Charlene has ABS...

Doesn't work sideways though...

Saturday I woke up at 5am, did all those things you do in the morning plus laundry (which I absolutely hate by the way), and by 6:30 I was done looking out the windows. For those of you who don't remember Saturday ..it twas a tad rainy. I was claustrophobic and had to get out...vibrating claustrophobic.  I grabbed the vest yellow glasses and cut off gloves and dragged Charlene out into the muddy driveway. My driveway goes in two directions broken pavement or mud, the bike is on the mud end.

I hit the road and headed out for a cruise, about the time I arrived in downtown Mystic the heavens opened up luckily I wasn't going fast enough for it to hurt, sadly, downtown Mystic means I wasn't going fast enough to create any air flow. I always tell people that when you are on a bike, riding in the wet that it only rains in the front, this is true if you are moving along. When you are bopping along behind tourists it rains everywhere. Luckily it only lasted about a half hour and by the time I was in Westerly it was back to a light pleasant soft rain. At around 11am I worked my way back to Connecticut and took rte 234 to Old Mystic, Grabbed route 27 and went to the EQ (which was sold to a new owner the day before, more on this later). I sat around had lunch and dried out a bit then decided to take a ride to Mikes Harley. I followed a pickup truck back up 27 towards Old Mystic and as we came over the hill and down the blind left into Downtown Old Mystic there was a car waiting to turn left on 234. Behind him (or her) there were two more cars. Behind that line a Ford full size truck realized at the last moment that traffic in front of him had stopped. He (she,it,whatever) slammed the brakes and as people do, cut the wheel hard...into the on coming lane. The truck in front of me swerved right and went over a sidewalk avoided the truck, As the pickup ahead of me cleared to the right I found myself leaning left into the corner and aimed straight towards a Ford emblem. I  hit the brakes. It turns out that when you slam your foot on a rear brake and grab the front when you are leaning left the bike not only stands up, but in the rain you lose all grip on both tires, The bike slides sideways. I did not actually like this sensation, I was never one for amusement park rides either. With the bike sliding I let off the brakes and hit the throttle to regain forward motion. This worked out rather well as Charlene shot forward just clearing the trucks left fender and bumper. I never felt the abs kick in, so I don't even know if it works. I can tell you I didn't even flip the person off, it just didn't make sense to do so when I was already passed them.

I continued on my way to Mikes and bought a baseball cap to keep the rain off my bald head.

klay