How I hurt my back on Friday

I stopped by a friend's house on Friday afternoon for a visit. His
neighbor had just come home with a brand new 800 pound American
cruiser in the back of his truck. I was recruited to unload the bike
for him, due to my being experienced with that sort of thing and
having four good limbs. My friend just had shoulder surgery and his
buddy who was also there visiting just had leg surgery. I'm very
comfortable rolling bikes out of trucks (done it a gazillion times),
but something about a huge expensive bike with 3 miles on it made it
somewhat scary. Anyway, no drama with the unload and I rolled it down
the inclined driveway to the edge of the road where it could sit on
flat ground so they could start it up and marvel at how great it
sounded (?).

After a while, the owner's wife suggested it was time to put it in the
garage so they could go out for dinner. At this point it was revealed
that the owner had never owned a bike and hadn't ridden anything since
he was a kid riding friend's minibikes. Given that he was already
wearing a number of pieces of well worn clothing with the
manufacturers logo on it, I was slightly surprised.

So the owner hops on and kicks it in gear and lurches forward since
he'd forgotten about the clutch. I discreetly offered to ride it up
the driveway for him, suggesting that maybe he'd rather get
comfortable with it without an audience watching. He wasn't interested
and tried again. He got it turned around OK and I sorta felt like a
jerk for even offering. Before I had much time to worry about that, he
was wobbling at high velocity directly towards his truck and his
wife's car in full panic mode.

He managed to grab the front brake and come to a stop, but wasn't able
to hold the bike up and fell downhill towards his truck. He came to
rest wedged between the bike and truck in a very uncomfortable looking
position. I ran over and grabbed the crashbars to lift the bike up
and... nothing. I wasn't able to lift the bike upright (uphill from an
awkward angle), but I was able to take the load off of him. After an
unpleasant couple of seconds, my buddy and his one good arm made it
over and between us we were able to right the bike.

After gathering his wits, the owner rode it into the garage on his
third try. I didn't watch. My back is still aching, but getting
better. I shoulda gone riding instead, at least then it would be a
"good" sore.

Craig

On Feb 18, 12:50 pm, Craig <googlegroupm....DeleteThis@yahoo.com> wrote:
> I stopped by a friend's house on Friday afternoon for a visit. His
> neighbor had just come home with a brand new 800 pound American
> cruiser in the back of his truck. I was recruited to unload the bike
> for him, due to my being experienced with that sort of thing and
> having four good limbs. My friend just had shoulder surgery and his
> buddy who was also there visiting just had leg surgery. I'm very
> comfortable rolling bikes out of trucks (done it a gazillion times),
> but something about a huge expensive bike with 3 miles on it made it
> somewhat scary. Anyway, no drama with the unload and I rolled it down
> the inclined driveway to the edge of the road where it could sit on
> flat ground so they could start it up and marvel at how great it
> sounded (?).
>
> After a while, the owner's wife suggested it was time to put it in the
> garage so they could go out for dinner. At this point it was revealed
> that the owner had never owned a bike and hadn't ridden anything since
> he was a kid riding friend's minibikes. Given that he was already
> wearing a number of pieces of well worn clothing with the
> manufacturers logo on it, I was slightly surprised.
>
> So the owner hops on and kicks it in gear and lurches forward since
> he'd forgotten about the clutch. I discreetly offered to ride it up
> the driveway for him, suggesting that maybe he'd rather get
> comfortable with it without an audience watching. He wasn't interested
> and tried again. He got it turned around OK and I sorta felt like a
> jerk for even offering. Before I had much time to worry about that, he
> was wobbling at high velocity directly towards his truck and his
> wife's car in full panic mode.
>
> He managed to grab the front brake and come to a stop, but wasn't able
> to hold the bike up and fell downhill towards his truck. He came to
> rest wedged between the bike and truck in a very uncomfortable looking
> position. I ran over and grabbed the crashbars to lift the bike up
> and... nothing. I wasn't able to lift the bike upright (uphill from an
> awkward angle), but I was able to take the load off of him. After an
> unpleasant couple of seconds, my buddy and his one good arm made it
> over and between us we were able to right the bike.
>
> After gathering his wits, the owner rode it into the garage on his
> third try. I didn't watch. My back is still aching, but getting
> better. I shoulda gone riding instead, at least then it would be a
> "good" sore.
>
> Craig


Friends neighbors get you into all kinds of trouble.

Go easy on it, but keep it active- and watch the classifieds for
slighty mangled cruiser parts.

DDave