FRENCHMAN THANKED
One should always have a good reason to be in Lithgow. It is a cold hole of a place. I wasn’t sure that mine was good enough as I turned into Main Street.
I was there because I’d seen the McKanes Falls Road on Google Maps and thought it looked like a road worth riding. If I went through Lithgow I could ride the Mount Victoria climb on the way out. That’s a good road.
A woman with a kid walked on to the pedestrian crossing a couple of hundred metres ahead, and the first car slowed. The second car was in front of me, and it slowed, too. Then it jinked hard left. “What’s that all about?” I wondered, and then I heard the WHIRRR! and looked in my mirrors at the car stopped two metres behind me with smoke coming from its tyres.
Antilock Braking System. The rubber doesn’t get dragged across the road with its molecules screaming in protest. It goes WHIRRR.
He’d put everything he had on his brake pedal. I wondered why he hadn’t been watching me slowing in front of him. Pretty girl at the side of the road? Unlikely, this is Lithgow. Texting? Updating Facebook status on mobile device?
I looked in the mirror again. The driver made a deprecatory gesture. He looked like he had a collar on. Priest? Probably distracted by the kid on the crossing. The Lord, I am told, works in mysterious ways.
Thank you Gabriel Voisin, for inventing the antilock braking system.
Thank you whoever made the McKanes Falls Road.
Cracker of a ride.
Turns a couple of minutes cheating death in Lithgow into a sound investment.
About the Author
Al Al does a bit of everything, and likes hanging around with Boris, because there are generally motorcycles and whiskey, and because hilarity generally ensues. He wastes his spare time not moderating the BIKE ME! forums, where he posts occasionally and is regarded as unfair, unbalanced and unmedicated. Shows how much THEY know.
