Mirtth skittles - Colin's tale

I see flook has beaten me to it, but as I'm only typing with one hand [0] I'm a bit slow off the mark. Pants, pants and double pants. And big fsckin' bloomers an all. Flook basically sedded most of it, and I feel like a right arse for making two other people's bikes unrideable (quite an achievement though, motorbike skittles...). A54 Congleton to Holmes Chapel. Came out of a bend, moving from a 40 limit into a NSL, went up to about 40-50-ish mph (at most). I saw some very fresh roadkill directly ahead (partridge giblets - a liver, I think, with possibly some gracefully arranged intestine) on my line, so braked and swerved slightly. Slowed to maybe 30-40mph. Looked up to see two cars and two bikes very close, and grabbed the lever. Surface was wet, I grabbed too hard, and the front went very quickly indeed. Sky/ground/sky/ground/car/sky/ground interface followed, with a bit of sliding thrown in for good measure. I hit a mini [1], must have been a glancing blow although the driver was a bit concerned he'd run over my legs [2]. Bike continued, nose hit Joe's rear wheel and disintegrated [3]. Joe was then thrown off, and his bike refreshed it's scratches from Brands and promptly took flook out [4]. We all got up and thought ahh, um. And stuff. Was quite a bit of petrol around - something (possibly flook's/my footpeg) had holed Joe's fuel tank, and also a lot of oil, so we phoned the police and were greeted with not one but three squad cars, who promptly held up the traffic for a while for no apparent reason. We'd already moved the bikes out of the way. After that, they made us all blow into a little white tube (all passed, tho' I'd melt the thing now 'cos I'm sh1tfaced). End result was that they'd take no action, though we all got producers[3][4] - deemed to be 'no fault', 'cos of the big fat partridge still lying there [5]. End result: flook - one broken brake lever, extra scratches to his left side, squashed heel. Joe - switch cluster/accelerator ripped off, crash bars re-scratched, hole in tank, seat ripped. My bike - (deep breath) front/side fairings gone, instruments, right side lever/bar end [King And I] etc etc etc [/kai]. More seriously: Although the police said 'just one of those things' and 'no fault', as did (rather kindly) Joe and flook, when it comes down to it, it was me - inexperience possibly, inattention (slight?) certainly. After Jeff's death I remember wondering how he could have made a mistake so big, but I'm now left wondering: my mistake was small, but could so easily have resulted in far worse (me hitting the front of the mini, rather than the side, for instance, could have engendered a rather different outcome). As it is, I am unlikely to be riding for some time due to financial constraints never mind moral/physical ones, but given that the SO has asked [6] me to stop riding, I have to question whether it is worth it. As someone recently said, we so easily sweep under the carpet the realities of our pastime until something occurs to make us really think. Cheers muchly to flook and Joe for being completely supportive, non-judgmental and helpful when, after all is said and done, I'd taken them out. Please forgive my slightly alcoholic ramblings (my spellchecker was seriously overworked after trying to make sense of this lot, I can't type for toffee). My shoulder is absolutely fscking killing me so I'm having another whisky... [0] Hi, Adam! [1] Judging by the pain, with my right shoulder [2] Nice bloke, scooter rider, said not to worry about the small scuff he had on his wing and came back to bring us all a cup o' tea later :-). He missed my legs. [3] Fsck the Ixie convention - Joe, I'm very, very sorry [4] Fsck the Ixie convention - Neil, I'm very, very sorry [5] Which mysteriously disappeared after the police arrived - someone's eating pheasant soon, I reckon... [6] Ha! that's putting it *very* politely... ;-)