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November 21, 2010
The Daily Commute
7 a.m.
28 degrees.
Madison, Wisconsin
In the morning, I pull on a 2nd pair of pants. Gloves. Jacket. Helmet.
Check out of the hotel, wipe the ice off the seat of the motorcycle, and I'm driving to the airport to catch a flight.
I'm still on the frontage road, approaching a stop sign, when I pull in the clutch but nothing happens. The clutch just lets go and there's nothing there. I'm still in gear and the handle's all the way in but it has ceased to function.
This is kind'a tricky because I'm rolling through traffic now and the brain realizes we have a major problem, but hasn't quite grasped all of the implications just yet.
I start tinkering with the gears. I can shift up and down without the clutch. I do this all the time while I'm driving. You can feel when the engine wants to shift. This is something you learn from experience. It's sort of a Zen thing.
I have to get to the airport, of course, and the sooner the better. And it isn't like there's anyone I could call. I have to keep rolling. Have to somehow get this baby to the airport.
Eventually, I realize that I can shift into neutral, which is a bonus. This means I can stop. The trick is to get it going again. Once I stop, if I just jam it into first, it dies.
However, my first stop is on a little hill, so I let it coast a bit in neutral and, once it's rolling good, I jam it into first and I'm OK.
Eventually, I realize that the goal is not to stop. I can make it to the airport, so long as I don't encounter any red lights. So, when I see a red light, I slow way down and pray it turns green before I get there.
But eventually, my luck runs out and I get to a red light and have to stop. The light turns green and I'm not on a hill this time, so I have to get it rolling with my feet. So, the engine's running and I'm sitting on the bike, running forward, essentially, with a leg on each side of said bike. Trying to get up speed. With no license plate, of course.
I get it rolling a little and jam it into first and it stands straight up like a stallion. I just hold on for dear life and eventually the front tire comes down and makes contact with the street and somehow I don't crash and look at the lights ahead of me to plan what I can do to keep that from occurring again and I wonder how other people's commutes are going today.
Hopefully better than mine.
Posted by Rob Kiser on November 21, 2010 at 4:57 PM
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