The Big Bike Ride

This weekend is the Korean version of "harvest home" or what North Americans might call Thanksgiving: Chuseok.  Saturday morning a bunch of us got together at our friend Vaughan's place where he had rented us some motorcycles to make a day-long tour.  Above, you can see me on the Harley Sportster 883cc he got for me.  More on that son of a bitch later (the bike, not Vaughan).

We traveled first up to the Imjin River, famous for many battles during the Korean civil war in the early 50's.
Here you can see the new railway trestle over the river going into North Korea.  This is the first time I have seen part of North Korea.  You can see a guard tower on our side and one on the North Korean side.  There are guard towers all along the river. They sell some North Korean stuff here, but it was all alcohol of one kind or another.  Apparently alcohol production and consumption are popular on both sides of the DMZ.

I was happy with the bike tour for the first few hours, but after this stop at the Imjin River, the "big boys" (avid and experienced riders) led us off in the wrong direction into the neighboring province, and the whole trip was almost 12 hours long, 90% of it riding.  My ass hurt like hell, and I still (literally, I am not joking or exaggerating) have only partial use of my right hand.  I still cannot hold chopsticks or tie my shoes.  (If you could see how I'm struggling now trying to type this, you'd be laughing your asses off!)

The Harley had the stiffest clutch release I have ever manipulated.  After 6 hours of stop-n-go traffic, my left had could barely stand to pull it in and hold it, even for a few seconds.  My boot toe wouldn't fit under the clutch lever, so I was constantly having to wiggle my foot in sideways to change gears, which in the heavy traffic we were in was a lot of gear changing.  I couldn't leave my foot resting there, either, as the gear lever would start moving down and literally pinch my foot to the footrest!  Ouch!  But it was holding the twist throttle that was the killer.  I now know why big bikes have cruise control!  It's been almost 27 hours since we came back, and my hand is only slightly improved in functionality.  I hope I regain full use before I have to teach tomorrow.  I can't write yet, and I write a lot on the board in class!

Though the trip wasn't what I had envisioned or wanted, there were aspects that were good.  I got to ride a big bike for the first time ever, and I think I would enjoy touring on bikes, but ON MY TERMS, not some alpha males' hyperactive need for danger.  (Yes, I'm glancing at Alex and Bart).  If I do this again, I'll go with people who just want to ride somewhere, do something fun like a picnic or some beach cricket/softball and then ride home... a good time resulting in good feelings and happiness all around.  Am I right?  My hand is hurting from typing, so I'm gonna shut up now.