Up and Ready To Go

Five weeks ago, I was riding my Peugeot Tweet 125 on private land. It was an industrial estate with a large vacant asphalted parking lot about the size of a football field and a half. There were no cars nor people around, and just great for free riding without obstruction. As I rode up to the far end, turned around to ride to the other end, I turned the throttle to accelerate and out of no-where a man starts walking across my path. Having no expectation of someone appearing, I brake suddenly, the front wheel locks, bike throws me over the front, it rolls over on top of me, and I next opened my eyes with my face down on the tarmac looking through a smashed helmet visor. The bike was on top of me. Between seeing the man walk across, braking and coming to on the ground, I remember nothing. 

Suddenly, my body hurt and I groaned loudly. I heard the man saying over and over, "don't move," as he removed the bike from off of me. He then called for an ambulance and shouted some other men over.  I could hear them running as I lay on the asphalt. 

I clenched both my fists and wiggled both sets of toes; with that, I figured at least they still worked. With the bike now removed, I rolled over onto my back and looked up into the clear blue sky. Not a single cloud to be seen. "What a beautiful day," I thoughtn. "Will I be making a journey up there?" Nope, I was not dying, my gut feeling told me, but I had an unbelievably terrible pain coming from my right arm and lesser pain from my right knee. I moaned, groaned, writhed, and cried like a woman in labour pain. The men were very supportive.

One of them tried to cheer me up as we waited for the ambulance to arrive. He said, "the good news is the bike looks in great shape." I managed a chuckle while shaking my head and thought to myself that he must also be a biker... because really, only a biker would say a thing like that and assume it'd be funny under the circumstances. 

Anyway, (cutting this tale short), having arrived at the nearest hospital by ambulance, it was assessed that I had dislocated my right arm and fractured it: my knees suffered soft tissue damage only. Under anaesthetic, they put my arm in place, fixed me up with a sling and sent me home with my other half who had now arrived, and with very strong pain medicine. The men had given the ambulance crew details of where they'd keep the bike for me to collect after.

So yeah, that was the last week in April. My arm and fingers are now strong enough to type all this and share with you. Heck, I even went to look for my bike replacement yesterday and have settled with a 2015 Honda Forza 125. I'll pick it up in about a month when my arm is 100%, and all the mods I ordered on it are complete. 

The Forza is a great replacement for the Tweet. It is perfect for city runs with a 125cc engine, has 14hp which is great for motorways, and very comfortable seat with huge storage for long haul tours. It's light enough to handle easily and heavy enough to sit solidly on the road. Can hardly wait to get back on the road and get riding it!