What was your Dumbest Ride?

I saw the post for First Long Ride, and it reminded me of my First Ever Ride, which also happened to be my Dumbest Ride.

I was in my 20's living in Houston, poor, and struggling with the gas crisis. The lines at the gas stations were long, and the price was high. Prices had risen above 50 cents, working their way all the way up to 75 cents a gallon.

My young bride and I had to do something to save money for rent and food, so we bought me my first motorcycle: A Suzuki 450GS (sound like rationalization?).

Anyway, I bought the bike from AJ Foyt Suzuki in North Houston. I had ridden a Vespa a few miles a few years earlier, and that was the sum total of my experience.

They threw in a helmet with a plastic face shield and said Thanks, enjoy.

I said, "Wait, could you show me how to ride this thing?"

The salesman escorted me and my new bike out the side door. He showed me the controls, told me to go down to the end of the block and back. I completed that little task without falling off, so I was all set.

I rode from AJ Foyt (its still there) to downtown Houston during lunch hour traffic as my first (and dumbest) ride. Traffic in Houston in 1980 wasn't any better than it is now.

Things really looked eerie the whole trip. It wasn't until I arrived at work (in one piece, thankfully) that I realized I had my helmet pushed back too far, and I was looking at the world through the most distorted, curved section of the plastic face shield.

Oh yeah, of course I did not yet have the motorcycle attachement to my drivers license. I did eventually take the test and pass the riding portion to make myself legal.

The angels really had their work cut out for them for those few weeks while I figured out how to ride.

WM

I would say my first ride without a helmet was my dumbest ride. Trying to take an old bike to get inspected, with no helmet, the turn signals ended up not working, a nail in the back tire, the front tire with the rubber cracking......and wearing jeans a t-shirt and sunglasses....wow, I did survive it so maybe Im lucky but that will never happen again.