Chapter 2 Motorcycle Miracle

January 27, 2024

I was a short, skinny kid. In fact, when I entered my sophomore year in high school, I was 4’10” tall and weighed 86 pounds. I was the only kid in school who could eat his lunch in his locker – with the door closed! By the time I was 20 years old, I had grown to 5’7” and weighed a whopping 105 pounds. Perhaps that was the reason I loved the powerful image of the motorcycle, all power, speed and sound. I had a 1966 BSA Super Rocket motorcycle. It was candy-apple red and chrome, and produced a deep, powerful sound. I loved that bike. It was fast, too, for the time. And I tended to twist the right grip hard a lot.

One sunny motorcycle riding perfect day, I pulled up to a stop light on Airline Drive at Center Street in Rosewood Heights, Illinois. Now, at this light, the two lane road expanded into four lanes for a short distance leading up to and past the light. Several cars were stopped at the light waiting for it to turn green, so I, being a Fast Motorcycle Riding Dude, pulled into the right lane, confident that my BSA Super Rocket could leave them in the dust when the light turned green.

The light turned green. I twisted the throttle all the way and released the clutch. This was not my first time to do this, but instead of spinning the rear tire as usual, it caught traction, and launched the front end into the sky, like a horse lifting its hooves skyward. I immediately got off the throttle, and the front end came down hard, which caused me to give it gas again, which launched the front end high again, and this repeated itself again and again until the rear end went sideways and the bike and I landed on the tarmac.

Unfortunately, I still had the throttle wide open, hanging onto the bike, and it began to spin around in circles, dragging me with it. This continued for several revolutions until the centrifigal force separated me from the bike, and it stopped, the engine dying, while I rolled away. All of this in the middle of the intersection in front of a captive audience at the light. I got up, unharmed, and ran over to the bike.

The 1966 BSA Supper Rocket motorcycle weighed 419 pounds. Your Fast Motorcycle Riding Dude weighed 105 pounds. In spite of this four to one ratio, I leaned over, took hold of the bike by the frame and lifted it completely off the ground, straight up to waist height, and set it down on its tires. After looking the bike over for damage, it suddenly struck me what I had just done. I was not a weight lifter; I was a skinny 105 pound kid and I had just lifted a 419 pound motorcycle from a bent over position, straight up off the ground to waist height. That was impossible, but I just did it.

People have told me, “Well, it was just adrenaline.” The fact is, research has shown that adrenaline can, for body builders and others who are at peak strength already, increase their strength by 50%. I was the antithesis of a body builder, so I could have, perhaps, though doubtful, have picked up my own body weight of 100 pounds with adrenaline flooding my body, but 200 pounds? 300 pounds? 419 pounds? Impossible. And yet, there it was. A motorcycle miracle.

This was a powerful experience at the time, but even more powerful later in life when remembering it reminded me that there are no limits to the power of mind and Spirit.