of the way of oncoming idiots. Be aware, it will save your life!
