Ribo
Twist the "go-go" side and hold on!
Sit back and relax, open a brew..this is a long one..
So, where do I start.... Saturday... beautiful sunshine, 75 degrees and winds light from the east.. basically a perfect day for a short day ride but my wife is on her way back from a trip so I jump on the bike and run to get a bottle of wine and some shrimp for a nice dinner I'm planning for her. As I get to the store she texts me "Honey, I'm sorry but my flight just got canceled out of Austin and me and the kids are going to be staying another night here...."... oh dear, well that sucks -- for her... let's go....
I threw my wallet and phone back in my pocket and headed off for what was planned to be a 4 hour round trip down to Washington DC, the long way, starting on a small section on I-267 then off the highway and through some small towns and some nice single-lane roads.
My first long(ish) ride on the XJ since I got it and also since I moved to VA and after 20 mins I really started to enjoy the open road again...the small section of highway where I really opened her up to about 85 without any issues got my juices flowing again and the small towns and leafy roads brought back memories of sunny old Blighty. All of a sudden George Washington Memorial hwy brings me along the river, over the bridge, past Roosevelt Island, and into the nation capital, relaxed and charged after the 40 min ride.
I give myself a nice tour of the city, Lincoln Memorial, Capital Building and back up Pen Avenue to the White House. From my right comes a Jeep at stupid speed I swerve and miss the front fender by an inch and I'm about to pull over when I see a cop car and some blacked-out suburbans up ahead blocking the road off so I turn left and as I clear my head I see blue and red in my mirror.
I pull over and this cop get's off his crappy-ass Harley and walks up. I kill the engine expecting the usual asshole in blue giving me shit cos I don't ride a stock bike.
"Nice bike".. he said..
"Thanks officer.. why'd you pull me over?"
"Well, I just wanted to tell you 'nice bike', oh and I was wondering why you ran that red light back there?"
At this point I become a gopher... bolt up, head on a swivel looking back and yep, damn light that I blew straight through with a cop on my ass, and didn't even see it.. first time in 15 years... I'm fucked...
"Are you kidding me?" - I say, trying to make him think I'm going to be an asshole...
"What a total idiot I am, I can't believe I didn't even see that...jeeeeez... man I'm sorry, I don't know what to say, I guess I fucked up?"
He starts laughing and asks for my license which he runs and then says...
"Ok, look, that's a $150 ticket but I'll give you a warning cos I'd rather see you put the money into the bike.. what year is it?".
Well there you go... I guess they're not all the same but whatever good he did for my opinion of the boys-in-blue wasn't to last...
We chatted for about another 5 mins - mostly about bikes, XS's CB500 etc etc, the guy was cool - well cool for a cop, but I was just trying to get my warning and get out of there.
--
Back over the river, I'm heading back via Old Dominion Drive through McLean when out of no-where the bike just dies on me - no electrics - all system malfunction, do not pass go... fuck!
So here I am, stuck 30 miles from home on the side of the road and, due to the circumstance of how I left I didn't bring my tool wrap. I know it's some kind of short in the wiring under the tank but no tools to get it off. So what do I do... like any good mechanically minded dude I start to jiggle shit in the hope that it will work and amazingly it sparks up. Seat back on - priority - get my ass home...
McLean, Great Falls and down to Reston, 3 miles from home, final furlong and she's running fine. I start to relax, but then..bwwwuuum... no power. I pull over and after 10 mins no amount of jiggling, fuse tapping or rain dancing is working so I start to push her home... I'm in for the long haul here as I'm not in the best of area's and I don't have a lock with me.
So I'm pushing this thing along the sidewalk when a cop stops. Officer A.A. Mancini as I later come to curse.... after a brief explanation of my predicament he says..
"you can just leave it here while you go get your truck and tools, if anyone calls anything in on it we'll be the responders to it and we'll know about it so don't worry, we'll keep an eye out"...
Ok, sounds like a plan. I head off with my heavy leather jacket and helmet in 78 degrees...for an hour walk home. I consider calling a cab but it's payday in two days and my brain said beer later or cab now..?
Fast forward an hour and I'm home... take a cold shower and sit my ass down for 20 mins, get my tools together and then - ding-dong (or in my house more like ding-du cos my son threw a ball the doorbell chime box and I've yet to fix it, but I digress), I open to door to find officer A.A. Mancini with his rookie partner standing on my porch.
"Hi Mr xxxxxx", he says..." sorry we got some bad news about your bike, we had to tow it".
"excuse me? Why? What the fuck?"
"Well yeah, we got a report that someone was trying to steal it so we had to impound it!"
At this point he give me the paperwork and tells me he'll support me petitioning the court to get the money back. what turned out to be $450.... thanks asshole! I'm just thankful that I was so tired from the walk that it really didn't sink in that he told me to leave it and then had it towed else I would probably be in jail right now and him in hospital. I'm sure both of the A's stand for asshole in A.A.Mancini - officer 5464 out of Reston Virginia if anyone cares to know. Obviously I'm not promoting any kind of torture using pliers and a blow-torch on this fucker..but safe to say, he's lost all his London Privileges...
Right, so... where was I, oh right, taking it from the 5-0 so they can meet their monthly income quota, properly setup and done. Five hours later I make it down to the impound yard, only to find no-one there - they are required by law to be their 24/7, so I call the guy and he says, "oh my guys got called out to a wreck they'll be back in 40 mins - by this time its 11.20pm. So I wait - at around 11.55pm they show up but they won't let me get my bike, they say they have to rush out again even though it takes them 20 mins to off-load one car while the other guy just sits on the back of his truck smoking.. FYI - this is Henry's towing in Reston, VA. Bunch of total professionals that can't string a sentence together and smoke right next to cars that have just been in accidents with cracked fuel lines and open gas tanks - the guy is literally sitting on the back of a tow truck who's bed is soaked in gas trying to light another smoke off the last one... he's been smoking so long I guess he can't smell it but I gave it it a good 20 yards and hoped to see it go bang bang. These morons are being paid by the police to impound these cars as evidence in an uncovered lot. It's your tax dollars going to good use right there...
Anyway, they still won't let me get my bike so I call the cops. 20 mins later three cars show up (there is actually a dunkin' donuts and a shady Thai massage parlor about 3 miles up the road so this is no shock). Eventually they get one of the guys to sort out the paperwork and give me my bike which at this point is still not fixed and they try and charge me for 2 days storage cos it's now 2am haha, yeah that didn't fly.... so anyway it's 2am and I'm wrenching under a police flashlight to try and fix an electrical problem I have no clue about - safe to say it doesn't go well so I park the bike round the back of the place, pray it doesn't get stolen and thankfully get a ride home from one of the cops. During the ride I tell him about our friend A.A. and he tells me that he's actually the guys sergeant and will "look into it" - yeah right.. at this point I'm waiting to find the guy out of uniform so I can "look into it" too..
Next day, feeling a bit draggy as I put a few beers back at 3am when I finally got home. I finally get my ass out of bed and head on down to the place with my truck not knowing what I can do - maybe I'll fix it, drive home, get a cab back and ride it home - maybe I'll just set fire to it.. who knows... so I'm there on this side road trying to figure out the electrics when four Mexican guys pull up, all wearing shirts from C&G Gardeners, and after a quick back and forth in my bad Spanish and their frankly worse English they offer to help me lift it into the truck... thank you guys!!!! Bloody lifesavers...top guys.. after all said and done I got her home in one piece, fixed the 4 wires that had worked themselves loose under the tank and you know what... I didn't even forget to go get the shrimp and wine....
So, where do I start.... Saturday... beautiful sunshine, 75 degrees and winds light from the east.. basically a perfect day for a short day ride but my wife is on her way back from a trip so I jump on the bike and run to get a bottle of wine and some shrimp for a nice dinner I'm planning for her. As I get to the store she texts me "Honey, I'm sorry but my flight just got canceled out of Austin and me and the kids are going to be staying another night here...."... oh dear, well that sucks -- for her... let's go....
I threw my wallet and phone back in my pocket and headed off for what was planned to be a 4 hour round trip down to Washington DC, the long way, starting on a small section on I-267 then off the highway and through some small towns and some nice single-lane roads.
My first long(ish) ride on the XJ since I got it and also since I moved to VA and after 20 mins I really started to enjoy the open road again...the small section of highway where I really opened her up to about 85 without any issues got my juices flowing again and the small towns and leafy roads brought back memories of sunny old Blighty. All of a sudden George Washington Memorial hwy brings me along the river, over the bridge, past Roosevelt Island, and into the nation capital, relaxed and charged after the 40 min ride.
I give myself a nice tour of the city, Lincoln Memorial, Capital Building and back up Pen Avenue to the White House. From my right comes a Jeep at stupid speed I swerve and miss the front fender by an inch and I'm about to pull over when I see a cop car and some blacked-out suburbans up ahead blocking the road off so I turn left and as I clear my head I see blue and red in my mirror.
I pull over and this cop get's off his crappy-ass Harley and walks up. I kill the engine expecting the usual asshole in blue giving me shit cos I don't ride a stock bike.
"Nice bike".. he said..
"Thanks officer.. why'd you pull me over?"
"Well, I just wanted to tell you 'nice bike', oh and I was wondering why you ran that red light back there?"
At this point I become a gopher... bolt up, head on a swivel looking back and yep, damn light that I blew straight through with a cop on my ass, and didn't even see it.. first time in 15 years... I'm fucked...
"Are you kidding me?" - I say, trying to make him think I'm going to be an asshole...
"What a total idiot I am, I can't believe I didn't even see that...jeeeeez... man I'm sorry, I don't know what to say, I guess I fucked up?"
He starts laughing and asks for my license which he runs and then says...
"Ok, look, that's a $150 ticket but I'll give you a warning cos I'd rather see you put the money into the bike.. what year is it?".
Well there you go... I guess they're not all the same but whatever good he did for my opinion of the boys-in-blue wasn't to last...
We chatted for about another 5 mins - mostly about bikes, XS's CB500 etc etc, the guy was cool - well cool for a cop, but I was just trying to get my warning and get out of there.
--
Back over the river, I'm heading back via Old Dominion Drive through McLean when out of no-where the bike just dies on me - no electrics - all system malfunction, do not pass go... fuck!
So here I am, stuck 30 miles from home on the side of the road and, due to the circumstance of how I left I didn't bring my tool wrap. I know it's some kind of short in the wiring under the tank but no tools to get it off. So what do I do... like any good mechanically minded dude I start to jiggle shit in the hope that it will work and amazingly it sparks up. Seat back on - priority - get my ass home...
McLean, Great Falls and down to Reston, 3 miles from home, final furlong and she's running fine. I start to relax, but then..bwwwuuum... no power. I pull over and after 10 mins no amount of jiggling, fuse tapping or rain dancing is working so I start to push her home... I'm in for the long haul here as I'm not in the best of area's and I don't have a lock with me.
So I'm pushing this thing along the sidewalk when a cop stops. Officer A.A. Mancini as I later come to curse.... after a brief explanation of my predicament he says..
"you can just leave it here while you go get your truck and tools, if anyone calls anything in on it we'll be the responders to it and we'll know about it so don't worry, we'll keep an eye out"...
Ok, sounds like a plan. I head off with my heavy leather jacket and helmet in 78 degrees...for an hour walk home. I consider calling a cab but it's payday in two days and my brain said beer later or cab now..?
Fast forward an hour and I'm home... take a cold shower and sit my ass down for 20 mins, get my tools together and then - ding-dong (or in my house more like ding-du cos my son threw a ball the doorbell chime box and I've yet to fix it, but I digress), I open to door to find officer A.A. Mancini with his rookie partner standing on my porch.
"Hi Mr xxxxxx", he says..." sorry we got some bad news about your bike, we had to tow it".
"excuse me? Why? What the fuck?"
"Well yeah, we got a report that someone was trying to steal it so we had to impound it!"
At this point he give me the paperwork and tells me he'll support me petitioning the court to get the money back. what turned out to be $450.... thanks asshole! I'm just thankful that I was so tired from the walk that it really didn't sink in that he told me to leave it and then had it towed else I would probably be in jail right now and him in hospital. I'm sure both of the A's stand for asshole in A.A.Mancini - officer 5464 out of Reston Virginia if anyone cares to know. Obviously I'm not promoting any kind of torture using pliers and a blow-torch on this fucker..but safe to say, he's lost all his London Privileges...
Right, so... where was I, oh right, taking it from the 5-0 so they can meet their monthly income quota, properly setup and done. Five hours later I make it down to the impound yard, only to find no-one there - they are required by law to be their 24/7, so I call the guy and he says, "oh my guys got called out to a wreck they'll be back in 40 mins - by this time its 11.20pm. So I wait - at around 11.55pm they show up but they won't let me get my bike, they say they have to rush out again even though it takes them 20 mins to off-load one car while the other guy just sits on the back of his truck smoking.. FYI - this is Henry's towing in Reston, VA. Bunch of total professionals that can't string a sentence together and smoke right next to cars that have just been in accidents with cracked fuel lines and open gas tanks - the guy is literally sitting on the back of a tow truck who's bed is soaked in gas trying to light another smoke off the last one... he's been smoking so long I guess he can't smell it but I gave it it a good 20 yards and hoped to see it go bang bang. These morons are being paid by the police to impound these cars as evidence in an uncovered lot. It's your tax dollars going to good use right there...
Anyway, they still won't let me get my bike so I call the cops. 20 mins later three cars show up (there is actually a dunkin' donuts and a shady Thai massage parlor about 3 miles up the road so this is no shock). Eventually they get one of the guys to sort out the paperwork and give me my bike which at this point is still not fixed and they try and charge me for 2 days storage cos it's now 2am haha, yeah that didn't fly.... so anyway it's 2am and I'm wrenching under a police flashlight to try and fix an electrical problem I have no clue about - safe to say it doesn't go well so I park the bike round the back of the place, pray it doesn't get stolen and thankfully get a ride home from one of the cops. During the ride I tell him about our friend A.A. and he tells me that he's actually the guys sergeant and will "look into it" - yeah right.. at this point I'm waiting to find the guy out of uniform so I can "look into it" too..
Next day, feeling a bit draggy as I put a few beers back at 3am when I finally got home. I finally get my ass out of bed and head on down to the place with my truck not knowing what I can do - maybe I'll fix it, drive home, get a cab back and ride it home - maybe I'll just set fire to it.. who knows... so I'm there on this side road trying to figure out the electrics when four Mexican guys pull up, all wearing shirts from C&G Gardeners, and after a quick back and forth in my bad Spanish and their frankly worse English they offer to help me lift it into the truck... thank you guys!!!! Bloody lifesavers...top guys.. after all said and done I got her home in one piece, fixed the 4 wires that had worked themselves loose under the tank and you know what... I didn't even forget to go get the shrimp and wine....
