Momentous day, my long walk back to the Hawk is over!

[OneLeggedRider]

Yessir folks, 6 months and 3 days ago I crashed my Hawk and spent 12 days in the hospital and 5 months in a wheelchair because of a spiral fractured femur and acutely hyperextended knee and ankle. But today I climbed back on the old girl..

It wasn't planned, I actually was gonna wait till April to ride it again because I'm not fully healed yet. I made my morning coffee and checked the weather as usual, and seen it was gonna be an overcast 60° day and then the next 9 days were gonna be wet and cold. Something clicked in my brain and said you better ride the Hawk today.

Now mind you I wasn't confident and was more than a little concerned about successfully completing this task so.. But I dug out my riding gear and called Jay. He was nursing a severe hangover and when asked about a bike ride assumed I meant for him to come over and put a couple of miles on each bike himself, which he wholeheartedly declined. However, when he figured out I wanted to go for a ride he sprang to life. His riding buddy was back!

The first 30 minutes I was a bundle of raw nerves, picturing death and destruction around every curve. But then I loosened up and it was coming back to me, before you know it I was passing Jay and having a blast! We spent 2 and a half hours on back/gravel roads, and a little highway time. My new Viking Asgar armored jacket is truly all weather, very warm and comfortable albeit a little stiff.

Duck asked me how the bike ran. Psssh.. this is Mr. Maze's Hawk, even after sitting for 7 weeks with the stock battery it fired right up and ran like a well oiled sewing machine all day. Sadly though Jay did have a little bit of trouble getting his going. He ended up having to kickstart it, and being that he only weighs 140lbs it was a difficult task for him and required several kicks.

We have yet to install our new sprockets and my current ratio is way too tall for my fat a##. 5th gear felt like power assisted coasting lol, but we'll soon rectify that. All in all a great day, and it felt so good to be back aboard my little China bike.

[China Rider 27]

Outstanding! That smile says it all.

[duck9191]

This weather keeps up you might get some more seat time. Mid 30's and rain here for the next week so I'm jealous.

[OneLeggedRider]

I apologize for the graffiti on the tree, didn't notice it at first lol. Before we left the house Jay installed his new mirrors. I can see why Megadan likes them, they're adjustable and sit further out than the stock ones. And at $17 I'm gonna order a set for mine.

Jay was also a little nervous about the ride. A month ago his front tire blew out coming down Marietta hill at 60mph with a Mack truck right on his behind. I'll let him tell you about that experience though. I noticed his apprehension when we were riding out to the cave. Granted it is a nasty little road that has huge rocks protruding out from it, but come on now, we're on dirtbikes! I slowed down to 25mph and he was still dropping further and further back. When we stopped at the cave entrance (where he snapped the pics) we drank A beer (only one) and that seemed to loosen him up a bit for the rest of the gravel roads.

This was also my first ride with the Trakmaster front tire. I can see why Jay liked it so much, this thing performs oh so well in gravel and mud that I'm also gonna order the Trakmaster rear. And I highly recommend you do the same if you do much offroading.

[JerryHawk250]

Awesome! Glad to see you back in the saddle. I managed to get some ride time in myself yesterday. Doesn't look so good today. More rain coming with the cold front.

[Essayons]

Glad you are recovering well OLR and that you got back into the game. Unfortunately finding modern day "runes" on trees and rocks is all too common.

[OneLeggedRider]

I hope we have another warm day soon, I'm ready to go again for sure. This morning my knee and ankle are swollen and definitely hurting, and some other muscles that haven't been used in a while are a little stiff but it was definitely worth it.

I lost a little bit of flexibility too, it was difficult to climb on and Jay had to help me climb off, I couldn't get my foot across the tail section. Jay's a great guy and he was very happy about us being able to ride together again. 😊

[paulsstag]

Originally Posted by OneLeggedRider

I hope we have another warm day soon, I'm ready to go again for sure. This morning my knee and ankle are swollen and definitely hurting, and some other muscles that haven't been used in a while are a little stiff but it was definitely worth it.

I lost a little bit of flexibility too, it was difficult to climb on and Jay had to help me climb off, I couldn't get my foot across the tail section. Jay's a great guy and he was very happy about us being able to ride together again. 😊

This is great news, sounds like it was good for body and soul to get back out on the bike.

I'm sure your bike riding 'fitness' will start coming back the more you can get out and ride.

[McFailbutter]

Happy New year's everyone!

[JerryHawk250]

Happy New Year's.

[wheelbender6]

Great to see that you are healed and uncaged again.

[OneLeggedRider]

Well we had a ride planned for Thursday, the weatherman said it was gonna be 55° and sunny. Now he says it's gonna be 47° with a chance of rain. Same for the following monday. I don't think they have a clue.

[JerryHawk250]

We had a beautiful weekend for riding here. Was planning on riding again next weekend but looks like we are going to have a cold nasty and wet weekend as well. Don't worry, I got enough riding in over the weekend for the both of us. lol Good news is we are over the winter hump so the weather will get better soon.

[duck9191]

Over the hump? We are just getting started lol. It's been unseasonably warm here, averaging the 30-40's but I'm sure we will still see plenty of below zero and snow eventually. Can't wait for April/may when it should turn around.

[JerryHawk250]

We will still have some cold weather days to come but they become less frequent. I had to cut grass already this past weekend.