dietDrThunder
Why so serious, son?
Well, eventually all good things must come to an end. For me, The End manifested itself thus: I was in the middle of the Mason Dixon 2020 Rally a couple of weeks ago. It was about 9:00pm, not cold, but raining, and things were good. I was in rural NC about 20 miles West of Statesville, and 750 miles into what I figured would be roughly a 1050 mile day. Just before the rally started I'd added the final touch to my rally-centric Tenere, an aux fuel cell fabbed by the magician Ernie Avazedo. The bike was finally perfect, and I'd just turned 50k on the odo an hour earlier. As I crowned a small hill at about 55mph, I saw a cow in the oncoming lane. As this was a small country road, this was a close call by any measure, and my attention was justifiably attracted. Sadly for me, I really needed that attention, because as it turned out, there was a second cow, just down the road a few yards, and the rapid succession of surprise/reaction/distraction/second hazard conspired against me, and I hit the second cow at speed.
For reasons I can't quite identify, I am largely unscathed, apart form one pretty nasty wound in my left leg. I ended up having to spend a few days in the hospital to fight an infection in that leg, but I'm on the mend. The bike, much like the cow, is no longer with us. I considered reclaiming the bike from insurance, but the steering head area of the frame was bent enough to have a kink in the tubing, and I'm not gonna do a frame swap. So, with a heavy heart, I signed off and said so long. On an entirely unrelated note, I had purchased a 2015 Triumph Trophy a few weeks before the rally (used, with 27 miles on it. Really) so I guess that's my direction for at least a while.
I was so happy with the Super Tenere when I added the cell that I took a few pics of it in my garage after I finished packing for the rally, So, here are some before and after shots, taken less than 72 hours apart.
For reasons I can't quite identify, I am largely unscathed, apart form one pretty nasty wound in my left leg. I ended up having to spend a few days in the hospital to fight an infection in that leg, but I'm on the mend. The bike, much like the cow, is no longer with us. I considered reclaiming the bike from insurance, but the steering head area of the frame was bent enough to have a kink in the tubing, and I'm not gonna do a frame swap. So, with a heavy heart, I signed off and said so long. On an entirely unrelated note, I had purchased a 2015 Triumph Trophy a few weeks before the rally (used, with 27 miles on it. Really) so I guess that's my direction for at least a while.
I was so happy with the Super Tenere when I added the cell that I took a few pics of it in my garage after I finished packing for the rally, So, here are some before and after shots, taken less than 72 hours apart.
