I miss riding The Fat Lady!

Holy smokes! It’s only been nine days since my crash and I already am jonesing for two-wheeled therapy. Given, four of those nine I was really in no condition to ride, so it wasn’t too bad. Thought about making off with hubby’s Connie 14 a few times, but then I moved in my chair. If I could reach the damn ground sitting on The Samsonite Missile, I would so not be caging it to work. The bags would have to come off, of course, or he’ll have to get some touch-up paint for them later, but damn… Shit! I’d ride anything at this point. ANYTHING!!!! …as long as it still can be considered a motorcycle. Damn, you perverts! Making me add a disclaimer to that… what the hell is this world coming to, anyway? What kind of mess is it, when a girl can’t even ride a fat lady anymore without having to put up with snickers and cat calls behind her back. Yeah, it’s all fun and games until somebody gets passed on the inside by a girl on a Hayabusa wearing cat ears and a Hello Kitty shirt… Ah crap! It was just a dream… That’s right, I forgot, I turned myself into an unwilling cager on the 24th by giving The Fat Lady the lay of her life. FML. In the meantime, I just have to watch stupid YouTube vids, like this one:

Plug me in
I’m alive tonight
Out on the streets again
Turn me on
I’m too hot to stop
Something you’ll never forget
~~~
I’m on top tonight
No, no
You better turn me loose
You better set me free
‘Cause I’m hot, young, running free
A little bit better than I use to be

~ Live Wire by Mötley Crüe


Evasive Maneuvers

Miss Busa and The Fat Lady

Miss Busa & The Fat Lady: We are cute and innocent. Well, ok, innocent. Totally harmless. How can a girl in a Hello Kitty shirt possibly be dangerous? Look she's got pink stickers on her bike. Totally harmelss. We even look slow. We only take it to the limit. Right there and no further. Pinky swear. 😉


Since I have nothing better to do than write about the ride, let me recount this little marvel of a tale. Wouldn’t before, since I still had this little traffic court thing hanging over me like the Fog of War in a mismatched RPG battle; and my license tag coincidentally spells out the domain name (for the more inquisitive mind) of my blog, which in turn holds all the unforgiving evidence in digital print, photographic and videographic form of the workings of Miss Busa’s criminal mind; like a cracked, filthy bedroom wall holds the beloved pieces of the shrine erected to honor a serial killer’s next victim… so does this blog give testimony to…. WAIT A MINUTE!

<!– With my newly attained legal skills I would like to state for the record: I would like to assert, at this time, that the content of this blog. — May it please the court, the definition of a ‘blog’ is as follows: Blog is Internet jargon for web log, which is akin to an online journal or diary for exhibitionist folks like myself. — that the content of this blog is all fabrication and lies! It is strictly for entertainment purposes only, and as such, needs a proper legal disclaimer, which was added as of now. Further, I am a pathological liar even when I tell the truth. A picture is worth a thousand untrue words and a staged video is worth a thousand untrue photos. I have 2x2x2 words for you: Tabloid journalism, Adobe Photoshop, and Adobe Premiere. –>

I was out riding, enjoying a nice spring day in March, in full race gear (gotta stretch that damn cow hide, it’s still stiff and it’s getting on my nerves), minding my own lane space and not particularly paying attention to the instrument cluster, which is part of the reprogramming efforts of breaking my recently developed love affair between the gauges and my eyeballs. So it does not surprise me that my pleasant ride is rudely interrupted by the annoying flash of blue lights and a quick blip of a police siren. Shit! I look at my gauges. 70 indicated in a 45. Motherfrakker! Not again. And not just one cop, but two: a Sheriff and what looks like State Patrol, but I can’t be certain. What the hell is this? Somebody put out the fresh donut sign? Gawd! Not again! I instinctively slow down while I’m cussing up a storm inside my helmet and keeping track of the two units in my mirrors. Hell no! I am so not stopping! I’m not… shit! I have to! No. You should. Ah, fuck this; gawd, you’re such an idiot, shit! Stop! Get the hell out of here. Don’t stop! OMG! There’s traffic behind me and they slow, obviously looking for a place to turn around to follow me. What the hell is wrong with you? They already caught you going what? 63 in a 45? I accelerate back to my previous speed of 70 indicated. The road is sweeping curves, so I lose sight of the cops fairly quickly. My heart is entering a state of arrhythmia. I have to fight the constant impulse to speed up. My brain is going into overdrive. Holy shit! You’re fleeing. You are now risking an evasion charge on top of going something like 18 over. My anxiety rears its ugly head, so now I’m feeling shaky on the inside in addition to the pounding in my chest and the racing staccato of my brain.

I formulate a game plan… a girly one at that: “I didn’t see you, officer. I would have stopped. By the time I did see you behind me, I couldn’t find a safe place to pull over. No officer, I don’t know how fast I was going, I was practicing a riding skill I have developed problems with. What?!? OMG! You can’t be serious. {at this point I break down in sobs and then start bawling for all it’s worth}. My husband… is…. *sob* so going to….to…*sniffle*… to… oh no…*hangs head* going to be so mad…. at me. *wail*”

I round the last sweeper and am faced with a line of three cars waiting for a newly erected traffic light to change to green. Gawd! Just my luck. I briefly consider making a run for it through the gravel that will soon be a dedicated right turn lane. I dismiss the thought after the visual my logical mind is sending me of a Hayabusa laying on its side with me getting put in cuffs and stuffed into a police cruiser shortly thereafter. I envision myself sitting in a holding tank with a bunch of ugly, fat hookers… at least I’d have my knee pucks for when the jailer comes around… Not good, can’t explain that one away to leave reasonable doubt. While I wait behind the cars, I’m practically staring in my mirrors just waiting to see the coppers put in their flashy, wailing appearance. I’m so nervous, I’m tapping my foot. Oh please, oh please, change to green, I gotta get out of here. I’m starting to sweat. Bullets. The light finally turns, my erratically beating heart is still hammering the inside of my ribcage and my fingers are starting to feel numb. I can’t stand to wait any longer and squeeze by the car in front of me, while he’s waiting for cross traffic to clear. I execute my right turn, and rip it with one last look over my shoulder. No cops in sight, still. Good. My brain still racing, my eyes still searching to the rear. I can’t stay on this road, it’s five lanes, too much traffic and straight as hell, I have got to get out of here. I spot a dump truck to my left. Without so much of a thought I whip it into the suicide lane and execute a quickie left, using the dump truck as a shield. Looking over my shoulder, the rear is still devoid of my friends in gray or blue.

This concludes the evasion. I made two unobserved random turns before the chopper’s in the air. But my nerves are shot. My mental constitution borders on paranoid now and it’s not getting any better. A pickup truck pulls out in front of me and I freak out. Holy crap! Come on, man! He’s going incredibly slow, or so it seems. I got to get the hell out of Dodge! I grip it and rip it and pass him in a no-passing zone. Add one more count to the growing list of infractions. I can’t cope any more, I’m using all my remaining willpower to do the speed limit. Wouldn’t do me no good now to get noticed by some other cop on his way to that imaginary donut shop for a shot of java and a creme-filled whatchamacallit. I take the next available right. Hey, I know this road. Nine more miles of zig-zagging and I arrive at my house, fully expecting the cops to sit there waiting for me. (“Yes, Miss Busa, we know where you live. You are known, and now you are also wanted.”) More paranoia, I remind myself. I pull into my driveway, put the kickstand down, practically jump off The Fat Lady with a half-twist and yank the Bike Barn’s cover over her in one smooth motion, then sprint to my front door, punch in my code and enter in a hurry and slam the door shut. After disarming the alarm, I rip my helmet off, fall to the floor and dissolve into a mad case of the hysterious giggles and the laughter of the kind you will only hear from the insides of padded cells at the insane asylum. Haha! Take that coppers! Woooohooooo! What a rush! Way to stick it to the man! Yeeeehaaaw! Good gawd, I’m mad! Maaaaaaaaad, I tell you! After I calm down, I drag myself to bed to catch my breath and relax and promptly fall asleep in my gear. This much stress is exhausting. Being a fugitive criminal is exhausting. I sleep the sleep of the weary, a three-hour paranoia-induced coma.

Officer M. wasn’t lying about the non-pursuit policy that is in effect in the two counties that I frequent on an almost daily basis. I feel like they could have had me at the traffic light, but I have to assume they aborted as soon as it was clear to them that a.) they couldn’t turn around to follow me quickly enough, and b.) I wasn’t going to pull over.

“He who pulls over gets the ticket.”

~ Officer M. (whose wife made him sell his GSX-R1000 and is condemned to riding a Harley when on duty)


Crashed: Pinky & the Drain

Broken Pinky

Broken Pinky: All splinted up and nowhere (or nothing) to ride...

I had called my service department to let them know to expect delivery of one busted up Hayabusa on Saturday. We are kicking around the local rocket shop to see if there’s anything that strikes my fancy in case The Fat Lady is pronounced dead on arrival. I listen to my VM in the parking lot and am told to call the ER back and ask for the Charts Nurse, so I do. I am told that I need to come back in, since the last bone of my left pinky is broken and they need to splint it. Screw that, I want to look at bikes first, so we go in. Of course, my hubby wastes no time to tell everybody that his wife done wrecked her Hayabusa. Doug, our regular sales person, wastes no time to tell me that it’s time for me to “get off the sport tourer and onto a real sport bike”. Geez, people… do I have that bad of a reputation? Calling the ‘Busa a sport tourer is just plain wrong. It’s a hypersport, thank you very much. Hell, call her a drag bike, call her anything, just not a sport tourer. Damn! LOL They only have two models I’m even remotely interested in. The Honda CBR1000RR and the Kawasaki ZX10. The Honda sits and feels better, but for that price tag I’m looking at a BMW S1000RR with RaceABS and DTC. So the CBR is out. I don’t really like how the ZX10 feels. I can’t really explain what it is about the Kawi that makes it feel off. It’s the same with the ZX14, it’s too upright, too far to reach, which is weird, since it is not; I have plenty of bend in my elbows, it just feels too far. I think it’s more of a feeling of sitting ON the bike rather than IN it. On my ‘Busa I have a choice: I can sit on it for long trips, I can sit in it when I’m getting serious. I suppose that’s what my problem with the ZX10 is. I feel plopped on, rather than being part of the machine. Not to mention that all these bikes feel like bicycles to me. The clip-ons are too narrow, they feel too light, too skinny, too insubstantial. But I suppose that’s to be expected when you come from a H-D Sportster 1200 Low (which is a top-heavy clunky porker) and then a Hayabusa. I haven’t parked my bum on neither the Yamaha R1 or the Suzuki GSX-R1000. I really dig the Ducati 1198S, but that bike is about 7K outside my price range. However, it is one hot Italian mutha! Yes ma’am!

I don’t have gap insurance, so I’m guesstimating that I’ll be 2-3K in the hole if they total my baby, depending on how much money they’re willing to part with; plus the 1K deductible. That sucks… but hey, I have a 5-year extended warranty plan. Woooohoooo! I have a test ride scheduled with a Beemer dealer in Greenville, SC on April 6th (that’s the earliest I can make it up there without having to go by myself). It’s looking more towards ‘totaled’ than it is ‘fixable’, according to the scuttlebutt at the shop. Financially, it would be better for me if the verdict is ‘fixable’. If it is ‘totaled’, the smart thing to do (again financially) is to get another ‘Busa (so I can put all my extras back on), since the only aftermarket parts that are damaged are the Pazzo Racing levers and the RAM mount for my GPS (which I have a spare part for to repair it). However, I really have a errr… bad case of the drooling lusties for the S1000RR, even if it means I’ll have to do 224 miles round-trip to get it serviced and have to do the minor things myself. Of course, the ZX10s would be the only viable choice, because I could pretty much have one of those for my deductible. Fugg me! I don’t really want anything other than either my Hayabusa back or the S1000RR, even if it’s financially irresponsible. 😦 I’d rather cancel my slot in the Kevin Schwantz School this June than get stuck with a bike I really don’t want and won’t be happy with. ARRRRRGH! But damnit, any bike is better than no bike at all, if it really came down to it.

I spend the next four hours sitting in the ER to get my broken pinky splinted,  a 3-minute procedure, which my hubby could have done himself. I also saw three different people for it. Wow! The inefficiency of bureaucracy in action. Their hospital administration needs to think about a little something called ‘streamlining’.