That Sinking Feeling

Reminder to self: park in the shade.

I went to Hawkhurst to visit my mum yesterday after work. It was roasting; even hotter than it is today, and today is bloody warm.

So I was glad to be out of my gear and to have a sit down in the shade.

After the sun had set and I was about to set off home, I remarked that my bike was leaned over very far. The angle can't have been far removed from forty-five degrees. I can't sit on it at that angle, surely. I thought, straddling the machine.

I grabbed the handlebars and, sure enough, the position felt very unnatural. I couldn't recall a time my bike had ever been leaned over so far. You'd be barmy to park it on an incline so severe. There must be a depression in the road or something. I thought, tugging and heaving to lift my bike upright.

But the damned thing wouldn't move. It felt like it had doubled in mass. Sure, the Versys weighs some four-hundred-and-fifty pounds when fully fuelled, but I've leaned it up off the ground before, so pulling it upright from a lesser angle would surely be easier. No, there was definitely something wrong here.

No way. Surely not. Bloody hell! The side stand was buried in the damned road! It had been so hot that day, that the tarmac had warmed up; the weight of the bike on the side stand had caused it to sink almost five inches into the ground like a hot knife through butter.

Well, with superhuman effort (or perhaps just more effort) I wrenched the damned thing free. There's a small rise around a crater in the road there now. After my mum and I picked the sticky tarmac off the side stand, I rode off into the night towards home.

I know it's something that most experienced bikers have already had to deal with. But for me, this was the first time I've ever seen such a thing happen. I've heard people describing their bike "eating up the road" when travelling at speed, but I never thought the road would be avenging such velocity by trying to eat my bike!