My first
motorized vehicle after owning many pedal bikes was a Honda 50 Motor Scooter
very similar to the one in the photo above. It was very basic, had a 5
horsepower engine, and the top speed was around 50 miles per hour I did get it
up to 70 miles per hour several times coasting down Sequoia Road in Oakland
near where I lived at 4263 Saint Andrews Road.
My best
friend Steve lived in Oakland in the Montclair District near the city of
Piedmont. Some of our friends lived in the steep hills toward the upper end of
Broadway Terrace which was a street that ran from the College District of
Oakland up into the Oakland Hills just shy of Highway 13.
One our
friends lived nearly at the top of Broadway Terrace. At that point the road was
very steep. When I say steep it was like the section of Sequoia Road near where
I lived on Saint Andrews Road. That section of Sequoia Road was so steep that
when I owned a 1950 VW Beetle I often had to stop and shift into 1st
gear to make it up the steep hill. When I rode the city bus to get to Skyline
High School the bus couldn’t make it up the steep part of Sequoia Road so we
had to get out and push the bus up the hill. That’s how steep this section of
Broadway Terrace is.
On this day
on our way down Broadway Terrace from our friend’s house I was on my Honda 50
Motor Scooter and Steve was on his 50 cc motorcycle. As we are going downhill
on the steep incline we rounded a corner and I wasn’t able to remain on the
road due to the downhill speed and the tightness of the curve. I hit a patch of
gravel and immediately felt my Motor Scooter sliding and tipping over.
I maintained
as best I could and when the bike landed on its side I remember I was standing
on top of it like a Surfer does standing on a surfboard riding a wave. After
about 30 to 40 feet my bike slid to a stop. I was okay but the bike had some
damage but nothing that kept it from working properly.
To this day
if I am driving a motorcycle I take extreme caution to avoid another situation
like this.
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