HISTORY
The RXS 100 was a cool bike which offered cheap reliable transport.... but I now had been bitten and lusted for MORE..!!
This was put to me in the form of a fluorescent Day-Glo RD350 YPVS (Young Person's Vile Screamer to the uninitiated)..
I longed over it for days.. taking detours past the shop in Cardiff miles out of my way...
I couldn't believe it when they offered me a test ride.. ME.. little ME! I took it out and blasted down the A48 to Newport. WOW 100mph no probs.. what an engine.. a gorgeous 2 stroke u just had blip at the lights in a menacing way... the response from the throttle was so crisp and pure.. I had to have it. It WOULD be mine.
I was fairly gob smacked that the bank manager gave me 2 grand on the basis that I was "going to be a doctor one day" and that I needed a more reliable quicker form of transport that was cheap to run (he obviously knew little of the cost of synthetic 2 stroke oil).
So at last it was mine.. a proper bike!
I learnt a lot from this bike... firstly to be completely paranoid about someone stealing it. I learnt not to take a road bike on grass. I learnt to wheelie (first time was cracking open throttle with some bloke ridinga pillion, who had never ridden pillion before nor will ever do so again I suspect..) I also learnt that riding a bike through Winter is a nightmare when it's your only form of transport... especially on ice. I also learnt that crashing is very painful and I wasn't a good a rider as I thought I was and thus it seemed unlikely I would be the first female WSB championship. I also learnt that writing a bike off is very painful physically and financially (see below *sniff*).
Basically, despite flirting with the RXS, this was my first "biking love thing". Pictured here is June in Treorchy, by her Dad's shop
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Looking gorgeous, honey. |
CRASHES & NEAR MISSES
Oh dear... how does that song go.. "much.. too much to mention"? A few get offs on this one. Well.. it was a lunatic bike and it happened to be my first proper bike. It had a wicked powerband at 7000 rpm and begged to be revved to keep it up there... In all honesty, it wasn't the most sensible bike on which to hone one's riding skills and roadcraft after just passing one's test...
The first accident was one of those many bikers will know of... the old "leave the U-lock / disk lock on the front wheel and drive off" accident. This usually occurs when one is in a hurry or one's mind is on "other things". I dropped the bike shattering the indicator which I had to speedily fix. I ended up being about 20 minutes late for the meeting with some rather gorgeous person.
The next accident was a nasty little get off and the only time (touches wood desperately) that I have had a get-off whilst carrying a pillion.
If you cast your eyes above to the colour picture of June and YPVS, this was taken just before the accident. As luck would have it, June had just bought a new helmet that actually fitted at the local bike shop, which she is pictured wearing... little knowing we were about to test it out..!!
We spead up towards the mountains and followed up into some twisty roads... I was somewhat inexperienced at carrying a pillion and failed to correctly negotiate a right hander. I hit the grass on the side of the road and was "bounced" out of the seat.. luckily at low speed as I had braked a lot prior to this... It was unfortunate to see as I looked up (having been thrown off) that June was still holding on to the back of the bike as it went on a few yards then came to a halt further down the road. I was fine but , as you can imagine June was very shook up. She was suffering with a bit of vaso-vagal shock and had knocked her bad knee (which she had fractured 4 months earlier). I sat at the side of the road hugging her and jokingly we said she would tell her grandchildren about this one day! ...
A passer by called an ambulance (which June went to hospital in whilst I was breathalysed by a friendly Welsh copper). On reaching hospital, June had just sprained her knee.
The bike had a flat front tyre but the fairing had been damaged... at this point the YPVS became a "streetfighter". It also turned out the fork seals had gone pop and the rear brake was a bit bent. Thus began my crash course in bike mechanics.
A few months later I was on the same road during a cold February, on my way back to Swansea where I was on attachment, coming from Treorchy. I went around a dark corner only to hit a patch of road that never saw daylight in the Winter (I later learnt). This was the first time I experienced that horrible feeling of slipping on ice, where everything goes into slow motion as the bike slips from under you. I bent the front brake lever and hurt my left knee. I managed to borrow some tools from a kindly local family and got back to Swansea. The next day I couldn't walk and had to go to hospital with my now balloon proportioned knee. They gave me some crutches and a tubigrip and I enjoyed the sympathy for a good week. When I got back on, I noticed the front wheel wobbling - buckled -Damn!
Finally, the big one. This turned out to be my worst accident to date, but , as it wasn't all my fault (for a change) meant a financial settlement at the end.
Once again, I was on attachment, this time in Mold doing general pratice. This was quite close to my parents' house, so I commuted from there.
Basically I was getting more and more confidence up on the bike having owned it by now for 9 months and having ridden it all through Winter into what was now Spring (April 15th 1992). I was travelling toward Two Mills along the Welsh Road when I reached Shotwick dip. I saw there was a hold up of traffic (due to road works I later found). I overtook the line of traffic on the offside (I was entitled to do so) not noticing there was a little road-cum-dirt track off to the right.. which a car decide to suddenly pull into.. straight in front of me... without warning (the old "indicate as you turn" manouvre). I deftly tried to ride around him but he caught my back wheel with his wing and veered me into the iron fence on the opposite side of the road. I remeber little of the actual accident as I was concussed and KO'd. I was only out a few seconds but was very confused as I looked up at the worried driver and passenger looking down at me saying "Don't take her helmet off".
I really only came around in hospital. I had suffered no major injuries save for a few broken ribs and some whiplash. However, if you've ever had a bad crash like this, you will know it feels like the road has given you a good kicking and I ached for weeks afterwards. Broken ribs are not pleasant and I deeply sympathise with patients who are also suffering with this complaint to this day.
The bike itself was written off (boo hoo) and was a complete mangled mess. I used to have a photo but this was nabbed by my solicitor and pre dated the days when I had a scanner to copy it with.
It took 2 years for the solicitors to come to a settlement. It was not clear cut as I was travelling too fast apparently. My Dad finally lent me some money on condition I bought a car :-( I was off bikes for almost 17 months until I passed finals and put a deposit on a ZZR600.....
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