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Alcohol, speed, stupidity & cops. Wed Mar 09, 2011 9:18 pm
Guest
Guest
As told to the writer...
"It’s been years now but I had a bike – after over 25 years of riding – a small
single cylinder model. One night, back when we were in the military, we
were out drinking. As the evening grew late we were to the point of
being 'sober drunk'. The point where you’re drunk but start to think
you’re sober. Well, we needed to get some sleep before getting back to the
base in the morning. Too awake to sleep we decided to hop on the bike
and head down to the beach for a bit. Down at the beach they had this
nice boardwalk. I'd always wanted to take the bike out on the boardwalk
but it wasn’t allowed. My buddy said 'who’s going to catch us? It’s late
night/early morning, nobody’s going to see!' So out on the
boardwalk we went, only to be greeted by the only other person who’d be
out all night – the town cop sitting in his cruiser.
Fortunately he was a motorcycle enthusiast and didn’t give us a ticket for what we
done. Soon enough we got to talking with him on which was faster, my
small, lightweight cycle or his big, heavy V-8 cruiser.
I said ‘give me a 10 second lead and we’ll see who gets to the end of the
boardwalk quicker’. The cop agreed and my buddy got into the cruiser
with him. Off I went flying down the boardwalk.
One little detail that none of us knew is that the day before the city crews
had shortened the boardwalk by two blocks. I couldn’t stop in time and off I
went into the air, the bike and I separating on the way to the water (which fortunately
was at high tide). The bike and I ended up in a cold splash. The cop, seeing me
ahead disappear over the edge was able to get the cruiser stopped
before going over himself.
On getting back up to the boardwalk the cop’s
reaction was 'we have to get that bike out of here before anybody finds
out'. Off we went to one of his friends, one that had a tow truck. So
now the tow truck was there and we picked my cycle out of the cold
water. That done the cop turned to me and said 'you don’t know my name
and I sure as hell don’t know yours'. With that we all parted, he with
his job and me with my wet bike and my story.
It took a few weeks of work to get the bike back up and running, but fortunately – who’d have
figured the odds – the bike stopped running with the valves closed, so no
salt water in the cylinder!"
"It’s been years now but I had a bike – after over 25 years of riding – a small
single cylinder model. One night, back when we were in the military, we
were out drinking. As the evening grew late we were to the point of
being 'sober drunk'. The point where you’re drunk but start to think
you’re sober. Well, we needed to get some sleep before getting back to the
base in the morning. Too awake to sleep we decided to hop on the bike
and head down to the beach for a bit. Down at the beach they had this
nice boardwalk. I'd always wanted to take the bike out on the boardwalk
but it wasn’t allowed. My buddy said 'who’s going to catch us? It’s late
night/early morning, nobody’s going to see!' So out on the
boardwalk we went, only to be greeted by the only other person who’d be
out all night – the town cop sitting in his cruiser.
Fortunately he was a motorcycle enthusiast and didn’t give us a ticket for what we
done. Soon enough we got to talking with him on which was faster, my
small, lightweight cycle or his big, heavy V-8 cruiser.
I said ‘give me a 10 second lead and we’ll see who gets to the end of the
boardwalk quicker’. The cop agreed and my buddy got into the cruiser
with him. Off I went flying down the boardwalk.
One little detail that none of us knew is that the day before the city crews
had shortened the boardwalk by two blocks. I couldn’t stop in time and off I
went into the air, the bike and I separating on the way to the water (which fortunately
was at high tide). The bike and I ended up in a cold splash. The cop, seeing me
ahead disappear over the edge was able to get the cruiser stopped
before going over himself.
On getting back up to the boardwalk the cop’s
reaction was 'we have to get that bike out of here before anybody finds
out'. Off we went to one of his friends, one that had a tow truck. So
now the tow truck was there and we picked my cycle out of the cold
water. That done the cop turned to me and said 'you don’t know my name
and I sure as hell don’t know yours'. With that we all parted, he with
his job and me with my wet bike and my story.
It took a few weeks of work to get the bike back up and running, but fortunately – who’d have
figured the odds – the bike stopped running with the valves closed, so no
salt water in the cylinder!"
