starguard
Unluckiest Charm in the Box
Today I saw something rather strange. I saw this really nice looking black woman riding a very unusual motorcycle. It looked like one of those "Orange County Chopper" type bikes. The handlebars were very long and were set way too high for her to hold on to them properly, and the fat tire in the back had no fender over it to stop the road rocks from flying up and hitting her in the back.
What really made this strange is that this bike had something on it that I haven't seen in a very long time. It was powered by something called a "Suicide Clutch". For those that are unfamiliar with this term, a suicide clutch is a bike with manual transmission. It has a stick shift sticking out the side of the engine that has to be manually shifted whenever the rider wants to change gears.
They got the name "suicide clutch" because many people have been killed trying to ride them. In order to change gears, the rider must use one hand to change gears while trying to steer the bike with the other. Many people have either fallen off while trying to change gears, or lost control while trying to steer the bike with only one hand. Thus the name "suicide clutch" was born.
I was under the impression that these bikes were outlawed back in either the late 60's or early 70's due to the high fatality rate of its riders, so I have absolutely no idea how this woman came to own one..a brand new looking one at that!
an outlaw bike, for an outlaw rider...you be the judge!
What really made this strange is that this bike had something on it that I haven't seen in a very long time. It was powered by something called a "Suicide Clutch". For those that are unfamiliar with this term, a suicide clutch is a bike with manual transmission. It has a stick shift sticking out the side of the engine that has to be manually shifted whenever the rider wants to change gears.
They got the name "suicide clutch" because many people have been killed trying to ride them. In order to change gears, the rider must use one hand to change gears while trying to steer the bike with the other. Many people have either fallen off while trying to change gears, or lost control while trying to steer the bike with only one hand. Thus the name "suicide clutch" was born.
I was under the impression that these bikes were outlawed back in either the late 60's or early 70's due to the high fatality rate of its riders, so I have absolutely no idea how this woman came to own one..a brand new looking one at that!
an outlaw bike, for an outlaw rider...you be the judge!
