Laid over, tipped bike, a sad sight

One of my favorite aspects of living in Geneva is the visible presence of two wheeled vehicles in the streets on my way to and from work. And one of the most pathetic sights to my sense, is that of a motorcycle or scooter laid over in the street; even the expression “laid over” is too passive a voice to describe the visceral response a “tipped” bike elicits in me.

My first reaction is to lift a motorcycle that has been laid down, but like an injured pedestrian made to lie still, I worry that a cracked turn signal or some other injured extremity may fall off if moved unnecessarily.

Ironically, the urge to right tipped “scooters” actually runs contrary to the golden rule of bike chivalry; don’t handle someone else’s bike without their explicit permission (even so I have tested this dictum at least once upon finding my neighbor’s scooter horizontal on the sidewalk like a paralyzed horse).

Tipped motorcycle, laid over

Finding your own bike knocked down is a stomach saulting, nauseating experience akin to dentistry without Novocaine.  My motorcycle has been blown over twice this past winter by mini twisters menacing our neighborhood. Each time I have hefted the not insignificant motor upright with a terrible sense of foreboding, afraid to inspect the plastic fairing and turn signals for cracks or worse.

Really, it is not the threat of physical damage though that produces this anxiety, after all mine is a 17 year old machine. In order for non-bikers to understand what a downed bike represents, picture an image in your mind of a pulverized car being opened with hydraulic jaws; there is no safety belt on a motorcycle and minus the air bags and steel crash supports your body ends up between your bike and the cement.

Last year I remember driving towards Plan les Ouates from Carouge and coming across an accident involving a car and a motorcycle. The car had pulled out of a small side street and had hit a biker broadside, sending the the bike and rider sliding 50 meters or so down the road.

This is what I see when I come across a bike “laid down” in the street.

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