D
duivendyk
Guest
My early adopter MB career came to an abrupt end when I crashed into a canal in Holland and had to swim for my life!.I had managed to put a ILO (80cc) engine used on delivery trikes, (which I had rescued fromthe junkyard&fixed up), on the back of my bike.The right size sprocket was not to be found,the original one being much too big,so I ended up overgeared,With a stiff wind in your face (quite common) I had to help out& pedal along which was hard work&no fun.So I had gotten into the habit of drafting behind other cars,mostly trucks because they were slower.I was on my way to school one morning, behind small truck when a good sized piece of wood suddenly appeared on the road from under it,I tried to avoid it,lost control of the bike and careened down the bank into the canal running along the road.One moment I was on the road and the next in stinging cold water,quite disconcerting.I had let go of the bike somehow & was none the worse for wear otherwise.As luck would have it there was a house boat moored not far away and I managed to swim to it&get myself rescued.They were flabbergasted of course to find someone in the water in the middle of the winter and took good care of me,(dry clothes& hot tea etc) So ended my pioneering MB career,the bike I suppose is still lying on the bottom of the canal.I wanted to rescue it of course, but my mother put her foot down.So this incident started my MC career. (a DKW 125cc monster).I was lucky in a way,if that boat had not been there I would have had a hard time getting out of that very cold water by myself.