Ride wit da wind, got a big grin, gonna strut my stuff, look for muff. Yadida-yadida………
Done wit work. Sleds out back. I put my leather armor on like some tourney knight gearing up for battle.
Chaps over 30 years old, still supple, smooth, soft like a virgins bottom. Jacket creaks softly with age, slips on like a second skin, smells faintly of the road, oil, grease, blood and the wind. Got everything? Lessee….glasses, yep, 2 pair, one for day one for night. Gauntlets, boots oiled last week. Pocket check: Lighter, chap stick, ball bearings….whoops they belong in the left-hand pocket! Spare toothpicks, and all the little shit that lives in the bottom of my vest pockets….wallet? yep. Cell phone…yeah….didn’t used to
have to worry ‘bout that, but now it’s just one more barnacle ya gotta have. Knife? Yep, left pocket,
clasp exposed…wouldn’t wanna get popped for concealed! Still got my Swiss Army in my jeans pocket too. Money? Yep…..’bout $40.,maybe some bimbo’ll buy me a drink! I lean over, unscrew my gas cap,
yeah ½ tank…that’ll be enuf for a bar-hoppin’ tonight. Pot? Now where the fuck did I hide it this time?
Oh yeah, there it is, in my “special place.” Guess I’m good to go. Saddle up. Air’s cool tonight, rained last night, carb will love it. Enrichment lever up, gas on, two squirts, stab the button. 96 inches rumbles to life, I keep goosin’ the throttle to feed the carb a little richness. After 1 minute I flick the lever down, keep the revs up slightly, and feel the barrels with my left hand. Just before too hot to touch, I throttle back. Engine idles smoothly. As smoothly as my cam allows. Clutch in, one down, ease out of the lot,
Out the back gate, down suburbia, past the little pastel bungalows of middle class America. I hit the freeway on ramp, and come outta the turn in second, then grab a handful and hit the road at about 90, jetting past Mom & Pop and the kids at about warp-factor 1…..and ease back before some lawdawg gets me in his sites. Lucky again, no cops on my stretch of road. Over to the fast lane….keep it one step ahead of legality, 5 mph over whatever anyone else is doin’ until I break free of the city limits, and roll up the coast where this time o’ nite there ain’t no fuzz. Freeway becomes a two lane. Rt 1. Northern Kalifas.
I float past cars ahead over the double yellow like some wraith of from the nether-world…..isolated from the mundane, oblivious to the cages I pass, they are not in my dimension. They are simply those to pass. Those to float around, and thru. I clear 4 mile beach at 100, and shift into 6th. The evening sun settles towards it’s fiery death in Lake Pacific. The air is crisp and fresh with the ocean scent, and my engine
at 4000 rpms sounds as if it’s alive, and in tune, and shit, all the sweetness in the world rolled up in one thrashing, spinning, roaring frenzy, oddly at peace with itself, as the world flashes past my grin at 120.
I roll off the throttle ½ mile from the turn, and down shift, bleeding off speed. Slowing, slowing….turn
coming up, I tap the brakes slightly to corner without sliding, and after the apex it’s wick on again as I flick from 2nd to 3rd. Corners now, little coastal canyon road. Shadows. Green, cool with the dampness from last nights rain. Road maybe a little slick. I slow some, and lean thru gentle right then left then right turns. Road starts to climb. I throttle back up, and let the big S&S do it’s stuff as I head for a straight uphill. On it all the way now. Front end pulls up slightly off the road. I twist back slightly letting the front wheel find traction again. This is the back way to my bros and home, but its 25 miles of reason for me to blast the weeks tensions out, and there’s a crown and seven waiting for me when I get there.
I crest the top close to a ton again, and …….DEER! I grab a handful of everything! Rear brake locks! Ain’t got no ABS on this 98 glide! I let up and stab again. Bambi’s standing there looking at me! Maybe I can slide around him………….oh shit….no, he’s heading the same way! Only one thing to do……………………………
(to be continued)
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