[Phenix_Rider]

More than I care to remember- and that's in the first year!

First time going down (what I thought at the time was) an extremely steep downhill. Ragged road, with gravel and huge chunks of asphalt right at the outside line. Some sort of sign on the right. I target fixate because I'm a noob, but hold a straight line. Road veers ever so slightly to the left. I end up right on that outside line, not 2" from the chunked up asphalt and gravel, praying I don't lose it on my brand new bike. Eyes locked on the center line, not daring to make a steering input till I drift back to the right side tire track. Slowed down even more than the crawl I was at (probably 30 down to 20). Found a side road after a while, turned off and found a driveway. Of course, this bitch is gravel and downhill... Managed to stay upright, and decided to call it a day and head home.

Coming out of a 35mph town road into a 5mph country road. Big blind sweeping uphill right. Snack through a gear or two, smoothly on the throttle. One second everything is beautiful, the next there's an Amish buggy with two kids in the back looking at me after I come full stop not 10ft behind them. Gave them a little wave, unclenched my cheeks, managed to get back to first gear without rolling backward or stalling, and eventually passed them.

More recently, I got into some invisible pea gravel on a little used back road. Didn't see it of course, lighting was bad through all the trees and dusk, going too fast. Hit that stuff on the brakes, front end shimmies, forcing my arms not too crank down on the bars. Came out the other side on about the same line I had planned- amazing because I though I'd be feet off from all the front end shake. Didn't really lose traction on either end, but it was like marbles.