![\"Ice](\"http:\/\/motorcyclemojo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Ice-road-biker-HR-300x210.jpg\")
I am what you would call an avid, or maybe even rabid, motorcyclist \u2013 and some might just call me plain crazy. Fresh out of high school and with a
\nlimited budget, my love for motorcycles has given me a clear choice \u2013 or maybe no choice at all: either I ride my motorcycle all winter or walk. I have chosen the former.<\/p>\n
The light is fading as I pull on my leather jacket. It\u2019s been raining for about a half-hour now, and as I step outside onto the glazed, wet sheet of ice, I realize I\u2019m in for an experience. My faithful little 305 Honda Super Hawk starts, and with much aplomb, I slip and slide down the slope, skittering onto Adelaide Street. Ignorance, or shall I say lack of experience, can serve as a great learning tool \u2013 of which I am about to find out. \u201cThere but for the grace of God go I.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fortunately for me, there are few cars on the road. Even four-wheeled vehicles stay off the road in weather like this. I find, after a few nerve-
\nshattering slides, that by keeping the bike in a taller gear, about two above what I would normally ride in, there is less available power to the back wheel to break traction, if traction is even the operative word. As I approach the first traffic light at Simcoe Street, I gently roll through on a green light. So far so good, but at the next light, I come sliding to a stop sideways with legs and feet splayed like outriggers to keep the bike upright.<\/p>\n
Man Down<\/strong><\/p>\n Quietly praying that my luck will hold, the inevitable happens. The light changes to amber. Slipping and sliding sideways as the light changes to red, two cars start through the intersection. My life passes before me and everything slows as I go into reaction mode. Sliding left, I lay the bike down on its right side, or rather, it falls on its right side. The right foot peg digs into the sheer ice \u2013 my saving grace \u2013 and the bike slides to an unceremonious stop just a few feet before certain disaster.<\/p>\n Somehow I manage to stay with the bike, which turns out to be my greatest undoing. A small billow of steam rises from my wet pant leg and searing pain envelopes me. My leg is lying across the hot exhaust pipe, boiling my appendage. I let out a yelp of pain and drivers look at me strangely as I get up, slipping and sliding like a cartoon character. I move the bike to an upright position and roll up my pant leg to assess the damage. It doesn\u2019t look good, and I\u2019m sure it will hurt a lot more once I\u2019m home and thawed out. I start the bike again, realizing that I only have another mile and three traffic lights to go.<\/p>\n Up and Over<\/strong><\/p>\n At King Street I painfully turn left and follow the gradual incline, through the valley and then up over the knoll and through the green light at Harmony Road. As I build up some speed to make it up and over Hart\u2019s Hill, my inertia carries me over the crest and I can almost see home.<\/p>\n Finally, as I slowly enter my driveway, I breathe an audible sigh of relief. Home has never looked so good to me as I park the bike in the garage and head for a nice warm bath.<\/p>\n There are but few who ride all winter, there are but few who brave the frigid cold, and there are even fewer who are crazy enough to ride on two wheels in an ice storm!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sometimes taking a cab doesn\u2019t sound so bad At this stage in my life, some memories seem more humorous now than the actual events did at the time they happened. They sort of ripen with age, so to speak. The one-upmanship I occasionally hear when someone brags about riding late into December or going for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50965,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[373,1085],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"Ice](\"http:\/\/motorcyclemojo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/DOC121015-beauty-300x205.jpg\")
At Wilson Road, a new experience awaits me: a downhill right turn. Slipping and sliding, wallowing and wiggling, I make my change in direction and begin my slow, methodical trek southward. As I approach the hill on Wilson Road, I have no choice but to accelerate to make it up the hill. I don\u2019t want to even think about sliding backwards, downhill, on ice. Although speed is fraught with all manner of new possibilities, it\u2019s a necessary risk. Shifting up into fourth, the engine grumbles and shudders as I gently accelerate, trying in vain not to break traction. Over the hill and onto level ground, I breathe a sigh of relief, but too soon; my next challenge looms on the horizon \u2013 another traffic light, and it\u2019s green, which is not good. A green traffic light means one thing: it can only change to amber \u2013 and then to red \u2013 big trouble for me.<\/p>\n