Ride the Storm, Thunder, Lightning First ride dedicated to Sonny Barger, Happy 76 birthday. We put the plate on my Titan Suzuki 500 August 1988 and for the first time with Wayne leading in his 750 Suzuki Water Buffalo both bikes two strokes. I had never hit the road and now legal tags hard plate using a trick with title transfer from our of state at Maryland DMV, and I was, well looked legal I had not taken the permit test and still at this point my parents who said I couldnt live at home if I had a motorcycle had no idea I even owned one. Glenside drive was a short slow curve on the Long branch a block I often walked in my teens. I was 19 and had been riding the bike every weekend up and down the street for weeks. Every week driving 30 min on my day off pushing up the steep drive past 2 cars, its a long bike, and then up and down the street for hours with no tags, I never went more than a block, just down to the turn, and then into another turn to get back. I had t learn right and left, turns in that nice swoop of pavement at the corner that gave just a little lean as you dipped in so the idea of powering out at different angles soon caught my head, I was learning. We turned right, I had on my steel toed boots, black leather a tee shirt and clear classes work glasses, and I wound 1st, 2nd the wind ripped and then 3rd, and gave her a go after Wayne on his Water Buffalo 750 who was already making pace. I had never pushed 3rd yet, just as I passed the house I grew up in for years and the hill began up the gravity, the shear raw power of pushing the engine in a grade; I blew 50 mph before breaking it down on the top of Carroll Ave a tricky spot on a bike if going too fast, later I would have to do an air bound sideways turn right and drift slide power out around a car as someone was chasing me at speed over 60-70 mph on my 750 but that was years later, now I was just following Wayne. I was after 7 and the air was heavy with wind gusts, dark clouds swooped by the bright ones above leaving quickly: I would soon know why. We took Flower Ave and down into the turns still local roads so many times driven, and as it ended on Georgia we for the first time lined side by side. I looked over with a big grin the very air shook with heat, the in it shook again this time it jumped as the air became tremendous drops of rain, big ones that tell of a big storm coming into Washington D.C area. Wayne Said, What do you want to do, you havent rode in the rain yet.. The leave off being I only rode around the corner up the block on sunny days, even a little dew but that was it. I yelled with the lust of the ride, Lets go! and we did turning right onto Georgia Avenue and headed north out of town towards the darkening sky deep bruised boiling purples mixed with the flashes of lightning beginning to tear the sky and making the roads and shadow play tricks it was full night and we off. Everyone remembers that first ride, the rush, the freedom, thundered in my as loud as the summer thunderstorm we rode in; the rain smacking my lips so hard I grit my teeth, smile ride, wide. I happens that real moment when you are a biker or not, mine came at 40 mph when that little 500CC 2 stroke hit Suzie, her power band. The back tire hydro planed and spun out, the bike was going sideways with a little angle thrown in. I already knew 70% braking is front tire, and this angle no front brake was possible, the adrenaline hit, Wayne I could barely see him, a very little goes through a second of time or a whole lot, the thunder crashed, lighting threw shadows on everything, the lights of all the big trucks and cars still rolling; I was soaked, I lay off throttle and spin stopped, I felt the properties of 500lbs+ of 2 wheels steel moving in the air, the power, the side drift I hit the back break, tap tap and I was out, the wheels snapped back in line and I was off. I tried to tell Wayne. Thunder, C rash is all I heard, alI he heard. The bikes hissing in heat, We rode until the storm was gone and each moment in it, every once and a while a yell, a rebel yell deep from in me would break the night and the storm would yell back. It passed the streets dried and we made our way back. It was only 20-30 minutes, but it lasts a life time. A biker was born in that storm, 13 years later he would become to be known as THOR https://youtube/watch?v=e_K9j1y0Jhw
Posted on: Wed, 08 Oct 2014 11:58:39 +0000
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