So, I was feeling a little nostalgic and came upon this photo of my first motorcycling experience. I mentioned at the start of my blog that the reason I am interested in motorcycling is because of my Peace Corps experience in Senegal. This photo is of a friend and fellow PCV and I who rode together quite a lot. The blue Suzuki is mine but I inherited her moto after she completed her service. On this day, we went out to this river just as an excuse to ride and take some photos. Kine is in the midst of jumping onto the railing as the timer went off to take our photo. There were some horrible biting flies along this river so we didn't stay very long and rode out pretty quickly.
The racks were made by metal workers in the village. We used strips of inner tubes to tie down our loads on the racks. Peace Corps didn't tell us but we later figured out that the bikes had registration that allowed us to cross the border and ride legally in the Gambia.
The bikes were Suzuki TS125's and handled very well in the sand and on the road. Of course, I had nothing to compare them too. I really liked them. They weren't too terribly tall for me. I was a Peace Corps Volunteer so we learned to adapt to what we had. I could stop in a rut in the sand to get on and off the bike if I had too. Mostly it was ok and I really didn't have to do that very often.
I once traded a watermelon and some cash for some maintenance on the bike. I actually had a watermelon with me to trade! That's funny now that I think about it.
No comments:
Post a Comment