Last night I dropped my bike for the first time. Was turning around by cutting through a corner lot and saw a good-looking guy walking to his bike parked in the lot and decided a cool way to meet him would be to dump the bike and have him help me pick it up.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. 🙂

OK. What really happened. I had a bunch of errands that I had been running around town: groceries, haircut, shoelaces. It was such a gorgeous day that once I finished my errands, I didn’t want to stop riding. So I swung by home and dropped off the goods and headed back out. Just went cruising around town. Stopped by Barnes & Nobel and wasn’t sure where to go after that. Was around supper time and the original plan for the day was to sneak out to a bar for a burger. Couldn’t really afford it, but decided to do it anyway. So I rode to a place on the opposite side of town that has some killer sweet potato fries. Once I got done with supper, it was still fabulous out with a bit of sunlight left. Decided to go for one more loop down Main Street.

Well, got out to West Fargo and needed to turn around and head home. Picked a spot with an old gas station and was cutting through the lot when all of a sudden it looked like there was an old curb in my path. It was all paved in old asphalt with a lot of aggregate in it, so it was kind of hard to judge the contours. Well I hit the brakes and stopped right before it, but the momentum of the stop got the bike unbalanced and I’m not strong enough to stop it from going down. So it tipped over towards the right at nearly a standstill. And I was standing over it guiding it down.

So there I was with my bike on the ground. I had learned how to pick up a bike at a Harley Garage Party once. Same exact bike even, so I knew if I had to, I could pick it up. But I also knew these weren’t the same controlled conditions and the footing was tricky. Luckily, I had passed a guy walking across the street as I was turning around. He was headed to his bike that was parked in the corner of the old gas station lot. I think he was putting something in his saddlebags when I went down. So of course he walked over to see how I was and offered to help. He just picks up the bike and sets it right. Damn. Made it look so easy. I would probably have been there for 30 minutes until I got it righted. Well, obviously I was more than grateful. He said he was just glad to see women riding. We looked the bike over and really couldn’t find anything. I finally spotted a tiny scratch on the pipes. Maybe my excuse to swap them out? 🙂 And me? I think the foot peg hit my left calf, but it didn’t even leave a scratch (although as I write this, I’m thinking I’m going to have a bruise there eventually). Of course riding it home I was hyper-attentive to anything with the bike. Noticed the right mirror needed adjusting. Thought maybe the footpeg was loose. And the one that may be the biggest deal of all, I think perhaps the hand brake lever might have gotten bent. Worked just fine, but I think it looks funny. We’ll see if I think the same by the weekend. I should run the bike by my friend’s shop and have him look it over, just to be sure.

Well, that’s it. Boring. But one more story/lesson from riding.

And I really do think it’s a hell of a tactic to meet folks. Might have to try it again sometime. 😉

P.S. Yup. Bruise on the inside of my left calf just below my knee. About six inches long and and inch-and-a-quarter wide. And look at all those pretty colors. 🙂

Odometer: 6785 miles.