drummer
Frieden mit uns allen
I want to sing the praises of the BMW MOA Anonymous book and the people that take part in it. Recently, while riding in the mountains of Virginia, I had the unfortunate occurrence of encountering a badly applied tar and gravel road patch that had no warning signs. The situation was a vary hard uphill S corner with both legs of the corner being blind to the outcome. As I approached the first part there was a sign that showed it to be a 15 mph corner and I also notice gravel on the road surface, not much but some. I slowed dramatically as I was on a new to me 05 1200 RT purchased just a couple of weeks before and I was not sure of its handling. As I went through the corner there were no surprises the bike and I worked well together. I was now in the thirty feet of straight before the uphill right hand corner that had the outcome blocked by mountain side. I did a quick scan of the road surface and it looked okay but never notice the gravel was uniform and about one inch thick, I picked my exit point, down shifted to first, and started into the corner. As I started to push steer the front wheel jumped and was facing a diagonal line into the other lane, I then jerked the bars back to track in my lane but the rear tire was already tracking behind the new direction. I in effect scissored my bike on the low side as the rear tire then slid out from under me in the up hill direction. The bike came down on the inside of my left calf forcing multiple breaks in my left ankle.
My riding partner helped me upright the bike and a passer by assisted him with getting the bike off the road and giving me a ride to a near by auto shop. There is no cell coverage in this part of the world so I was stuck but I did have the BMW MOA book with me. I opened it in a very pessimistic way expecting the worst but amazingly enough there was one person in this little town listed. I used the shop phone to make a local call and heard a gentleman's voice answer, I was relieved. I explained to him who I was and the situation, and his first response was, “man, I can't help with a truck but if you get it to me, we can store it here until you can get it fixed.” Amazingly, after all of this discussion, we now introduced ourselves to each other and Randy told me to call him back with any updates.
I now used the auto shop to go and get my bike with their flat bed. Upon returning, my riding buddy was still hanging out and helped to get the bike on the truck. By this time my foot had swollen to the point that my boot was going to need to be loosened soon and any weight on that foot terrible.
To make a long story short, the bike got back to the auto shop where they tried to over charge me for a number of services. I spoke again with Randy who said, “oh just have them bring you and the bike here to my house. You can rest and we will deal with it,” and that is what we did. Once I got to his house, I was able to get my wife on the phone and have her come and get me.
I spend the next month with ankle surgery and staying stationary as per the doctor's orders. The entire time I was in communication with Randy about the bike. Not only was he fine with storing the bike but one of his professions while in retirement is restoring cars and bikes, he knows how to wrench. He said to me the only problem with the bike was when it went down, it slid on the valve cover causing a small whole, no oil would stay in the bike until the cover was replaced. He had taken the cover off and found no evidence of any other problems inside. I ordered and had sent to him the valve cover and a case of Amsoil. As soon as he got both, he fixed my bike. Once I was able to put my foot in a vertical position, I enlisted the aid of another BMW MOA friend that I often ride with, Steve, and we drove up in my car to see Randy. My friend rode the bike back to my house and when I am through with physical therapy, I hope to be riding again.
The anonymous book has made me a believer in the good within people and the bond we share through riding these wonderful machines. I owe so much to Randy and Steve for all of their help but I also gained a new friend as a result. From now on, I am going to list myself in the book - I had not before, but now I see the importance.
My riding partner helped me upright the bike and a passer by assisted him with getting the bike off the road and giving me a ride to a near by auto shop. There is no cell coverage in this part of the world so I was stuck but I did have the BMW MOA book with me. I opened it in a very pessimistic way expecting the worst but amazingly enough there was one person in this little town listed. I used the shop phone to make a local call and heard a gentleman's voice answer, I was relieved. I explained to him who I was and the situation, and his first response was, “man, I can't help with a truck but if you get it to me, we can store it here until you can get it fixed.” Amazingly, after all of this discussion, we now introduced ourselves to each other and Randy told me to call him back with any updates.
I now used the auto shop to go and get my bike with their flat bed. Upon returning, my riding buddy was still hanging out and helped to get the bike on the truck. By this time my foot had swollen to the point that my boot was going to need to be loosened soon and any weight on that foot terrible.
To make a long story short, the bike got back to the auto shop where they tried to over charge me for a number of services. I spoke again with Randy who said, “oh just have them bring you and the bike here to my house. You can rest and we will deal with it,” and that is what we did. Once I got to his house, I was able to get my wife on the phone and have her come and get me.
I spend the next month with ankle surgery and staying stationary as per the doctor's orders. The entire time I was in communication with Randy about the bike. Not only was he fine with storing the bike but one of his professions while in retirement is restoring cars and bikes, he knows how to wrench. He said to me the only problem with the bike was when it went down, it slid on the valve cover causing a small whole, no oil would stay in the bike until the cover was replaced. He had taken the cover off and found no evidence of any other problems inside. I ordered and had sent to him the valve cover and a case of Amsoil. As soon as he got both, he fixed my bike. Once I was able to put my foot in a vertical position, I enlisted the aid of another BMW MOA friend that I often ride with, Steve, and we drove up in my car to see Randy. My friend rode the bike back to my house and when I am through with physical therapy, I hope to be riding again.
The anonymous book has made me a believer in the good within people and the bond we share through riding these wonderful machines. I owe so much to Randy and Steve for all of their help but I also gained a new friend as a result. From now on, I am going to list myself in the book - I had not before, but now I see the importance.
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