Part of riding is riding in the rain. At this point in my life I rarely go out to ride if the weather's bad, but things used to be different....
I remember my very first roadrace of the 1975 season and it was raining at Westwood in BC. My buddy was to bring my tools, parts, leathers, helmet,etc in his old van while I went with three other guys and race bikes from the shop. My buddy was late and it was necessary to make at least one qualifying lap in order to race. By the time this idiot arrived and I could get suited up I was just able to make that lap.
Of course the adrenaline was, lets say, surging so when the green flag dropped quess who got the hole shot! I don't think I ever even looked behind to see where the rest of the pack was, I had my head down, was in the lead, and was attached to a heart beating out of control!
The track was really slick as you can quess I ended up low siding off a fairly slow corner, got up, kicked a few things straight, emptied the gravel out of my Bell Star and off I went again now at the back of the pack, but still determined. Two laps later after making it past a few other riders, in that damn high speed offcamber right hand turn three with only one fast line through it and I'm out in the marbles trying to get by two slower guys on the outside. There is more water on the inside of my visor than out when slowly the ass end tries to pass the front and when I get out of the throttle, it hooks up again and over the top I go, in one hell of a high side and resulting earth-sky, earth-sky earth-sky.
Race 1, 1975, DNF. There would be more days like this before I was done!
Moral of the story, none really, just the beer talking
