We put the plate on my Titan Suzuki 500 August 1988 and for
the first time with Wayne leading in his 750 Suzuki "Water Buffalo"
both bikes two strokes. I had never hit
the road and now legal tags hard plate using a trick with title transfer from
our of state at Maryland DMV, and I was, well looked legal I had not taken the permit test and still at this point my
parents who said I couldn't live at home if I had a motorcycle had no idea I
even owned one. Glenside drive was a short slow curve on the Long branch a
block I often walked in my teens. I was 19 and had been riding the bike every
weekend up and down the street for weeks. Every week driving 30 min on my day
off pushing up the steep drive past 2 cars, it's a long bike, and then up and
down the street for hours with no tags, I never went more than a block, just
down to the turn, and then into another turn to get back. I had t learn right
and left, turns in that nice swoop of pavement at the corner that gave just a
little lean as you dipped in so the idea of powering out at different angles
soon caught my head, I was learning.
We turned right, I had on my steel toed boots, black leather
a tee shirt and clear classes work glasses, and I wound 1st, 2nd the wind
ripped and then 3rd, and gave her a go after Wayne on his Water Buffalo 750 who
was already making pace. I had never pushed 3rd yet, just as I passed the house
I grew up in for years and the hill began up the gravity, the shear raw power
of pushing the engine in a grade; I blew 50 mph before breaking it down on the
top of Carroll Ave a tricky spot on a bike if going too fast, later I would
have to do an air bound sideways turn right and drift slide power out around a
car as someone was chasing me at speed over 60-70 mph on my 750 but that was
years later, now I was just following Wayne. I was after 7 and the air was
heavy with wind gusts, dark clouds swooped by the bright ones above leaving
quickly: I would soon know why. We took
Flower Ave and down into the turns still local roads so many times driven, and
as it ended on Georgia we for the first time lined side by side. I looked over
with a big grin the very air shook with heat, the in it shook again this time
it jumped as the air became tremendous drops of rain, big ones that tell of a
big storm coming into Washington D.C area.
Wayne Said, "What do you want to do, you haven't rode
in the rain yet.." The leave off being I only rode around the corner up
the block on sunny days, even a little dew but that was it.
I yelled with the lust of the ride, "Let's go!"
and we did turning right onto Georgia Avenue and headed north out of town
towards the darkening sky deep bruised boiling purples mixed with the flashes
of lightning beginning to tear the sky and making the roads and shadow play
tricks it was full night and we off. Everyone remembers that first ride, the
rush, the freedom, thundered in my as loud as the summer thunderstorm we rode
in; the rain smacking my lips so hard I
grit my teeth, smile ride, wide. I happens that real moment when you are a
biker or not, mine came at 40 mph when that little 500CC 2 stroke hit "Suzie",
her power band. The back tire hydro planed and spun out, the bike was going
sideways with a little angle thrown in.
I already knew 70% braking is front tire, and this angle no front brake
was possible, the adrenaline hit, Wayne I could barely see him, a very little
goes through a second of time or a whole lot, the thunder crashed, lighting
threw shadows on everything, the lights of all the big trucks and cars still
rolling; I was soaked, I lay off throttle and spin stopped, I felt the
properties of 500lbs+ of 2 wheels steel moving in the air, the power, the side
drift I hit the back break, tap tap and I was out, the wheels snapped back in
line and I was off. I tried to tell Wayne. Thunder, C rash is all I heard, all he heard. The bikes hissing in heat, We
rode until the storm was gone and each moment in it, every once and a while a
yell, a rebel yell deep from in me would break the night and the storm would
yell back. It passed the streets dried and we made our way back. It was only
20-30 minutes, but it lasts a life time. A biker was born in that storm, 13
years later he would become to be known as THOR
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