Joined
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1,285 Posts
Ok, OBASTer's top this.
I am coming back into NYC on the west side highway WITH She Who Must Be Obeyed making an extremely - and I do mean extremely - rare guest star appearance as co-rider after a 300 mile day ride upstate.
Traffic is bumper to bumper, moving one car length at a time, 8 lanes - 4 each way, this is right around where the Intrepid is docked. The city is shooting off a fire works display right there so the traffic is 100% full and moves about one car lenght or a half of a car lenght at a time. The side walks are full, thousands and thousands of gawkers watching the fireworks.
Your OBAST represenative FRISKY is taking care of business - moving v-e-r-y slowly with traffic and Cora is looking at the fireworks. It starts to rain. It didn't take much at all for the streets to get wet and there was no where we could go except stay in the middle of the jam.
We move one car length into what would normally be a cross walk but was closed to pedestrian traffic. I ease into the crosswalk and stop. I put my left foot down and a little weight transfers onto that leg - just like normal.........and the shiny white paint of the crosswalk stripes is slippery, very slippery and you can guess the rest. My left foot starts to slide, and the bike tips just a little more and my left foot slips just a little more and pretty quicky we are at the point of no return (happens a little faster when you have a co-rider on board) and it very gently lays down.
Cora stays on just as she should and then we extract ourselves, She rolls off tangled up in intercom cables etc. No one is hurt because we were dead stopped and we both always wear full protective gear, boots, gloves motoport kevlar for me and Aerostich one piece for her, but I heard a few screams from the folks on the side. So now we have this yellow whale on it's side in front of at least 5,000 people probably more. Traffic in my lane and the two lanes on either side ain't going anywhere - dead stopped. And it;s raining and I am looking around for where I can get a grip on the pavement to try to walk it back up - which is no where to be found.
No body is getting out of their cars because they don't want to get wet. I suppose I could have asked someone in one of the many cars full of people to jump out and help me get it right side up, but at that point... even your OBAST representative was speechless. Right about that time 3 big guys start to come across the cross walk that was closed but because I had made such a mess of things they viewed it as an opportunity to try to cross - because now 4 lanes of traffic was stopped. They asked it they could help. The 5 of us stood there for a few seconds blocking what was now 4 lanes of traffic dead stop, nothing was moving because those who were not blocked were just looking with their mouths open ....including..... the cars in the other 4 lanes of traffic going the other way because they thought they saw a big MC accident. And as I have said on other occasions, people in New York City don't see too many goldwings and most think a yellow wing is a version of a small catapillar tractor or a special taxi.
About that time Three NYC cops on foot wade through traffic to come and check us out. Now there are 8 of us standing in 4 lanes of dead stopped traffic with the other 4 lanes not moving. "Every body ok?", "yes thank you". I wear a special NYPD pin which few notice but LEO's of any persuasion ALWAYS do (it is very difficult to get a ticket with one of these pins - I call it my "get out of jail free" pin. They see my pin. I get "The Big Hello", "What can we do to help?" "Grab anything solid and we will all lift it up and you guys just hold the bike upright and steady while I get on and get it started (it was exceptionall slippery), so now you have 7 big guys surrounding FRISKY and we pick it up and now 6 are holding it up, with your represenative getting on and attempting to get things restarted and Cora standing there in the middle of the highway. And it doesn't want to start.
I crank it for a few seconds and realize I need to recycle the electrical system, which I do. But it still doesn't want to start. About this time a certified fool directly in back of the 8 of us makes the very big mistake of honking his horn. The cops look at each other and go nuts. They go up on both sides of the guy and I hear one say to the passenger "I guess maybe you want to get out and help because why else would you honk" another says "Are You Nuts", to the driver. No more honking from anyone remotely near us but in back of us there was a huge amount of honking going on because they did not understand the reason for the blockage.
About that time FRISKY lights up and they all walk me over to side the crosswalk entrance to put ourselves back together. "Thank you's" all around, and about 100 people who were on an elevated pedestrian watching the fireworks but had turned to watch the FRISKY show, applauded and cheered. Cora and I get get configured, FRISKY is running like the champ that it is, Cora mounts up, hooks up. Although traffic has once again started moving, the cops turn to me and say "Ready?" I nod and they walk out into the lanes and stop traffic and we pull back into the lines of traffic and merge and act like nothing happened.
The best part.............Cora did not say, and has not said.... one word to me about this. NADA. That is pretty damn good for the very occasional rider and the rather - no - entirely unique circumstances of the event.
As I said: "You Can't Make This Up".
Your OBAST regional representative in New York City. Do I get an OBAST # for this?? If anyone can top this one, I am sure we would all like to hear it.
I am coming back into NYC on the west side highway WITH She Who Must Be Obeyed making an extremely - and I do mean extremely - rare guest star appearance as co-rider after a 300 mile day ride upstate.
Traffic is bumper to bumper, moving one car length at a time, 8 lanes - 4 each way, this is right around where the Intrepid is docked. The city is shooting off a fire works display right there so the traffic is 100% full and moves about one car lenght or a half of a car lenght at a time. The side walks are full, thousands and thousands of gawkers watching the fireworks.
Your OBAST represenative FRISKY is taking care of business - moving v-e-r-y slowly with traffic and Cora is looking at the fireworks. It starts to rain. It didn't take much at all for the streets to get wet and there was no where we could go except stay in the middle of the jam.
We move one car length into what would normally be a cross walk but was closed to pedestrian traffic. I ease into the crosswalk and stop. I put my left foot down and a little weight transfers onto that leg - just like normal.........and the shiny white paint of the crosswalk stripes is slippery, very slippery and you can guess the rest. My left foot starts to slide, and the bike tips just a little more and my left foot slips just a little more and pretty quicky we are at the point of no return (happens a little faster when you have a co-rider on board) and it very gently lays down.
Cora stays on just as she should and then we extract ourselves, She rolls off tangled up in intercom cables etc. No one is hurt because we were dead stopped and we both always wear full protective gear, boots, gloves motoport kevlar for me and Aerostich one piece for her, but I heard a few screams from the folks on the side. So now we have this yellow whale on it's side in front of at least 5,000 people probably more. Traffic in my lane and the two lanes on either side ain't going anywhere - dead stopped. And it;s raining and I am looking around for where I can get a grip on the pavement to try to walk it back up - which is no where to be found.
No body is getting out of their cars because they don't want to get wet. I suppose I could have asked someone in one of the many cars full of people to jump out and help me get it right side up, but at that point... even your OBAST representative was speechless. Right about that time 3 big guys start to come across the cross walk that was closed but because I had made such a mess of things they viewed it as an opportunity to try to cross - because now 4 lanes of traffic was stopped. They asked it they could help. The 5 of us stood there for a few seconds blocking what was now 4 lanes of traffic dead stop, nothing was moving because those who were not blocked were just looking with their mouths open ....including..... the cars in the other 4 lanes of traffic going the other way because they thought they saw a big MC accident. And as I have said on other occasions, people in New York City don't see too many goldwings and most think a yellow wing is a version of a small catapillar tractor or a special taxi.
About that time Three NYC cops on foot wade through traffic to come and check us out. Now there are 8 of us standing in 4 lanes of dead stopped traffic with the other 4 lanes not moving. "Every body ok?", "yes thank you". I wear a special NYPD pin which few notice but LEO's of any persuasion ALWAYS do (it is very difficult to get a ticket with one of these pins - I call it my "get out of jail free" pin. They see my pin. I get "The Big Hello", "What can we do to help?" "Grab anything solid and we will all lift it up and you guys just hold the bike upright and steady while I get on and get it started (it was exceptionall slippery), so now you have 7 big guys surrounding FRISKY and we pick it up and now 6 are holding it up, with your represenative getting on and attempting to get things restarted and Cora standing there in the middle of the highway. And it doesn't want to start.
I crank it for a few seconds and realize I need to recycle the electrical system, which I do. But it still doesn't want to start. About this time a certified fool directly in back of the 8 of us makes the very big mistake of honking his horn. The cops look at each other and go nuts. They go up on both sides of the guy and I hear one say to the passenger "I guess maybe you want to get out and help because why else would you honk" another says "Are You Nuts", to the driver. No more honking from anyone remotely near us but in back of us there was a huge amount of honking going on because they did not understand the reason for the blockage.
About that time FRISKY lights up and they all walk me over to side the crosswalk entrance to put ourselves back together. "Thank you's" all around, and about 100 people who were on an elevated pedestrian watching the fireworks but had turned to watch the FRISKY show, applauded and cheered. Cora and I get get configured, FRISKY is running like the champ that it is, Cora mounts up, hooks up. Although traffic has once again started moving, the cops turn to me and say "Ready?" I nod and they walk out into the lanes and stop traffic and we pull back into the lines of traffic and merge and act like nothing happened.
The best part.............Cora did not say, and has not said.... one word to me about this. NADA. That is pretty damn good for the very occasional rider and the rather - no - entirely unique circumstances of the event.
As I said: "You Can't Make This Up".
Your OBAST regional representative in New York City. Do I get an OBAST # for this?? If anyone can top this one, I am sure we would all like to hear it.
