The moment I nearly died at 125mph! part 1.

Being 21 and feeling immortal is now a distant memory, a 30 year old memory in fact, and after a suggestion from a nice lady on chat, here is the memory of fracturing a knee in 10 places.

One sunny day (the 4th of July 1988) I decided to take the day off work, my job was boring, I was working at Peugeot/Talbot in Coventry as cover for anybody that did not turn up, and knew every job on the track, in the body in white, the biw for short was the part of the production line where cars were assembled and welded together before painting.

I had just met the most incredible lady, a local shop owner, and decided she was more important to see that day, than my job was, I have always been impulsive, and not very good at giving up my life for a day job, so I set off to see this good lady on my new motorbike, that bike was a Kawasaki gp900r the fastest bike on the planet, it did 160mph with ease and a standing quarter of a mile in just over 10 seconds.

The bike I had only owned for 2 months, and it was my pride and joy, endless hours of washing, polishing and posing were spent on it, this faithful morning I set off on it from Coventry to Atherstone in the UK, and took to the A5 , on route I came across another biker that seemed to want to race me, ever willing to open the gpz up, I wound on the throttle and soon left him way behind, as I entered a roundabout near Moira test track and exited hard on the throttle, I hit 125mph and was feeling exhilarated like immortal young people do, all of a sudden there it was, a car had pulled out in front of me, 50 feet away, I was left with 3 choices, head on into a heavy goods vehicle (certain death), go left and down into a ditch (almost certain death) or hit the back of the car and take my chances, before I could make the decision I had done the latter, to this day I have no idea if it was choice or timing.

I came around on the road, having been out cold for 5 minutes, and could see my bike in-bedded into the back of the car, and my right leg looked twisted and contorted as I had caught it on my own handlebars on the way over my bike, oddly enough though I felt no pain, even though I had 10 hairline fractures to my right knee.

The car driver was kneeling over me, explaining that he forgot to take his driving glasses as he tried to comfort me, in the middle of the very busy A5 road, I will never forget the face of that man, till the day I die, the man that nearly killed me, yes I was going too fast, and yes I was reckless, though not as reckless as driving whilst unable to see!

I had four screws put in the knee and to this day they stay there, and I am still here, still riding, though now a lot slower than before, you see, I no longer feel invincible, and I know I am not going to live for ever.

I still have three gpz 900's :-).

Peace and love, steem on and stay AWESOME!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kawasaki_GPZ900R