Wild Motorcycle Tales Here's a great story from Chris Shaw. Got your own story? Send it to me. Wheelstander My mate Craig had just got his Motorcycle Learners Permit, at the ripe old age of 30. In this state, a learner rider is limited to riding bikes up to 250cc capacity for the first year. Craig couldn't wait to buy his first bike, and insisted on buying a showroom-new one, despite my suggestions that an old "pre-loved" bike would make more sense ( the guy is hopelessly uncoordinated, and I suspected that he would be making a few close inspections of the asphalt before getting the hang of things). Now Craig weighs in at around 220 pounds, so I was really keen to see what he looked like perched atop a little 250cc bike. I went along with him one sunny Saturday morning, testing bikes at various dealerships. He wobbled about on a variety of small road bikes, not looking comfortable or really in control of any of them, and as the day progressed a feeling of impending doom began creeping up on me. With each new bike tested, Craig looked more and more wobbly. I also noticed his habit of putting both feet flat on the ground while waiting at traffic lights, a bad habit which later in the day would actually come in handy for him. At last came the fateful test of a Kawasaki ZZR250 - a bland, somewhat underpowered little machine. Perched up on it like a hippopotamus on a kid's dinky bike, Craig tottered out the driveway of the dealership and pulled up at the traffic lights, his feet flat on the road each side of the bike. I could see him clearly from the dealership window, and I watched aghast as the inevitable tragedy unfolded. The traffic lights turned green, Craig opened the throttle, dropped the clutch, and got it all wrong. The little bike reared up like a stallion, tore out from between his legs, wheelstood on its own across the oncoming traffic, and threw itself down on the opposite sidewalk. I half expected it to burst into flames (I watch too many movies), but it just lay there resting. Craig meanwhile, was still standing exactly where he had been at the traffic lights, his arms comically still in the "handlebar" position, his legs still crouched as if the bike was still under him. He hadn't moved so much as an inch. I can only guess at the look on his face, but I would give anything to have seen it. The dealer was very kind about it all. He was more impressed than angry, because a ZZR250 is utterly impossible to wheelstand - Colin Edwards couldn't do it. We had just witnessed a miracle of physics. -- Chris Shaw (Australia)
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