{"id":805,"date":"2009-12-08T01:59:29","date_gmt":"2009-12-08T08:59:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.deadpan.net\/ridereport\/?p=805"},"modified":"2010-03-21T02:12:30","modified_gmt":"2010-03-21T09:12:30","slug":"im-back-in-the-saddle-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.deadpan.net\/ridereport\/2009\/12\/08\/im-back-in-the-saddle-again\/","title":{"rendered":"I’m Back in the Saddle Again"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last Sunday, 85 days after I fall down go boom, I finally got my fat ass back in the saddle. And it was great!<\/p>\n

The biggest thing holding me back was my left ankle \u2014 I dislocated it really badly and I wasn\u2019t allowed to walk on it for what felt like forever. First I was in a cast, then I was in a \u201cwalking boot\u201d but not allowed to walk on it, and I finally got clearance to put weight on it just before Thanksgiving. At that point I couldn\u2019t put any significant weight on the foot, so I was still gimping around on crutches, but a week later I had moved on to a cane. And most importantly: I quickly built up the strength in my left foot to be able to get the bike off the kickstand.<\/p>\n

That was the final hurdle: If I could get the bike off the kickstand and only had to bring one cane vs two crutches with me when I rode somewhere, then it was time to ride somewhere. Which is exactly what I did.<\/p>\n

So last Sunday I finally got my knees in the breeze again and put 75 miles on the clock. I was a little shaky at first, but I felt pretty comfortable by the end of the day. It was awesome. My wife, however \u2014 she is not thrilled\u2026<\/p>\n

And I have to show off my cane holder because I think it\u2019s fucking brilliant. I Googled \u201ccane on a Harley\u201d and \u201cmotorcycle with a cane\u201d and crap like that before I rigged it up, looking for ideas, but there\u2019s nothing on it out there. Until now. So here, for all my fellow motorcycle-riding gimps, here\u2019s how to carry your cane on your motorcycle:
\n\"Zip-tie<\/a><\/p>\n

Zip-tie a scrap piece of PVC pipe to the saddlebag guard. The cane handle will slip in here.
\n\"Zip-tie<\/a><\/p>\n

Zip-tie another piece of PVC pipe to the TourPak mount — the cane will slide through here to keep it from flopping and rattling around
\n\"Here's<\/a><\/p>\n

Here’s how it looks in action
\n\"Here's<\/a><\/p>\n

Here’s another angle
\n\"One<\/a><\/p>\n

One more angle — this time with the rider (me)<\/p>\n

I did have one more problem beyond getting the bike upright and carrying the cane \u2014 the walking boot I have to wear makes shifting gears an adventure, and it\u2019s impossible to put the kickstand up because the boot hits the floorboard and I can\u2019t angle my foot over. So the cane was good for more than walking:
\n\"You<\/a><\/p>\n

You can also use the cane to pull up the kickstand<\/p>\n

You can also use the cane to pull up the kickstand
\n\"Heel<\/a><\/p>\n

Heel & toe shifters? Nah, just the heel — for up and downshifting<\/p>\n

It\u2019s great to be riding again. I just don\u2019t want a repeat of this:<\/p>\n

\"Ouch\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last Sunday, 85 days after I fall down go boom, I finally got my fat ass back in the saddle. And it was great! The biggest thing holding me back was my left ankle \u2014 I dislocated it really badly and I wasn\u2019t allowed to walk on it for what felt like forever. First I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deadpan.net\/ridereport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deadpan.net\/ridereport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deadpan.net\/ridereport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deadpan.net\/ridereport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deadpan.net\/ridereport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=805"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.deadpan.net\/ridereport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":811,"href":"http:\/\/www.deadpan.net\/ridereport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805\/revisions\/811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deadpan.net\/ridereport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deadpan.net\/ridereport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deadpan.net\/ridereport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}