6 August 2024, @mariannewest's Freewrite Writing Prompt Day 2456: I Risked It. I Must Have Been Mad !

This post was inspired by today's 5-minute writing prompt in the Freewriters Community - Risk It !

Enjoy !

Image by ullakaren from Pixabay

This is a true story. My memory is slight dimmed by time, it happened over 30 years ago, but the key details are fixed in my mind as clear as the moment they happened.

I was a motorcycle courier at the time. A group of us needed to go down to Devon to have a friendly chat with a chap who was doing some bad things involving the sister of one of us. No need for details.

So we all set off, five of us. It was a nice summer day. Most of us were on BMW's of one kind or another - three on company R80RT's like the one in the photo above. I was on my K100RS, and the fifth one of us... I don't remember, I think he was on a Kawasaki GT750.

We all trogged down the A303 then the A30 to Tiverton. There, we found they'd just finished the A361. No speed cameras, nothing. It must only have opened a few days before. Thirty miles of dead straight freshly laid tarmac. No speed cameras, no potholes, no over-banding. It was perfect weather, and we cracked the throttles wide open and had fun.

Just short of the road's end at Bideford, we discovered that not only had they only just finished the road, they hadn't even put all the signs up yet.

In particular, the ones warning of a roundabout ahead.

It was over the blind crest of a hill. No signs, and they hadn't even fitted it's Armco chevrons. That was lucky.

We crested the hill at about 120mph, and there was this shiny new roundabout less than fifty feet ahead of us. Paul, Ugs and Ray, in the lead and closely bunched, left the ground when they hit the crest - they would have anyway, we were all going that fast. They sailed over the roundabout and (somehow !) landed safely the other side.

I was fourth. I'd just about seen what had happened to them, and had to make an instant choice.

Option one. Hit the brakes hard and hope I could stop in time, stay upright and not high-side it.
Option two. Crack the throttle open and risk it !

I was young and crazy. I chose option 2. Got serious air and landed with one hell of a thump on the far side. But I didn't come off.

Last in the group was the GT750. He'd seen what had happened and was able to slow down enough to actually go around the roundabout. It was still at a pretty crazy speed, banked right over and front suspension under full compression. But he made it.

We stopped a mile up the road. We all needed to have a smoke and give our nerves a chance to calm down.....

Note: the road has changed a lot since then. Mostly more roundabouts added for new towns that have been built. The roundabout is still there, but they've re-sculpted and levelled the ground. If you look on Google Maps, it's the one after Barnstaple, just after the A361 goes over the River Taw. On Google Earth looking west, you can see the raised ground on the right which gives an idea of the original ground level and the hump we jumped !