BEES!

Ok, a funny story that could have killed me I think.

So the other day I had Angela out for a ride in the sidecar. We came home, and, knowing I would be running errands later,(or at least another pleasure ride in the cool of the early evening) I left the bike parked in the driveway. Fast forward several hours, and I had to make a quick milk run to the story. Hop on the bike and leave.

I pull out onto the highway which is 55 mph of sorta windy road until it hits the city street where it drops down to 40. I had just slowed down to said 40 mph when it came to my attention there is a bee in my shirt. I know this, because it's stinging me.

I swatted, and thought I'd gotten rid of it, but instead it hadn't dropped it's stinger and has now crawled around to the back of my shirt and is stinging me again.

As I'm frantically pulling at my shirt, I'm also trying to pull onto a side street so I can rid myself of the *^$#*er. As I make a quick right turn, while flailing at my shirt AND managing brake with my right hand and clutch with my left, it comes to
my attention that I forgot to put my ballast back into the sidecar. I know this because the sidecar is off the ground I'm now starting to flip...to the left. This is called "Flying the tub".

Now, I've never been taught how to fly the sidecar. I'm sure there is a technique to it, and I have the feeling it has something to do with counterbalancing. Unfortunately my INSTINCT is to pop my left foot out to keep the bike up right. As I did so, it came to my attention I was going to snap my ankle off. The sidecar went back down, but since I was still turning it promptly popped back up. Lovely.

I'm sure the guy who was turning behind me had quite a laugh.

If you're wondering, "flying the sidecar" is something that happens on right turns if you A) turn too sharp while b) going to fast. It's a physics thing. I was shown at which point my sidecar would fly, and have carefully avoided doing so until one of my friendly sidecar guy friends shows me how to do it safely. (lots of these guys do it on purpose, kind of along the lines of popping a wheelie. ) However, because this was sort of an urgent situation, I wasn't thinking about my turn as much as I was getting the bee to stop stinging me, thus it flew when I wasn't prepared for it.