Let’s hear it for duct tape!

I can’t say enough about the benefits of having duct tape around... After my one “real” wreck (I don’t count the little drops over the years where I just got up, cursed a few times, picked up my bike and went on), it was duct tape that got me home.

Back in ‘98, I went down kinda hard on a tight turn up in the mountains during a road trip, and over 1,000 miles away from home.  My bike went end over end--landing in the grass along the roadside--and everything that could snap off, did. I lost my mirrors, speedo, made a nice deep dent in the tank, my handlebars looked like they were in a permanent hard left turn, my headlight, turning signals, and rear signals were hanging by wires, and a lot of other little stuff.  If I hadn’t had my sleeping bag and other gear strapped all over the back of the bike, I know much more would have been snapped or dented too.

I’ll never forget that night spent at the camp site.  There was only an EmergiCare place in the next little town, and it was already closed for the night by the time I got there.  So I had to dig out each stone from my arms and chest by myself--no anesthetic that night but a bottle of cheap wine.  I couldn’t sleep at all--every time my arms touched the ground they burned.  The next morning, the doc gave me some proper care, and some good pain meds to help me sleep at night.  

Well, as far as the bike was concerned, a few good shoves with my wheel propped against a tree put my handlebars back in line, and I found the speedo and mirrors by the roadside.  But it was the duct tape that put my headlight and signals back where they could do me some good again.  

 

Lessons learned:

1)  Be much more careful on unfamiliar mountain roads, where a turn can easily be sharper than you’d expected--and God knows what could be on the road...

2)  ALWAYS HAVE A ROLL OF DUCT TAPE IN YOUR GEAR.  You never know when it could be the little wonder that gets you home...  

 

I’ve always carried a roll with me ever since that trip.